Band with unfortunate name responds to 'awful coincidence' over cancelled Crooked House gig
A country duo booked to play at the iconic The Crooked House on the night it burned down has described it as an "awful coincidence".
Sally Rae Morris and Stephen Marks, who together perform as Gasoline & Matches, have addressed the public over their unfortunate band name after a poster went viral in the hours following the destruction of the much-loved pub.
The band, which was due to play at The Crooked House on the night of the fire, said it was an "awful coincidence" that they were due to appear at the venue on the night of the fire, but that they are sorry over the loss of the pub.
Both said their phones had been 'blowing up' after the news of the fire on Saturday broke, going on to say that a poster of theirs promoting their Crooked House gig quickly spread around social media.
In the video, posted live to Facebook, the duo said: "We woke up to the awful news that the pub went up in flames last night and crazy and really awful coincidence is our band name, and that our poster was advertised on social media and in the pub, saying Gasoline & Matches were due to play.
"We've been having people reach out all day asking if we are okay and what happened, we're not there. We got told at the start of July that the gig had been cancelled, so we didn't even visit The Crooked House, we'd really been looking forward to going."
Sharing a photo of the poster shared on social media, they later added: "We were contacted by concerned friends, followers & even national news over the weekend regarding this! We were due to perform at The Crooked House on Saturday when it went up in flames!
"The gig had actually been cancelled a month ago, but the pub hadn’t taken the flyer down so the story has now gone viral! Such a crazy coincidence and we are really sad to hear what’s happened!"
Stephen went on to say that they were knocking down their kitchen when they got the news that the pub had been destroyed by the fire and that they both were deeply saddened at the loss of the "iconic pub".
Staffordshire Police is continuing to work with fire investigators to work out the cause of the fire.
The force has also asked anyone with information relating to the fire to get in touch via their Live Chat service on their website at Staffordshire.police.uk, or by calling 101 quoting incident number 761 of 5 August.
