Latest / DISGRACELAND / Ariana Grande: Terror on Tour, Tragedy in Manchester, and Learning to Sing Again

Transcript

Ariana Grande: Terror on Tour, Tragedy in Manchester, and Learning to Sing Again · DISGRACELAND

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Please check the show notes for more information. Disgraceland is
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: a production of Double Elvis. The story about Ariana Grande
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: is insane. A terrorist detonated a bomb outside her performance
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: at Manchester Arena. The blast killed twenty two people it
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: injured over one thousand more. The event remains one of
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: the deadliest attacks in England's history. It terrified parents, made
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: young fans scared to enjoy live music. So Arianna brought
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: them together again showed them there was nothing to fear.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: She gathered fifty five thousand people and raised over twenty
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: three million dollars for victims of the attack and their families.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: She raised that money with the power of great music.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Unlike that clip I played for you with the top
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: of the show that wasn't great music. That was a
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: preset loop for my melotron called Saint Vitas Dance joy
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Ride MK.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Two.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: I played you that loop because I can't afford the
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: rights to I'm the One by DJ Khaled featuring Justin Bieber,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Cuavo Lowayne and Chance the Rapper, And why would I
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: play you that specific slice of self congratulatory we the
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: best cheese. Could I afford it? Because that was the
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: number one song in America on May twenty second, twenty seventeen,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: And that was the day that Ariana Grande is Dangerous
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Woman tour became lethal. On this episode, terror on tour,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: tragedy in Manchester, the tenacity of one city, in Ariana Grande.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: I'm Jake Brennan in this this disgrace land.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: In the beginning, there was only music, a kick drum
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: pounding to the rhythm of heartbeat, voices in the crowd,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: shouting along with the band, guitar riffs ricocheting off the
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: walls of the club, total harmony. But then some new
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: sounds entered the concert, loud, rapid ones. They ricocheted off
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: the walls just the same, and then they pierced through flesh,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: not music. Gunfire. Terrorists tore through the Battle Clan Theater
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: in Paris without a second thought. Three gunmen, three reloads each,
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: maybe four three minutes of a police assault, ten hours
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: of sorting through dead bodies, and in the end there
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: was no music, just silence. The Eagles of Death Metal
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: concert ended too early on November thirteenth, twenty fifteen, an
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: attack during the show claimed the lives of ninety fans
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: Paris burned with fear, grief, exasperation. Concerts were supposed to
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: be safe, sacred, a place to leave all that other
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: shit at the door. Everyone followed a set of unspoken rules.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: Dance your heart out, mash even, but don't put anyone
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: in danger. Support each other's back, says they. Crowdsurfed over
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: your head, watch your friend's drinks whenever possible. Bottom line,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: protect your fellow fans. People followed those rules most of
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: the time, but every once in a while, someone shattered
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: that sense of safety for everyone. The damage went beyond
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Eagles of death metal fans and beyond Paris. Suddenly, concerts
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: didn't feel the same anywhere. Ticket Holders were wary, her
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: parents were petrified to send their kids out to the
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: show alone. It was a big, bad world out there,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: and there was no telling if or when tragedy would
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: strike again. She wanted to look bad, like the good
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: kind of bad, the sexy kind of dangerous, just like
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Ariana Grande and Latex on the cover of her new album,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Dangerous Woman. She looked at the clothes heaped on her
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: pink bedspread, cadtiers, check black miniskirt check. Thigh high boots check.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: But she'd have to be sneaky about wearing them if
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: she didn't want her parents to confiscate them again. Maybe
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: she could cram them into her purse and change shoes
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: at the show. Yeah, that would work. She couldn't risk
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: it and busted. She needed those boots to complete the outfit,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: and she didn't have much time left to prepare. It
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: was only five hours until tomorrow, twenty hours until school
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: let out, twenty four hours until she stepped into the
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Manchester Arena on her own, twenty four hours until she
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: saw Ariana grand in the flesh. The mere thought made
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: her knees weak. Everyone at school had their pop star,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: the singer who dictated what they wore and how they
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: spoke and how they looked at life. Some of the girls,
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: like Katie Perry and Taylor Swift the Rebellious Ones, opted
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: for Lady gagaon Miley Cyrus, but Ariana Grande was her girl.
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: She could rattle off any and every fact about Ariana
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: without a moment's thought, like she was reciting stats from
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: a baseball carter, paragraphs from a Wikipedia entry. Ariana Grande
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: was born in nineteen ninety three in Boca Ratan broken
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: to Broadway at just fifteen years old, secured her spot
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: as a Nickelodeon star at sixteen, signed with Republic Records
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: at seventeen, and dropped the debut album. Before she turned
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: twenty one, Ariana had eight Billboard Top ten singles, three albums,
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: and a shell full of iHeartRadio and American Music awards.
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: The girl read every interview Arianna gave, watched every music
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: video dozens of times, despike those YouTube viewership numbers. She
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: was in it for the long haul ever since the
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: day she saw Ariana on the Nickelodeon show Victorious. In
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: the early twenty tens, Ariana Grande played a character on
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: TV named Cat Valentine, hapless sidekick to lead actress Victoria Justice.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Cat was cute, dumb, simple. She was a redhead, which
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: meant Ariana damaged her brown hair with dye and bleach.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: Once Victorious folded, Nickelodeon kept Cat alive for a new
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: show called Sam and Cat. They buried Ariana behind more
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: dumb moments and then tossed the show and Arianna aside
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: after one season. They saw her as a secondary character
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: and nothing more. Big mistake. Ariana knew she had the
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: pipes to shatter the glass ceilings that kept teenage girls
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: in dumb, demure roles. So she did the twenty first
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: century thing. She uploaded covers to YouTube until they caught
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: the attention of Republic Records. Before long, she locked herself
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: into a management contract with Scooter Braun. Well, Scooter Braun
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: had the power to make her break any artist. Case
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: in point, he made Justin Bieber's career, and someday he'd
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: break Taylor Swift's heart and purchase her masters. Scooter was
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: the shrewdest manager in the modern music biz, for better
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: or for worse. He could smell a hit maker and
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: a money maker from a mile away. When he heard
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Ariana cover Bieber's song Die in Your Arms on her
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: YouTube channel, he went all in the Republic Records in.
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: Scooter Braun saw something in Ariana Grande that other industry
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: executives couldn't. There was a towering four octave diva crammed
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: inside of that five foot three young girl. She just
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: had a break free. Arianna had been trying to break
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: free for years. She told her management she wanted to
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: record a mature R and B album, when she was
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: only fourteen, and they laughed her off. No one would
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: want that kind of music from a kid, wouldn't even
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: drive you, and her management nudged her towards Nickelodeon instead,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: said it was more age appropriate. So Ariana waited peter
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: her duees on television until Republic and Scooter Braun snapped
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: her out. She kept a cutesy with her first hit,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: a collaboration with her boyfriend Mac Miller called The Way.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: She maintained a reputation as squeaky clean as the Whistle
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: notes that she hit with her four octave vocal range.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Arianna's innocent persona stuck around for two album cycles, but
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: when she became known as Ariana the pop Star and
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: not Arianna the Nickelodeon Star, she slipped into that latex
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: and she never looked back. She had waited long enough
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: for this. Ariana didn't have to act sexy to chart.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: She could move records dressed like a child's star. She
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: started embracing her sex appeal because she wanted to plain
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: and simple. She pulled bunny ears in a capwoman mask
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: over her signature ponytail, started singing less about crushes and
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: more about mixing boys and bad decisions. Her new album,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Dangerous Woman, went places her old material. Wouldn't dream of
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: the kind of music you had to whisper about in
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: school so the teachers couldn't hear you. All the kids
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: thought they knew what her song side to side meant,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: but no one had the guts to ask. If you
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: admitted you didn't know, the other kids in class brand
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: to do a virgin or a dumbass, and maybe both,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: better to just act like you understood why. Arianna said
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: she couldn't walk right after seeing her boyfriend. It was
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: clear that Ariana Grande was all grown up now, and
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: so was her number one fan in Manchester. Well, the
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: girl pretended to be at least sometimes when her parents
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: were asleep, she'd wear those thigh high boots and take long,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: sexy steps like she was on a catwalk. Ariana's new
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: music made her feel like she was ten years older.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: She didn't really know what it felt like to be
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: a dangerous woman, or a woman in general, but Ariana's
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: music gave her an idea. She would officially learn what
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: it meant tomorrow night at the concert. Who was time
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: to step into the next phase of her life? She
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: wasn't just attending a performance by her hero. This was
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: the first time her parents were letting her go to
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: a show without them. She felt so giddy she could squeal,
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: But squealing was for her lame tweens. She was a teenager,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: now sophisticated enough to go out on her own. All
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: she needed was her mom to drop her off tomorrow night.
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: Not right in front of the Manchester Arena. No, that'd
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: be too embarrassing. She'd make her grand entrance on her
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: own and then step into the arena and shell out, however,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: many pounds of cost to take home every shirt, hoodie
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: and accessory at the merch stand that she could afford.
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Who even knew what would come next. She kept off
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Twitter these days to avoid spoiling any surprises about Arianna's
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: current tour and setlist. But no matter what happened, she
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: knew one thing for sure. She would never be the same.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: He would have blended imperfectly if he wasn't fidgeting so much.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: The stranger kept rubbing his hands together or scratching his neck,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: everything except looking around the room for someone. He perched
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: her a set of stairs in the foyer of the
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: Manchester arena, the City Room, as it was known irregulars.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: He was just sitting there, conveniently hidden from the CCTV cameras,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: not texting anyone, not killing time with a book, not
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: touching his massive backpack. Lingering wasn't a crime. Lots of
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: people hung around the City Room waiting for friends and
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: loved ones to emerge from nearby Victoria Station. On May
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: twenty second, twenty seventeen, parents were scattered around the foyer,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: killing time as they waited for their kids to burst
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: out of the arena, riding the youthful hive of an
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: Ariana Grande concert. But this one guy felt different. Maybe
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: he wasn't waiting for someone, Maybe he was waiting for
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: something to happen. Maybe he was waiting for the right moment.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: A suspicious dad tapped a security guard in the City Room.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: That man on the stairs was fidgeting and sweating far
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: too much for his liking. The guard glanced casually over
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: his shoulder. The strange man dressed to blend in black
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: Hollister vest, black jeans, a brown ball cap. He was
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: so unremarkable that he nearly faded into the background, like
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: he was just part of the scenery. But the concerned
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: dad was right. The man radiated weird vibes. He gave
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: the security guard an uneasy feeling that he couldn't put
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: his finger on, and that wasn't even the whole picture.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: The security team didn't know that this man had lingered
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: around the arena for almost two hours. Security wasn't paying attention.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Two of the guards slipped out that night for a
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: two hour dinner. Another two took their break in tandem
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: and left the city room unpatrolled for nearly forty five minutes.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: They even passed the suspicious man on his way into
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: the city room as they were leaving it. The city
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: room was never supposed to go without supervision, especially on
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: the night of a concert teeming with vulnerable teenage girls,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: but the security team didn't follow the rules tonight. They
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: relax and this weirdo slipped right through the cracks. Nagging
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: feelings tugged the guard back and forth. One instinct told
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: him that something was off with this guy. The stranger
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: didn't sit right with him, literally, I mean, who fidgeted
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: that much? Why not just take a lap and walk
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: it off, dude, or check Instagram for God's sakes. No wait,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: owning a backpack was legal, so was milling around in
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: a public space. What you're gonna get this guy in
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: trouble for just sitting there and looking sweaty. Now the
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: guard was sweating too. He had to do something. He
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: grabbed his radio and try to connect with the control room.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: No dice. The channels buzzed with excessive traffic. He tried again,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: and again and again. Nothing. Sudden chatter broke his focus.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Young girls started streaming into the City Room from the arena,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: singing and squealing over each other. The show was over.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: Time to move on. The guard moved his post outside.
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: The suspicious man noticed the crowd too. He walked down
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: the stairs to the center of the City Room at
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: ten thirty pm. Now he was on his phone, smiling.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: There were no guards around to ask what he was doing,
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: no one to stop him from doing what came next.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: The girl's heart thudded louder than it ever had before.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Balloons rained from the ceiling as Ariana Grande's final high
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: notes soared to the rafters. Ariana tore it to Dangerous
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Woman for the finale. Her number one fan watched from
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: her seat in the balcony, wearing those thigh high boots.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: She clicked her heels on the floor to the beat.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: She loved the way the music made her feel. It
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: was the perfect ending for the perfect night, everything she
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: could have wanted in so much more. She had new memories,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: new tour shirts she held to her chest like treasure,
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: and new girlfriends who worshiped the same idol that she did.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: They lent each other their hair ties and swapped dance
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: moves like sisters. Sweat glistened in their hair and clunked
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: their cat eared headbands. The concert was one giant baptism,
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: and the sweat was the holy water. They were adults,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: now cool enough to hang on their own. Her heart
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: sank as it hammered in her chest. They'd have to
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: prior for her seat. She never wanted to leave this
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: very spot. She wanted to live in this giddy, flawless
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: moment forever. Then she heard it. A blast loud as fuck.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: Was that part of the show. The sound froze people
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: in their steps, and the arena went silent for a
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: few seconds. Fans waited for something else to happen, another
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: sound to help glue them in. Instead, a gush of
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: hot air swept across the arena. It stung the girl's
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: eyes and blew the bans off her forehead. White smoke
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: poured in first, and then came the smell sulfur, fireworks. Danger. Run.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: The screams started and never stopped. Fans rushed to the exits,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: even though they didn't know which ones led to safety.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: No one knew what was happening in the period. The
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: theory spread through the crowd like a nasty rumor, some harmless,
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: some atrocious. The bang was a balloon popping a loudspeaker family,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: a train that crashed into Victoria's station, an active shooter
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: around the loose. No one knew the truth that a
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: terrorist detonated a bomb in the city room. A voice
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: came over the loudspeaker with an eerie sense of calm.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Ladies and gentlemen, please take your time. There's no need
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: to bunch out the chaos unraveling around the girls said otherwise.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: The force of the crowd knocks the fans over, had
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: swept them under. A stampede of footsteps. People vaulted over
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: staircase railings to cut in front of each other. A
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: throng of fans absorbed her and pushed her into a hallway,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: but they were moving too slowly. She forced her way
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: out to the front of the mob and sprinted ahead.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: She was alone now, no parents, no friends. Her feet
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: couldn't carry her fast enough. She nearly fell over in
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: her boots. Damn these heels. She kept her head straight
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: as details whizzed by her. People strewn across the floor,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: some in pools of blood, some being loaded on a
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: makeshift stretchers, their skin glistening with massive dots. She couldn't
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: tell what the dots were. She didn't want to know.
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Her heart thought it in a different way now, shaky,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: rapid beats, terror pumping through her body. The excitement of
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: the night was gone. There was only fear now. She
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: tuned out the screams, the cries of mothers being separated
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: from their children, the wails of her new sisters lying
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: helpless on the floor, then the useless message over the intercom.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: She filtered it all out and focused on her boots
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: clacking on the tile. Each click was another step towards safety.
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: Wherever that was. Blood streaked the f underneath her feet,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: one of her heels sunk into the tender flesh of
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: someone's hand. Her stomach twisted with guilt, but she couldn't stop.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: She had to go, go, go, and get the hell
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: away from here. Her treasure trove of t shirts and
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: merch was gone now. She didn't even know when she
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: dropped it all. She didn't care. Her caddiers slipped down
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: under her face as she ran. She tore them off
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: and tossed them aside without hesitation. A team of stewards
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: banded together to form a human wall to keep guests
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: away from the worst of the smoke. She sprinted away
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: from them and into the city room. More blood on
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: the floor, more people covered in those dots. She spotted
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: a clump of flesh from the corner of her eye.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, a leg. That was a human, fucking leg.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: Tears were running down her face. She wanted to rewind.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: She wanted to go home. She wanted to bury herself
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: under a pile of blankets and forget that she ever
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: came here, that she ever wanted to come here, that
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: she was ever so stupid to leave the house alone.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Her mouth opened and she couldn't stop what came next.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: She was screaming, shrieking, louder than she ever had had
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: in her life. She ran faster than she ever thought
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: was possible. Someone somewhere didn't have a leg and couldn't
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: run away, so she had to run twice as hard
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: for both of them. She needed to live, someone needed
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: to make it out of this nightmare alive. She burst
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: through the doors of Manchester Arena, police lineless streets that
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: yelled to the crowd, run, keep on running. That's exactly
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: what she did. She ran until one of the heels
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: buckled under the pressure. She ran until she couldn't breathe.
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: She ran until she couldn't see the arena, or the
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: swarms of police cars, or any proof of that healthscape,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: so she could maybe, just maybe pretend that it never happened.
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: We'll be right back after this word, word word, Manchester
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: stood in pieces.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: The city split through the fragments. Police cordon off sections
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: of town with caution tape. Streets turned gray, void of
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: life and energy. Small patches of color around town attempted
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: to revive morale. Vibrant bouquets, well loved stuffed animals, and
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: bundles of pink balloons. Yellow tape circled Manchester Arena. The
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: scene inside the City Room told the story of the
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: attack screws, penetrated metal doors, deep scuffs marred brick walls.
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: The arena would lay dormant for months, silent like the
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: rest of the city. On May twenty third, twenty seventeen,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: the day after the attack, a hush settled in Manchester.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: People tried not to cry. They muted the news. They
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: stopped conversations mid sentence. At Buckingham Palace, the Queen observed
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: a minute of silence for the victims of the tragedy
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: at the arena. They had a label for it. By now,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: after a night of chaos and confusion, they knew it
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: was a suit side bombing. The bomb projected three thousand
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: nuts and screws across the city room. The shrapnel cut
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: open limbs, necks, and chests. It was powerful enough to
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: kill anyone in a twenty meter radius. Some people were
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: only standing two meters away when it detonated. Experts in
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: the force was like being shot point blank twenty plus times.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: There were three hundred and fifty eight people in the
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: city room when the terrorists detonated the bomb. Sixty ambulances
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: rushed victims to the hospital that night. First the number
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: of injured people was given US fifty nine. Then it
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: grew to one hundred and sixteen, and it would eventually
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: mushroom to over a thousand. Three fans come to their
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: wounds in the hospital. Nineteen died at the scene. Police
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: identified each one with fingerprints and dental records. The Queen's
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: minute of silence was barely enough time to read every
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: name of the deceased victims, but today it was all
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: the time that the English authorities could spare. The country
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: was on high alert. The government mobilized nearly a thousand
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: soldiers to patrol London. It would be no tours of
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: the Palace of Westminster or Buckingham Palace today. Changing at
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: the Guard ceremony was canceled so officers could be redeployed.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: Leagues of soldiers stood guard outside major tourist attractions. Other
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: officers patrolled the streets of Manchester, guns in hand. Everyone
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: else pieced together the country's biggest investigation. The officer saw
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: the minute hand lurch forward on his watch. The Queen's
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: moment of silence was over. Back to work, He sighed
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: and poured himself another cup of coffee. That minute was
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: the most rest he'd had all day. He plunked down
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: at his desk and rubbed his face. He took a
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: deep breath and flipped open the file on his desk again.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Selman of baby, aged twenty two, born and raised in Manchester.
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: Police at the scene found him in bloody pieces scattered
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: across the city room. Own mangle that officers needed a
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: bank card in his pocket to identify him. Facial recognition
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: confirmed it. A Baty was the culprit. The British government
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: had been aware of him for years. The calls started
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: in twenty eleven. People who had brush shoulders with a
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: baby dialed England's anti terrorism outline to report him. Said
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: his extremist views were worrisome. The Domestic Intelligence Agency and
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: one to five were even aware of a baby before
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: the attack. They never thought he warranted immediate action, though,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: and now it was too late. Officers had to work backwards,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: retrace every connection, every relationship, every tip overseas. Isis formally
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: claimed responsibility for the bombing, but there were still gaping
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: holes in the investigation. The police didn't know how many
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: people had helped move this scheme along, and they didn't
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: know if those people were in England right now. The
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: officer was one of roughly one thousand others working around
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: the clock to find answers. He ran over the timeline again.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: A Baty was born in Manchester in nineteen ninety four
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: to Libyan immigrant parents. He attended the Bernage Academy for
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: Boys then Manchester College between twenty eleven and twenty thirteen.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: That's when the calls to the anti terrorist line started.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: He visited Libya before enrolling itself for university to study
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: business and management, and that part was key. The government
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: granted him seven thousand pounds for student loans before he
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: dropped out of school later that year. Seven thousand pounds
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: could buy a lot of different things like plane tickets,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: batteries and burner phones. A Baity went to Libya one
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: final time in mid April. That's when he connected with
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: members of an Islamic State unit, the same unit involved
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: with the Battle Clan Theater attack in Paris. When a
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Baty returned on May eighteenth, he had a plan. Who's
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: going to hit the United Kingdom where it hurt, right
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: at the doors of its largest indoor arena. Records show
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: that he withdrew money from a bank account he hadn't
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: touched in a year. Then he bought materials, a backpack,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: nuts and screws, a lead acid battery. With the right training,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: experts said he could have built a bomb in just
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: twenty four hours. A Baby made his final arrangements. He
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: wired his brother twenty five hundred pounds. He placed the
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: bomb in his new backpack and strolled into the City
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Room in the Manchester Arena. He dawdled there for two
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: hours before it was time. A Baby called his mother
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: fifteen minutes before he detonated the bomb. He asked her
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: to forgive him for anything he had done wrong, and
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: then he hung up. No one would forgive him anytime soon,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: they would overcome him instead. Simon A Baby was dead,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: of course. His bomb tore his torso to shreds catapulted
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: it across the room. Authorities arrested his brother in South
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: Manchester shortly thereafter. That was one lead, but the number
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: of possible connections felt endless. There were three thousand lines
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: of inquiry within the counter Terrorism Control Room. Police searched
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: dozens of houses, arrested innocent men and questioned them for hours,
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: just to be safe, But there were still so many ifs,
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: so many missing details, details that might never truly be uncovered.
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: The officer tossed the file onto his desk. England's terrorism
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: threat level rose to critical today. He do anything to
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: lower it, to tell people that everything would be all right,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: to uncover some smoking gun that would put people at ease.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: The officer was unsure what a discovery like that would
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: even look like. He was unsure it even existed. But
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: the people of Manchester needed something to heal him, and
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: they needed it immediately. It could happen again. Everyone was
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: thinking it, but no one wanted to say it out loud,
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: not on an occasion like this. Today was supposed to
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: be about healing, strength, unity. Today was all love, one love.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Manchester was called Ariana Grande's benefit concerts scheduled for this afternoon,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: June fourth, twenty seventeen, just two weeks after the attack
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: at the Manchester Arena. One day earlier, terror struck England
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: again London Bridge. This time, they plowed down a line
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: of pedestrians with a man and they stabbed the survivors
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: in the street. Eight more deaths, forty eight more injuries.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: The crime scene at London Bridge was still fresh when
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: fifty five thousand fans filed into the old Trafford Crew
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: Ground for Ariana's benefit show. Eyes darted around the stadium.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: Anxiety vibrated through the crowd, especially in the very front.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: It felt like deja vu. A pack stadium, a sea
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: of cat eers, young girls pressed shoulder to shoulder, and
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: oversized sweatshirts. Her body knew she had been here before,
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: nearly two weeks ago. She was sprinting away from an
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: event just like this. She swore she'd never go back
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: to such a place, never walk alone, never trust the
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: strange faces in a large crowd, never let loose, not
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: even a little. She didn't even want to speak anymore.
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: She worried that if she opened her mouth again, she'd
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: start screaming and never be able to stop. But here
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: she was, one girl in a crowd of fifty five
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: thousand people, nearly four times the size of the last show.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: She huddled with a pack of fourteen thousand fans from
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: the original Manchester concert. Ariana treated them to complimentary tickets
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: at the foot of the stage. The forty thousand remaining
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: tickets sold out in six minutes. One Love Manchester was
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: the event of the year, but the girl still wasn't
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: sure that she wanted to be here. She ranked the
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: artist on the lineup in her head as a distraction.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: She had to see Katie Perry and Miley Cyrus. Obviously,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: Justin Bieber and Nile Horn were up there too, And
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: there was some guy named Liam Gallagher who apparently was
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: a big deal, but she could take her leave his set.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: Then there was Coldplay, Usher Crowd who else? The distraction
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: wasn't working. Her heart rammed into her rib cage, just
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: like it did when she'd heard that bang two weeks ago,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: when she threw herself down the Manchester Arena hallway through
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: the smell of sulfur and passed the trails of blood
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: on the tile floor. The image wouldn't leave her mind.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: She was supposed to be safe here, but she was
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: supposed to be safe at Manchester Arena too. Her heartbeat
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: was all she could hear anymore, and it made her
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: feel sick, disgusted, feelings far too mature for a teenager.
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: The sound was a nagging, constant reminder of what she
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: lived through. It made her crazy, It made her Pop
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: music suddenly poured from the stadium speakers, notes, songs she
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: knew inside out and backwards that she danced to alone,
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: in her room, hair brush and hand like a microphone.
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: Almost every day, her heart beat faster. It was different.
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: This time. She was excited again, back to being lost
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: in the moment that just being a teenager adulthood could wait.
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: She exhaled for the first time in a long time,
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: and then she opened her mouth without thinking. She didn't scream,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: she sang. She couldn't pretend that the Manchester attack never happened,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: no one could. But she could remember this better. This
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: was the moment that no one could take away from her,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: this indescribable sensation of singing along with fifty five thousand people.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: In reality, there were millions of people singing along. Fans
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: tuned into live streams of the benefit around the world.
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: The BBC's stream alone peaked at fourteen point five million viewers,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: and every time someone felt hope or peace, a couple
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: more notes joined the worldwide harmony. Concerned parents and terrified
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: fans began to feel an ounce of relief. Even the
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: officers working on the case felt, including the one going
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: over Salmon Abdy's file over and over again. They knew
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: now that there was no network in England that supported
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: the bomber. That was the ultimate relief. The One Love
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: Manchester Concert would going to raise over twenty three million
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: dollars to distribute to the victims of the attack and
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: their families. It was a serious win to help soften
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: the blow of even more serious losses, the kind of
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: losses that you can never get back. Thousands of people
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: lost their innocence on May twenty second, twenty seventeen. Twenty
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: two people lost the chance to sing again. That is
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: the ultimate disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland.
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it. And
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: if not, you can become a member right now by
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: going to disgracelamppod dot com slash Membership members can listen
• 32:41
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• 32:45
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• 33:12
  Speaker 1: bad down man.