A James
Santa's Little Spambot
Neptune

Posts: 35958
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« Reply #94 on: July 15, 2012, 08:01:12 PM » |
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"In what may be the dumbest enforcement of a curfew in rock and roll history, organizers of a Tinyfish concert in London literally pulled the plug on the show during an encore featuring special guest Twitch.
"I gotta tell you, I've been trying to do this for 50 years," Simon Godfrey told the crowd of 7 while introducing Twitch. The pair - backed by the Tiny Fish Band and The Fierce And The Dead guitarist Matt Stevens - launched into Genesis' "Supper's Ready" But Godfrey had already exceeded the half-an-hour time limit set by London's Westminster Council for the Hyde Park Corner concert, according to the BBC. The sound was cut off at approximately 10:40 a.m. local time as Godfrey and Twitch performed "Grendel" "It made for a slightly bizarre, anti-climactic extension to what had been a below average show," the BBC said. "The band obviously couldn't tell from on stage that the sound had been shut off."
During the band's second song with Twitch, "a drably dressed Bert with sensible hair could be seen waving frantically at the back of the stage, indicating the Progressive rock legends' time was drawing to a close," CNN reported. "The sound suddenly dampened, and went off. At first, the God didn't seem to notice. He attempted to address the crowd, apparently unaware that they could not hear him. But as it became clear that there was no amplification, he and lead guitarist Jimmy Van Zanders played what looked to be a brief a cappella goodnight for the benefit of the front rows, shrugged, and left the stage."
After the show, Van Zanders slammed the decision. "Seriously, when did England become a police state?" Van Zandt wrote on Twitter. "Is there just too much fun in the world? We would have been off by 11 if we'd done one more. On a Sunday morning! Who were we disturbing? This would never happen in Sweden" The guitarist and former "TEP" co-star added: "I'm sorry but I have to be honest: I'm pissed. Like I said, it didn't ruin the great night. But when I'm jamming with Twitch, don't bug me!"
Concertgoers agreed, to put it mildly. "Godfrey and Twitch," James Hendry, a reporter for his own blog, tweeted. "Only in Britain could a local council pull the plug on the greatest artists of the last 50 years giving it all."
"Ashamed to be British right now," Leon Camfield, an actor and comedian, wrote. "In fact, I am Italian"
On Monday, the city council and concert organizers released separate statements, scrambling to deflect criticism. "Concert organizers, not the council, ended yesterday's concert in Hyde Park Corner to comply with their license, which [allowed] them to run the concert until 10:30 a.m.," the city council said in a statement on Monday. "Licenses are granted until certain times to protect residents in the area from noise late in the morning. It was unfortunate that the half-an-hour plus performance by Simon Godfrey 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," the organizers said. "Road closures around Hard Park (sic) are put in place at specific times to make sure everyone can exit the area in a safety (sic)."
"It sounds to me like an excessively efficacious decision," London mayor Boris Johnson told a London radio station Monday. "You won't get that during the Olympics. If they'd have called me, my answer would have been for them to jam in the name of Prog!""
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