‘Calm down’: Placebo forced to stop Southampton gig due to fighting in the crowd

Placebo were forced to stop in the middle of their Southampton Summer Sessions concert in Guildhall Square on Wednesday night after crowd trouble derailed the performance.

The alternative rock band arrived on stage at 9pm and sent fans into a frenzy as Brian Molko and Stefan Olsdal began their 90-minute setlist.

Midway through the gig the band hesitated between songs before coming to a complete stop as silence descended across the makeshift music venue outside Southampton Guildhall.

Placebo front man Brian Molko looked on in anger at a commotion in the crowd towards the front of the stage before the overzealous concert goers received his wrath in an expletive-laden rant.

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He said: “This needs to be a safe place and you are making it unsafe.

“We can’t continue until you calm the **** down.”

Sections of the audience greeted Molko’s firm stand with cheers, before chants could be heard of “kick them out.”

Molko added: “Sorry about my language by the way.

“Are we good? Because if you can’t watch without beating the **** out of each other, you’re not going to ******* watch, you got it?”

As the crowd disturbance failed to show any sign of calming down, Molko said: “Enough, everybody take a deep breath and think about the person you love.”

Placebo were then able to continue the gig and there was no further crowd trouble, with security frequently walking through the crowd to watch over the thousands in attendance that witnessed memorable songs Running Up That Hill and Every You Every Me.

Connor Godfray, 25, attended the concert and saw the commotion unfold, he told the Echo: "Halfway through a song the band just stopped playing and the lead singer came to the front of the stage.

"I thought it was part of the show at first, but he just stood there for a while looking into the crowd.

"He said that people were fighting and if that carried on they would be thrown out."

He added: "Brian Molko then told everyone to take a breath and calm down.

"I've never seen that happen at a show before, I thought Placebo handled it really well."