Family ‘sprayed with urine’ at Tom Jones gig
A FAMILY watching Tom Jones perform in Cardiff were shocked when a man reportedly threw a cup of urine backwards - causing them to be “sprayed”.
Louise Watkins, a 55-year-old lawyer from Talbot Green, went with her husband Peter and their two daughters – aged 16 and 18 – to last Friday’s concert at the Principality Stadium featuring the legendary crooner and the rock band Stereophonics.
But Mrs Watkins said she was left “amazed and disgusted” by an incident in the main standing section during Jones’ set.
She said: “A group of four or five young men were in front of us. They were aged about 19 to early 20s, and they’d had a few sherbets. One peed into an empty cup and then threw it backwards over his head, throwing urine over the crowd behind.”
She continued: “He threw it on the wrong person. It landed full force on a massive grizzly bear of a man, but we got sprayed as well. I was furious my children were hit by urine. Can you imagine two dolled up girls having wee thrown all over their clothes? They were not impressed, I can assure you. We just couldn’t believe it.
“I’d say the big chap was in his late 20s. I think he said, ‘What the f*** do you think you’re doing?’ He came storming up to the guy who’d thrown it and hit him straight in the face. The friends pulled the big chap off him and there were some fisticuffs as they all scuffled off to the side.
“I think the big guy eventually went back to his girlfriend and a few minutes later the boys were in their original position, tending to their mate. It was as if he was the victim. They all fussing over him because he had the slightest split lip, and acting harddone-by. I was thinking, ‘What do you expect if you go throwing wee in a crowd?’ He was lucky it was just one person – if that fella had been with his brothers, it could have been a different story.”
Mrs Watkins had found a steward in the moments after the reported fight broke out near entrance 327. She said the steward was “lovely” and appeared “horrified” by her account.
But she added: “The steward directed me to a police officer who quite frankly didn’t want to know. I offered to take him into the crowd to show which boy had done it but he said he was too busy. He wasn’t remotely bothered. The fight didn’t get out of hand in the end, but it could have escalated. That’s why I was disappointed.”
Mrs Watkins does not condone the alleged violence of the “big chap”, but she said: “I suppose it was a spur of the moment reaction. If you don’t throw wee you won’t get a split lip. I have been going to concerts for 30 years, been in mosh pits, and I’ve never seen that.
“My kid said it’s a common thing at Stereophonics gigs but I think this is the third time I’ve seen them and it’s never happened before. I was incensed.”
Mrs Watkins, who bought the tickets as a birthday present for her husband, said the family enjoyed the rest of their night. “Overall it was an excellent concert. I wish they’d played More Life in a Tramp’s Vest but they were good value.”
South Wales Police were approached for comment.