G-A-Y owner Jeremy Joseph names Britney Spears as the one star he wouldn’t have back
"My biggest regret is I didn’t just grab her and yank her on stage".
From Madonna to Gaga to Adele, G-A-Y owner Jeremy Joseph has engineered public appearances by some of the world’s biggest stars at his venues.
But one pop icon he’s not in a hurry to invite back is Britney Spears.
Asked on the Kylie Minogue fan podcast The Diminutive Collection “What about the artists who have disrespected you? Who would you not have back in one of your venues?” Jeremy replied: “Maybe Britney…”
“My biggest regret is I didn’t just grab her and yank her on stage”
The club manager [pictured below with Alyssa Edwards] then explained that two planned appearances with the ‘Slave 4 U’ singer have gone awry in the past.
He explained: “The first time she cancelled, three or four days before. She had come over here to promote ‘Toxic’ and then suddenly she was unwell and her mum took her back home. That was awful. It was early days of G-A-Y.
“But the worst one, we were going to do a surprise. All she had to do was walk on stage and say hello. That’s all she had to do.
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“It was her birthday – so we had a birthday cake planned for her and the audience would sing happy birthday to her.
“We didn’t know if she was going to do it or not. So we did a Britney night instead.
“[…] We get a phone call from her security saying ‘she’s not coming’. We said fine, we hadn’t announced it so we carried on with our night.
“At midnight, I get this phone call saying ‘she’s five minutes away.’ So we get everything ready. She pulls up, her security guard says, ‘Right, all down to you’. She comes in. She’s very quiet, ‘Hi, hi.’ We cleared the stage, her security checked the stage.
“I go: ‘Are you ready?’ And she goes: ‘What? I’m not going on?’ And I said, ‘What do you mean you’re not going on? We’ve cleared the stage, we’re ready to go.’
“And she said ‘Oh no, I can’t do it.’ So I had to go on stage and go: ‘Hi, she is here but she’s not going to come on.’
“She’s watching me standing at the side of the stage, looking at me. She can hear the audience boo.
“My biggest regret is I didn’t just grab her and yank her on stage. Out of respect I didn’t. But now I’m thinking, we were never going to see each other again, we not going to be friends – why didn’t I just put her out on stage and say “she’s here! I’m not lying!’”
Joseph added: “I remember her manager saying to me: ‘Do you want a photo with her?’ I went: ‘No! I’ve just been through hell on earth with her.'”
To hear Jeremy’s episode of The Diminutive Collection in full, visit Spotify.
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