Confused council officials stormed a village pub thinking they were busting an illegal late-night gig - only to realise 4AM was the name of the band, not the starting time.
Three licensing officers and two police officers raided The Feathers, in the sleepy Surrey village of Laleham, after spotting an advert promising ‘music from 4am’.
The name of the band - billed as a two-piece soul funk combo - led bungling council inspectors to assume the pub gig would kick off at 4am, and they lay in wait to raid the pub before striking just after 10pm.
Kate Dillon, landlady of The Feathers, said she was ‘amazed’ at the ‘sting’ operation - saying it was unbelievable that two police officers were called in to back up the three licensing staff from Spelthorne Borough Council.
She said it was like ‘using a sledgehammer to crack a nut’, adding: 'They turned up with two police officers and three council officers.
'I was outside at the time collecting glasses (and) I came into the pub and said: "What on earth is this all about?".
'They wanted to know if there was going to be music on until 4am and I was absolutely speechless for the first time in my life.
'I’m too old to stay up that late.'
The duo, named 4am after a song by jazz legend Herbie Hancock, is made up of singer John Adams and drummer Joe Becket.
Mr Adams said everyone was ‘very confused’ about the raid, adding: 'This has never happened to us before.
4 am.
4 am.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: 4 am.
If they thought these folks were going to be running a bar after legal hours....
Wouldn't it have made sense to, uh, stage the raid after the legally required closing time, so that they could have, you know, actually caught them committing a crime?
But I guess it's not surprising that this didn't occur to them since it's fairly evident that "sense" didn't feature prominently in the development of this cunning plan....
Wouldn't it have made sense to, uh, stage the raid after the legally required closing time, so that they could have, you know, actually caught them committing a crime?
But I guess it's not surprising that this didn't occur to them since it's fairly evident that "sense" didn't feature prominently in the development of this cunning plan....
