September 24, 2007 13:09

Foals homecoming show comes close to disaster

Truck festival appearance nearly pulled due to safety fears

Photo Gallery: Foals
Photo: Tim Cochrane

Foals' return to home turf on Saturday (September 22) at Oxford's Truck Festival was almost called off.

The band were forced to abandon their original slot at the festival, after the tent they were playing became too overcrowded.

With the band's equipment set up in the Trailorpark tent, security announced to the crowd: "Unless we can totally clear this tent we're going to have to pull the show."

A makeshift barrier was deemed too unsafe with the structure over-capacity to hold a safe amount of people in the tent, so the band's set was cancelled.

Lead singer Yannis then appeared onstage and said that the band and organisers had reached a compromise - they would play an unscheduled show two hours later on the larger Barn Stage.

Taking to the stage after iForward, Russia!, Foals finally played an their homecoming set, which proved emotional and chaotic as members of the crowd constantly tried to invade the stage.

"We played our third ever gig here just over a year ago," Yannis told the crowd, "so this show is really special for us."