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10/03/99 09:12:12 PM

Well, what perfect timing. Just as I pour my heart out to all of you about how to behave at a concert, in come the bleeding hearts themselves, ABC News.  20/20 did a special report on Mosh Pits on October 16, and here is a transcript direct from their website. My comments in colored italic, thank you, and for the record, I'm listening to Slayer's album, Show No Mercy as I write this page.

Moshing at Rock Concerts a Risky Act
Friday, October 16, 1998
(This is an unedited, uncorrected transcript.)

ANNOUNCER 20/20 Friday continues. Now, Hugh Downs.

HUGH DOWNS You’re about to see scenes from a rock concert that are sure to be an eye—opener for many of you. We also hope they’re a timely warning to parents. A daring, but very dangerous fad that started with fringe bands has now become commonplace, even at mainstream concerts. Along with the music, there is also moshing. Any teenager can describe moshing for you. But you’ll see it now with your own eyes, as Bill Ritter did. Would you want your teenager doing this tonight?

Very good, lets use the strong lead - in to prepare the certain shock the parental units' systems.

1ST TEEN BOY It’s cool. It’s like something different, you know? You just feel like you’re on top of the world. You know, everyone is up there looking at you, you know? You can do whatever you want.

2ND TEEN BOY I don’t know, there’s like a unity in the pit, like someone goes down, everybody, like, tries to pick them up.

Just as I mentioned previously. See ? I'm not making this "unity" stuff up !

3RD TEEN BOY You hear this stuff, you know you want to jump. It’s exciting, yeah. You want to really jump.

BILL RITTER, ABCNEWS (VO) voice over If it’s been a few years since you’ve been to a rock concert, well, you may be in for a surprise. Now, what happens on stage isn’t really all that different. It’s what happens in the crowd that may shock you. This is what the kids call moshing.

HAROLD MURAIN, MOSHER It’s like a way to let out aggression. I can slam into anybody I want, and hey, it doesn’t matter.

BILL RITTER (VO) Moshing happens in a “mosh pit”—kids, mostly guys, actually, smashing into each other for no apparent reason. But moshing is also the umbrella term for just about everything that happens in the crowd at a concert. That almost always includes this—“crowd surfing” and sometimes this—“stage diving.”

HAROLD MURAIN It’s like diving in the water kind of, except a little rougher landing.

4TH TEEN BOY Generations before had war stories. We have moshing stories.

HAROLD MURAIN I was crowd surfing and they pushed me over the rail towards the stage, and security didn’t catch me, and I hit my head on the rail and split it open.

BILL RITTER (VO) But this teenager was lucky because, as you’re going to see, moshing can be very dangerous. Six kids reportedly have died worldwide, and thousands are injured every year. Behind the scenes of the rock industry, we discovered, everyone is aware of the problem, but most aren’t doing anything to stop it. Now, this all started in the punk rock days of the early ’80s. It was called slam dancing back then, and it was on the fringe of the music scene. But these days, it’s pretty much mainstream. (on camera) Where did you first hear about moshing?

3RD TEEN BOY I seen it on MTV.

SINGER (singing) Baby, you’re crazy.

3RD TEEN BOY Ever since I saw it on TV, I always wanted to try it.

BILL RITTER (VO) And this is what they saw on TV—some of the hottest rock groups, diving off the balcony, diving off the stage, fighting security guards and helping kids get up on the stage.

JEFF HANNEMAN, MEMBER “SLAYER” BAND It’s a rush. It’s an exchange of energy. They get high off of seeing us play. We get high off watching them mosh and go crazy.

BILL RITTER (VO) This is the band known as Slayer, a hard—driving, ear—popping heavy metal group that not only condones moshing, they encourage it. (on camera) So you want them to mosh?

JEFF HANNEMAN Oh, definitely. Definitely.

BILL RITTER And if they’re not moshing?

JEFF HANNEMAN It’s boring.

BILL RITTER (VO) But not everybody thinks moshing is cool.

PAUL WERTHEIMER, CROWD MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES When you watch a video on MTV or VH—1, you never see a fan stage diving, splitting his head open. You never see a fan—a crowd surfer falling and not being able to get up because they can’t feel their legs anymore.

BILL RITTER (VO) Paul Wertheimer is like the Ralph Nader of moshing. He wants to make it safer. (on camera) If parents haven’t been to a concert since they went to a concert 20 years ago, how surprised would they be if they went to one of these rock concerts?

PAUL WERTHEIMER I don’t think they really know what their children are doing. The question you have to ask is their safety being looked after in a reasonable manner? And what you find out is, no, it isn’t. And because of that, there are needless injuries and deaths.

BILL RITTER (VO) And you don’t have to look very hard to find injuries. Two football players for the New England Patriots are being sued for diving off the stage of a Boston nightclub last November, although in court papers, they deny doing it.

FOOTBALL FAN Go Patriots!

BILL RITTER (VO) The players allegedly landed on a 22—year—old woman, who claims that’s her hand underneath this 300—pound linebacker. She ruptured two disks and underwent spinal surgery.

KEITH PHILLIPS Whoa, that’s no good.

BILL RITTER (VO) Keith Phillips is one of three people we’ve identified who claims to have been paralyzed as a direct result of crowd surfing or stage diving. Phillips says he doesn’t remember exactly what happened, but his lawyer says he was tossed up in the crowd by people he didn’t know, and nobody caught him.

KEITH PHILLIPS Unfortunately, I’m living this. And this is no joke. It’s real life.

BILL RITTER (VO) And this 16—year—old from Seattle says he was suffocated by the crush of the crowd, lost consciousness and then was trampled as he tried to leave the mosh pit at a concert by the group Rage Against The Machine in 1996. He wasn’t discovered until after the concert was over. But by then, he had suffered a blood clot that’s left him permanently brain—damaged. And meet Buddy Jackson. He was dropped on his head while crowd surfing at a Megadeth concert when he was 14. Only emergency brain surgery saved his life. But even with that, Buddy was in a coma for two weeks. Three years later, says his mother, Buddy still suffers seizures and memory loss. (on camera) What do you think Buddy can’t do now as an adult? Could he be a doctor? Could he be a surgeon?

TERESA VALENCIA, BUDDY JACKSON’S MOTHER No. No, I don’t think he could be anything professional. I had big dreams for him, but now I’m just happy that he’s alive.

What's a 14 year old doing at a Megadeth concert ? Come ON !

BILL RITTER (VO) But how can this happen, especially with all those security guards at these concerts, lining up in front of the stage? Isn’t their main job to protect people in the crowd?

PAUL WERTHEIMER The reason security guards are lined up in front of a stage isn’t really to help the fans. It’s to keep the fans off the stage, theoretically. It to protect the band, to protect the equipment, to protect the venue. That’s their role. They’re a reactive force. And that’s part of the problem.

BILL RITTER (VO) While the security industry says it does take steps to protect the crowd, like catching fans coming over the barriers, there is no guarantee the fans will be caught before they hit the hard ground, as this tape shows. It’s not just crowd surfers or moshers who are hurt. Innocent bystanders can also be injured when crowd surfers fall on them.

PAUL WERTHEIMER One thing about mosh pits is they move constantly. They swirl around an audience, and they’re like a mixmaster or a tornado just swirling around. And someone who thinks they’re not in the mosh pit can, without their knowledge even, suddenly be in the mosh pit.

PERFORMER It is time to set this record straight.

BILL RITTER (VO) So what’s it really like out there in the crowd of a rock concert? Well, with Wertheimer as our guide, we went to the Tibetan Freedom Concert. That’s a relatively mainstream concert in Washington, DC this past summer. It was simply chaos. Blasting music, and 60,000 people, a quarter of them on the floor of the stadium. Crowd surfers were falling on top of us. Young girls were anonymously and frequently groped. Mosh pits spontaneously sprung up all around us, pushing the crowd tighter together. It was, I have to admit, a little scary. And not without risk.

ALISON SETTLE Well, I was in the field listening to the Beastie Boys, and one of the crowd surfers came down and landed on my head and busted my nose up.

BILL RITTER (VO) On the day we were there, 275 people were injured, 25 of them were taken to the hospital. Now, we don’t know exactly how many were hurt directly because of moshing, but nobody knows because nobody keeps track.

PAUL WERTHEIMER These are the same problems recurring all the time. The rock concert industry knows what to do, but they’re not doing anything about it.

BILL RITTER (VO) Now, the industry has tried to discourage stage diving by moving the barriers farther from the stage. But in the end, it’s up to kids to look out for themselves, because it seems no one else will guarantee their safety. Cory Meredith’s company handles security at about 1,000 concerts a year.

CORY MEREDITH, STAFF PRO SECURITY Well, the bands themselves are part of the problem. They request this type of activity because it’s the energy that makes their show. So they ask us to stand back behind the barricade, and they allow the moshing to happen.

BILL RITTER (VO) But most of the bands we talked to say they’re not responsible.

KERRY KING, MEMBER “SLAYER” BAND On the floor out here, I’m on the stage. Tom’s not telling a soul to do what they’re doing. It’s just their reaction to the music. If I’m going to jump off this stage, I’ve got think, “Well, maybe these guys are going to catch me. Maybe they won’t.” I’m assuming they will. But if they don’t, that’s my fault. I did it.

BILL RITTER (on camera) And Kerry, to the people who would say that’s BS, it’s your fault, partly, what would you say to that?

KERRY KING I’d disagree. Just like, I mean, you’ve got to be responsible for your own actions, you know?

TERESA VALENCIA I just can’t believe that they would say a 14—year—old boy would be responsible for his actions. You know? I just—because they think they’re so invincible and nothing’s ever going to happen to them.

BILL RITTER (VO) Finally, we went to one of the promoters, the people who actually produce the concert and sell the tickets. (on camera) You produce the show. You could tell the bands, “Hey, we don’t want to encourage it.”

DAVE WILLIAMS, CELLAR DOOR PRODUCTIONS No, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Contractually, I don’t tell the band anything. I have no control over the content of that show.

BILL RITTER (VO) Dave Williams is a top executive of Cellar Door Productions, one of the largest promoters in the country. He produced the Tibetan Freedom Concert, the one we attended, where nearly 300 people were treated by medics. (on camera) When you see what goes on there ...

DAVE WILLIAMS I’ve seen what goes on there.

BILL RITTER ... guys slamming into each other ...

DAVE WILLIAMS Uh—huh.

BILL RITTER ... locking shoulders, what goes through your mind when you see that?

DAVE WILLIAMS I don’t think about it.

BILL RITTER You don’t think, “Oh, my God, these kids could get hurt.”

DAVE WILLIAMS No, I think they’re idiots when they’re running into one another.

BILL RITTER Who should take responsibility for the safety of these kids that are being hoisted up in the air?

DAVE WILLIAMS We take responsibility for a great deal of it. But again, there’s contributory negligence there. We’re all responsible for it.

BILL RITTER Could a 14—year—old kid have contributory negligence because they get lifted up, even if they want to do it?

DAVE WILLIAMS If they want to do it, yeah. That’s contributory negligence. And at the same time, if I had a 14—year—old kid, I wouldn’t—I wouldn’t let them in a mosh pit.

BILL RITTER But you let someone else’s kid in that mosh pit.

DAVE WILLIAMS That’s what I do for a living. I sell tickets to rock ‘n’ roll shows.

BILL RITTER Two hundred seventy—five people were injured at your concert.

DAVE WILLIAMS Wait a minute. You’re saying 275 people were injured. Were they all injured in a mosh pit?

BILL RITTER Let’s say 10 percent were injured in a mosh pit, and I think that’s charitable to you—27 people injured in a mosh pit.

DAVE WILLIAMS OK.

BILL RITTER Do you bear any responsibility for that?

DAVE WILLIAMS No. No.

BILL RITTER Clear conscience?

DAVE WILLIAMS Totally.

BILL RITTER (VO) Now, despite Williams’ clear conscience, there are some things he and other promoters could do to make concerts safer, at least according to activist Paul Wertheimer, like pad the floor and the metal barriers around the stage, set aside designated mosh pits away from the general audience, and limit or even ban festival seating and crowd surfing. All this, says Wertheimer, because the adults who profit from the concerts have a responsibility to the kids who buy the tickets. (on camera) What if I said that all of a sudden, the concerts that you like to go to, there will be no more moshing, no more crowd surfing, no more stage diving? Would you still go?

HAROLD MURAIN Maybe a few, but not as many.

4TH TEEN BOY If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen, is the way I look at it. I don’t think they should outlaw it. I’m serious. I think it’s retarded.

3RD TEEN BOY I love to crowd surf. I don’t know, just people lifting you up, throwing you up in the air. I’m always going to do it. I mean, even if I do—maybe if I break an arm or something, I’ll still probably do it.

BARBARA WALTERS I don’t know, Hugh, I must be getting very old. Well, seriously, though, some cities and counties have passed laws restricting moshing or banning it altogether. And yet even with that, moshing is still widespread.

HUGH DOWNS Yeah, and one security expert that we talked with says he’s found only one strong deterrent so far, at least for crowd surfing. And that is threatening to eject anyone who does that during the concert.

Here is our competition, fellow moshers. If ever turn out to be like our new friend, Bill Ritter, just shoot me on the spot. With that, see you at the Rob Zombie concert at Roseland Oct 28 !