Musician thrown off train for 'suspicious' set list

A musician has spoken of his shock at being removed from a train for "behaving suspiciously" by writing a list of songs which included the band name "The Killers". Tom Shaw was travelling on a South West Trains when he began writing a list of song titles which his band The Magic Mushrooms would play at a forthcoming gig. But the 25-year-old was approached by two security staff employed by the train company and asked to leave the train at Fareham railway station.

Mr Shaw, who works with young people with learning difficulties, said that they told him he had been behaving suspiciously and asked him to explain the list he had been writing. The set list included Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand, Cigarettes and Alcohol by Oasis and Love Me Like You by The Magic Numbers. Mr Shaw, of Portsmouth, Hampshire, said his band also intended to play All These Things That I've Done by The Killers but he had simply written "killers".


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He said: "They made me get out at Fareham and when I asked what was wrong they told me to show them the piece of paper I'd been writing on. They said I'd been behaving suspiciously. I couldn't understand it. It seemed very strange as it was only a list of songs. We had a gig coming up so I was writing out what we could play. They made me explain song by song."

Mr Shaw added that the security staff told him that he had been questioned because there had been a number of arrests in the area including a man who had murdered his wife. A South West Trains spokeswoman said Mr Shaw was asked politely to leave the train because it was busy and the officers wished to speak to him about their concerns. She added: "We employ a team of highly professional rail community officers who work closely with the British Transport Police in protecting the security of passengers on the rail network."