Kobudo works (Kyokushinkai and the Rolling Stones.)

In 1976 the Rolling Stones, who had been banned from playing in France for several years were finally allowed to come back. With 2 of my best friends, we got tickets for the Concert in Nice on the French Riviera. 

We arrived early in the stadium where the concert was to happen. The crowd was composed mostly of young men and women in their late teens or early 20's, nice crowd gathered to listen to their favorite band. You could smell the smoke of marijuana, nothing outrageous. 

2 bands played before the Stones, I suppose they were good, but they were not the ones we were interested in. My friends, my cousin Isabelle and I were sitting on the ground, probably no more than 50 feet from the stage, a little to the right, a good spot.

Bikers showed up, pushed away a group of youngsters sitting close to the stage. They were  quite provocative, and scared most of the kids around them. I looked around and realized there were quite a bit of these Hells Angels scattered all around the stadium. This was not friendly. Bad vibrations... Dressed in black leather outfit, some of them apparently drunk, and aggressive. People were scared. 

One guy dressed in white came to the front of the stage, and politely asked the Angels to leave the vicinity of the stage, quit being rude and leave the kids alone. Nothing happened. 

The white guy came back several times to politely ask the Angels to leave. They laughed, drank more beer, and stayed. He told them the Stones were not going to play if they'd stay so close to the stage,  that they should scatter in the whole stadium so the concert could happen peacefully. They did not move.
This standoff lasted 30 to 45 minutes.

Then rather quickly the front of the stage, 5 to 6 feet above the ground, got populated by numerous guys coming from back stage. Big guys, little guys, they were not threatening, not wearing any particular outfit, but strangely enough, they all were holding their hands in their back.

The polite and patient little white guy asked the Angels one more times to leave. By now, they had been drinking more beer, and they laughed. 

Suddenly, all the guys who had gathered to the front of the stage jumped down and ran toward the first group of 15 to 20 Angels sitting in front of the Stage. I do not know if you are familiar with Asterix, the famous Gaul hero of a famous French comic book series. When Asterix and the Gauls tribe attack the Roman legions, they are like a wedge splitting it. Resistance is futile....

Well that is what happened then. Turns out that these guys had their hands in their back to hide staffs and Nunchakus. And they now were using them, bloodily. I had never seen nunchakus used for fighting purpose before. I realized how efficient they can be. 

Big guys were using Bo staffs, little one nunchakus. They did not try to be nice, they basically wiped the Angels out of the Stadium. Those who tried to escape into the bleachers, they ran behind them, caught them, beat them up badly, then pulled them by their hair or feet all the way to the gates. They cleaned up the stadium of each and every Angels and beat them up, all of them, male, female. It was brutal and bloody.

I was not practicing any martial arts back then, I had quit Judo in 1973 to concentrate on my studies in High School. I really had no clue about what happened. I learned years later, that the people organizing the concert had contracted the security to the local  Kyokushinkai Karate Dojo.

20 minutes later Keith Richards stumbled onto the stage and unleashed Honky Tonk Women...

Kobudo works...

And one may wonder... What should have they done ? What can you do, what should you do on the brink of danger ? Do you wait for the  attack to be initiated by your opponent, or do you consider he already attacked you ?  I believe the situation was handled very properly by the little white guy. The Angels were given all opportunities to leave, they chose not to. Then, the action was very violent. Clearly, it did not have to be as bloody as it was. For what I saw, every Angels got seriously beaten up and blood was drawn from each one of them. They could have been expelled with less physical damage, but then, they might have been able to come back the next day (There were concerts for 3 nights in a row).