Viral

The Killers stopped a gig to check on a 67-year-old fan who went crowdsurfing

The Killers stopped a gig to check on a 67-year-old fan who went crowdsurfing
The Killers frontman halts gig to hug injured crowd-surfing pensioner
Twitter

The Killers paused their Manchester gig to check on an adventurous crowdsurfing pensioner.

Doug James, 67, from Sale, was captured riding the wave at Old Trafford Cricket Ground when frontman Brandon Flowers halted the show to make sure he was OK.

He asked the crowd: “Who drops a guy? Who dropped him? Is he OK? His head’s bleeding a bit; let’s take care of him.”

After jumping off stage and putting his arm around the fan, Flowers told his 60,000 fans: “I said: 'Billy, what you doing?'”

“He told me: ‘I’m enjoying myself.'"

Doug has now hilariously earned the nickname 'Billy the crowd surfer' after Flowers mistakenly announced the wrong name. The audience can be heard chanting: "Billy, Billy!"

The 67-year-old, who has waited two years for the gig due to Covid cancellations, told ITV: "It must have been my accent!"

Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter



He explained to the outlet that fellow gig-goers had lifted a lady in a wheelchair and he thought it was a lovely idea.

"There are so many nice and fun people at concerts," he said. "I got chatting to them and thought it would be a good idea."

He told the people around him: "I'd like to have a go at that and I said to the lad beside me, if you crowd surf, then I will, he decided not to, but I said lift me and send me forward."

Viral videos soon circulated across social media showing 'Billy' (aka Doug) leaping into the crowd as the band launched into their cover of Joy Division's 'Shadowplay'.

One declared, "There needs to be more Billy's in the world!"

While another added: "This was absolutely mad to witness honestly!"

"I’ve got a lot of time for Billy and his attitude," a third tweeted.

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

The Conversation (0)
x