Bruce Springsteen has been known to give the fans their money’s worth. 4 hour shows are commonplace and although he is climbing into his mid 60’s, Bruce still delivers arguably the best live show out there.
Saturday, the Boss was doing his thing, in the middle of a spirited and energetic set. The Hyde Park crowd was treated to special guests (as is usually the case at the Hard Rock Calling Festival) including John Fogerty and Tom Morello. Towards the end, Sir Paul McCartney joined Bruce and the E Street Band on stage. Two rock legends who had never played together before were jamming on stage. I know I would have paid hundreds of dollars to witness this myself. I can picture grown men literally crying over this rock pairing. Then in the middle of this greatness, the venue cut their mics because they had gone past curfew.
Is Hard Rock Calling serious? How could you stop 2 legends during their first jam session together? That’s like getting Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle and Cy Young together for a game at Fenway and then shutting out all of the lights so no one can play. There wouldn’t be a soul who would put Picasso, Rembrandt, Van Gogh and Monet together in a room to paint and then taking away their supplies. Inexcusable. I’m sure that the wealthy residents of Hyde Park could have handled 10 more minutes of “noise.”
Naturally, this abrupt end to the show didn’t sit well with Lil’ Steven Van Zandt…
One of the great gigs ever in my opinion. But seriously, when did England become a police state?
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Steven Van Zandt (@StevieVanZandt) July 15, 2012We break curfews in every country but only English cops needs to "punish us" by not letting us leave until the entire crowd goes.
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Steven Van Zandt (@StevieVanZandt) July 15, 2012Is 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?
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Steven Van Zandt (@StevieVanZandt) July 15, 2012The cops got nothing more important to do? How about they go catch some criminals instead of fucking with 80,000 people having a good time?
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Steven Van Zandt (@StevieVanZandt) July 15, 2012English cops may be the only individuals left on earth that wouldn't want to hear one more from Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney!
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Steven Van Zandt (@StevieVanZandt) July 15, 2012I'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 McCartney don't bug me!
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Steven Van Zandt (@StevieVanZandt) July 15, 2012Bottom line is that if these guys want to keep playing, you let them play until they want to stop. I just hope that someday Bruce and McCartney get on stage together again. If they ever need a place to play together, I’ll gladly provide the venue any day of the week. Here’s a video of their last song followed by Bruce being told that the mics have been turned off.
