Be alarmed #1

About three weeks ago I bought a little cheapie MP3 player, the first music playback device I've owned for at least 10 years. Since I have heard "London Calling" in my mind at least once a day, every day, for the last 20 years, and the bass-line has boomed its way silently (to anyone else) through some of my most significant life events, it seemed only natural that it should be one of the first things I loaded up... along with 'Guns of Brixton', the Saint's 'Know Your Product' and Iggy's 'Passenger'.

This is damn fine, I was thinking, as I wore my pod into the office and the supermarket, evoking the times when I could walk around the bush screaming:

...but I have no fear
cos London is burnin, and I...
I live by the riv-ver

at the top of my lungs, and it was not only literally true, but out of earshot of anybody else, no matter how loud I screamed. And baby, I can scream!

So I was more than a little disconcerted by the timing of this:


Man held as terrorism suspect over punk song
Wed Apr 5, 2006 11:12 AM BST171

LONDON (Reuters) - British anti-terrorism detectives escorted a man from a plane after a taxi driver had earlier become suspicious when he started singing along to a track by punk band The Clash, police said on Wednesday.

Detectives halted the London-bound flight at Durham Tees Valley Airport and Harraj Mann, 24, was taken off.

The taxi driver had become worried on the way to the airport because Mann had been singing along to The Clash's 1979 anthem "London Calling," which features the lyrics "Now war is declared -- and battle come down" while other lines warn of a "meltdown expected".

Mann told newspapers the taxi had been fitted with a music system which allowed him to plug in his MP3 player and he had been playing The Clash, Procol Harum, Led Zeppelin and the Beatles to the driver.

"He didn't like Led Zeppelin or The Clash but I don't think there was any need to tell the police," Mann told the Daily Mirror.

A Durham police spokeswoman said Mann had been released after questioning -- but had missed his flight.

"The report was made with the best of intentions and we wouldn't want to discourage people from contacting us with genuine concerns," she said.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.