Springsteen and McCartney Go Past Curfew, Get Shut Down

The organizers of the Hard Rock Calling festival in London stick to the rules, regardless of who is trying to break them.  Thousands of people were gathered in Hyde Park to hear Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney performing (McCartney was actually a surprise).  Along with Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello and Springsteen’s famous E Street Band, they thrilled the crowd with rendition of “I Saw Her Standing There” and most of “Twist and Shout.”

What happened?  Why didn’t they get to finish the song?

At 10:40pm, the organizers cut the power after promising London's Westminster Council that the show would end by 10:15pm. 

E Street guitarist Steven Van Zandt was furious and tweeted:  "One of the greatest gigs ever in my opinion. But seriously, when did England become a police state?"

"We break curfews in every country but only English cops needs to 'punish us' by not letting us leave until the entire crowd goes."  "Is there just too much fun in the world? We would have been off by 11 if we'd done one more. On a Saturday night! Who were we disturbing?"

The situation reminded Van Zandt of the the Beatles' famous 1969 performance atop the Apple headquarters. He tweeted: "Ha! @raindogs70 just reminded me how the Beatles' rooftop concert ended. Not much has changed in 43 years!"

Well, you can’t say they aren’t consistent…