It Could Have Been Me

Tweet

One of the places I have wanted to visit in Cincinnati is the memorial marker for the Who Concert Tragedy. It was dedicated on the 36th anniversary of the tragedy, December 3, 2015. Things like that are sobering to anyone who has been to a concert. My first rock concert was right across the road from this, at then-Riverfront Stadium. For 50,000 fans to enter the baseball park, they had three gates open. So to say 12/3/79 was a surprise is not correct. It could have been me on 8/16/78. The plaque is incorrect, in that it was not “the deadliest concert tragedy in United States history.” Not getting technical, there were 165 people killed just down the road in Southgate, Kentucky at a John Davidson concert, but that might “not count” because the Beverly Hills Supper Club had a number of events going on the night of the fire. However, 209 people died at the Rhythm Club at a Walter Barnes concert in Natchez, Mississippi in 1940 (and that was the only thing going on at that conflagration site). But that’s a petty argument. The fact was, and is, that people went out to have a good time and ended up martyrs for music. And it could have been me. PHOTO COLLAGE: (Top left) The names of the eleven young people (ages 15 to 27, let that sink in) who died at Riverfront Coliseum on December 3, 1979 (Top right) An explanation of the tragedy (Bottom) The entrance, where the stampede and deaths occurred.