Rocker Neil Young breached the strict 10.30pm London Hyde Park curfew after an epic concert – forcing BST Hyde Park bosses to turn off his guitars
Music bosses were forced to cut the power to Neil Young’s Hyde Park show as he was rocking out too much. The star was supposed to finish at 10.20pm on Friday night ahead of a strict 10.30pm curfew in the Royal park.
But the 79-year-old was still going strong at 10.32pm with an extended version of Rockin’ in the Free World forcing festival chiefs to to step in. One source said: “Neil and his band were having a great time and would have kept on going. There were at least three false endings to the song before festival bosses decided enough was enough. Neil and the band looked a bit puzzled when the power was cut but they are strict about these things – especially as it’s a royal park.”
Westminster Council insists on a 10.30pm finish as part of their licensing conditions. There were some boos near the front when it emerged the power had been turned off.
But fans said of Friday night’s show: “It was one of the all-time great BST shows. Neil completely rocked out the place.” Hyde Park has had high-profile curfew breaches before – most notably for Bruce Springsteen in 2012.
READ MORE: Neil Young’s Glastonbury performance will air on the BBC in dramatic U-turn
Sir Paul McCartney had joined Bruce and his E Street Band to play Beatles classics I Saw Her Standing There and Twist and Shout. But as they got ready to launch into another number, their power was switched off by the then-promoters of the Hard Rock Calling festival. BST is run by a different team.
Steve Van Zandt, the E Street Band’s guitarist, vented his fury at the “police state”. Then-Mayor of London, Boris Johnson said it was “an excessively efficacious decision”. The Boss was back at Hyde Park in 2023 and could see the funny side. During a performance of Glory Days, he told the 65,000-strong audience: “It’s time to go home. I’m telling you, they are going to pull the f***ing plug again.”
The Mirror revealed at the time how Bruce was scheduled to start his concert earlier at 7pm to ensure the 10.30pm curfew was not breached. The plan by BST Hyde Park bosses worked as the gig ended at 10pm.
The performance by Young for his BST show comes just two weeks after his headline Glastonbury show on the Pyramid stage,
BST HYDE PARK REVIEW BY TOM BRYANT
It would take some effort to eclipse what was a magical show on Worthy Farm two weeks ago. But as the sun set on W2, Neil Young did just that with a spell-binding performance for the ages.
All the focus had been on Neil’s Glastonbury show in the build up to his short European tour. Not least the controversy over whether he would allow the BBC to screen his Pyramid stage performance.
But here in Hyde Park it was all about the music – and the 79-year-old rocker delivered with aplomb. There was no scrimping on a hits-packed set list including Old Man, Harvest Moon and the Needle and the Damage Done.
There was even a rare outing for his 1970 hit After the Gold Rush which made its tour debut. Sat astride a piano, it was a moment of perfection and you could hear a pin drop in the hushed Royal park.
Otherwise, the godfather of grunge was at his rocking best, his band generating an inordinate amount of noise as they jammed away into the night with a thrilling encore of Rockin’ in the Free World.
Until 10.32pm that is….
FIVE STARS *****