The head of Wembley Stadium has spoken out in support of the organisers of Hard Rock Calling for pulling the plug on Bruce Springsteen 's headline set last weekend. In a post on musicweek.com, the head of music and new events at Wembley said that bands should respect the curfews imposed on venues. Paul Latham, the Coo of Live Nation (Hard Rock Calling's promoters) had released a statement explaining that if they do not adhere to their curfew, it can affect the viability of future performances, prompting Wembley's Jim Frayling to comment.
Frayling wrote "Paul's right. Nobody likes enforcing curfews. We'd all rather the artist play on. But we have to for future shows and licences. And we could do with artists appreciating that a little more. It is the Hse who are being disingenuous here. Live Nation explained fairly that it was to allow fans to get home safely. Having a 60k crowd cross Park Lane mixing with traffic would not be ideal. So it was 'in the interests of the public's health and safety' to shut the gig off. Fair comment from LN (Live Nation)."
Springsteen himself decided to comment on the incident via the medium of comedy. When he played Dublin earlier in the week, he and Steve Van Zandt wheeled a generator onstage and played 'Twist & Shout,' the Beatles song that they had been performing with Sir Paul McCartney when the plug was pulled in Hyde Park.