Springsteen and McCartney Performance Cut Short By Curfew
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band have defied curfews for the length of their current Wrecking Ball Tour (and for their whole career for that matter) without any repercussions noticeable to fans. That streak came to an end at a most inopportune time last night at London’s Hyde Park where The Boss and his band were headlining this year’s Hard Rock Calling festival. Springsteen welcomed one of his idols, Paul McCartney, out to end the 29-song set, that already included sit-ins from Tom Morello and John Fogerty, for the Beatles classic I Saw Her Standing There and The Isley Brothers’ Twist and Shout. Just as Twist and Shout was about to reach a crescendo, the sound suddenly cut out when festival organizers decided not to risk huge fines by defying the park’s sound curfew.
[Photo via Backstreets.com]
E Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt took to his Twitter account to rant about the curfew cutoff, asking “when did England become a Police State?” He went on to say, “The 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?” Springsteen and McCartney shared vocals on I Saw Her Standing There, while Bruce handled most of the vocals for Twist and Shout (which John sang with The Beatles).
Earlier in the evening, Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello augmented Springsteen and his band on Death To My Hometown, Jack of All Trades, The Ghost of Tom Joad, The Rising and Land of Hopes and Dreams while John Fogerty sat in on The Promised Land. McCartney and Springsteen last collaborated at February’s Grammy Awards ceremony when they were joined by Joe Walsh and Dave Grohl for a romp through the Abbey Road medley.
Here’s video of the Springsteen/McCartney summit including the plug-pulling…
Scott Bernstein
Scott Bernstein co-founded Hidden Track in October 2006 and was managing editor until taking over as EiC in January 2008. Scotty also writes for JamBase and curates YEMblog.com.
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