DON'T FLY WITH MICK JONES

Harraj Mann was on his way off to catch a flight from Teesside Airport, and was delighted to catch a cab which had a slot to plug your mp3 player into.

He entertained the taxi driver by hooking up his device and singing along to Procol Harum, The Clash and The Beatles.

After being dropped off at the airport,Harraj was surprised to discover the cabbie had called the police, fingering him as a terrorist.

Mann was marched off the plane and interrogated for three hours.

Why? Because he was a bit foreign-looking and while singing in the taxi had belted out the lines "war is declared and battle come down" in London Calling.

Harraj can see the funny side:

"I played Procol Harum, Whiter Shade of Pale first, which the taxi man liked.

"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 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."

Now, obviously we live in different times, but how can we have faith in the police to actually protect us from terrorists when they're not very good at it - it takes three hours for them to realise "oh... he wasn't on the phone getting details from Osama, he was singing along to a famous song from one of the most famous albums of all time." Mind you, compared with Jean Charles de Menezes, Mann can probably count himself as lucky.

We imagine Durham Police are still trying to decode the Procul Harum lyrics, though - "turning cartwheels across the floor, are we, sonny?"

music teesside airport the clash procul harum