The night one of the world's great rock festivals turned to tragedy

Two British bands have pulled out of Roskilde Festival in Denmark, where eight fans were crushed and trampled to death and scores injured late on Friday during a concert by the American band Pearl Jam.

Two British bands have pulled out of Roskilde Festival in Denmark, where eight fans were crushed and trampled to death and scores injured late on Friday during a concert by the American band Pearl Jam.

Oasis and the Pet Shop Boys said in a statement that they felt "it would be disrespectful to those who were killed, and their families, to perform in front of the site where the deaths occurred".

The decision to withdraw followed hours of argument with the organisers of the festival, near Copenhagen, and the police, both of whom felt the concerts should go ahead.

James Monknan, the Pet Shop Boys' tour manager, said: "It beggars belief that, with no changes in security procedures other than an undertaking to shut off the music if things go wrong, we were being asked to carry on as if nothing out of the ordinary took place."

Neil Tennant, the band's lead singer, was horrified at being asked to go on stage. "The audience would be standing where all those people died," he said. "We would be on the same stage. There would be nothing to stop the same thing happening again." Oasis, who have cancelled a performance in Belgium for tonight, echoed Tennant's sentiments.

It is understood that the promoters of Roskilde were unavailable to bands before lunchtime yesterday. The word was that the police on-the-spot inquiry was over and that the remaining concerts should go ahead as advertised.

The main "orange" stage, in front of which the eight fans died on Friday, was scheduled to re-open for business without further ado. No crowd barriers were to be installed other than those which had been in place on Friday night, and the only additional security precaution due to be taken by the organisers, apart from the agreement to turn off the music quickly if there was any crowd trouble, was an increase in the number of stewards.

An estimated 100,000 fans turned up for the festival, many of whom were still at the site yesterday morning. Police reportedly believed that it would cause more problems to cancel the remaining performances than to let them go ahead.

The deaths occurred during a performance by the US band Pearl Jam. They shouted to the crowd of about 50,000 to move back, and halted their performance when that did not happen.

"People were laughing while pushing each other around," said Colleen Gould, 26, from Australia. "I just wanted to try and get a photo. Then I got caught in it. People didn't understand. They thought they were cheering the crowd."

For 30 years, Roskilde and Glastonbury, two formerly obscure rural sites in Denmark and England, have been synonymous with European rock music at its noisy, exhibitionist best.

Bands moving across the world as part of the musical caravan that sprang up in the wake of the Rolling Stones, The Who and Bruce Springsteen regarded Roskilde as a principal venue - a showcase for their talents and a means of re-connecting with their vast, disparate army of fans.

But the death of eight of these fans in front of the main "orange" stage at Roskilde, 25 miles west of Copenhagen, on Friday night will have changed everything.

It was the Hillsborough of rock: an accident brought about by a lethal combination of crowd hysteria and apparently inadequate precautions.

As many as 50,000 young people, mostly from Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Germany, had been whipped into a state of communal mania by the heavy rock sound of American band Pearl Jam.

On stage, the band itself was oblivious to the pressures building. They knew they were having an effect. That is their aim as performers. But they could not have guessed that the result would be a dangerous surge towards where they were playing, ending in a tangle of dead and injured bodies.

"This is so painful," a statement issued by the band yesterday began. "I think we are all waiting for someone to wake us up and say it was all a horrible nightmare."

The Who will sympathise with the sentiments. In 1979, 11 fans were trampled to death in Cincinnati during a rush for the best seats before the start of a concert by the legendary band.

Pearl Jam, based in Seattle, scene of the recent Green Lobby riots, were clearly shocked by the cruel turn of events that turned a high-energy night out into an orgy of death and injury.

"It seemed to be random and sickeningly quick. It doesn't make sense. When you agree to play at a festival of this size and reputation it is impossible to imagine such a heart-wrenching scenario. Our lives will never be the same."

Other bands billed to play at the festival said that they, too, were traumatised. Yet, within hours of the tragedy, the music was blaring out once more.

How did it happen? A police inquiry is underway, yet it is clear that audience fever had reached a dangerous pitch in the run-up to midnight. According to Denmark's Ritzau news agency, Pearl Jam members repeatedly asked the audience to move back from the stage to ease the massive crush against it before the disaster occurred.

Yet, for all the crush and pressure, there was no sense of alarm or intimation that something awful was about to happen. Pearl Jam's tour manager told one well-known British rock singer, whose band was due to go on stage in the early hours of this morning, that after the band appealed to the audience to show restraint, the atmosphere changed and grew more "mellow".

"I didn't know anything had really gone wrong," he is reported to have said, "until they started passing bodies over the top." It was not just the dead who had to be dealt with. Many people were injured, too. The first aid tent was quickly overwhelmed and a security guard was seen administering basic help to a wounded fan surrounded by thousands of tramping feet.

British band The Cure were due to appear on the orange stage immediately after Pearl Jam, but cancelled "out of respect for the dead". As the deaths were announced around the site, fans burst into tears and hugged each other. Many lit candles.

It left the performers contracted to play last night in a very difficult position. Oasis - minus the absent Noel Gallagher - and the Pet Shop Boys, said they would not play out of respect for the dead and their families. The bands had been under considerable pressure from the promoters to honour their contracts.

The role of the festival organisers in presiding over the disaster will, of course, be a key part of the investigation by Danish police. Michael Eavis, organiser of the Glastonbury Festival - which this year passed off without incident - believes his Danish counterparts would have made strenuous efforts to avoid endangering their customers.

It is certainly strange that, in the aftermath of the deaths, "normal service" was quickly resumed. Yesterday, while detectives searched the area immediately surrounding the "orange" stage, looking for clues that may give some clearer picture of what took place, other, smaller stages were resounding to the sound of uncompromising rock.

"Everybody at the festival is deeply concerned and wish to express their sympathy to the relatives," said festival spokesman, Leif Skov.

As police chiefs and festival organisers met to discussthe best way forward, a brief religious service was held. At the same time, rumours spread around the site that those who did not wish to attend any subsequent performances during the four-day event would not be entitled to refunds.

British bands, including Oasis and the Pet Shop Boys, were stunned by the apparent insouciance with which Danish officials appeared to regard the tragedy.

No official approach was made by the organisers to artists due to appear last night. On the contrary, the word was that police and psychologists favoured an immediate resumption of the festival.

"The festival is expected to continue to its Sunday conclusion," said Mr Skov. "With the deepest respect for the dead, life is stronger than death." And one fan was reportedly told by a security guard: "In a couple of years you'll forget all about it."

Running events for thousands of people is desperately serious, says Michael Eavis. It's why he spent £7m on Glastonbury 2000.