ANGRY fans were left waiting for hours after a power cut forced the Picture House to cancel the long-awaited Ocean Colour Scene concert last night. The music venue announced today that the band would play a special gig on Monday, 8 March for fans with tickets to last night's cancelled event. Managers blamed Scottish Power for the last-minute cancellation, after a partial power cut plunged the auditorium into darkness at 7:30pm.
It was left running on emergency lighting just half an hour after the doors opened. But hundreds of fans were left fuming for two hours and twenty minutes before they learned the performance would not go ahead. The Picture House's manager, John Stout, said: "It's incredibly disappointing, but it was out of our control. People weren't left in the dark, but we didn't have sufficient power to do the show.
"By quarter to 10 we had to make the decision to cancel it. "Fortunately we have already been able to reschedule the show. There are still a few tickets left for tonight, and anyone with one for last night can have a direct exchange." Staff had initially been optimistic the gig could go ahead and had urged the audience of about 1,200 to be patient. But by 8:30pm, an aggressive edge had worked its way into the crowd, with bouncers having to intervene at one point.
The crowd had already seen warm-up band the Moons pack up their kit and leave before they were even due to start their set. By 9:15pm, the crowd had begun chanting and booing. A staff member who stepped on stage to announce the cancellation at 9:50pm was greeted by more booing and even people throwing beer.
Simone Johnston, 23, a trainee plumber from Leith, said: "It's a shame that the show was cancelled. We're gutted. But I think the idiots throwing drink at the stage were really the worst bit." But Andy Law, 31, from Pollok, near Glasgow, said the show had left him around £400 out of pocket as he had travelled to the Capital for a two-day stay. He said: "I took two days off work for this. We've booked a hotel for the night through here which I've forked out £80 for. In all it's cost us about £400."
A line of police officers, leaning on the railings outside, greeted the disappointed crowd as they slowly started to make their way home. Neil Shaw, 27, a teacher from Drum Brae, said: "I hope they manage to sort out the tickets and give us another gig. It's no good keeping us all waiting like that. It creates nothing but bad faith."
A Scottish Power spokeswoman said the partial power cut had been caused by a fuse failure. She said: "A fuse had gone at one of the substations.
We apologise for any inconvenience."
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