I played for a traveling circus “Under the Big Top” for a week years ago. The rule was that we were to break into the happiest music we knew (that appeared nowhere in the program) and play it as loud as we could.
The idea behind doing this was two-fold:
First, everyone involved with the circus — everyone: from performers to show crew to vendors to box office and parking lot attendants — knew that if they heard that music we were experiencing an “All Hands On Deck” event. It was, essentially, the circus version of a military bugle call.
Secondly, the music would hopefully help calm the crowd, subconsciously conveying that “the situation can’t be that bad” and, again hopefully, prevent panic and make the crowd more manageable. Furthermore, the rule was we were to keep playing unless or until we were in physical danger.
The pre-arrangement of the “Code Red” song was one of the first things the circus owner, who was also the ring master, went over with us. To make everything sufficiently surreal the song we decided on — my idea; don’t ask me why — was “Cousins” AKA the The Patty Duke Show theme song. Go figure.
Thankfully, we never had to play it.
Fun Facts: The guy who took control and saved so many passengers aboard the Costa Concordia was not the captain (he was the first one off) nor even a member of the crew — he was a musician.
Following that fateful trip, he was aboard another cruise when the ship caught fire and the passengers had to be airlifted off the liner. He helped with that evacuation, too.
The lesson here, obviously, is “Never get on a ship with that man!”
Only thing we know for certain is that the Republicans in private are going ‘damn, why can’t the terrorists successfully attack the US again?’ just so they can dangle that shiny object in front of the media to distract the public from real issues and then blame the courts for blocking Trump’s Muslim ban.
In the good old days the worst case scenario was a fire.
However, I once played (two tunes) at an Portuguese-Italian wedding reception that turned into a full-blown riot; the sheriff’s department showed up in full riot gear and everything. We sent the band leader into the eye of the melee to get the check from the bride’s father, which he successfully did.
We later joked that had we known that was going to happen we would’ve made an announcement: “It’s time to play Family Fued!”
My arm chair analysis predicts that the bombers were not able to access the arena itself and were held up at the security checkpoints to get in. One bomber had to detonate his payload because he was compromised, which caused the second bomber to then panic and detonate their explosives without caring about location or maximizing casualties.
Also makes sense that the bombing took place outside the concert area since if the explosions happened inside it, you’d see people pointing their phone cameras at the scene of the explosion and a lot more death and injuries from the inevitable human stampede. All things considered, it was a pretty orderly evacuation.
So in the end, security helped keep the attack from being much worse than it could have been since you’d be seeing a death toll be much larger if they managed to successfully infiltrate.
I hope you’re right … but I doubt it will make terror supporters any more doubtful about their support than the Sandy Hook attack made Conservatives about broad access to deadly weapons.
Per Wikipedia, Manchester Arena sits in air rights ABOVE Victoria Station. It’s also the fourth busiest indoor venue in the world. Sad that the bombers did what they did outside the ticketed area.
Exactly, fire, fights, structure collapse, natural disaster, etc.and other things where running for your life isn’t likely to increase your chances for survival.
Ah someone who understands. I guess I got the play soft bit wrong, but somehow I am picturing your story of the wedding fistfight played with loud background music of Yakkity Sax.
