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The Clash spark terror alert

Joe Strummer

Joe Strummer

Man pulled off plane for music taste

The Clash and Led Zeppelin's music sparked a terror alert on an aeroplane, it has emerged.

Harraj Mann from Hartlepool was pulled off a London-bound flight at Durham Tees Valley Airport on March 30. He was questioned under the Terrorism Act after it’s believed his choice of music made a taxi driver suspicious.

Mann was able to play his own music through the cab’s stereo on the way to his flight, but it seems the driver did not approve.

“I played Procol Harum's 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale' first, which the taxi man liked,” Mann explained. "I figured he liked the classics, so I put on Led Zeppelin's ‘Immigrant Song’. Then, since I was going to London, I played The Clash (‘London Calling’) and finished up with ‘Nowhere Man’ by The Beatles. He didn't like Led Zeppelin or The Clash, but I don't think there was any need to tell the police."

It seems The Clash's lyrics which include "War is declared and battle come down", alarmed the cabbie who alerted police, while Led Zeppelin’s line about “The hammer of the gods will rive our ship to new lands, to fight the horde”, probably didn’t help either.

Durham Police then acted on “information received” but admitted “by the time it was established the man did not pose a security risk, the plane had taken off", The Mirror reports.

Mann, however, said he saw the funny side of the incident, telling his local newspaper the Hartlepool Mail: "I was laughing about it, but all my mates are absolutely furious. It's just left me bemused. I can agree that there's a culture of fear. They acted on the information they had. I'm just frustrated that it happened to me. It's a mystery."

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