not a member? click here to sign up

Don't Stop The Music

The recent tragic events in the Phoenix Park should not be used to prevent music lovers from attending and enjoying gigs to the max.

Niall Stokes, 29 Aug 2012

The same held true in Lisdoonvarna, the legendary festival immortalised in the hilarious Christy Moore song.

It’s easy to forget too that in its final year, 1982, Lisdoonvarna culminated in a riot. There were some fearsome exchanges between Hell’s Angels and members of the public, with numerous people injured. There were riots the night before the Bob Dylan gig in Slane in 1984. Both of these gigs saw deaths too, from drowning. A youth was stabbed and died at a Radiators From Space gig in UCD early in the punk era. To remember this is not in any way to minimise the recent tragedy. But it is to say that it’s important to keep these things in perspective. 

In an imperfect world, there’s only so much you can do to exert control. If some people come determined to cause trouble, at a football match or a parade in the city centre as happened on St. Patrick’s Day a few years ago, or at a gig, no hand-wringing afterwards is going to change that.

The fact is that the vast majority of gigs happen without any form of complication whatsoever. Some events, of course, are more volatile than others. The Swedish House Mafia show was one of those very rare occasions.

While it is facile to generalise sweepingly about any audience, clearly the crowd for Swedish House Mafia and Snoop Dogg was very different from that which would show up at a Bruce Springsteen or a Madonna gig. For a start, the average age was far younger. In addition, certain types of dance music attract a tougher, in some ways hardcore, urban audience. 

To put it gently, you might say that it is more a soccer crowd than a rugby one. But that doesn’t make that audience any less entitled to see their heroes in action or any less entitled to go to a great show.

At the licensing stage, certain conditions were put in place in relation to security for the gig. The Gardaí were involved in every aspect of the planning, as they are in relation to all major shows. The requirements set out were exceeded by the promoters M.C.D. There were 125 gardaí and 511 private security personnel on duty. 



Page 3/6     <Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next> 



Related Content

Latest Articles by Niall Stokes

Poetry in motion

The two latest entries to Today FM’s Poetic Champions Compose series arrived a decade apart and certainly made their mark. We plunder the Hot Press vaults once more to reflect on two of the greatest offerings from Van Morrison and The Boomtown Rats.


2012-11-13

Brady's Bunch

He’s one of the outstanding Irish songwriters of the modern era. Now Paul Brady is taking fans and newcomers alike on an intimate journey, with an album chronicling some of his favourite career moments. Here, he looks back over his extraordinary 45 years in the business, argues that the emerging generation has shot itself in the foot and, controversially, takes the Government to task in relation to copyright


2012-06-25

Death Is Not The End

In the second part of a major interview, conducted at The Music Show in the RDS, Bob Geldof talks about Band Aid, Live Aid, Paula Yates, the death of his father Bob Snr. and his new solo album, How To Compose Popular Songs That Will Sell.


2011-02-23

Bob Geldof - The Years Of The Rat

In the first part of a major interview conducted at last year’s Music Show in the RDS, BOB GELDOF talks candidly about life as an illegal immigrant in Canada, how the Boomtown Rats took on official Ireland and then went on to duke it out with the Pistols and The Clash, and what triggered his involvement in Live Aid. Plus, a look back at Bob and the Rats on the cover of Hot Press.


2011-02-09

THE KILDARE BOY:The Christy Moore Story

Selected as the Best Irish Male singer at the Meteor Awards 2010, CHRISTY MOORE first emerged as a performer towards the end of the 1960s. Since then, he has become one of the most distinctive and influential voices in Irish music. A magnetic performer, his work variously with Planxty, Moving Hearts and as a solo artist, has been widely acclaimed and he is regarded among his international peers as one of the pre-eminent folk singers.


2011-01-24

Contact Us

Hot Press,
13 Trinity Street,
Dublin 2.
Rep. Of Ireland
Tel: +353 (1) 241 1500

Email:info@hotpress.ie

Click here for more contact information.

Click here to find out more about Hot Press

Hot Press always welcomes feed back so if you've got something to tell us click here.

Advertise With Us

For more detail on how to advertise with Hot Press click here or call us on +353 (1) 241 1540