Neck Deep took to their social media platforms yesterday, to release an official statement after a fight broke out between the band and the venue security after only just two songs into their set. The four-piece were playing at Nottingham’s Rock City as part of their biggest ever UK headline tour, along with As It Is, Real Friends and Woes. This is following the release of their highly popular 3rd album The Peace and the Panic which charted at number 4 in the UK albums chart this year.
There are no official facts of what really happened on the night, but only fans present at the venue, versions of events. The common thread is that security was too ‘heavy-handed’ with crowd surfers when pulling them out of the crowd, which some describe as ‘slamming people down’ and ‘getting rough’. This lead to fights erupting, first with the fans and security staff, which Neck Deep Bassist Fil Thorpe-Evans clocked onto, urging him to start yelling at the security at the fans defence. He was then pulled off stage by the Rock City security, which obviously wasn’t received well, and escalated to the rest of the band dropping their instruments and joining in. The crew also intervened to help separate the situation.
do love a good fight but not sure what actually happened here #neckdeep #rockcity pic.twitter.com/ibsSKXp1uQ
— S O F I A (@burningphoenixr) October 9, 2017
SECURITY ARE PIECES OF SHIT AND NECK DEEP FUCKING DID SOMETHING THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED pic.twitter.com/Mbrb5UxpYt
— lindsay (@ptvlinds) October 9, 2017
Front man Barlow came back on stage after some time and loud chants from the crowd, to tell them the show was cancelled. “Security fucked it. There was a fight. The show’s over”, and drops his mic. There is a video that surfaced online that also shows Ben outside of the venue later that night apologizing to gig-goers for what went down and how he never intended for the show to be cancelled.
Videos have surfaced on YouTube of the fights from different angles, as well as all over Twitter from fans, which has racked up many likes and re-tweets, with loyal Neck Deep fans sharing this as what they see a ‘heroic act’.
Yesterday the pop-punk band released a statement on their official Twitter account regarding the night’s violent events, in which they explain “no-one involved in a show should ever be in fear of harm or injury – be that fans, crew, venue staff, security or the band.” It also states that the Nottingham gig will be rescheduled, and tickets will be valid again for the new one.
— Neck Deep (@NeckDeepUK) October 10, 2017
Nottingham Rock City have also released a statement since the night’s events explaining, “it doesn’t appear that the security staff was disproportionate in their response to the crowd surfing” and “we know how disappointing this has been for the fans who didn’t get to see the band play. We hope to be able to make a further announcement on this shortly.”
The band intends to carry on with the rest of their UK tour, starting with Norwich tonight and ending in Manchester on the 14th October. You can still get tickets for the upcoming dates here: http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/Neck-Deep-tickets/artist/1835140
