Blame Game Begins of Mirror Concert

The moment the large screen fell was witnessed by hundreds

The news of what happened Thursday night at the concert by Mirror at the Hong Kong Coliseum is shocking and tragic, after a giant screen came loose from the two metal cords it hung from, and fell a dancer. He is in a serious condition after two surgeries on his spine and he may be paralysed; another escaped with minor injuries.

There are reports of people in the audience screaming in terror, witnessing the horrific incident, and as they are Mirror fans, they were even more mortified -- some even fainted. 

Mirror member Chan also had a mishap

There were already concerns about the stage being safe after one member of Mirror, Frankie Chan Sui-fai, fell off the stage in an earlier show. He popped up immediately saying he was fine, but his fans soon after set up an online petition in a bid to get the organisers to pay more attention to the group's safety.

Apparently they did not heed their concerns fast enough.

Meanwhile the government is involved as the coliseum in Hung Hom is a government-owned venue. And naturally the authorities have blamed concert organisers for the mishap.

What is ironic is that hundreds of fans are allowed to gather in this venue, and yet bars and clubs in Hong Kong are yet to be allowed to have live music, and patrons must conduct a rapid antigen test the day and have a negative result in order to go in.

The parents of the injured dancer are flying in from Toronto, and they still have to go through seven days of hotel quarantine before being able to see their son. There are quibbles that the government helped them secure a quarantine hotel reservation when others have tried to see their loved ones when they were seriously ill or before their passed, and had to jump through numerous bureaucratic hoops.

The fate of Mirror is now in doubt with this terrible incident -- will the group continue to be just as popular? Or will people protest the owner ViuTV, which has been criticised in the past for exploiting the 12-member group and cutting corners to keep costs down.

The band is super popular in Hong Kong

And ViuTV is owned by? PCCW, which is owned by Pacific Century Group, which is owned by? Richard Li Tzar-kai, Li Ka-shing's son.

Not a good look, is it?

In the coming days there will be more questions for ViuTV, and by extension Richard Li that they need to answer for.

His company is so obsessed with profits that performers' safety was not a priority.

It reminds me of the rock band Van Halen. In the backstage set up for their concert, they stipulated in their contracts that they wanted a bowl of the candy M&Ms -- but all the brown ones taken out.

If the brown M&Ms were found in the bowl, the promoter would have to forfeit the entire show at full price.

The dancer is critically injured, possibly paralysed

Why did Van Halen do this?

To make sure the concert promoter read the entire contract carefully. They brought a lot of expensive equipment and lights with them on tour and wanted to make sure everything was set up carefully -- and safely.

If they saw brown M&Ms backstage, then they knew right away the promoter did not read the contract carefully and that meant checking that every thing was set up properly to ensure the safety of everyone, from the performers to the fans.

It is sad to think the members of Mirror had no say in how safe the stage was in the Hong Kong Coliseum, and that even fans' concerns went unheeded...