Hard Rock Calling Festival Organisers Cut Bruce Springsteen And Paul McCartney Performance Short
Monday, 16 July 2012
Written by Elliott Batte
When rock ‘n’ roll and rules clash, it’s usually rock ‘n’ roll that comes out on top, but at this weekend’s Hard Rock Calling Festival, it was the rules which won - after festival organisers shut down an epic, once-in-a-lifetime duet between Bruce Springsteen and Sir Paul McCartney because they’d overrun a curfew.
Rock superstar Bruce Springsteen had been showing the Hard Rock audience exactly how to put on a festival headline slot last Saturday (July 14th), and had played through 29 tracks, three hours, and two duets with John Fogerty and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello. But, just when crowd-members had thought they’d seen one of the best performances ever, musical genius and ex-Beatle legend Sir Paul McCartney walks onto the stage.
So, as fans’ jaws hit the ground, Springsteen and McCartney ripped through renditions of ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ and ‘Twist and Shout’, rock and roll history was being written right in front of their eyes. But, before the pair could even think about thanking their fans are saying farewell (or even break into another song!), their microphones were shut off - leaving fans and even Springsteen’s guitarist Steven Van Zandt unhappy that the show couldn’t go on, even for just a few minutes.
Explaining their decision, festival organisers Live Nation said: “It was unfortunate that the three hour plus performance by Bruce Springsteen was stopped right at the very end but the curfew is laid down by the authorities in the interest of the public's health and safety. Road closures around Hyde Park are put in place at specific times to make sure everyone can exit the area in safety.”
Their words didn’t do much for Van Zandt, though, who wrote via Twitter later that evening: “Is there just too much fun in the world? We would have been off by 11 if we'd done one more. On a Saturday night! Who were we disturbing?”
If you weren’t there but are a fan of the artists, you can check out footage of their performance in the YouTube video below.
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