No one person’s ‘the Boss’ of the rules we all live by

BRUCE Springsteen plays Dublin this week, and, beforehand, there were dire warnings that what happened to him in London better not happen here.

In a gig at Hyde Park — which, typically, was a leg-testing three hours — ‘the Boss’ topped things off by introducing Paul McCartney on stage and launching into a number of Beatles songs.

But, after a rather jolly version of Twist and Shout, the twisting and shouting came to an abrupt end: the concert organisers turned off Springsteen’s microphone.

The reason? Even Springsteen isn’t the boss of the Hyde Park sound regulations — which stipulate that concerts must end at 10.30pm. There was much fury from (largely middle-aged) fans, band members, and various commentators about the sudden halt to the concert: ‘jobsworth’, ‘party-poopers’ and ‘buzzkill’ were among the most popular clicheŽs deployed.

And they are correct to be angry. They should be furious. Because this goes to the heart of any debate about fairness in a society.

The plug wasn’t pulled on Springsteen at 10.30pm. He’d overrun the curfew by half an hour when he introduced McCartney — and, according to news reports, Springsteen had been warned about the curfew in advance.

And it wasn’t in place because of some anti-fun philosophy, but because people live in the vicinity of Hyde Park: people with kids and lives and jobs to get up to the next morning.

Granted, this is isn’t an outrage like bailing out banks, but the criticism concentrated on the ‘rights’ of the crowd and ignored those of the people who live there.

Implicit were ideas that this rule was ‘boring’ and, therefore, deserving of contempt and that Bruce is rock ‘royalty’ and, therefore, shouldn’t have to abide by them anyway, man.

Given that much of Springsteen’s work consists of protest songs decrying how the little man\woman is exploited by the powerful, one could point to a little inconsistency in him expecting to be above rules that inconvenience those ‘little people.’

But, more appositely, it demonstrates how we human beings are quixotically inconsistent when it comes to regulation.

In theory, we are all in favour of a fair society and the rules that bring that about. But, in practice, we’d much rather if those rules suited us personally. We’d all like top-notch public services, but we’d rather not pay more tax. We give out about clamping and speed limits and health-and-safety regulations, and a million other little inconveniences, as if they were thought up just to make our lives unpleasant.

This is not to say that all rules are consistent or logical: but they are part of a general attempt to make life as fair as possible for all of us; which means that, in part, we get what we want, and, at other times, we get a pain in the ass. Even if it’s the ass of rock royalty.