2012
Sunday night, 15 July, Hyde Park, London, With the rain striping down a full crowd watched Bruce Springsteen finish his performance with guest Paul McCartney joining him on the final songs.
Everyone delighted, all going well.. that is until a Health and Safety official jobsworth decides to pull the power on the concert and leave the band silent and audience jeering.
The mean spirited action was taken because the Sunday concert license only existed until 10.30pm and mainly because local residents in the high end houses surrounding that part of London have enough weight or connections to get the order to stand. Which begs the question why put these concerts on a Sunday? Springsteen later tweeted he didn't realise "..Britain had become a police state".
Well not quite yet Brucey but there are a whole load over zealous "jobsworths" running the local councils and of course they'd pull the plug on a night of fun.
"It's more than my jobs worth" is the only excuse they'd ever need.
The music is meaningless to these people.
1972
40 years earlier John Lee Hooker live performance at the Soledad Correctional Training Facility, was released. At the time few others had attempted such an unusual venue outside of Johnny Cash when he played the San Quentin penitentiary in 1969.
Hooker's performance in Soledad, California, was caught on tape and released on record in 1972 which was quite a rare release until recently. The band was fully electric featuring guitarist's Luther Tucker and Charlie Grimes and Hooker's son, John Lee Hooker Jr with some added vocals.
The playing is intense, part improvised as would be the way with many of Hooker's bands, and the audience becoming more and more excited to be in front of this legendary blues man.
As Hooker launches the group into "Bang Bang Bang Bang" the atmosphere is increased minute by minute and by the time Hooker is repeating the refrain "my baby shot me.. my baby shot me down.. bang bang" it sounds like something is about to give amongst the inmates and you can imagine the guards increasing discomfort at the very idea the song was provoking.
The plug is pulled and the band falls silent, you hear Hooker say "they shot me down.." along with the audiences muted applause. A few seconds of mumbled voices and the authoritarian tones of a voice from the prison PA announce "Yard recall.. Yard recall.." is one of the most chilling moments captured on a record.
The music was anything but meaningless to these people.
Here is that moment.
Accompanied by an inexplicably bizarre video from the uploader.
