A teenager managed to celebrate the end of her exams in the most ‘incredible’ way, having been plucked from the crowd at a sold-out gig to play drums on stage for The Killers – just hours after sitting her final test. Watch the footage here:
Sixth form student Grace Ellis, 17, completed her last exam at East Norfolk Sixth Form College in Gorleston, Norfolk, just before 3.00pm on Thursday, 9 June, and made her way over to Norwich City’s Carrow Road stadium for the gig.
She’d made a banner begging the band to let her ‘play drums for 'Reasons Unknown’', knowing The Killers have a tradition for allowing a member of the band to help with their 2007 song.
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Being a ‘massive fan’ of the indie group, Ellis said she’d been practising the hit tune at home in the hope that she might get picked – a dream that came true as the opening riff began and frontman Brandon Flowers signalled to her to come up and join him.
Speaking to ITV News, Ellis said: "It was incredible. I can't describe it. I'm so grateful that I was able to do it and I got chosen to do it. I don't believe it still. It's quite incredible.
"Everyone was cheering my name, it was amazing. I like to drum along to my favourite songs, and I knew they played that particular song so I just sat and practised by myself.
"I just practised running up to the gig, and then it actually happened!"
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Ellis, who is from Worlingham near Beccles in Suffolk and as been playing drums since she was 11, was dubbed 'Amazing Grace' on social media as her performance went viral, with one audience member tweeting to say she'd 'smashed it'.
Sam Currall (@SamCurrall32) wrote: "Girl called Grace got picked from the crowd to play drums with The Killers at Norwich. She smashed it."
According to Ellis, frontman Flowers shook her hand after she finished and said: "Well done."
She added: "I was still in shock, you just can't believe it happened.
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"Just being at the gig was a great way to finish my exams and being able to play with them made it even better."
The teen's sixth form college also praised her for the performance, tweeting: "If you went to see The Killers last night you may have seen our student Grace on the drums after being picked out from the crowd! Well done, Grace, you rocked it!"
Jess Hardiman