A man was kicked out of a Peter Kay comedy show for shouting ‘garlic bread’ and felt he was treated unfairly by security personnel.
Philip Peters, along with his son, got ejected from the Manchester event for repeatedly chanting the comedian’s famous catchphrase.
Some audience members criticized Peters, stating he was ruining the experience for others, but he defended himself by saying, ‘I only mentioned garlic bread.’
Initially Mr Peters’s shoutout allegedly earned him a warm reception from the comedian, 51, whose cameramen zoomed in and panned the driver’s face out to the crowd in Manchester’s AO arena.
But by the second half of the show, Mr Kay seemingly lost his sense of humour, quickly ordering the lights to be turned on and for Mr Peters, as well as his son, to be led out of the building.
Mr Peters, whose tickets were bought for him by his 17-year-old daughter for Christmas, said he was left ‘disgusted’ by how he was treated and is now demanding an apology from the comedian.
He told MailOnline: ‘It was me who shouted out “garlic bread”. I was there with my son and they dragged us out like ragged dolls and I am now covered in bruises. A lot of people just stood up and walked out when they saw how we were dragged out.
‘In the first half of the show, I shouted out “garlic bread” and they zoomed in on the camera on me. And I put my thumbs up and thought everything was okay. I got no warning or anything, people around us were laughing and joking.
Peter Kay hosted a Manchester gig as part of his huge live tour this year
Philip Peters, 54, was removed by security after he shouted ‘garlic bread’
Both Mr Peters has been left with bruises allegedly caused by security guards
‘Then in the second half of the show I said it again, “garlic bread”, and that’s when the security guards came over to me and said “you are going to have to leave – Peter Kay doesn’t like people shouting out”.
‘I said are you joking as I thought they were going to warn me off but they stood me up, brought me to the stairs, which were dead steep.
‘I have massive bruises in my leg. I haven’t been able to walk properly at work today. My arms are all covered in bruises.’
He also claims that the comic shouted ‘you’re not laughing now’ as they were marched down the stairs.
Mr Peters claims six security officers handled him while another three took his son.
Once Mr Peters and his son had been taken out of the stadium police officers approached them to ask what had gone on.
But after speaking with the pair, as well as security staff, officers told the father and son to head home.
‘I said [to the officers] we have just been thrown out brutally and I said all I have done is shout garlic bread,’ Mr Peters added.
‘If we had done anything wrong the police would have arrested us, I just can’t understand it, all I said was garlic bread. That’s my favourite joke of his.
‘I have loved Peter Kay forever. I watched him on Car Share, I watch him on TikTok all the time and I’ve always wanted to see him live. I’ve loved watching him.
Mr Peters claims six security officers handled him while another three took his son out of the arena
Mr Peters was left with bruises on his legs and arms and said he was not able to walk properly at work
‘My daughter, who is 17, got us the tickets for Christmas and spent £155 for these tickets.’
After Mr Peter’s was taken out of the arena, another woman sitting close to them allegedly shouted out ‘we love you Peter Kay’ which led to her also being escorted out.
As she was being removed Mr Kay reportedly made a joke about the woman’s weight comparing her to Lisa Riley, audience members claimed.
It led a group of audience members to leave the show before it finished as they were unhappy with the ‘nasty and bitter’ way hecklers were treated.
‘People came up to us when we were outside and sat on the steps saying that we’ve left because of that,’ Mr Peters added. ‘I am absolutely disgusted. For a comedian to not even give us a warning or a bit of banter back.
‘I never said anything abruptly and when I did shout it out I waited until he stopped talking – not in the middle of his joke or anything.
‘There were so many thousands of people in there and we were getting pinned to the floor like rag dolls, throwing us around like pieces of meat.
‘As my friends said today they’re not a good comedian if they can’t handle a bit of banter or shut someone down with a one liner.’
While one man was removed for repeatedly shouting out ‘garlic bread’, a woman was also then asked to leave after she shouted out ‘We love you Peter Kay’ as the comedian shouted back: ‘Go on, off you go Lisa Riley’ (Lisa pictured in August 2024)
He is now hoping to have an apology from the comedian and a refund from the stadium.
Other audience members, who were sat near Mr Peters and his son, however, have said that they ‘deserved’ to be escorted out as they were ‘spoiling the show’ for others.
They applauded the comic and his team for removing the pair from the audience.
‘The guy he chucked out absolutely deserved it,’ Jo Llewellyn told MailOnline. ‘He continued to make a nuisance of himself as the show went on.
‘For those of us who sat beside him he ruined the gig. And as for the lady, she was a few seats behind and the people she sat next to also commented that she had been a huge pain and was disrupting the show for others.
‘I am glad Peter took a stand and removed them as the show was being spoiled for a lot of people. … And if people were so offended at the hecklers being chucked out, why did the crowd near them cheer loudly when they were removed?’
As the men were escorted out of the arena, a woman sitting behind them shouted ‘we love you Peter’ to which he asked, ‘had a drink have we?’
The 52-year-old funnyman then instructed the security team to also remove the woman from the crowd before telling her ‘go on, off you go Lisa Riley’, in reference to the Emmerdale actress and comedian.
The funnyman also made a range of offensive and uncomfortable jokes, including a blind person impression and saying he hadn’t had an erection for years after ‘sertroline 40mg’
And while some were offended by Mr Kay’s apparent ‘nasty and bitter’ approach to hecklers, those sitting closest to the noisy crowd applauded the decision.
Another audience member said: ‘I was seated near the people, and they were a pain in the backside.
‘They were asked several times to be quiet as the old people near them could not hear over their heckling ‘garlic bread’ not just once but many times.
‘We all clapped when he got rid of them and Peter in his own manner dealt with it very well. I thought he gave us what we wanted; it’s what we all waited over two years for.’
A third said: ‘My daughter was at that show and was glad that the people shouting were removed.
‘Peter Kay did ask if the people shouting were annoying the rest of the audience first upon which the audience said that the people were.
‘Shouting repeatedly garlic bread was not banter but disruptive in not a funny way. Bravo to Peter Kay, they spent a lot of money on those tickets and had waited two years.’
Others, however, were left less than impressed by Mr Kay’s decision to remove the hecklers and some claimed his ‘performance was poor’.
Another woman, who also asked to remain anonymous, said Mr Kay, who was using the show for a live recording, seemed in a ‘bad mood’ from the offset.
‘The person who shouted garlic bread shouted it twice before but with engagement from Peter. After the interval, he returned and was making a joke about kidney stones,’ she added.
Peter Kay fans were left outraged after the ‘nasty and bitter’ moment he threw out hecklers with a Lisa Riley jibe as they slammed the comedian’s ‘offensive’ impression of a blind person at his Manchester show on Saturday evening (pictured 2017)
‘The guy then shouted garlic bread and Peter said “Nick, Nick, put the lights on”. Then the arena lit up and they instructed security to go get rid of him.
‘Now if this guy was getting on his nerves, he could have quite easily during the interval – which was quite literally just minutes before – said to his staff this guy is getting rowdy can you please deal with him. But he didn’t.
‘Instead, he did it in front of the whole arena. There was a bit of confusion from the guy, asking if they were being serious.’
Mr Kay then asked for the woman to be removed, calling her ‘Lisa Riley’ – who is best known for portraying Mandy Dingle in the ITV soap Emmerdale and has been open about her own battle with weight, shedding 12 stone in recent years.
It came after Peter Kay was pictured ahead of the tour having lost a great deal of weight himself.
‘I just thought it was really cruel as he shouted “oh ay Lisa Riley”’ the woman added. ‘There was no need to call this woman that. She shouted “we love you Peter”. It wasn’t offensive but she got thrown out.
‘It was just really mean to that woman. It was totally uncalled for calling that woman Lisa Riley and getting her removed from the show. It just makes no sense to me.
‘And I used to love Peter Kay like everyone else, but I just think if that’s who you are it is such a shame. The way he treated that woman, I thought gosh what has happened to him? He is very different from how he was.’
Peter Kay was pictured looking slimmer while heading to his tour bus while leaving London’s O2 arena in January. His performance in Manchester on Saturday night has sparked a row with some leaving early
Audience members had paid almost £200 for tickets to see Mr Kay’s long-awaited comeback tour – with many spending even more on transport and accommodation costs.
James Featherstone, from Harrogate, Yorkshire, had travelled to see the show with his wife and daughter.
And while he has been a fan of Mr Kay’s since the 90s he was left disappointed with the show and the comic’s treatment of the hecklers.
He told MailOnline: ‘When we first bought the tickets there was a lot of hype, expectations and excitement but on the actual night I could tell straight away from the beginning that he wasn’t himself.
‘I always imagined he would only deliver his own material and would never go near anyone else’s material and if something isn’t good enough, he wouldn’t present it but it didn’t feel like him at all. Some of the jokes were old jokes I heard years and years ago from other comedians.
‘And the thing about the hecklers, the guy shouting garlic bread, I imagine if you have a catch phrase someone shouts that at you every day of your life – it’s something that has made you millions and millions of pounds.
‘I can imagine only having shouted it three or four times was a lot lower than I would have expected. And the person who shouted it, I don’t think did anything wrong.
‘Peter Kay’s reaction was completely over the top to have them physically removed. At a push, ask them politely to leave. Having four people taking the guy out was overkill and not dignified either.
Peter Kay dressed in the famous purple suit for the 2005 Amarillo Comic Relief Video Shoot
‘At one point, it wasn’t clear that Peter Kay wasn’t joking about him being removed.
‘It wasn’t a case of escorting him out, it was a case of physically removing him.’
The mammoth tour comes as Mr Kay topped the 2024 rich list thanks to his residency tour, which is estimated to have generated an impressive revenue of £27million.
The Better Late Than Never tour came up trumps, beating Michael McIntyre’s £10.3million revenue.
Tickets to the comic’s gig cost an average of £59.70 in comparison to Michael’s £43.35 tickets.
Mr Kay announced 21 new dates in November 2024, kicking off in February 2025 and will finish his show in February 2026.
Pete Kay Live originally kicked off in December 2022 and the new dates will see him visit 16 cities over the course of a year.
The new tour which will run in 2025 and 2026 will include his first dates at Aberdeen P&J Live, Brighton Centre, Bournemouth International Centre and Isle of Man Villa Marina.
Mr Kay has already broken records during the tour after selling out 45 dates at London’s O2 Arena, the only artist to do so in the world.
The funnyman also performed a record 100 shows at the Manchester AO Arena – breaking all attendance and performance records.
