Bay
City Rollers, Cruel Coppinger.
This
is probably the crowd for the Bay City Rollers ©
Harlow Gazette/Harlow Museum
|
The following made front page of the Harlow Gazette on 2 August
1974
It is an account of what happened in terms of the crowd control
problems at the Bay City Rollers concert at the Harlow Town
Park on 27 July 1974. It had the makings of a MAJOR incident
and it was a miracle that there weren’t any fatalities
Stephen
Goldsmith
Hysterical
Teenagers Hurt
A
screaming hysterical mob of teeny boppers turned Saturday
Nights Town Park concert into a nightmare. The trouble broke
out as the chart - busting Bay City Rollers came on stage.
A couple of hundred fans at the front of the massive crowd
surged forward and a crash barrier broke. Youngsters were
pushed into the artificial pond in front of the stage - and
others were crushed.
A
fleet of ambulances rushed 11, including one seven year old
, to Princess Alexander Hospital - and thirty casualties were
treated on site . Fortunately none was badly hurt - and they
were either sent home after seeing doctors or given "reassurance".
The police had warned the organisers, Harlow Council, to stop
the concert. But by that time the fans knew that the star
group had arrived - and it was thought there would have been
an even bigger problem if everything was called off.
But
after Saturday nights fiasco the Council is to take a major
look at its crowd control policy. It estimates there were
18,000 to 20,000 youngsters and most were between the ages
of 12 to 16 years..
Right
in the middle of it all was St Johns Ambulance Brigade staff
officer, of Moorfield.
And he told the Gazzette and Citizen: -
" The crowd atmosphere changed noticeably around 9:00pm
when the advertised star group failed to appear. During the
next half-hour the youngsters grew more disappointed and restless
and there was growing signs of mass hysteria.
Two
young girls were crushed against the front barrier and taken
to hospital. A few minutes later , the group arrived and appeared
almost immediately on stage . The crowd went wild with excitement
and rushed towards the stage with the inevitable result that
those at the front were forced against the barrier which eventually
collapsed.
Almost immediately we found ourselves faced with a near major
scale emergency particularly as it proved impossible to utilise
the facilities of the first aid post. The sheer density of
the crowd made it physically impossible to move casualties
in that direction. An emergency station was therefore set
up. Within the next ten minutes or so 18 casualties were receiving
attention and it became apparent that additional assistance
was required. A telephone call set in to motion the local
St John emergency call out system and with in minutes other
qualified members were speeding towards the incident, at least
two of them had been literally been called out of their beds.
In all, 30 casualties were treated at the incident, mostly
from severe bruising to the chest and abdomen due to crushing
against the barrier ; suspected fractured ribs, hysteria and
shock. Many were saturated having fallen into the watercourse
at the front of the stage”.
And he added “This is the first incident we have had
of this magnitude to occur in Harlow and while we all hope
that such accidents will not occur St John members are trained
continuously to meet such emergencies.
May
I pay tribute to the Harlow Council stewards and to the members
of the security corps who performed a magnificent job in controlling
the situation and extricating the casualties under the most
difficult of conditions. Without their spontaneous action
the situation would have certainly been much worse.”
Eighteen
old Julie Dosell of Northbrooks was right at the front of
the hysterical masses.
" I think the trouble was that the group were late in
coming on "she said "and when they did 200 to 300
girls at the front started screaming and tried to get on the
stage. They were the sort of group that appeals to nine to
14 years and they were singing songs to them."
" They broke through the crash barriers, and a couple
got on the stage. The concert had to be stopped for a couple
of minutes while they tried to calm everyone down, but they
all just went on screaming. "
The council is adamant that it took
the right decision in letting the concert go on.
“ It would have been quite ridiculous to stop it “
said a spokesman. "People would have rioted. I
suppose it was a case of the lesser of two evils. We were
in quite a predicament and really had no alternative. We had
extra safety barriers and double the staff on duty. The fact
that no one was seriously injured proves that we were prepared".
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