A police officer was feeling the beat when he stunned shoppers by picking up a busker’s acoustic guitar – and started belting out hits by OASIS.
PC Ian Northcott stopped passersby in their tracks when he broke into his off-the-cuff street performance outside a busy shopping centre in Birmingham.
The West Midlands Police officer joined two buskers for a sing-a-long on Saturday and has since become a world-wide internet hit on YouTube.
A video of his performance uploaded by Ben Chambers, 22, from Leeds, has already attracted over 50,000 views.
In the 1min 47secs video the officer sings the classic Oasis hit ‘Wonderwall’ and a large excited crowd can be seen gathering and cheering.
The bobby then went on to sing ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ and ‘Roll With It’ by the Indie legends for another 10 minutes and collect £14 for the busker for his efforts.
Student Ben said: “He was belting out all the Oasis hits, it was brilliant and it made for a fantastic atmosphere.
“The response to the video has been immense – I’ve had people from American TV shows contacting me.
“They wouldn’t get this in the USA – but it’s a great example of British community policing.
“Everybody loved it – there must have been about one hundred people gathered round at one point.”
Yesterday Pc Northcott said he had picked up the guitar in an attempt to “break down barriers between the police and the public.”
He said: “It was such a lovely day, everyone seemed happy, it just felt such a natural thing to do
“We are always looking for ways to break down barriers between the police and the public and this was one of them.
“It’s clear that many people, be they in the crowd at the time or watching on social media, enjoyed the performance.
“I’m sure the majority will agree that this really encapsulates the true spirit of neighbourhood policing.”
Chief Supt Clive Burgess, of Birmingham West and Central Police, praised Pc Northcott for his impromptu performance.
He said: “Whilst neighbourhood policing is primarily about being highly visible in order to deter and detect crime, another key part of the job is to interact with the public and to provide a friendly, reassuring presence.”
Among those to have viewed the clip is Gareth Helliwell who commented on the Youtube site: “British policing at its best, you won’t see that anywhere else in Europe. Fair play to him.”
While Steve Hartmann said: “Brilliant! Fair play to the police officer for showing us his talent. Proper community policing.”
And YouTube user win70supershadow added: “This is the sort of community outreach that is invaluable to a police department.
“It may not seem like a big deal but just having a positive connotation in the community can make your policing far more effective.”
