The crowd grew and grew and by the time the doors were opened, almost 7,000 cold, anxious rock fans were shivering outside the glass doors, waiting to enter.
An area radio station has mistakenly said concertgoers would be admitted as early as 3PM, an error that likely made the crowd larger and more irritable. By 5, thousands were waiting outside the Coliseum’s bank of glass doors. On the chilly December day, dedicated fans began appearing at 1:30 in the afternoon for a concert that wasn’t supposed to begin until 8:00 in the evening. The majority (15,000 out of about 18,000) of the available tickets were sold as general admission, first-come, first-served, which meant the first people in would nab the closest spots. In the end, and with the benefit of cooling tempers and time, the blame most likely belongs to the concert organizers and the Riverfront Coliseum management. RIVERFRONT COLISEUM Conservative media blamed the kids. Their management received blame for scheduling a late soundcheck, which had frightened many concertgoers into believing the show was beginning without them. The band said they knew nothing of the incident until after the show was over. The band was tarnished for years afterwards they continued the concert despite the 11 bodies lying outside the doors of the Riverfront Coliseum, and even played an encore. Most news media reports-even the venerable Walter Kronkite-blamed it on a stampeding crowd of unruly rock fans. Everyone blamed the disaster on someone else. The Who World Tour 1979 looked to be their best. It had given new life to a band that feared the show might be over only a year earlier. THE WHO, 1979 Without Moon’s mercurial temper and drinking problem, few problems arose…and Jones was a much better technical drummer. With the new single “Who Are You” blasting from radios worldwide, their tour had been a massive success and gone as smooth as an Ex-Lax milkshake. It was a frightening moment, and one that helped me better understand the Who Concert Disaster at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati on December 3rd, 1979.ĭespite the loss of Keith Moon in 1978, the Who remained one of the world’s most popular rock bands in 1979, adding famed drummer Kenney Jones to fill Moon’s throne. For ten minutes we gripped those barricades with white knuckles. That crowd, as mindless as a tsunami, would swallow us, crush us, and wouldn’t recede until the set was over and the band had gone. I realized that if one of us fell, no amount of kicking or screaming would save our lives. The tide of bodies and beer pressed us hard against the metal barricades. A few weeks later, the Cincinnati City Council passed a law that banned festival seating at concerts, in the hopes of preventing another unspeakable tragedy.The 15,000 people lounging across the Tweeter Center’s massive lawn seating concentrated in minutes, all centering on where we stood. At the conclusion of the show, Curbishly told his clients that the pre-show stampede had proved fatal: 11 people died that night.
The concert proceeded normally, but just before the scheduled encore, The Who's manager, Bill Curbishly, told the band to do that part of the show quickly, because something very bad had happened. That restless crowd turned into a stampede - people got pushed, knocked down, lifted up, and trampled as thousands rushed to get inside the doors, of which only two out of 16 were fully open. It got worse when fans could hear The Who doing its soundcheck, and they got antsy - as well as cold, as it was 36 degrees and windy - unwilling to wait for the doors to open at 7:05 p.m. The departure didn't take - after the band's managers explained that losing its distinctively-voiced lead singer would be bad for business (and doing one show without Daltrey) they welcomed him back.įans started to gather for the evening show at about 1:30 p.m., and by 6:30 p.m., a crowd of 8,000 aggressively pushed against the doors. "It wasn't just because I hated him, it was because I loved the band so much and thought it was being destroyed by those pills." Pete Townshend and John Entwistle believed Daltrey had not behaved properly, and fired him. "It took about five people to hold me off him," Daltrey said in Roger Daltrey: The Biography. Moon, wielding a tambourine, confronted Daltrey, but the singer quickly took care of the situation by punching his drummer right in the nose. Keith Moon's substance abuse problems were also getting worse, and when Roger Daltrey discovered Moon's cache of intoxicating pills he flushed them down a toilet. Fans mobbed Daltrey at one show, hurting his back, on another stop the band's gear-filled van was stolen, and a show in Denmark was cut short after a few minutes when the crowd rushed the stage. The Who experienced a frustrating chain of events while on tour in 19.
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