Rockbites: Townshend, on US tour, talks about Cincinnatti, Roskilde

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July 2000 • Rockbites Alternative Daily

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Townshend, on US tour, talks about Cincinnatti, Roskilde
7 July 2000

The Who’s Pete Townshend—a veteran of a concert tragedy more than 20 years ago in Cincinnatti, Ohio in which 11 concertgoers were killed by trampling—announced this past Sunday on his Web site that he’d spoken with Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder. The 1979 tragedy happened before the concert started when fans with general admission tickets stormed newly opened entrances at Riverfront Colliseum. Authorities withheld news of the disaster from The Who until after they’d finished playing. A devastated Townshend said later “If it had happened inside I would never have played again.”
On Sunday Townshend wrote “I passed on [to Vedder] what I knew The Who had done wrong after the Cinncinnatti disaster—in a nutshell, I think we left too soon... Luckily Pearl Jam and their management have stayed in Denmark, and cancelled subsequent shows. Other bands also marked some respect by refusing to play.”
Pearl Jam have replaced their Web site’s main page with a brief statement, which reads

This is so painful... I think we are all waiting for someone to wake us and say it was just a horrible nightmare....

And there are absolutely no words to express our anguish in regard to the parents and loved ones of these precious lives that were lost.

We have not yet been told what actually occurred, but it seemed to be random and sickeningly quick... it doesn’t make sense.

When you agree to play at a festival of this size and reputation it is impossible to imagine such a heart-wrenching scenario.

Our lives will never be the same, but we know that is nothing compared to the grief of the families and friends of those involved.

It is so tragic... there are no words.

Devastated,
--Pearl Jam
| Pete Townshend's note about Roskilde | | Pearl Jam | | Time article (October '79) | | top of page |

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