Fan stories: "Hello! I'm Adele's bass player!"

Peter Randall is a huge Spurs fan - and bass player for the current Queen of Pop, Adele. Here's his story...

Imagine the phone call...

“Hello, Mauricio Pochettino would like to know if you would you like to come and play for Spurs?”

Spurs fan and bass player Peter Randall had music’s version of that call about 18 months ago.

His call just happened to come from the management team of the current Queen of Pop - none other than Tottenham’s own Adele.

Below: Peter on the bass as Adele belts out a song in Dublin - March, 2016  

One of the best-selling recording artists in the world, Adele has won 10 Grammy awards, eight Brit awards, three prestigious Ivor Novello awards (for song writing) and an Oscar and Golden Globe for the 2013 James Bond theme ‘Skyfall’.

In February last year, Adele embarked on a world tour in support of her third studio album ’25’. The first concert was in Belfast on February 29, 2016. The sold-out tour continues in Australia and New Zealand in February and March before the grand finale of four sold-out nights at Wembley Stadium at the end of June, start of July.

Peter, 29, has been with her every step of the way…

“It was amazing to get that phone call, it must have been about 18 months ago now,” said Peter, a regular at the Lane since the early 2000s, on what was a rare visit at the moment - for obvious reasons - for our recent 4-0 win against West Brom.

“I had quite a lot of stuff on myself at the time, so I had to drop everything, but I was more than happy to. It was a great call to get! Would I like to play bass on Adele’s world tour? Well, yes! That’s kind of how the call went!

“The first promotional gigs were Saturday Night Live in America and a BBC special. That was great. There was a lot of pressure but it all went really well. The touring then started a couple of months later in Belfast. It has been fantastic.

“The arena tour has finished now and we’re now doing stadiums in Australia and four nights at Wembley Stadium, which will be amazing. I can’t wait for that.”

Below: Peter is to the immediate right of Adele as we look at this photo of her concert in Los Angeles - August, 2016

‘She’s astonishing’

How long have you known Adele?
Peter: “I’ve been her bass player since the most recent album, ‘25’, I was actually in the support band with Michael Kiwanuka for the ‘21’ tour, so I’ve known her for quite a long time and when it came time to promote the ‘25’ album, I was asked to do it."

So what is it like to play behind that voice every night?
Peter: “Amazing, she’s astonishing every night.”

Does playing for Adele open doors in the music business?
Peter: “Yes, it’s a great gig for that, particularly for a musician because it’s all live and quite an organic live experience. Adele is an amazing live performer and the band is great. It’s a joy to be a part of it.”

Below: Crouchy salutes the Spurs fans after scoring against AC Milan - February, 2011

‘I was in Milan for Crouchy’s goal’

Like many fans, Peter’s initial connection to Spurs was via the family route with his father, Paul, a regular since the 1960s.

Born in Chichester, he told us that he was really caught by the Spurs bug when he moved to London 15 years ago. “One of my best friends Aidan is also a massive Spurs fan, he went every week so I started to come to games with him and that’s how I really got into it,” said Paul. “That was around 2003, 2004, when things really started to turn around for us.

“I loved the Champions League games. I went to AC Milan when we won 1-0 with Peter Crouch’s goal. That was incredible. It was hammering down in Milan that night and I was sat with the AC Milan ultras, so when Crouchy scored I had to keep it really under wraps!

“To be fair, everyone around us was really nice and they knew we were Spurs fans! AC Milan had quite a side out, Ibrahimovic, Gatuso, Silva, Seedorf, Robinho, I’ll never forget that night.

“I loved watching Gareth Bale in that team and now this team is great to watch. I love what Mauricio Pochettino is doing here. It’s a great time to be a Spurs fan.”

‘Wembley - it’s a bit surreal!’

Peter is about to share common ground with his beloved Spurs - performing at Wembley Stadium.

Having watched us play our Champions League matches at the national stadium this season - we’re back there for our Europa League, Round of 32 home leg against KAA Gent - Peter will step out himself at one of the world’s most iconic venues for both sport and music this summer.

“It’s all a bit surreal,” he said. “When everything started happening two two things I really couldn’t wait for were the Wembley gigs and Glastonbury. Those are the biggest you can do really. Glastonbury was amazing and Wembley will be the highlight.”