The Enemy were forced to cancel their Yeovil gig last night following health and safety reasons. The band took to social media, answering questions about the reasons why the gig had to be cancelled at the last minute. The overwhelming majority of fans backed the bands decision to put their safety first. Here is
The Enemy's full response to the situation:
"We've seen a few people raise the same points online and we'd just like to address them here.
Didn't you know the barrier wasn't sufficient in advance of the gig?
Most venues don't have a crash barrier in place permanently, so when we advance a spec to a venue we always state that sufficient barriers must be hired in if not already in place. Usually when we get there the venue has done so and there is no issue. On this occasion the promotor/venue hadn't done so despite it having been specified.
Couldn't you have just done the gig with the hand rail instead of a crash barrier?
Not without risking the safety of fans on the front rows. We've seen people say Enemy fans don't care about safety they just want to go mad, what they perhaps fail to realise it that Enemy fans are afforded the opportunity to go mad because of controlled safety measure put in place to allow people to jump around and crowd surf safely. The barrier is also there for the safety of the crew working the pit, without it the crowd would surge and the unweighted hand rail would topple and they'd face injury too. So no, we really felt it wouldn't be responsible to play the gig without the barrier. We're aware that some bands have played the venue with a hand rail, but every bands fans are different and we will always put fans safety first.
Why was the show cancelled so close to doors?
We'd been working throughout the day to try to resolve the situation, we didn't want to give up at any point. Ten minutes before doors when the correct barrier was still not in place we took the decision that it was unreadable that one could be installed before the public entered the building. Unfortunately the promotor of the show was unobtainable, leaving us in a very bad place right up until just before doors. We did all we could from our end to get the message out quickly and effectively on social media but we recognise there was a lack of communication with ticket buyers from the promotor. This left us picking up the pieces and looking rather bad and it's an issue we're talking to the promotor about today.
We also saw a couple of people suggesting we never even made it to the venue. This simply isn't true, in the photos you can see all our equipment was set up and we were ready to play a show. We all arrived at the venue for sound check and I personally observed the flimsy hand rail.
Yesterday we really were put in an impossible position, I can only apologise to the fans for being let down, we feel let down too. We want you all to understand, we didn't sit in a van on a motorway for hours just to turn around at the other end and head back. We were as disappointed as you guys. The situation may of been resolved were we actually able to speak to the promotor who put the show on but he was unobtainable all day so we were left with no choice. We're pretty angry about the whole situation too.
To those who read these points and still can't grasp why we had to pull the show, maybe you should consider the safety of those around you. Yes it's disappointing, but we have a moral and legal responsibility to protect people attending a show.
We're working with the promotor today to try to reschedule the show to give them chance to provide acceptable barriers."
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