The strip club and bar where Kings of Leon played their first UK gig has been bombarded with phone calls from hopeful fans after the band said they would “love” to return to High Wycombe during a BBC interview last week.
The White Horse on West Wycombe Road has been thrown into the limelight after the American band declared their love for the town on national radio and said they hoped to return to the pub which staged “the birth of Kings of Leon”.
The group played a five song set at the bar in 2003 – where they shared their evening with a group of lap dancers - and are now celebrating the release of their seventh album.
Drummer, Nathan Followill, told the BBC: “I've always wanted to go back and play there one last time. It was the birth of the Kings of Leon.
“It was absolutely insane. We weren't allowed in our dressing room because the girls were finishing their dances.
"We're high-fiving each other because we're all young and we're playing at the same place as strippers."
Unfortunately, despite the pub’s phone “ringing off the hook” with expectant fans, according to general manager Alastair Watts, Kings of Leon are yet to make contact with the White Horse.
However Mr Watts, who was working when Kings of Leon played at the bar, said the staff have been “chuffed to bits” about the mention and remains hopeful the band will still make a booking.
He said: “I worked there but I don’t remember them at all. They said on the report this old bint came in to say they weren’t allowed in their dressing room until the dancers had finished – well that was me.
“I wasn’t a manager at the time I was just here to organise the dancers. In those days the manager, who had been a roadie with The Who knew what he was doing with music and booked these guys.
“We were chuffed to bits when we got mentioned though."
He added that welcoming the band would “make a difference from strippers and footballers."
Mr Watts continued: “The whole thing is very funny. We started writing phone numbers down but then too many people rang for us to get back to.
“We were hoping for a phone call but haven’t heard anything yet. I’m very disappointed actually. I was going to see if we could get hold of them but these people are impossible to contact.
“They get booked up years in advance so maybe we’ll get a booking next year who knows. They sometimes do smaller charity gigs.
“It would make a difference from football fans and strippers I suppose.”
The watering hole was once famed for being one of the toughest pubs in Britain after appearing on the documentary “Britain’s Toughest Pub” however Mr Watts insists there has never been any trouble.
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