An Edinburgh singer has spoken of the tragic moment a member of the audience collapsed and died during one of his band's performances in the United States.
Wattie Buchan, lead vocalist in Edinburgh punk rock band The Exploited, has recalled the moment when a fan passed away just 15 minutes into their set in California on May 23.
The packed-out show was forced to go ahead as Wattie claims "there would have been a riot" if the band did not go back on stage following a break for the man who collapsed to receive medical attention.
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According to Wattie, the man has been named locally as Temple Stratton, with his brother Justin getting in touch with the band following the tragic news.
Speaking to Edinburgh Live, the 65-year-old said: "We were playing a concert in Santa Ana with the support bands Conflict from the UK, DI from the USA and total chaos from the USA.
"15 minutes into the our set we had people waving like to stop playing from the mosh pit so we stopped and they had to clear half the crowd out to get medics to the guy. His name was Temple and we think he had a heart attack.
"They tried for over 25 minutes to get him back to life then the ambulance came and they took him away then I got messaged by several people who told me he had passed away
"His brother said he was having the time of his life then he suddenly just collapsed.
"This was a life nations gig and they told us that if we didn’t want to carry on we could just not go back on, but the place was sold out and we were sure that wouldn’t go down well with the majority of people who were still there so we dedicated the rest of the set to the guy who was ill not knowing at the we time that he had died."
The Exploited are currently on tour with gigs scheduled for Turkey, Armenia and Georgia. The band were formed in Edinburgh by Wattie's younger brother Terry in 1978.
In December 2022 Wattie too suffered a health scare after collapsing on stage with a suspected heart attack during a show in Bogota, Colombia. The incident was the second time the frontman had suffered a heart attack on stage.
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