BRITAIN: Musical profiling

November 17, 1993
Issue 

British anti-terrorism detectives escorted a man from a plane after a taxi driver had earlier become suspicious when the passenger started singing along to a track by punk band The Clash, according to the April 6 Sydney Morning Herald. Detectives halted the London-bound flight at Durham Tees Valley Airport in northern England and 24-year-old Harraj Mann was removed. The taxi driver grew 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 a reference to "meltdown expected". Mann told British newspapers the taxi was fitted with a music system that allowed him to plug in his MP3 player and he had played 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.

From Green Left Weekly, April 12, 2006.
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