The media really delighted in it when the kids died at The Who concert in Cincinnati. Those rock punks went crazy. They trampled each other. Those drugged maniacs went berserk and now our precious babies are dead. All because of a mindless stampede.
That makes great copy if you're a muckraking guttersnipe without a hint of integrity or the hope of it anywhere in your career. None of those things happened. I know this to be true. I was there.
Nothing was unusual at first as the doors to the Cincinnati Coliseum were closed prior to the concert and that wasn't altogether strange but it was late to keep them close and people were building up. As the show got closer, naturally, more and more people were waiting to get into the building to find someplace for the show.
There was no fighting, no shouting, no shoving, and no-one anywhere near me was acting like an asshole in any way. There was just this pressure which kept building and building and they just would not open those doors. There was no where for anyone to go. We could not leave because people were coming into the plaza from the only way to exit from it.
My position was at most five to seven meters from the door by the ticket offices and this was the one most commonly-used by people.
The pressure kept on building and I was there with my friend, his girlfriend, and her younger brother. Fortunately, the younger brother was tall for his age and was holding his own but she wasn't. My friend somehow got separated and I remember his girlfriend looking at me with absolute terror as both of us knew I was the only protection against her going down. It really wasn't clear what would happen if she did other than it would be really, really bad.
It's important to keep emphasizing there was no fighting, there was nothing of that nature, just this immense pressure and finally they opened the doors. Of course there was a surge as that was the only relief valve but there was no violence to it. People were only trying to make their way through it as they could while staying as cool as they could. None of us knew there were twelve kids dying only two or three meters away. There was no possible way to know.
The tour The Who were playing for this run was The Kids Are Alright. They were almost certainly not informed of what had happened outside because it would have taken some while before anyone even knew. By that time the band would have been on-stage because the doors opened so late.
No-one knew and, what the hell, we were diggin' it as this is The Who and Daltry has fookin' lasers shooting out of his head. He's in his prime and nobody plays the rock sex god from Electric Olympus better than he. They rocked hard and everyone was smokin' on it.
Some of us were trippin' on it but I wasn't one of them. One, in particular, who was took it so deeply into his heart that I haven't any doubt he still questions how he could be enjoying the same concert inside as people died to reach outside. His pain was not only weeping as he wrote about it and he testified in front of City Council about what really happened.
He did his best, his very best, to tell the story truthfully and accurately but the one which persists is the rock and roll animals went into a stampede. It was rubbish then and it's rubbish now. Just like my friend, I saw it.
That makes great copy if you're a muckraking guttersnipe without a hint of integrity or the hope of it anywhere in your career. None of those things happened. I know this to be true. I was there.
Nothing was unusual at first as the doors to the Cincinnati Coliseum were closed prior to the concert and that wasn't altogether strange but it was late to keep them close and people were building up. As the show got closer, naturally, more and more people were waiting to get into the building to find someplace for the show.
There was no fighting, no shouting, no shoving, and no-one anywhere near me was acting like an asshole in any way. There was just this pressure which kept building and building and they just would not open those doors. There was no where for anyone to go. We could not leave because people were coming into the plaza from the only way to exit from it.
My position was at most five to seven meters from the door by the ticket offices and this was the one most commonly-used by people.
The pressure kept on building and I was there with my friend, his girlfriend, and her younger brother. Fortunately, the younger brother was tall for his age and was holding his own but she wasn't. My friend somehow got separated and I remember his girlfriend looking at me with absolute terror as both of us knew I was the only protection against her going down. It really wasn't clear what would happen if she did other than it would be really, really bad.
It's important to keep emphasizing there was no fighting, there was nothing of that nature, just this immense pressure and finally they opened the doors. Of course there was a surge as that was the only relief valve but there was no violence to it. People were only trying to make their way through it as they could while staying as cool as they could. None of us knew there were twelve kids dying only two or three meters away. There was no possible way to know.
The tour The Who were playing for this run was The Kids Are Alright. They were almost certainly not informed of what had happened outside because it would have taken some while before anyone even knew. By that time the band would have been on-stage because the doors opened so late.
No-one knew and, what the hell, we were diggin' it as this is The Who and Daltry has fookin' lasers shooting out of his head. He's in his prime and nobody plays the rock sex god from Electric Olympus better than he. They rocked hard and everyone was smokin' on it.
Some of us were trippin' on it but I wasn't one of them. One, in particular, who was took it so deeply into his heart that I haven't any doubt he still questions how he could be enjoying the same concert inside as people died to reach outside. His pain was not only weeping as he wrote about it and he testified in front of City Council about what really happened.
He did his best, his very best, to tell the story truthfully and accurately but the one which persists is the rock and roll animals went into a stampede. It was rubbish then and it's rubbish now. Just like my friend, I saw it.
2 comments:
Or the fact that the following week about 13 were trampled trying to see the Pope in South America under almost the exact same circumstances
Exactly. Nothing changed the perception of what happened in Cincinnati even though all of us knew it wasn't true. That really broke the Old Dog's heart as he fought to bring it out. He appeared at least once in front of City Council and possibly more than that.
Here it is forty years later and I still write about it, in part to be entertaining and also a significant part because what was told wasn't true and it shocked me that a young 'un known well to both of us did not know what actually happened because he carried what the media gave him. That made it a mission. The kids must understand! (larfs)
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