People who had travelled down from Leeds to see pop-punk band, Neck Deep, perform at Rock City in Nottingham are demanding a change in fan safety policies after a fight broke out.What should have been a night filled with amazing memories and happiness quickly turned into a nightmare when a fight involving Rock City security, the band, their crew and some fans took place only two songs into their set.It has been said that security were being too rough with crowd-surfers and were "slamming" them into the floor once they were over the barrier, this led to Neck Deep stepping in and calling security out for their actionsSamm Thornton, 16 from Doncaster, was barrier for the show; "It started when a guy who came over the barrier from crowd-surfing tried to high five Ben (Barlow, lead vocalist) but security were dragging him away, so Ben and Sam (Bowden, lead guitarist) were like, 'No, don't do that.'""Another person then came over and the security were being quite rough with him so Fil (Thorpe-Evans, bass) kicked a security member saying something along the lines of 'no, don't f***ing do that', and the guy proceeded to pull Fil off the stage which is where the band and their crew got involved."What happened next was shocking:https://twitter.com/ptvlinds/status/917490188292624386The twitter user who recorded this, Lindsay Smith, said, "It's not the first time security has had altercations with the public because they are the security at the venue all year round and stuff like that has apparently happened before, but they acted completely inappropriate considering the situation.""The guys (Neck Deep) have seen the video and I've sent it to their crew."The show was then cancelled, as soon as the news broke on Twitter users who have previously been to Rock City have talked about their experiences there.https://twitter.com/MissKayMurphy/status/917497023569461259https://twitter.com/ShinRhino/status/917516353812291584Since the incident both Neck Deep and Rock City have released statements;Neck Deep said; "The events that transpired last night were regretful and deeply unfortunate. Things rapidly escalated to a point that they should never have gotten to.""We believe that violence is never a solution, and that everything that went down could and should have been handled better by all parties."Rock City said; "It appears that the band took exception to the way the Rock City security were handling fans who were crowd surfing into the pit and attempting to get on stage.""This unfortunately escalated into a physical confrontation between the band and the security staff. Having reviewed the CCTV footage and spoken to witnesses, it doesn't appear that the security staff were disproportionate in their response to the crowd surfing."However many fans took exception to Rock City's statement.The fight took place in front of Caitlin Day, 19 from Chesterfield, who's arm got caught in the scuffle and was injured in the process."What the security did at Neck Deep was totally out of order, concerts have always been my safe/happy place for as long as I can remember and now I'm questioning whether it was a good idea to go."This wasn't the fault of Neck Deep or the fans; this was security, they should be ashamed of how they handled this."
Published On:
Oct 13, 2017