Adele also had to tell security guards to chill out at a recent show
Taylor Swift made headlines for chastising a security guard at a concert earlier this summer
Aux News Adele
Look, we’re not major sticklers or anything, but it really seems like we all need to sit down in a room, have a little chat, and not come out until we’ve locked down some written code of conduct for concert behavior. It’s confusing as hell out there right now. Are you allowed to throw things at artists? You obviously shouldn’t be, but people keep doing it anyway. Are you allowed to stand up and take a selfie? Not according to Miranda Lambert, but it’s also kind of weird and annoying to sit down and picnic the whole time, according to Maggie Rogers. (This author, at least, is mostly on her side on that one.)
Security guards, historically meant to curtail these sorts of conflicts, have also been brought into the fray in recent months. Just last week, a guard at a Taylor Swift show was fired over a viral video of him singing along to “Cruel Summer.” While he wasn’t cut loose by Swift directly, she did call out a different security guard for bothering a fan mid-song in a widely-shared clip from earlier this summer. Now, Adele is also getting in on the action with her own viral confrontation, which occurred at one of her Las Vegas residency shows over the weekend.
In the above video, a fan can be seen standing and singing along to multiple songs, while at least two security guards put their hands on him and tell him to chill out. “Look behind you, everybody’s upset,” says one, gesturing to a mostly seated crowd. “I’ll stay calm,” the fan says to another guard, as a voice in the video can be heard asking, “We can sing though, right?”
Adele eventually gets involved, stopping “Water Under The Bridge” to confront the second guard. “What’s going on with that young fan there? He’s been bothered so much since I came on for standing up. What’s going on with him?” the “Easy On Me” singer asks from the stage.
“Can you leave him alone, please?” she continues, before assuring the fan that “They won’t bother you anymore, darling. You enjoy the show.”
“Sorry, guys. He’s been bothered the whole show by security and other people sitting behind him. He’s here to have fun. All of you are here to have fun,” she addresses the crowd, before resuming the song.
While it seems pretty clear that the security guards were in the wrong here—if for nothing else than putting their hands on someone who didn’t pose an active threat—we do only have this one perspective on the incident. It seems like the fan was filming with a selfie stick, which was probably pretty annoying for the people seated behind him. Still, the crowd at large seems to be on Adele’s side during the interruption, with many cheering her on and one loudly shouting “They won’t let us stand up!”
We’re sure security guards nationwide are on high alert after the recent string of dangerous incidents, but it goes without saying that people should also be allowed to actually enjoy themselves while seeing their favorite artists live. It’s a real bummer that so many performers have had to pause their shows like this recently—that’s not fun for anyone involved.
17 Comments
Anybody telling me to sit down at a fucking CONCERT better bring a fucking tazer, a baseball bat and a gun, because I’m fighting the fuck back against shit like that.
This guy seems totally obnoxious, if I’d paid a ton of money to see Adele and there was a douche in front of my swinging his selfie stick around and making the whole show about him, I’d probably want security to boot him out too.
“While it seems pretty clear that the security guards were in the wrong here—if for nothing else than putting their hands on someone who didn’t pose an active threat”I would kind of disagree, a security guard putting their hands on you, in a non violent way, to be like hey can you chill out and sit down is IMO perfectly fine, now shoving them to the ground not so much.
“a security guard putting their hands on you, in a non violent way, to be like hey can you chill out and sit down is IMO perfectly fine”
The second a security guard PAYS FOR MY TICKET is the moment they are not in the wrong putting a hand on me and asking me to sit down.
If I’ve paid an exorbitant price to get a concert ticket and I want to stand up, you can fuck RIGHT OFF with this touching me and telling me to sit bullshit.
It’s a definite escalation. I’ve been management at events using hired security, and it’s something that never goes well.Too many people have too much of an issue with being touched in even neutral ways, and there is not a situation in which a security officer approaches you for an intervention and then puts their hands on you that remains ‘neutral’. If there was even the slightest chance of a fight going in to the confrontation? This touches it off, pretty much instantly.
You might want to look up the legal definition of “assault.”
Look if a security guard comes up and gently places his hand on your shoulder to ask you to calm down, say in a similar fashion to a person walking through a crowded area and kind of tapping the person in front to say excuse me when you try and pass, and you claim assault IMO you’re an idiot. Now is that what happened here, I have no idea cause I can’t see the video.
And if cop gently shoots you for Driving While Black, do you feel the same way? A security guard touching somebody without their permission is absolutely assault (https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/assault )….It’s not their job to lay hands on people not posing an immediate threat, or to treat a potential annoyance as a threat.
Adele charging $250+ to play a Las Vegas theater to an audience of retirees: Why is everyone sitting down???Also, every venue in my city has banned selfie sticks Jesus Christ get with it Vegas
I know it’s hard to fact check… [clicks link] your own website… but the guard at the Taylor Swift concert wasn’t fired for singing along to a song, he was fired for giving his phone number out to concert goers soliciting pictures of himself in front of the stage.
Eh, while there are some concert security guards that are drawn to lording power over people, a lot are just in it for the paycheck and working to keep management happy so I don’t really see them as the root of the problem.If there’s anyone I’m annoyed at in this situation, it’s audience members that expect others not to stand up and get excited at events like these. People should still be considerate, but it’s a concert, and most artists would rather see the crowd obviously enjoying their show. And it’s not just a live music thing, my friend went to a basketball game recently where people in a neighboring row were complaining about a young fan nearby standing up and cheering, which is just ridiculous.
All fun and games until someone does something stupid. Hey Adele – for every limp wristed teary-eyed harmless enthusiast, there’s a drunken Milwaukeean on vacation who wants to party with Alice Cooper on stage.Do you want security or not? And yeah — if everyone’s sitting, then the rushing, flailing fan is going to get sat down. Fuck. 2023 is the year of the main character.
There have been problems in the past where agencies encouraged maximum violence in response to any problem – I recall far too clearly watching Staffpro “security” take a couple teenage girls down for a maglite beating. They’d been standing on their chairs. I’ve been punched in the face by the same for apparently being too close to the front rail – at a general admission concert where EVERYONE in front is against the rail. I’ve known others who’ve had charges pressed against them for complaining too loudly about that kind of treatment.It doesn’t appear that there was any sort of rule against standing. While enthusiastic and (possibly) borderline annoying in filming themselves, it doesn’t appear to have been willfully and intentionally disruptive nor intended to create a commercial bit of content based on the concert going on behind them. Glad they got called out.
Isn’t this just sit down concert culture meets stand up concert culture?That room sure looks like a sit down kind of vibe. It would be immensely upsetting if I was in a sit down show and the ass in front of me refused.
Isn’t this just sit down concert culture meets stand up concert culture?That room sure looks like a sit down kind of vibe. It would be immensely upsetting if I was in a sit down show and the ass in front of me refused.
Why is everyone at the Adele shows so out of control? I think at this point I’d rather go to an evening with Violent Circus Coalition.
His reaction when she backs him is precious. I imagine the security guards were actually distracting her as well.