When Dave picked a fan called Alex out of a crowd to perform his football-inspired grime hit Thiago Silva in front of thousands on stage at Glastonbury in 2019, the moment instantly became the feelgood festival news story of the year. ‘I’m f**king buzzing,’ the 15-year-old told the crowd before launching into a word-perfect rendition.
And history repeated itself in California this weekend when Dave invited another fan from the Coachella crowd up on stage to perform the song. ‘Surely, I have to share the stage with one of you guys, right?’ he told the screaming crowd. ‘Coachella, surely, right?’
After testing his fans’ knowledge of the lyrics, he selected a teenage boy near the front of the stage to join him. ‘I think it could be you,’ he said pointing to the lucky fan. ‘It’s him,’ he emphasised as a tall brunette boy in a football shirt and a rucksack clambered onto the stage.
Even before the fan spoke you could tell he was English. ‘Let’s get this man a microphone please,’ Dave commanded as he introduced himself: ‘My name is Spike I’m from London, I’m here for Coachella,’ he yelled with floppy hair and an endearing grin that could have been written by Richard Curtis – who is, it turns out, his father.
‘That. Is. My. Brother. Spike. At. Coachella WITH DAVE!,’ his sister Scarlett Curtis revealed in a proud frenzy on Twitter. ‘He’s 18. He has school at 8am tomorrow. He was picked out of the crowd. We have never seen him rap before….’
Obviously, the Love Actually-grime-Coachella cultural crossover sent everyone’s heads into orbit: ‘Absolutely rocked by the knowledge that Dave picked Richard Curtis' son out of the Coachella crowd?????’ questioned one fan on Twitter. ‘He was late for school…. Hmmm…’ added Spike’s mum Emma Freud later.
While many fans were praising Spike’s rapping ability (‘good effort fam’) others pointed out that Spike’s family connections were emblematic of the privilege that encompassed the entire event: ‘It’s very funny to me that Coachella is so much a festival for micro-celebrities that the ‘random pick’ from the crowd didn’t end up as an Alex from Glasto moment so much as a ‘oh shit that’s Richard Curtis’ SON’ moment,’ they said.
There was also confusion online after Scarlett claimed she’d ‘never seen [Spike] rap before’ despite him releasing a rap album on Soundcloud in 2016 under the name Petit Savage. 'You guys I’m not the best sister and completely forgot,’ she defended. ‘He was 12. So, I’m not sure it was rapping. I think it was just bad.’
Inevitably, there have been allegations that Spike was planted in the crowd: ‘Cough cough….nepotism,’ wrote one Twitter user. ‘Yep just randomly picked out of the crowd,’ added another. Yet, his mum maintained it was totally by chance: ‘He is a schoolboy and went to Coachella on a regular ticket with his best friend. First time he has been,’ she claimed.
Amongst the cynics, the other half of the internet pointed out that (thanks to the festival’s star-sprinkled guest list) the A-list connection wasn’t that surprising: ‘Everyone going wild at the chances of Richard Curtis's son getting picked out of the audience at Coachella,’ one person wrote. ‘I thought the whole point of that festival was that you can swing a cat and hit like five millionaires' children without trying.’
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