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Murrayfield Concerts: 'Alcohol Was Root Of Problems At Oasis Gig'












It is easy to have some sympathy with residents living near Murrayfield after the shameful behaviour last week of some fans attending the Oasis concert. And it is understandable that there should be calls for similar events to be banned in the future.

While most locals are happy to suffer the inconvenience and disturbance created by staging major rugby events at the stadium, these can generally be counted in single figures each year.

But while rugby fans appear to know how to behave, there was a drunken, unruly and generally younger element in last Wednesday's audience who clearly had little respect for property or people. As a result gardens were used as toilets and as tensions rose fighting broke out in the stadium and the beer queues.

Liam Gallagher himself summed it up in an interview in the Evening News, when he said: "That's f***ing Oasis man, that's rock and roll." That's all very well for him to say but not much comfort for those innocently caught up in such an intimidating atmosphere.

It is a fact of life that bands with the pulling power of Oasis are now drawn towards stadia because of their capacity to hold greater audiences. Murrayfield, Ibrox and Hampden are now first choice venues for acts of such status.

And the Scottish Rugby Union, which still has massive debts, cannot be blamed for seeking to generate revenue from its prize asset, which remains largely under-utilised, particularly in the summer.

There can be little doubt that the bulk of the trouble at the Oasis gig was fuelled by drink and it would be unrealistic to expect all fans to arrive for such a concert sober. But questions have to be asked about the levels and quality of stewarding inside the ground and policing outside.

It took the SRU a long time to get a licence to sell drink to the general public. Unlike football, which has a sad if episodic history of booze-related violence, it was granted a licence because rugby fans have proved to the police and the government that they can generally be trusted to behave.

Clearly, fans attending large open air rock concerts have not yet shown that they are capable of such discipline.

While it would be nice to think that the events of last week were a one off this cannot be guaranteed. Murrayfield should be available for events other than rugby, but perhaps the wisdom of selling alcohol within the ground on anything other than rugby match days should be the subject of some debate.

Source: www.scotsman.com

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