Latest news with #rockfans
The Independent
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Download Festival mosh-pit warning after hundreds of 999 calls
Metal fans heading to Download Festival this weekend have been urged to put their wearable tech in airplane mode when heading into a mosh pit to avoid making accidental 999 calls. Most weekends Leicestershire Police handle about 600 emergency calls, but when the three-day festival is underway at Donington Park, these calls rise by nearly 700. This is in part because when festival goers wearing tech such as smart watches jump into a mosh pit the devices assume they 'have been in a collision', Leicestershire Police warned. It causes a huge increase in calls, which puts call handlers under pressure and can take resources away from genuine emergencies. The police explained that each call has to be assessed and those who do make unwanted 999 calls are told to stay on the line to conform if they are safe. The force said: 'All those calls had to be assessed, with three outbound call attempts completed to ensure there is no threat, risk or harm, taking our contact handlers away from answering true emergency calls.' To avoid this from happening again, those attending the festival have been asked to put their smart watches on airplane mode before entering a mosh pit. Police request people answer 'callbacks from hidden numbers' to let them know you are safe and are 'switching on airplane mode or disabling emergency alerts on your wearable tech'. Download Festival, which is already underway, is expected to host about 75,000 rock fans, according to the organisers. The gates to the festival opened on Wednesday ahead of the three-day festival for fans to see acts including headliners Green Day, Sleep Token and Korn. The metal festival has seen several incidents in the past few years. In 2022, two men died at the festival after becoming unwell, one with a suspected cardiac arrest. Leicestershire Police said the man was taken to hospital on Saturday evening, when heavy metal band Iron Maiden were the headline act.
South China Morning Post
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
The Doors' Jim Morrison bust found in France, 37 years after theft from Paris graveyard
French police have recovered by chance the long-lost bust of American singer Jim Morrison that once adorned the grave of the iconic frontman of The Doors, 37 years after it was stolen from a Paris cemetery. Advertisement The sculpture, missing since 1988, was found during a search tied to a fraud case led by the Paris public prosecutor's office, a source close to the investigation told Agence France-Presse. Nostalgic rock fans still flock to Morrison's grave at Paris's Pere Lachaise cemetery , where he was buried after his death in the French capital in 1971 at the age of 27. The sculpture, by Croatian artist Mladen Mikulin, had been placed at the grave to mark the 10th anniversary of Morrison's death. It was found by the financial and anti-corruption brigade of the judicial police department of the police. The tomb of Jim Morrison at Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, in August 2023. Photo: AFP The exact circumstances of the singer's death are still shrouded in mystery, with most early accounts saying he died of cardiac arrest in his bathtub.
CBS News
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Jim Morrison bust found by chance during police search — 37 years after it was stolen from singer's grave
French police have recovered by chance the long-lost bust of American singer Jim Morrison that once adorned the grave of the iconic frontman of The Doors, 37 years after it was stolen from a Paris cemetery. The sculpture, missing since 1988, was found during a search tied to a fraud case led by the Paris public prosecutor's office, a source close to the investigation told AFP. Nostalgic rock fans still flock to Morrison's grave at the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris, where he was buried after his death in the French capital in 1971 at the age of 27. The bust at the tomb of Jim Morrison in Paris, France, in June 1985. Laurent MAOUS/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images The sculpture, by Croatian artist Mladen Mikulin, had been placed at the grave to mark the 10th anniversary of Morrison's death. It was found by the financial and anti-corruption brigade of the judicial police department of the police. Morrison's grave – known as the Poet's Corners – is perhaps the world's most-visited resting place of a musician. In 1991, on the 20th anniversary of the singer's death, a riot broke out at his grave, the BBC reported, forcing the cemetery to hire extra security. After that, a guard was "permanently stationed at Morrison's grave, but messages continue to appear on surrounding tombs," the New York Times reported in 1993. Flowers and photographs lie at the grave of singer Jim Morrison at Pere Lachaise cemetery on April 17, 2021 in Paris, France. Sam Tarling / Getty Images The exact circumstances of the singer's death are still shrouded in mystery, with most early accounts saying he died of cardiac arrest in his bathtub. A French journalist, Sam Bernett, claimed in a 2007 book that close friends and family spun the official version of Morrison's death to sanitize his reputation. Bernett said Morrison actually died from a heroin overdose on the toilet of a nightclub that the journalist owned at the time, the "Rock 'n' Roll Circus" on Paris' Left Bank. The Doors, founded in Los Angeles, were among the most influential rock groups of the late 1960s and early 70s and a mainstay of the counterculture at the time. Their hits include "Riders on the Storm", "Light My Fire" and "The End", a haunting song that features prominently in Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 Vietnam war movie "Apocalypse Now". In February, Paris named a bridge after the iconic singer, located just steps from the bohemian Marais district where he last lived.
