Bruce Springsteen And Paul McCartney Get Shut Down At Concert

At first, everybody assumed there was a glitch. Springsteen and Sir Paul's lips were moving on the big screen, but there was no noise. Then it dawned upon the crowd that it wasn't technology to blame. It was tedious, mind-numbingly dumb British officialdom.
Thousands shuffled out -- being berated by police using loud hailers to bark instructions about which Tube stations must be avoided etc etc -- cursing a massive bureaucracy which really doesn't know when it's on to a good thing.

Most countries would kill to have two of the world's biggest starts performing to 80,000 people of all nationalities, on the eve of the Olympics. It should have been positive headlines around the planet.
Instead, Twitter and the internet spoke only of how we are a nation of killjoys. The international media are readying themselves for the lights going out in the middle of the 100m final if it's been delayed for a minute or two by a false start.
Stevie Van Zandt, who plays guitar in Springsteen's E-Street Band, put it most succinctly.
Taking to Twitter, he said: 'One of the great gigs ever in my opinion. But seriously, when did England become a police state?

'We break curfews in every country but only English cops needs to 'punish us' by not letting us leave until the entire crowd goes.
'Is 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?
'The cops got nothing more important to do? How about they go catch some criminals instead of f ****** with 80,000 people having a good time?
'English cops may be the only individuals left on earth that wouldn't want to hear one more from Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney!
'I'm sorry but I have to be honest I'm p ***** . Like I said, it didn't ruin the great night. But when I'm jamming with McCartney don't bug me!
'If it's a public transport issue I'm sorry but people are adult enough to go get a train if they need to without the cops pulling the plug!'
Treat us like adults? Not a chance.
Westminster council -- realising a PR disaster was looming -- was quick out of the blocks to deny responsibility.
Leith Penny, the director for city management -- doesn't the job title say it all? - insisted:
'Concert organisers, not the council, ended last night's concert in Hyde Park to comply with their licence, which allows them to run the concert until 10.30pm.
'Licences are granted until certain times to protect residents in the area from noise late at night.'
But this is disingenuous, to put it mildly. The organisers acted as they did out of fear of what the council jobsworths would do if they let the show go on.