Springsteen Opens Tour At Castle in Ireland |
To the strains of his hit song ''Born in the U.S.A.,'' Bruce Springsteen opened his European tour before 60,000 fans in a tiny Irish village Saturday.
The police said the open-air concert at the idyllic grounds of the 13th-century castle in Slane, 25 miles north of Dublin, got off to a ''magnificent'' start despite the arrests of a dozen people for drug offenses.
Several swooning fans had to be carried out on stretchers as the New Jersey-born rock star, known as ''The Boss,'' appeared on stage. The police said the crowd of more than 60,000 fans, who had each paid $15 each to see Mr. Springsteen, gave him a deafening, but ''extremely good-humored'' welcome.
As the fans began invading the village of 600 residents, the police turned the local school into a jailhouse and set up roadblocks to guard against crowd trouble. At a Bob Dylan concert in Slane last year, several thousand fans rampaged for hours, wrecking shops and homes.
A dozen people were arrested for drugs offenses Saturday and four others detained for selling forged tickets. The police said 20 teen-agers were admitted to a hospital, mainly suffering from sunstroke.
Mr. Springsteen was being paid a reported $500,000 for the concert.
| Via United Press International. |