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Fact #123503

When:

Short story:

During a performance by The Kinks there is a riot at Tivoli Concert Hall, Copenhagen, Denmark, Europe.

Full article:

Ray Davies : I remember we did a concert in Denmark and there was a riot at the gig. The police were beating the kids up and the kids smashed the theater up, and they locked us up in a room. The people were very abusive to us as if they thought we'd brought the devil with us. It was very frightening, but if it had happened to The Beatles it would've been a fun experience. They would have been smuggled out in an ambulance by Norman Rossington and whisked on to a train where they would've sung a song to two dolly-birds. It was things like that which caused a lot of insecurity with the other guys

Dave Davies (guitarist, The Kinks] : The riot in Denmark was frightening, but it was like a movie. When I think of it in my head, it's like I saw it all in a movie. One of our managers, Grenville Collins, was with us at the time. I really liked Grenville. He and I got on really well. We went and did the soundcheck ... we did a lot of press, got up on stage and all the kids started to scream and shout, but directly the police came on the scene. There was such resentment and hatred of the police in Denmark, because of what had been going on in Denmark politically, and a big fight erupted between the police and the audience, and we were blamed for it because, technically, as far as the police were concerned, we had instigated a riot.

It was as if these kids just wanted to have a good time but the police showed up and wouldn't let them express themselves. That's what we gleaned out of it, talking about it afterwards. I was really pissed off because these kids were having such a good time, and these cops show up looking like riot police, in there with the batons and everything, it was awful, carting people off to hospital. If the same thing happened in England, some kids would jump on the stage and fall off and it would just be like a big party. But in Denmark, it was horrible. The kids went crazy and destroyed everything in this beautiful old building in the Tivoli gardens. And as we left, I was so saddened and depressed by it. I walked out and Ray and I looked up and the only thing that was left unsmashed, all of the windows and mirrors and chairs were smashed, was a picture of Jim Reeves.

Back at the hotel, I met this lovely girl, and was planning to let her help me soothe my worries away that night, but I drank a bottle of brandy in a pint glass and started smashing up the hotel bar, smashed this great big mirror. So then I went upstairs with this girl and they wouldn't let me take her into my room. So I was like a raging hooligan, and the police came,and I was confronted with them again. We had this tour manager working with us, he was translating, he could speak Danish, and they were beating the shit out of him. I was sitting in the back of the car going, "Fuckin' cunts," and all this.

They put me in a cell, and next day the door opens and Grenville's standing there. "Come on David, we're leaving." Just like that. We left. We got back to the hotel, and walked in with Grenville and it was like one of those, erm, ceremonies ... running the guantlet ... there was a carpet down the middle,and down the left aisle was all the staff the waiters and maids, and on the right was the managerial staff, and the guy I nearly punched out the night before, and I had to walk through them to get my things. Grenville was behind me,and I turned round and said to him, "I didn't want tostay in this fucking place anyway," and they all laughed. They all burst out laughing, Grenville as well with his high-pitched horsy laugh. Unbelievable. It was exactly like a movie.

I got on the plane, and I was never so grateful to be out of anywhere, and Grenville says, "David, we have to be at the NME concert tomorrow morning. And I looked back and thought, I am never going back there.then I thought, Shit, what happened to that girl I was with? She was really nice. So I decided maybe I would go back.
(Source : not known)