‘We thought we’d done our last gig of the year. Then we played the Eurostar’
A broken-down train left passengers stranded outside Calais for eight hours â including the indie band Stornoway
Eurostar passengers who were stranded on a siding for eight hours after their London-bound train broke down had their boredom relieved by an impromptu gig from indie band Stornoway.
The group had been returning from a performance in Belgium when the 8.52am (07.52am BST) train they were travelling on came to a sudden halt two hours after departure â leaving passengers without power, or information.
The lack of power meant both the toilet and air conditioning stopped working during what was one of the hottest days of the year so far.
The bandâs bassist, Oli Steadman, said that after three hours during which âyou could feel the stress and emotion creeping inâ, the passengers were allowed to get out of the train onto the sidings â and that was when they decided to play cover songs on their guitars as a distraction from the heat.
âItâs not too bad when thereâs cloud cover, but it was getting so hot that we then needed to find something to do,â Steadman told The i Paper.
âThatâs when we cracked out the guitar. We happen to have a few songs about travel. Thatâs a bit of a theme for us.
âWe had an ideal song, which was âThe Only Way Is Upâ by Yazz, which starts, âWeâve been broken down,â and so we just changed it to about being on the Eurostar. We handed one of the passengers a tambourine and they did a really good job.â
He added that other songs they played were Talking Headsâ âThis Must Be the Place (aka Home)â; their own composition âWe Are the Battery Humanâ; and the finale of âKing of the Roadâ.
This was partially a reference to the fact that the group had opted for a Eurostar trip as a green alternative to a tour bus.
âWe had really mixed messages and not much communication from Eurostar, which was been a bit of a trying factor in the whole thing,â Steadman said.
At around 4pm, they were loaded onto a replacement train, but it still had not moved two hours later. At least one passenger was stretchered off to a waiting ambulance.
But Steadman said that the passengers were at least fortunate the train had stopped âby a wood with lots of birds, which is niceâ.
âIt could have been worse â we could have been in built-up Brussels or a concrete jungle, or in a tunnel,â he said.
âPeople kept their cool as long as they could. Itâs been a vote of confidence in a civil society.
âWe thought weâd done our last gig til our Albert Hall Show in March. This extra warm-up has been a surprise.â
