No Rock And Roll Fun

MORE LOVE LOST:This from the Radio 1 website, a statement from Mr. P:
"Statement from Andy Parfitt, Controller Radio 1, Mon 16 July, noon: Suggestions of an alternative "unofficial" Love Parade would not be a good idea at all. It could prejudice the future of Love Parade in the UK forever. I understand how disappointed people are but to clog up the centre of Newcastle next weekend would be counter productive, if anything went wrong clubbers would be blamed, and the reputation of Dance and Dance fans, who made last year's event such a success, would be damaged. In those circumstances it would be hard for any local authority to look favourably on Love Parade in years to come. Radio 1's advice is, if you don't have a ticket for an indoor event, to stay at home and listen. I've asked moderators at our website not to put up messages that are just encouraging people to travel to Newcastle. "
So, pick the bones out of that one. Firstly, its okay to clog up the centre of Newcastle, providing its for Radio One's benefit, but not if its just people having fun? And remember, kids, its simply the image of dance fans he's worried about, not that if (and, as it looks increasingly likely, when) something nasty kicks off, that it'll look godawful for his station.
More disturbingly, of course, there's the whole "Stay in your homes" tone of his message - look, pal, you're the one who made the bad judgement call of trying to push this whole thing through - its been clear for months that the council were cool, at best, on the whole idea; and with the recent riots in the north it was obvious they'd be less keen than ever. Nevertheless, Radio One has been banging on about "come to Newcastle, it'll be great" for the past month, without any certainty there'd be anything for people to come to. Its a bit late to now start to supress people's "lets go anyway" messages, don't you think?