WEBN News: The Who Tragedy in Cincinnati

WEBN's archive news coverage of The Who tragedy at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati on 12/03/79. Photo from the Cincinnati Enquirer.

http://webn.com

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• The Who
• WEBN
• Cincinnati
• Tragedy
• Pete Townshend
• Roger Daltrey
• Keith Moon
• Riverfront Coliseum
• stampede

[booifojoe]

Some people wait in line - others cut in line. Can't cut? Push your way to the front. Blame it on the assholes in the rear who started the whole thing - you know who you are.

[resqman]

I was there. The doors opened late & they only opened a few doors. The was a surge of bodies moving forward. I was 6'1" tall weighing about 200 lbs. I was lifted off my feet several times. To this day I am so upset that they blame festival seating, I often wonder ,even now, if I may have been a cause of someones death, all I knew is that I needed to move forward, I went to a local bar afterwards and was told I needed to call my parents and tell them I was ok. That was when I learned of this

[paulamorelli]

I was at the concert. Festival seating was not the cause.  There were countless concerts before this that were uneventful. In my opinion, there were two causes:

1. The limited number of doors open, as has been reported.

2. The Who were late for their soundtrack. You could hear the band playing and everyone outside assumed the concert had started.

[slosh29]

I went to an outdoor concert in the 90s that had general admission. I will never go to another. This was no where near the size of this concert. It was at a local amusement park. My friend and I were close to the center of the area in front of the stage and people started pushing forward and we both got bruised and bloody.We grabbed each other forcefully pushed to the edge of the crowd and it took us half an hour to do so.Never again.I cant imagine it on this scale of venue and crowd.

[TheKingston1960]

that`s bad that theirs that much popularity in the band that was blamed for this to happen.

just because of who they are .seems a horrible thing for it to happen ,personally i cant see it being that famous in this being the problem.for every problem someone is causing it,the reason for this will come out someday.

[MrCincinnatian]

@booifojoe My dad and uncle were there-NO ONE was in line. It was a mad rush by all to the door.

[5jerry1]

Three Rivers Stadium, September (forgotten what day) 1994: Approx. 54,000 people attended to see Pink Floyd. I was in the crowd, had a balcony seat. While we were outside waiting to get inside, people started pushing, and I was lifted off my feet a few times, and this was all I could think of, The Who in Cincinnati. It was scary, because there's nothing you can do when people in the back start to push. Luckily nobody was seriously injured, but yes, I was scared for a while.

[MichaelHansenFUN]

no one can get the story straight. I have read MANY accounts, how many doors were there total, and 1-2-3-4 or less opened, because the crowd heard the music start, thinking the band was starting. that is what I read. I have seen the Rolling Stone article, and JERRY SPRINGER was mayor. but each story was different. ALSO it was COLD outside, and "In the news' also mentioned "Drinking and drugs", then Pete was treated like shit in anti rock books. THE SHOW IS ON BOOTLEG!!! "Stampede"

[buckeyebunnyhunter]

i was there seen it all go down. was in the middle of the crowd. could not move. doors would open then close. people push and you were smashed. i blame the cops for the whole mess.

[FiberMania]

Opening ALL of the doors wouldn't have mattered. Once the assholes in the rear started pushing, the people in the middle had to push the people in front of them or fall and be trampled. If someone fell in front of you, there was no way to help them up. If you tried to help, you would be trampled. Many people had to walk on the fallen or meet the same fate! Yes, blame rests with the assholes who started the pushing!

[TheElectricSalad]

@carterlandry crowd pushed against their chest