Bruce Springteen performing at Hard Rock Calling
Sir Paul McCartney‘s famous daughter, fashion designer Stella McCartney, waded into to the mounting controversy over the decision to pull the plug on her father’s duet with fellow rock legend Bruce Springsteen on Saturday night.
She told TIME, “I’m completely shocked that it seems London has conformed. Where’s the rock and roll in this city? I’m embarrassed. I think it’s embarrassing. It’s shocking, I mean two incredible musical icons. I think whoever turned that switch has a lot to answer for on many levels.”
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Springsteen was headlining the Hard Rock Calling festival in Hyde Park when he was joined on stage by the former Beatles member for renditions of ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ and ‘Twist and Shout’.
Hard Rock Calling is beloved to both Springsteen, who previously headlined the festival in 2009, and McCartney, who makes appearances there from time to time, most recently alongside Neil Young in 2009.
However, 76,000 fans were left bitterly disappointed after promoters switched off the rockers’ microphones at close to 11pm — half an hour after the show was scheduled to end — in accordance with their agreement with the local Westminster Council.
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By the time he left the stage, Springsteen had been performing for over three hours.
Live Nation, promoters of Hard Rock Calling, stated on their website, “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.”
The gig’s premature ending attracted the ire of Steve Van Zandt, a member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street Band, who posted a series of increasingly irritated tweets in which he described the night as “One of the great gigs ever in my opinion.”
Van Zandt, who also starred in hit TV show The Sopranos, branded England a “police state” and speculated that, “English cops may be the only individuals left on earth that wouldn’t want to hear one more from Bruce Springsteen Paul McCartney?
He continued, “We break curfews in every country but only English cops needs to “punish us” by not letting us leave until the entire crowd goes.
“There’s no grudges to be held. Just feel bad for our great fans. Hard Rock is cool. Live Nation is cool. It’s some City Council stupid rule.” Van Zandt later apologized to the Metropolitan police, noting that he wasn’t sure who actually turned the power off.
Meanwhile, British actor Simon Pegg tweeted:”Can’t believe they pulled the plug on Springsteen and Macca last night in Hyde Park. What joyless, bitter killjoy made that decision? #shame”
The decision to cut short the performance also attracted an unlikely critic in Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who told LBC radio: “It sounds to me like an excessively efficacious decision. If they’d have called me, my answer would have been for them to jam in the name of the Lord.”
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