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

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.

Comments

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    ninjadaveninjadave Jtown PA Posts: 128
    edited July 2022
    Good luck, I hope the band takes note. But I doubt it, you are one of a thousand and someone will fill your seat if you never attend another gig. I guess they threw out EVERY crowd surfer there was? I doubt it...even more complete bullshit.....
    ~ ninjadave ~
    2003 - State College 05/03
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    tomccfc87tomccfc87 Posts: 31
    I'm not implying you did anything wrong here but I suspect there may be a lot more to this story than meets the eye.

    The security staff at Hyde Park on both Friday and Saturday were probably the best I have ever encountered at any concert or festival of any size I have been to in the UK over the past 20 years (circa 700 concerts). Across both days they were friendly and respectful and did their jobs with personality and good humour. The ones we spoke to in the 10 Club queue, the entrance to the golden circle and at the front of the stage all said that PJ fans were one of the best and most respectful crowds they have ever supervised and as such they treated us with the same level of respect we gave them. 

    To have security staff actually enjoying their jobs and treating fans well like we got at Hyde Park is incredibly rare in the UK. Usually they are all either robots who do their jobs to the letter and won't ever crack a smile or engage with the fans in any way, or they are wannabe cops looking for any excuse to lay down the law.

    Based on how well the security staff treated the fans this weekend, I would be very surprised if many other people had a similar experience to yours at the Hyde Park shows. Which may imply there was something more going on with regards your incident. Perhaps simply a case of mistaken identity and they thought you were someone else they had already flagged as a potential problem. Or maybe the staff involved genuinely did observe something about your behaviour that merited ejection.

    I'm not saying you actually were acting like an asshole who deserved to be ejected, but I don't know you, so for all I know you could have highly embellished this incident to make yourself look the victim. This is the Internet, people do that stuff all the time online. I'm just saying that if we want to raise awareness of how fans are treated at shows we also need to recognise when fans are treated well, as I believe was most people's experience this weekend, and not allow the focus to be on isolated incidents where we only have one person's account of events.
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    aurelgugusaurelgugus France & Luxembourg Posts: 499
    I was on Stone side and to mirror the previous post, the staff was one of the best I have ever encountered. 
    Crowd surfers suck and they shall remind before show that any crowd surfers would be kicked out of the venue instantly, that’s what they do in my local venue and no one dares to do it.
    I have never understood why they allow crowd surfers to get back in the GA se ruin as it is dangerous for the ones below.
    2012 : Amsterdam 2
    2014 : Amsterdam 1&2, Milan, Berlin, Werchter
    2018 : Amsterdam 1&2, Pinkpop, London 1, Berlin, Werchter, London 2
    2020 : ?
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    lastexitlondonlastexitlondon Posts: 11,872
    I was on Stone side and to mirror the previous post, the staff was one of the best I have ever encountered. 
    Crowd surfers suck and they shall remind before show that any crowd surfers would be kicked out of the venue instantly, that’s what they do in my local venue and no one dares to do it.
    I have never understood why they allow crowd surfers to get back in the GA se ruin as it is dangerous for the ones below.
    Well said my friend 
    brixton 93
    astoria 06
    albany 06
    hartford 06
    reading 06
    barcelona 06
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    wembley 07
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    this song is meant to be called i got shit,itshould be called i got shit tickets-hartford 06 -
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    treestrees Columbus OHIO Posts: 1,806
    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.
    I was at shows late 2000s and it had no crowd surfing signs up from the band in Cincinnati  Ohio 2014 tour 


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    bootlegger10bootlegger10 Posts: 15,531
    If you are this tight with Eddie just text him.  Sucks this happened but you might email the Ten club vs hoping they read your posts.  I don’t expect anything to change.  They made a judgement call and moved on.  Again, really sucks but better chance of emailing 10c.  
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    mookeywrenchmookeywrench Posts: 5,749
    Security doesn't like crowd surfers.
    Security doesn't like loose canons.

    They saw both and made the unbiased call to eliminate both. Not sure why there would be an exception for making eye contact with Eddie Vedder.

    Also, not sure what else you want out of this. Band freebies? Change in policy for an allowance to take crowd surfers into your own hands? Sympathy direct from Pearl Jam?

    It sucks, chalk it up as a lesson learned and move on with a reassessed inherent risk to being up front.
    If it's too much to rely on security or if you don't trust them to do the job, retire from the pit.
    350x700px-LL-d2f49cb4_vinyl-needle-scu-e1356666258495.jpeg
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    False_BeliefFalse_Belief Cardiff Posts: 745
    They saw both and made the unbiased call to eliminate both. Not sure why there would be an exception for making eye contact with Eddie Vedder.

    Without wanting to make light of the incident because I don’t know the guy and have no idea what happened - this bit absolutely SLAYED me 😂.   Such superfluous, unnecessary detail and I’m willing to bet Eddie wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a lineup if his life depended on it.   There’s a truly bizarre delusion / sense of entitlement that is rampant amongst a minority of members on this forum.   

    Leeds 2006, London 2007, Hartford 2008, London Shepherds Bush 2009, London O2 2009, Dublin 2010, London Hyde Park 2010, Amsterdam 1 2012, Amsterdam 2 2012, Berlin 1 2012, EV solo London 30/7/2012, Berlin 2014, Stockholm 2014, Milton Keynes 2014, Amsterdam 1 2018, London 1 2018, London 2 2018, EV solo Dublin 2019, London 1 2022, London 2 2022, New York City 2022 

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    TinaETinaE Germany Posts: 1,249
    Crowd surfing sucks. You stand there enjoying the music and you can't see the guys when they come towards you because they always come from the back to the front. I go to a concert to enjoy it and not to get a dirty boot, a sweaty body smelling of alcohol or a stranger's butt on my head!
    Berlin 07/05/2018; Berlin 06/21/2022; Frankfurt 06/28/2022
    Eddie Vedder Düsseldorf 06/30/2019
    "The future ain't what it used to be..."
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    lastexitlondonlastexitlondon Posts: 11,872
    TinaE said:
    Crowd surfing sucks. You stand there enjoying the music and you can't see the guys when they come towards you because they always come from the back to the front. I go to a concert to enjoy it and not to get a dirty boot, a sweaty body smelling of alcohol or a stranger's butt on my head!
    Agreed
    brixton 93
    astoria 06
    albany 06
    hartford 06
    reading 06
    barcelona 06
    paris 06
    wembley 07
    dusseldorf 07
    nijmegen 07

    this song is meant to be called i got shit,itshould be called i got shit tickets-hartford 06 -
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    Attaway77Attaway77 Posts: 2,879
    To this day I still can't understand why people gather in masses in GA and still complain about what goes on there. It's a concert, it's live music, you are right inside of it all, of course shit is gonna happen. Yes, It's PJ and crowd surfing isn't cool anymore to the 40-60 year olds in GA holding up their phones (enjoying the music), it's cool to some people still I guess. It's not that complicated, get GA and deal with the shit that comes with it or get a seat and chill and enjoy the show without all the bullshit. I don't know, just seems ridiculous people complain when they already know what a concert environment can be/become no matter who the band is.
    1998 Dallas (7/5) 2006 San Fran (7/15,7/16) 2009 San Fran (8/28) 2010 Bristow (5/13) NY (5/21) 2011 Alpine Valley (9/3,9/4)
    2012 Missoula (9/30) 2013 Chicago (7/19) Pittsburgh (10/11) Buffalo (10/12) Baltimore (10/27) Dallas (11/15)
    2014 Austin (10/12) Memphis (10/14) St. Paul (10/19) Milwaukee (10/20) Denver (10/22)
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    E.V. - 2008 Berkeley (4/8) 2012 Austin (11/9,11/12)
    Temple of the Dog - 2016 Upper Darby



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    Get_RightGet_Right Posts: 12,479
    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.

    I think you answered your own questions. You are a big dude, up close, pushed a guy over the rail, and had two more "incidents" that involved aggressive behavior. For a band that is overly protective of its fans, and the heightened awareness of crowd safety since Astroworld, your ejection is not surprising. I am not questioning if the crowd surfer created risk or caused injury to you and your group. I was not there so I cannot judge your behavior, but I see reasoning behind the decision based on your narrative (which is probably a bit biased in your favor, it is human nature).
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    RatherStarvedRatherStarved Posts: 4,178
    Attaway77 said:
    To this day I still can't understand why people gather in masses in GA and still complain about what goes on there. It's a concert, it's live music, you are right inside of it all, of course shit is gonna happen. Yes, It's PJ and crowd surfing isn't cool anymore to the 40-60 year olds in GA holding up their phones (enjoying the music), it's cool to some people still I guess. It's not that complicated, get GA and deal with the shit that comes with it or get a seat and chill and enjoy the show without all the bullshit. I don't know, just seems ridiculous people complain when they already know what a concert environment can be/become no matter who the band is.
    No seats at BST.  All GA venue.  
    PJ: 2013: London (ON); Buffalo; 2014: Cincinnati; 2016: Sunrise, Miami, Toronto 1-2, Wrigley 2; 2018: London (UK) 1, Milan, Padova, Sea 2, Wrigley 1-2, Fenway 1-2; 2021: SHN, Ohana, Ohana Encore 1-2; 2022: LA 1-2, Phx, Oak 1-2, Fresno, Copenhagen, Hyde Park 1-2; Quebec, Ottawa, Hamilton, Toronto; MSG, Camden, Nashville, Louisville, St. Louis, OKC; 2023: St. Paul 1-2, Chicago 1-2; Fort Worth 2; Austin 1-2
     
    EV Solo: 2017 Louisville and Franklin, 2018 Ohana, 2019 Innings Fest, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Dublin and Ohana; 2021 Ohana Friday (from beach) and Saturday; 2022 Earthlings Newark; 2023 Innings Fest and Benoraya 1-2.

    Gutted:  London 2 2018, Sacramento 2022, Noblesville 2023
  • Options
    Attaway77Attaway77 Posts: 2,879
    Attaway77 said:
    To this day I still can't understand why people gather in masses in GA and still complain about what goes on there. It's a concert, it's live music, you are right inside of it all, of course shit is gonna happen. Yes, It's PJ and crowd surfing isn't cool anymore to the 40-60 year olds in GA holding up their phones (enjoying the music), it's cool to some people still I guess. It's not that complicated, get GA and deal with the shit that comes with it or get a seat and chill and enjoy the show without all the bullshit. I don't know, just seems ridiculous people complain when they already know what a concert environment can be/become no matter who the band is.
    No seats at BST.  All GA venue.  
    I understand that...  Still plenty of places to chill and enjoy the show. If you want to be up front, just got to roll with it.
    1998 Dallas (7/5) 2006 San Fran (7/15,7/16) 2009 San Fran (8/28) 2010 Bristow (5/13) NY (5/21) 2011 Alpine Valley (9/3,9/4)
    2012 Missoula (9/30) 2013 Chicago (7/19) Pittsburgh (10/11) Buffalo (10/12) Baltimore (10/27) Dallas (11/15)
    2014 Austin (10/12) Memphis (10/14) St. Paul (10/19) Milwaukee (10/20) Denver (10/22)
    2016 Ft. Lauderdale (4/8) Miami (4/9) Hampton (4/18) Philly (4/28,4/29) NY (5/1,5/2) 2018 Seattle (8/10) Missoula (8/13) 2022 Nashville (9/16)

    E.V. - 2008 Berkeley (4/8) 2012 Austin (11/9,11/12)
    Temple of the Dog - 2016 Upper Darby



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    Vedder4PrezVedder4Prez Posts: 790
    Eddie makes direct eye contact with 100s of people a night. He can't remember the lyrics to songs he's been singing for 25 years but I guess he knows people in the pit that well.. hmm..  Unless you are Chelios, Rodman, Kerry Wood, etc.. I don't think he will be making any on stage exceptions. Just my 2 cents! 
    Nashville '00
    Houston, B'ham, Nashville, Atlanta '03
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    dlymnflddlymnfld CT Posts: 917
    They saw both and made the unbiased call to eliminate both. Not sure why there would be an exception for making eye contact with Eddie Vedder.

    Without wanting to make light of the incident because I don’t know the guy and have no idea what happened - this bit absolutely SLAYED me 😂.   Such superfluous, unnecessary detail and I’m willing to bet Eddie wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a lineup if his life depended on it.   There’s a truly bizarre delusion / sense of entitlement that is rampant amongst a minority of members on this forum.   
    Him saying Eddie recognized him was best part of story.  People standing in line waiting hours to get up close thinking they are “friends” of the band is hilarious. If your in a crowd where you may get hit or pushed act accordingly or you my get asked to leave. Sounds pretty simple to me. 
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    RS151862RS151862 Pittsburgh, PA Posts: 2,624
    This is gonna be the premise to Ed’s version of Stan on his next solo album. 
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    Eddie looked at meeeeeee (sea of thousands)
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    treestrees Columbus OHIO Posts: 1,806
    Security doesn't like crowd surfers.
    Security doesn't like loose canons.

    They saw both and made the unbiased call to eliminate both. Not sure why there would be an exception for making eye contact with Eddie Vedder.

    Also, not sure what else you want out of this. Band freebies? Change in policy for an allowance to take crowd surfers into your own hands? Sympathy direct from Pearl Jam?

    It sucks, chalk it up as a lesson learned and move on with a reassessed inherent risk to being up front.
    If it's too much to rely on security or if you don't trust them to do the job, retire from the pit.
    Great  advice  .personally  if folks are crowd surfing  iam  backing up and alerting  security. 


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    treestrees Columbus OHIO Posts: 1,806
    They saw both and made the unbiased call to eliminate both. Not sure why there would be an exception for making eye contact with Eddie Vedder.

    Without wanting to make light of the incident because I don’t know the guy and have no idea what happened - this bit absolutely SLAYED me 😂.   Such superfluous, unnecessary detail and I’m willing to bet Eddie wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a lineup if his life depended on it.   There’s a truly bizarre delusion / sense of entitlement that is rampant amongst a minority of members on this forum.   
    You are correct  .entitled  fans saw it an had it in my face at PJ 20 some tall punk hit me in the back for standing .I turned around  ready to fight and breathed  out of it and turned back around  so I didn't get attention  .


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    e.V Chicago IL 8/21/2008
    e.V Philly PA 6/11/2009
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    Gern BlanstenGern Blansten Your Mom's Posts: 17,949
    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.
    turns out you did....
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    pjhawkspjhawks Posts: 12,192
    dlymnfld said:
    They saw both and made the unbiased call to eliminate both. Not sure why there would be an exception for making eye contact with Eddie Vedder.

    Without wanting to make light of the incident because I don’t know the guy and have no idea what happened - this bit absolutely SLAYED me 😂.   Such superfluous, unnecessary detail and I’m willing to bet Eddie wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a lineup if his life depended on it.   There’s a truly bizarre delusion / sense of entitlement that is rampant amongst a minority of members on this forum.   
    Him saying Eddie recognized him was best part of story.  People standing in line waiting hours to get up close thinking they are “friends” of the band is hilarious. If your in a crowd where you may get hit or pushed act accordingly or you my get asked to leave. Sounds pretty simple to me. 
    maybe Ed recognized the numbers on their hands?  is that still a thing in GA?  
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    lastexitlondonlastexitlondon Posts: 11,872
    This  place can be  savage. Basically  no matter how the op explains it. It doesnt matter. Crowd surfing  is beyond pathetic. What's  the point really
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    Gern BlanstenGern Blansten Your Mom's Posts: 17,949
    This  place can be  savage. Basically  no matter how the op explains it. It doesnt matter. Crowd surfing  is beyond pathetic. What's  the point really
    It is pathetic but so is needing to contact the band about concert goers rights. I really doubt that security would have kicked him out without seeing a reason. 

    How would that even work? Concert stops while a judge and jury are gathered to review the facts and make a determination as to whether or not the guy can stay? 
    Remember the Thomas Nine !! (10/02/2018)

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    Falling DownFalling Down Posts: 724
    Love this thread 

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    lastexitlondonlastexitlondon Posts: 11,872
    Some people  clearly need kicking out. God knows ive met a lot. But getting  kicked in the  head a couple  times  and having your lady and others around in danger is enough to make you react in some way. I guess the op got caught out trying to stop a moron 
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    Merkin BallerMerkin Baller Posts: 10,475

    It sucks, sometimes security gets things wrong, but when you have crowds in the tens of thousands, they're going to err on the side of caution. 

    I don't even know that they necessarily got this wrong either, at least from their perspective... Ed noticed a big guy in the front of the crowd being aggressive with crowd surfers, and called security's attention to that section when he asked if everyone was ok... fast forward to another aggressive exchange between the same 2 guys and security did their thing. 

    There's no great mystery here. 


    I can definitely sympathize, it sucks traveling that far & getting kicked out of a show just for standing up for yourself, but as it's been explained in OP's own words, I understand why security did what they did. 
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    involutionaryinvolutionary sun diego Posts: 105
    Honestly - I feel that security just blamed the bands security so there would be no protest or the thought that there could be changing minds on the matter. It’s still a bummer. Sorry you had to experience that. I was close to this when it happened. 
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    Vedder4PrezVedder4Prez Posts: 790
    Almost as good as the Bean Girl stories..  maybe she was the crowd surfer 
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