I Was Ejected by PJ Security from Hyde Park 1 After Being Kicked in the Head Twice by a Crowd Surfer

KL159781 said:

I’m reposting this from The Porch:

I’m writing this post in hopes it can reach the band and also to create a conversation on our rights as concert goers.

My wife and I travelled from Los Angeles to see Pearl Jam in one of our favorite cities, London. We had Ten Club pit tickets and arrived around 2:30 PM, which was good enough for us to secure third row from the rail in front of Mike. We had a couple of friends in front of us on the rail and several of my wife’s friends from Brazil joined us there. We were all enjoying the show and my wife and I were happy when Eddie pointed and smiled to us right as Mike’s solo on Even Flow started. (I mention this as we are amongst fans that have met him over the years and he recognizes. He will know exactly who is writing this if it’s brought to his attention.) As Mike soloed, I suddenly saw a large man crowd surfing and hitting the head of one of my wife’s friends, a woman who Mike acknowledges at every show he sees her at. This guy looked to be nearly as big as me (I’m 6’4”) and I became very concerned as his course led him over the heads of my wife and another friend and his foot was coming right at my face. I stopped his foot and pushed back at him and guided him forward to the rail for venue security to take him. I walked back to my spot and could see Eddie was looking in our direction with concern.

Within seconds I felt another crowd surfer hitting the back of my head. I turned around and without support, this guy fell to the ground. Security noticed this guy, but didn’t go after him, as he got up and moved back. 

Even Flow then ended and Eddie addressed our section asking if everything was ok. People around me gave him thumbs up and the show continued. Within a couple of minutes, I felt a sudden painful jolt from behind again, hitting the back of my head and neck. I turned around and saw that it was the exact same crowd surfer that had hit my head before. He again fell flat to the ground. I was very angry that this same guy was hitting me again, this time more painfully. With him on the ground I leaned down, pointed at him and screamed at him saying “This is the second time you’ve hit me! What the f*** are you doing?”.

I then noticed security starting to climb over the rail and approach us. They told me and the other guy that we both had to leave the venue, that we were being ejected. I tried to explain that this guy had twice kicked me in the back of my head. My wife was pleading with a security guard, who she told me later was an American band security member, that I wasn’t the problem, that it was the crowd surfers creating the problems. He wouldn’t listen to her and he led off the crowd surfer while a Hyde Park security guy led me through the crowd. Once away from the crowd, these Hard Park security at least allowed me to stop and plead my case, but they told me that it was band security that ordered me kicked out. I asked them what I did wrong and they couldn’t answer. They told me they were only following what they were told. My wife had ran over to try to help explain but to no avail. Then I was led out the same gate that I walked into 7 hours earlier.

Within minutes of sitting down outside the whole back of my brain started feeling cloudy and my head and neck hurt when I touched them. Fortunately the cloudiness was gone by the morning.

In the course of around 7-8 minutes, I went from having the singer of the band recognizing and pointing and smiling at me to having him presumably watching me being escorted out. Me and my wife’s friend, and possibly others were victims of violence, yet I was apparently considered a perpetrator, as the Hyde Park security guy told me that the band security guy had been eyeing me.

I may be a tall person, but I’m one of the most passive fans you are going to see under normal circumstances near the front of a Pearl Jam show. This is a band that rightfully shows concern for the welfare of it’s fans at concerts. Yet for me being struck twice by the same person, no concern was shown by band security towards me for my injury. No one explained why I was removed other than there had been an altercation.

A decision was made about me without even considering taking me aside to sort out any problems. Was my pushing away both crowd surfers or yelling in the face of the guy who smacked me considered too aggressive? Hyde Park security told me I should have left it to them. Well, they had their chance to remove the guy who struck me before he did it the second time. 

As a concert goer, what is the protocol in these situations? I’m sorry but I wasn’t going to allow a large man hovering over my wife and friends to potentially fall on them. As far as me, being very tall is a disadvantage when crowd surfing happens and have had previous injuries from it including cracked ribs.

I’m not some young guy trying to create problems. I’m the same age as Eddie Vedder. I didn’t fly halfway around the world to see a favorite band of mine, get kicked in the head and thrown out halfway through the show.