The sad story of what happened to the £1 fish man
2012 was a simpler time - the hope of having the Olympics in London, and the fact United were at the start of a title-winning campaign.
Their last one.
Social media was booming and the man of the moment was the '£1 fish man'.
Muhammad Nazir - a Pakistani fish merchant - shot to fame in Queen's Market, London, when he tried to convince customers into buying his fish - with the help of a very catchy song, of course.
Advert
If you memory needs a jog, the song goes a little something like this: "Come on ladies / Come on ladies / One pound fish / Have a, have a look / one pound fish / Have a, have a look, one pound fish / Very, very good, one pound fish / Very, very cheap, one pound fish / Six for five pound, one pound each / Six for five pound, one pound each / Very, very good and very, very cheap / One pound, one pound."
Take a look below:
His boss had ordered him to find a way to get the attention of customers and, instead of using the traditional trader's calls, he decided to put together the now iconic song.
It got so popular that 'One Pound Fish' reached number 28 in the UK music charts and Nazir signed a deal with Warner Music.
Sadly, after reaching the height of his fame, things soon went wrong for the market stall trader turned singing sensation.
Nazir says he went to Pakistan to apply for a French visa so he could perform in the country, but reports claimed that his viral fame had alerted immigration services that his visa had expired.
He returned to Pakistan in December 2012 while his song was still a big hit in Britain, and was told he would have to apply for a new visa, which he did not get since he was accused of breaching his previous one.
A 2013 document from the UK border agency says he was 'signed as a singer by an entertainment company', which breached the student visa he had obtained to move to the UK.
Nazir denied any wrongdoing, telling the New Statesman: "It was technically a mistake, but not made by only one person. Warner Bros released the music.
"If I am guilty I am not the only person."
He also revealed in the 2016 interview that he'd unsuccessfully applied for a UK visa twice at that time.
Since then, it appears as though the one pound fish man has bounced back and decided to switch to a new line of business - and he's had to tweak his iconic song because of it.
These days, Nazir sells vape liquid for - you guessed it - one pound apiece, and a couple of years ago released a music video promoting his new line of work.
Appearing in the video as singing scientist 'Dr Shady' cooking up a batch of 'very good quality' product, Nazir serenades potential customers with the adapted words 'come on vapers, come on vapers, one pound juice'.
The lyrics are basically exactly the same as they used to be when he was trying to sell people fish at a market stall, only now it's vaping liquid over the internet.
Asking vapers to try his 'lots of flavours, all one pound', he urged them to buy his 'sweet and fruity' vape juice.
Topics: Viral, Social Media
Anish Vij