London Pulls Plug on Springsteen, McCartney

Telling a spellbound crowd of 60,000 that "I've been trying to do this for 50 years," Bruce Springsteen brought Paul McCartney onstage in London last night, with the grinning duo blazing their way through "I Saw Her Standing There" before launching into "Twist and Shout." But the rock icons—backed by the E Street Band and Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello—were no match for the guy with one eye on the clock and one hand on the plug, reports CNN, and at the stroke of 10:40pm, the music died.

It seems London's Hyde Park has a rigid curfew, and rock royalty or not, concert organizers obeyed it, pulling the plug in the middle of "Twist and Shout." Springsteen appeared not to notice immediately, and attempted to address the crowd, before he and Stevie Van Zandt played what CNN calls "a brief a capella good night" and left the stage. Organizers said they were "sticking to their license for the event," but fans were less than impressed: "Ashamed to be British right now," tweeted one. (More Bruce Springsteen stories.)