Libertines Festival Set Halted Over Safety Fears

THE LIBERTINES’ hotly-anticipated set at Britain’s Leeds Festival on Friday night (27Aug10) was stopped after just three songs amid concerns revellers would be crushed in the mayhem.

The cult band recently reformed after six years apart and took to the stage on Friday for the first of their two nights at the twinned Reading and Leeds festivals in England.

Their arrival onstage sparked a massive surge in the crowd - and just three songs into their performance, organisers ordered the band to halt over fears for the safety of revellers at the front of the audience.

Frontmen Pete Doherty and Carl Barat left the stage for several minutes before returning to complete their hour-long set, with Doherty telling fans, “If anyone goes down, don’t go standing on anyone’s head or anything. Look after each other.”

Later, Doherty dedicated the band’s hit Time for Heroes to former The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, who played on the same stage earlier in the day with The Cribs.

The Libertines are due to play the Reading leg of the festival on Saturday (28Aug10).