Pavarotti to the Rescue

DESPITE the rain of a typical London summer, Luciano Pavarotti attracted a—mainly young—crowd of a hundred thousand to a free concert in Hyde Park the other evening. Had it not rained, the figure—by general consent— would have been a quarter of a million. When so vast a crowd gathers together, even for a free concert, it must mean something.

Past experience suggests that Pavarotti’s feat will enter history. In 1969, around a quarter of a million people descended on the town of Woodstock (and later at other venues) to listen to rock groups, smoke dope, fornicate, and—in a couple of cases—stab one another. Ever since, popular sociology has spoken of the Woodstock Generation. In the same year, the Rolling Stones attracted a quarter of a million to Hyde Park. Popular sociology would have it that those gatherings were all to do with the 1960s’ revolt by the children of the postwar world against the nine- to-five affluent society created by their parents.

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Frank Johnson

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DESPITE the rain of a typical London summer, Luciano Pavarotti attracted a—mainly young—crowd of a hundred thousand to a free concert in Hyde Park the other evening. Had it not rained, the figure—by general consent— would have been a quarter of a million. When so vast a crowd gathers together, even for a free concert, it must mean something.

Past experience suggests that Pavarotti’s feat will enter history. In 1969, around a quarter of a million people descended on the town of Woodstock (and later at other venues) to listen to rock groups, smoke dope, fornicate, and—in a couple of cases—stab one another. Ever since, popular sociology has spoken of the Woodstock Generation. In the same year, the Rolling Stones attracted a quarter of a million to Hyde Park. Popular sociology would have it that those gatherings were all to do with the 1960s’ revolt by the children of the postwar world against the nine- to-five affluent society created by their parents.