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Pearl Jam To Meet With Roskilde Investigators
The band also revealed its intention to assist the Roskilde investigation by meeting with Danish police investigators in the United States.
“We are eager to participate fully with the ongoing investigation of the tragedies that occurred at the Roskilde Festival during our performance on June 30,” the band stated. “Although we stayed in Copenhagen until the 2nd of July with the hope that we could meet with investigators on the day following the tragedies, a meeting did not take place at that time.
“We now look forward to finally meeting with investigators next week in the U.S.”
“It is not true that the report holds Pearl Jam ‘morally responsible’ for the tragic incident,” Kornerup wrote. “It is also not true that the police have stated that Pearl jam ‘whipped the crowd into a frenzy.’
“The quotation that the police stated that Pearl Jam ‘appealed for violent behavior’ is due to an incorrect translation of the Danish text. What was written was that according to some sources the band is known almost to appeal to the audience to behave in an uninhibited way,” Kornerup continued.
“Also incorrect are the news articles that state the band left Copenhagen immediately. We now understand that they remained in Copenhagen for a full day after the incident, and expected to speak to us then. We now will arrange … to talk with key personnel of Pearl Jam.”
The meeting between the band and Danish officials will reportedly take place at an undisclosed site in Florida on August 8, the day before Pearl Jam opens a two-night stand at Mars Music Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach, Fla. The North American leg of the band’s tour starts August 3 in Virginia Beach, Va.
The letter to Pearl Jam from Kornerup was evidently a response to the band’s July 26 call for further investigation into factors – including staffing, staging and alcohol sales – the band believes contributed to the Roskilde tragedy.
In related news, Pearl Jam’s series of 25 two-CD live sets from the European tour will not include the band’s partial set from the Roskilde Festival, contrary to published reports. The series will be released through the group’s Web sites on September 5 and will be in stores two weeks later.