A COVER band were left stunned after Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong appeared at the London boozer they were performing at – and joined them on stage.
Borderline Toxic were playing at Slim Jim’s Liquor Store in Islington, Greater London on Saturday when they performed Green Day’s 1994 hit Basket Case.
Unbeknownst to the band, Billie Joe Armstrong – lead singer and guitarist of Green Day – had been sitting at that very pub, and chose to join the band’s vocalist Kerry Glass for a rendition of his tune.
Video shows a lively crowd packed into the venue, jumping up and down to Green Day’s double platinum-selling song Basket Case as Kerry headbangs at the front of her band.
Former drummer for Amy Winehouse, Pete Ray Biggin, can be seen on the drums as well as guitarists Jack Rowe and Geoff Torrn.
Suddenly, Billie Joe Armstrong emerges from the throngs of people in the venue, confidently jumping onto centre stage as the crowd roars with delight.
Kerry quickly realises she has been joined by her idol, gazing on speechlessly with her jaw dropped as Armstrong, 51, effortlessly joins in the tune.
The clip then cuts to Kerry and Armstrong belting out the lyrics to Basket Case side-by-side as the audience shouts along.
She then raves on stage in ecstasy, jumping up and down with the crowd, as Armstrong joins guitarist Jack, pretending to help him play the instrumental.
At the end of the song, Armstrong hugs Kerry and guitarist Jack before he humbly lets them take the full stage again, walking off to return to his seat.
The footage was posted on Saturday by Green Day themselves, who wrote: “When you walk into a pub and the cover band starts playing your song.”
Borderline Toxic also posted their video on Saturday, writing in response: “Dream come true for this lil indie band.
“Green Day were my first favourite rock band at 11…how you gonna do this to me Billie Joe Armstrong?! Thank you.”
The footage saw a whopping two million views, over 260,000 likes and more than 2,000 comments from fans left in wild delight at Armstrong’s random cameo appearance.
One person wrote: “I love how at first she was like ‘Who the hell is getting up on stage…’”
Another said: “What a legend.”
A third commented: “Green Day is truly a fan’s band. Thanks for bringing happiness to the masses.”
A fourth added: “Best moment of their lives.”
A fifth said: “OMG I got nervous, scared, worried, excited and full of joy for the band and everyone there. This is a dream wish come true, wow.”
Speaking to vocalist Kerry, 33, today she said: “No one knew [Armstrong was there]!
“I started singing the first few lines acapella (taking the piss in Scottish), then the band kicked in and all of a sudden he was getting on stage.
“He was sitting up the back, just having a drink. We felt sheer shock at first then ‘F**k it, let’s have it’. We played our arses off!
“When I moved to London five years ago I hadn’t been in music, got together with [band drummer Pete] and he’s huge in the drumming scene so I was thrust into the music scene as soon as I met him.
“He pushed me and together we started writing groove rock music with our friend Henrik.
“We recorded and filmed a few releases in the pandemic which we spent in Bali. When we came back to London we had a bunch of material so set about getting the band together.
“We met Jack through our producer and Geoff recently completed the line-up on guitar.
“The band was named after a bit of an espresso martini-fuelled beef we had one night between me and Pete in Bali and our mate called us borderline toxic.
“Since then we’ve just been getting our heads down writing and gigging in London. At the minute we’re in the studio, getting the album finished but the plan is to start booking gigs for the summer.
“We’re also looking at putting on a monthly rock night in London which will be hosted by Borderline Toxic so we want to get stuck into putting the wheels in motion for that.”
