The Killers pause Old Trafford gig to check crowd-surfing pensioner is okay

The Killers were forced to halt their gig at Emirates Old Trafford over the weekend to check on the well-being of an adventurous crowd-surfing pensioner.

Half way through the set, singer Brandon Flowers expressed his concern after seeing an elderly man fall into the 60,000-strong crowd while being crowd-surfed to the front.

When the pensioner – later identified as sixty-seven-year-old Doug James from Sale – was pulled from the crowd with a bleeding head, Flowers asked the audience whether he should be crowd-surfing at his age, before jumping down from the stage to greet him himself.

Social media footage shows Flowers warmly embracing Doug, who seemed overjoyed with the situation and completely unfazed by the cut on his head.

Once back on stage, the American singer adopted his own Mancunian accent and recalled: “I said Billy what ya doin’? He told me ‘I’m enjoyin’ me self!'”.

Doug, who was at the gig with his son and daughter-in-law, later told ITV News of his encounter: “There are so many nice and fun people at concerts, I got chatting to them and thought it [crowd-surfing] would be a good idea.”

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He explained that he was inspired after seeing a lady in a wheelchair be lifted into the air, noting how he thought it was a ‘lovely idea’.

He said to the people around him: “I’d like to have a go at that and I said to the lad beside me if you crowd surf then I will, he decided not to, but I said lift me up and send me forward.”

Doug said that he didn’t realise he was on the big screen at the time and, when asked by Flowers what he was doing, had simply replied: “I’m enjoying myself!” 

After footage of his rock ‘n’ roll antics went viral, Doug has earned himself the nickname ‘Billy the crowd-surfer’, after Flowers mistook his name, something which Doug puts down to his Mancunian accent.

One social media user wrote on Twitter: “Proving that your [sic] absolutely never too old to enjoy yourself… This has filled my heart with joy… Incredible”.

Another person commented: “Billy is the OG crowd surfer. You know he had to be a punk rocker 50 years ago!”