Saturday night in London's Hyde Park should have been one of those seminal moments in rock n' roll history and I guess partly it was. Partly.

Bruce Springsteen's world tour hit the Olympic city on the weekend and if you've ever been to a Springsteen show (I have) it ends when it ends. Except for Saturday when local officials literally pulled the plug on the show because it had gone past curfew and contravened local noise by-laws.

THE NOISE POLICE

What made this even more outrageous was that The Boss was wrapping up a duet with Sir Paul himself, a rousing version of Twist and Shout. When Springsteen welcomed McCartney to the stage he said words to the effect that he had waited "50 years for this". Mind you the two had shared the stage during the closing number at the Grammys back in February.

If there is a defence for the over-zealous noise police, Bruce had already exceeded the curfew by 30 minutes BEFORE he even brought McCartney on. On the other hand, as E-Street guitarist Steve Van Zandt tweeted, "English cops may be the only individuals left on earth that wouldn't want to hear one more from Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney."

Hyde Park borders on some of London's wealthiest neighborhoods and there has been increased friction between fans and rich residents over the years. One would think the bitter stodgy wealthy home owners may have grown up on the Beatles and/or The Boss. I guess that's how it goes in life...one minute your rocking and rolling, the next thing you know you're yelling "Turn it down!"

Residents' complaints have succeeded in cutting back the number of concerts in 2013 from 13 to 9, and also next year crowds will be limited to 65,000 from the current 80K. About the maximum was on hand this past Saturday night.

London Mayor Boris Johnson told London radio, "It sounds to me like an excessively efficacious decision. You won't get that during the Olympics. If they'd have called me, my answer would have been for them to jam in the name of the Lord." Alas, they did not call his honor, and the city that brought us some of the greatest rock music in the ages, appears to want to roll up the streets by 11. What a shame. LEAVE COMMENTS.

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Fast forward to about the 11 min. mark for the end of the show. Bruce seems bewildered as do fans.