"Astley fans' rush hour 'flashmob' "

[Lovergoat]

Fans of pop star Rick Astley descended on London's Liverpool Street train station for a "flashmob" event.

The "flashmob" - where a group of people assemble in a public place for a brief period of time - happened just before 1800 BST.

Some of the fans donned Astley masks in honour of the 1980s hitmaker, before the crowd sang his trademark hit Never Gonna Give You Up.

Police said the incident passed peacefully - if not quietly.

'Really funny'

Witness Paras Barot, 22, from Golders Green in north London, said he heard about the event on social networking site Facebook and decided to head to the station.

"I got there with some friends just before 6pm, and there were lots of people there - the whole station was at a standstill."

He said he thought there were some 300 or 400 people taking part in the event.

"There was a countdown from 5.59 to 6pm. Some guys put their masks on, and a lot of them started singing the song.

"For those of us who knew what was going on it was really funny."

Mr Barot said he did not join in the singing. "I don't know the words."

A British Transport Police spokeswoman said: "We monitored the incident. There were no problems, no arrests. They did what they had to do and then left."

An estimated 13 million internet users have been tricked into watching the video for Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up in recent weeks.

LINK - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7343833.stm

 

[bloodhokuto]

I can't stand flashnobbers, 'OMG I'm so select and cool'.

If they had stopped me getting my train, I would have stamped my feet and flailed about a bit to show them all.

 

[kernow]

lol . so gay

I remember going into a pub I hadn't frequented in a year or so, the owner told me there would be a 'random pillow fight' happening in town in a couple hours and he showed me his pillow concealed in a suitcase.

I just wondered what his 40yr old frame was thinking, and didn't attend.

 

[J. Max]

It's a Rick Astley Flashmob too. If it wasn't gay enough, have you ever seen Rick Astley? He looks like Clay Aiken's pedophile father.

 

[aria]

Flash mobs? Those are so 2003. LOL... England.

Seriously though, they've always made me wary because I've always thought the smartest flash mob organizer would be a terrorist:

"Hey, [Astley or whoever fans], let's all meet in [open space] at [whatever] time and surprising everyone with a [whatever]!"

As soon as 500 people show up, get them into a tight crowd and then detonate your vest.

So, yeah... avoid flash mobs in Israel or Iraq.

Of course, now I've probably put myself on every terrorist watchlist in the world.