NSW Police brought a performance by local band Royal Headache to a screeching halt last night after storming the stage at the Sydney Opera House to clear out punters who’d assembled during the band’s rendition of fan favourite ‘Down The Lane’.

The local favourites were performing as part of a Repressed Records showcase as part of Vivid LIVE, and as The Music reports, a standstill between the band, fans, and the police ensued after fans who’d been dancing in the aisles clambered onto the stage.

One witness described the initial influx of fans onto the Opera House stage as “just an outpouring of excitement and emotion” and the band seemed to agree, with singer Shogun even handing the mic over to a fan who completed vocals on ‘Down The Lane’.

The atmosphere in the room remained jovial. One fan did climb briefly onto a kick drum, but according to a witness this was a “minor indiscretion — nothing seemed to have been damaged or seriously impacted”.

After the song was concluded the fans gathered on stage began to disperse, but when the band launched into ‘Girls’, another fan favourite, a larger crowd swarmed the stage, which led to intervention from security and eventually police.

As readers can see in the footage below, the onstage crowd was certainly rowdy, but apart from a few empty water bottles being thrown, nothing was damaged and no one was harmed. It wasn’t until police took the stage that the atmosphere in the room shifted.

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“No one was trashing anything or hurting anyone, it was just like a normal Royal Headache gig,” eyewitness Michelle Padovan told The Music. The impromptu raid halted the band’s performance and Shogun was then heard trying to usher the band off stage.

One eyewitness reportedly heard the singer yelling into the mic, “Thank you and goodnight, I don’t want to see my friends punched in the head by a bunch of fucking pigs. Take it easy.” Before he could add more, he was seen being warned off the mic by security.

Following a short standoff, during which police conferred with security and the band stood huddled together a few metres away, the crowd began to chant “Let them play!” and the band was eventually allowed to complete a shortened set with their cover of Womack & Womack’s ‘Teardrops’.

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