Blur’s Damon Albarn Carried Off Stage At Roskilde For Playing 5 Minutes Over Curfew [Video]

Talk about a party pooper. Fans were evidently enjoying an epic five-hour set from rocker Damon Albarn when he was carried off stage at the Roskilde Music Festival.

Albarn, front man for Blur and the brains behind cartoon rock band Gorillaz, was only five minutes over his scheduled end time at 4 a.m. The concert began at 11 p.m., SPIN reported.

(By the way, if you can’t remember who Blur is, here’s something to refresh your memory)

Damon had taken to the Roskilde festival in Denmark as part of a musical collective called Africa Express, which features pop artists alongside musicians from Africa, The New York Times reported. The group was the last performance of the night, playing covers of songs by Randy Newman and The Clash.

But five minutes past 4 a.m., they should’ve stopped the music in accordance with Roskilde’s schedule. Despite the firm rule, Albarn kept on going, tempting the audience with a rendition of “Should I Stay or Should I Go,” The New York Daily News added.

And even though the audience knew the answer to that question (stay), concert organizers had other plans (go).

Enter Africa Express stage manager David Prentice, also known as “Big Dave.” He showed up to carry Damon, still chanting and goading the audience even after he was asked to end his set, away like a small child, The Guardian reported.

The audience got their wish, however. Everyone was having such a great time that Africa Express kept the music playing for another hour, said the collective’s co-founder, Ian Birrell.

“The crowd were in a very ebullient mood despite it being 4 a.m. They were chanting for more and more, quite noisily. Damon was clearly enjoying himself and wanted to carry on, as did all the musicians.”

Albarn and company further shunned Roskilde’s rules and played backstage with the crowd singing along; people “carried on outside the tent for almost an hour. They were drumming against the poles of the tent and chanting.”

Roskilde’s organizers may look like the spoil-sport parent in this scenario, but they have some serious concerns backing up their insistence that Damon Albarn stop singing when he’s supposed to. Crowd control can be a problem at the festival, one of Europe’s largest. Fifteen years ago at a Pearl Jam concert, nine people were killed in the mosh pit, the Times added.

If this festival is anything like a Kenny Chesney concert, which recently racked up an impressive number of injuries and arrests, that’s no laughing matter. A fan was just beaten to death at one of his shows this weekend, as the Inquisitr recently reported.

[Photo Courtesy YouTube Screengrab]