Conference napalm::heavy_metal

At an AC/DC show in Salt Lake City last week, three people were crushed in
the audience. Two died, and one is in critical condition.

It was a general admission show. (Stupid!)

alan

    
    
    I heard on the radio that everyone was telling the band to stop
    playing, as it happened, and they wouldn't.
    
    Rude!~
    
    
    Goddess F.

    
    re: .162
    
    That's EXACTLY why I don't go to the Springfield Civic Center anymore.
    
    /prc

    
    
    	RE: F.
    
    	That's what I heard as well.  But I wonder if the band could
    	actually HEAR the fans (?) telling them to stop.... ?
    
    	tigg~~~

    
    
    	I was at the Salt Palace a few years ago and was really surprised 
    to see a large arena still using general admission.  That's the same
    arena where the Utah Jazz play.  I wonder if their games are general
    admission?... probably not.
    
    	FWIW, I read in the paper it was a 14 year old that died and
    another kid was in serious condition from falling 20' into a fountain
    outside the arena.  Maybe the fountain incident was the second death.
    
    
    Paul                                              
    	

    
    
    I would think it would be the backstage people telling them to stop
    though!!!
    
    Although, I don't have the full scoop so this is just speculation!!
    
    
    ??
    
    
    Goddess F.

    
    	Apparently they heard the backstage crew saying something,
    	but just figured it was subliminal messages that they weren't
    	previously aware of.
    
    
    	No, it's not true.  Geez!!
    
    							GTI
    

> FWIW, I read in the paper it was a 14 year old that died and another kid was 
> in serious condition from falling 20' into a fountain outside the arena.  
> Maybe the fountain incident was the second death.

I don't know anything about the fountain incident, but according to the AP 
newswire, one kid was DOA, one died later that night, and a third died Monday,
all from being crushed in the crowd.

8^(

alan

    
    
    
    	I'll be in Salt Lake City in a few weeks.  I'll try and find out
    if anything is being done about general admission shows.
    
    
    Paul

    
    Over the last ten years, this is the third time I've heard of kid's
    getting killed at an AC/DC concert. The first was similar to the latest
    incident,but the second was a kid that banged his head (like Angus) so
    hard that he developed a blood clot in his brain and died. Faulty
    equipment,or what? Anyway, it's not the bands fault. Sh*t happens.
    
    
    
                                   DEEBS

    You're right, it's not the bands fault, it's festival seating.  Every
    time they have festival seating, there are always people in the back
    pushing to get to the front.
    
    Chris D.

    Maybe it's me, but I find it hard to believe that people were actually 
    crushed to death by other people behind them!!!!!
    
    Geez, what a terrible way to die!  
    
    'prillllllllll

    
    re: -1
    
    Believe me it's possible. I never would have thought it was until
    I experienced Iron Maiden in 1983 at the Cape Cod Coll. General
    admission on the floor. After a while I HAD to get off the floor
    and sit down. It was unbearable.
    
    /prc

    
    
    	RE: April
    
    	Pete's right.  When we saw the Crue in Lakeland, FL it was
    	general admission and we were just about carried up the
    	stairs without feet ever touching the floor...
    
    	Once we got up to the balcony area, you could look down and
    	see people being squashed... gruesome.  
    
    	tigga~~

    
    	I went to see Judas Priest and Krokus at the Springfield CC,
    	and they had "general admission" floor space ... although I
    	was sitting in the balcony, there didn't seem to be any prob-
    	lems on the floor.
    
    							GTI
    

    
    I went to Springfield Civic Center for Maiden one time and got caught
    almost in the middle of a race riot! It was pure hell!

    My first general admission concert was Heart at the Cape Cod Sweatbox.
    Like an idiot, I rushed right up to the front of the stage.  Stayed
    there for the opener, Mott the Hopple, then we had to leave...too
    mental!!

    No wonder they closed down Cape Cod Colleseum.  Def Leppard/Krokus and
    Gary Moore was a lot of fun on the floor.  :')
    

    I saw Ozzy/Def Lep in `81 there....woah, flashbacks!!

    
    
    	Speaking of flashbacks...
    
    
    	Rob, I was at that show as well!  I stood on the floor for Gary
    Moore and Krokus but went to the seats for Def Lep.  Did you see me? 8^)  
    My car overheated in the parking lot due to a busted thermostat.  You
    may have seen that!
    
    	I'm glad that place closed down!
    
    	I remember seeing Geils there at the end of the "Love Stinks" tour.
    It was in the middle of summer and jam-packed with people.  The place
    was unbearable!  My skin was wrinkled as if I had been in a tub for a
    few hours.  Almost got stuck at the Cape that night too. 
    
    	I'm glad that place closed down! 8^)
    
    	Rumor had it that Vince McMahon's (of wrestling fame) father owned
    the CCC.
    
    
    Paul

    The last general admission show I saw was Blue Oyster Cult in the
    summer of '81 or '82 in Las Vegas.  My friend and I went down on the
    floor and were about 20 yards back when the opening act came on.  The
    opening act was pretty good and people got all crushed and hot and most
    of them up front left.  We went up to the front for BOC and were
    within about three layers of people from the stage.  
    
    It was outrageously hot and tight and the crowd bunched up real bad
    when the show started.  There were many times during the show when both
    of my feet left the floor for several minutes at a time.  It was really
    kind of unnerving.  Then people up front started passing out and the
    bouncers in the buffer zone (about three feet from a railing to the
    stage) would pick them up and have the crowd pass them out over the
    top.  I saw about a dozen people go out that way. 
    
    It was actually refreshing when they'd have dry ice fog effects on the
    stage because it would roll off the front of the stage and still be
    cool.  When we got out, it felt so cool outside...but looked up at the
    temp on the top of the Sahara Hotel across the street and it said it
    was still 107F !!!  (at midnight...that's Vegas for ya)  I was wearing
    a tericloth shirt and I took it off and wrang liquid out of it in the
    parking lot (probably close to a pint), I was SOAKED!
    
    But, I had a good time and enjoyed the show nevertheless.  I wouldn't
    want to do that at every show, but it's fun every now and then.
    
    It doesn't surprise me at all to hear about people getting killed by
    being crushed at an event like that, the place I was at only held maybe
    2000-3000 people and half to three-quarters of them weren't even on the
    floor!  You get a stadium sized crowd and you've got major danger for
    the people up front!
    
    gh
                                                                   

    
    Oh yeah Paul! I remember seeing you there!  You should have told me you
    needed some help with your car!! :').
    
    Geez, I must have been 13 or 14 for that show.  Memories :').
    
    I also remember getting in a fight with a girl who I thought was a guy
    that took my seat while I was standing right behind it (bleachers)!
    Boy was her boyfriend pissed when I clocked her :').  
    
    Honest, I really did think it was a guy until afterward when my friend
    pointed out to me some anatomical differences that I hadn't noticed.
    
    

    According to an article I just read it said that AC/DC did stop after 
    the song but were told to continue playing for fear of a riot.
    This had to be a house decision, Because if they wanted them to stop
    they could have turned on the house lights or actually cut the power.
    
    Another interesting tidbit--- At a Jane's Addiction concert the other
    nite in Chicago, The band stopped playing after fifteen minutes and
    left the stage. The crowd took exception to this and nearly tipped
    their tour bus over afterwards....
    
    /wc
    

    To whoever said they find it hard to believe the people were cruched to
    death in that way, look at the news footage from the soccer game in
    (I believe) England.  If I remember right, over 90 people died.
    
    Chris D.

Article 391 of clari.news.music:
From: clarinews@clarinet.com (LANCE GURWELL)
Newsgroups: clari.news.trouble,clari.news.music
Subject: Third teenager dead following AC/DC concert
Date: 22 Jan 91 01:31:51 GMT
Priority: daily


	SALT LAKE CITY (UPI) -- A third teenager has died of injuries suffered
when a crowd surged forward at a concert by the heavy-metal group AC/DC,
crushing several concert-goers, a hospital spokesman said Monday night.
	Elizabeth Glausi, 19, a student at Brigham Young University in Provo,
died about 3 p.m. Monday at Holy Cross Hospital from injuries received
when a crowd of over 13,000 surged toward the stage shortly after the
rock group started playing Friday night at the Salt Palace Convention
Center.
	A hospital spokeswoman said an autopsy would be performed to
determine the cause of death. The young woman had been on life support
systems since the accident and apparently never regained consciousness.
	Curtis Child, 14, of Logan, died Sunday, and Jimmy Boyd, 14, Salt
Lake City, died Friday night.
	Officials said all three victims were apparently crushed when the
crowd pushed toward the stage during the early part of the concert. At
one point the group was asked to stop playing so the crowd could be
brought under control, but allegedly refused.
	``I was in a panic. I was being totally suffocated. I couldn't even
breathe because my chest had so much pressure on it,'' said Brandi
Burton, who attended the concert with Glausi. Burton was treated for
injuries and released.
	``The pressure was really bad because everyone wanted to move towards
the front,'' said Burton, 19, a BYU student from Orange County, Calif. 
``It was just massive people pushing, pushing, pushing.''
	Both women were near the center of the hall, about five rows behind
the metal barricades set up to keep the audience away from the stage.
	``They (the group) started 'Thunderstruck' ... and then we were down,
'' Burton said. ``We got jammed to the floor... I just kept feeling more
and more weight ... I looked over at my friend Liz ... I said 'I can't
breath,' '' and she said 'I can't breath either.'``
	Officials said the incident happened about 9:15 p.m., shortly after
the group took the stage.
	``When the house lights were illuminated, the four victims were found
on the floor,'' said a police report.
	Concert promoters refused to comment on the indicent, and so did the
rock group and officials of Spectacor Management Group, the private firm
that manages the Salt Palace Convention Center.
	``It looked like they were smothered,'' said Dick Forbes, assistant
chief of investigations for the Salt Lake County Attorney's Office.
	The band finally stopped playing about 45 minutes into the concert so
fans could back up, then resumed playing about 15 minutes later,
although the house lights stayed on for the remainder of the concert, a
music reviewer said.
	``There was just a crowded section in this general admission area,''
said reviewer John Paul Brophy. ``What caused me some concern was to see
the swaying ... the large group started to sway like it was a wave.''

    re.24 If I remember,the number was 97,pretty sick,huh!
    
    
    
    
    
    
                                                      STAYNZ

    I saw in the paper that some concert promoter's association was
    "reevaluating"  whether to continue offering festival seating.  
    
    BTW the real reason they use it is they can sell more tickets that way.
    Seats take up space.
    
    							Brian

    Parents of one of the killed teenagers are suing AC/DC for 8 Mil.  WHY 
    they're suing the band is beyond me...obviously the promoter/concert 
    hall should be first to blame.  The band just shows up and plays!
                                                           

    
    I also think general admission should be band. Did you see that 
    on a Current Affair last night? The guy is suing every member and
    the promoters... What a tragedy.

    
    	Hmm...I wonder what will happen with the Poison/Slaughter
    	concert at the Springfield Civic Center then?
    

    AC/DC could've stopped when they were asked to so the bodies could be
    cleared out.  By stopping 45 minutes after they were asked, they were
    too late to do any good.

    -1
    
    Sorry Mike, but if the house mgmt was aware of the problems,
    any or all of the following could have happened:
    
    o House lights go on
    o Sound man pulls the plug
    o House mgmt pulls the plug
    
    I still don't blame the band.  If they wanted AC/DC to STOP playing,
    it would have been a VERY easy thing to do!

    Sorry dudes this is news to me.  But Buck is right they could quite
    easily have stopped the show.... the question remains... did the band
    know what had happened before they stopped....
    
    
    Bonzo

    According to the news reports, the house lights were on.  The band kept
    on playing.
    
    Other details are sketchy.  I admit that having the sound engineer pull
    the mains would've been a great idea.  Sometimes people don't think of
    these things in a panic situation.
    
    Mike

    After the Who incident in Cincinnati, only a fool would hold another
    general admission concert.  If they're suing, the promoters HAVE to be
    in involved, not just the band.
    
    Mike

    
    
    	I had heard that the reason they kept on playing was so
    	they wouldn't cause a bigger panic than what they had
    	on their hands already...
    
    	Don't know how true to fact that is but I suppose it
    	could be a possibility.
    
    	tigga~~

    
    When the two people were crushed to death at Donnington Monsters of
    Rock, GN'R were playing.  They could see the mayhem and stopped
    playing.  They tried to persuade the crowds to cool down for about 15
    minutes.  They changed their set and played two of their ballady
    numbers (patience and Sweet child)...the mayhem continued so they left
    the stage.
    
    It continued up until DLR hit the stage (that's two acts later).  A
    member of security dived on to the stage, kneeling, and asked DLR to
    stop playing, he said, "Get the F*CK of my stage."  More people pleaded
    with him to stop, eventually he did and people were pulled out of the
    front.
    
    The best band to control the crowds?  Iron Maiden.  They stopped their
    set, calmly told everyone to cool down and take a couple of steps back.
    
                                          

    
      Back in 1978 I attended an Aerosmith concert at Market Square Arena
    in Indianapolis which was general admission.  And of course there was
    the pushing, shoving, feet off the floor while being crushed from
    behind thrust of the crowd.  Two day (Daze) later it was stated in the
    news that the state Fire Marshal had fined the promoter and banned
    futher GA concerts at Market Square.  The promoter had sold 26,000
    tickets to a 18,000 seat arena.  There were injuries but luckly none
    serious. 

    
    
    	Talked to a few people in Salt Lake about the situation at the Salt 
    Palace.  They said the Salt Palace management is working on alternative
    seating plans.
    
    
    Paul