Entertainment

Sleb Safari: Olly Murs attacked by a peanut - 'It proper rocked me'

Maeve Connoly

Maeve Connolly

Maeve is the deputy digital editor at The Irish News. She has worked for the company since 2000.

Olly Murs
Olly Murs Olly Murs

Hello and welcome back to the Library of Showbiz Injuries. There’s tea in the pot and you can hang your wet coat on the back of the door.

Recent noteworthy additions to the Showbiz Injury canon have included Fran Healy from Travis being bitten by a sausage dog, Kate Beckinsale hospitalised by a pair of leggings and Simon Cowell going over the bars of his electric bicycle.

Today, we solemnly add to that list the cheeky chappy who is Olly Murs. Not because he needed surgery after destroying his knee on stage, but because he once had to stop his set after being attacked by a peanut. Was rock n’roll always this dangerous? 

Olly says when he supported One Direction on tour they had passports, lipsticks and mobile phones thrown at them on stage.

“They wanted you to pick up the phone, like take a photo and give it back to them. Fans were so obsessive, especially on tours with the One Direction boys. The fans just wanted one of them to touch their possessions.

“But when you have got 15 phones flying towards you, it was starting to get dangerous at one point. I think they had to say to the fans ‘Could you stop throwing things on stage because someone got quite hurt by something thrown at them?’. I can’t remember, it might have even been me.”

To recap, Olly might have been struck by 15 mobile phones or it might have been someone else. He can’t quite remember. But what he can remember is being hit by a peanut.

As showbiz anecdotes go it’s pretty poor but an undeterred Olly Murs has been talking about it and singers, from Bruce Springsteen to BTS, are bent double laughing.

Olly was performing at a private 18th birthday party when the nut was thrown in an (unprovoked?) attack and only now does he feel able to share his story with Heart Bingo, for whom he is a brand ambassador.

"It hurt,” is the first thing he wants you to know. Have a heart, people, dry roasted peanuts can do a lot of damage.

“I was at this 18th birthday party at this lovely house. I rarely lose my cool or get angry on stage. But this was someone’s house. It was pitch black and I could not see. I was about four or five songs in and I see this peanut come flying towards me. It hit me straight on the forehead.

“Honestly, it proper rocked me. I had to stop the song. I said, ‘can we stop, stop, stop [the] song. Who the hell threw the peanut?”

And that’s where the story ends, leaving the reader with more questions than answers. Sleb Safari has a haunch the missile was launched by the birthday celebrant because “If I told you once I told you a million times, OLLY ALEXANDER”  but until we get clarity all we can do is add Olly’s story to the library, rinse our cup and close the door behind us.

Joe Swash's stag weekend was a writing retreat for Rob Beckett

Rob Becket
Rob Becket Rob Becket

KUDOS to Rob Beckett who turned Joe Swash’s stag weekend into his own personal writing retreat.

On the first night he convinced the group to knock their all-day party on the head at nightfall and then he took them to KFC and had them back at the hotel for 11pm.

“I wake up the next day at 10am, so I’ve had 11 hours sleep. I’ve got a load of messages. They all went back out at 1am until 6am,” Rob said in his podcast.

The same thing happened the next night and Rob came home refreshed and with two chapters of his next book written. Can’t wait to see what he squeezes into the wedding day.

Kim Kardashian has custom Skittles

KIM Kardashian, she who is blessed of bottom, has been copping some flak for having custom Skittles. Well, it’s not so much that she has silver Skittles made especially for her, it’s that when she posted a picture of them on social media it was from her private jet.

Sleb Safari is tickled that, after everything, it’s custom confectionery that is the final straw for a quota of Kim fans. ‘Flaunting her wealth’ apparently…

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Serena Williams has a healthy attitude to losing

Serena Williams wasn't meant to lose at Wimbledon, never mind lose in the first round, but you have to admire her healthy, positive attitude to the whole thing.