I have always thought that music is nothing more than entertainment. It can make us feel sad or happy, some songs you can identify with, others can touch your soul. But when I think about music actually making us DO something like killing, I think ‘No, that can’t be true. Music cannot create violence’. I heard a lot about the Columbine massacre and the blame Marilyn Manson’s music received for it but I never believed that. I was too excited to go and see him live in Wembley at the beginning of December. Everything was great. The show was great. The ability he had to shock people was great. The music was great. Well, it was a professionally made show, well planned, well staged and just, I repeat, GREAT. But there was one BUT. When the song ‘Fight’ started and the audience went nuts I suddenly realised that I was standing in the centre of a circle with a couple of big drunken men running at me trying to push and kick me. This was a fight. Some of my marshal arts skills (I like to believe) saved me, but mostly my instincts. I found myself on the floor crawling between people’s feet trying to escape the madness of the ‘game’. Bryan was still on stage singing one of my favourite songs ‘Sweet dreams’. My sweet dream at that moment was to have a couple of bodyguards around me.

Last year in the USA 300 policemen were needed to stop the crowd going mad. Though none were needed this time I still saw blood, bruises, panic attacks but no broken ribs, fortunately. In bloody mess I found only a couple people who actually understood the real meaning of Bryan’s songs and tried to enjoy it. The rest were an acquiescent mass both ready and willing to do what they were told. They would follow him just because he was different, ‘a freak’. So my question is this: Is it Marilyn Manson who made the audience behave that way or is it just the audience with their adrenalin and testosterone, their desire to destroy?

My bruised ribs reminded me of that question for three days after the concert and made me switch my I-pod to classical music. At least, for some time.     

By Alexandra Ashikhmina.