Green Day On My Jack the Ripper Tour

Over the years I’ve met with thousands of people from all over the world who are absolutely fascinated by the story of Jack the Ripper. It really is a subject that arouses interest in all nationalities and in all walks of life.

I’ve taken cardiologists on Jack the Ripper Walks and I’ve taken school parties around the murder sites. A question i often get asked when I do television or radio interviews about the tour is “what is the typical type of person who takes a jack the Ripper Tour?”

The honest answer to that question is that there is no typical sort of person. The Jack the Ripper murders have the ability to tweak the interest of men and women alike as well as all generations and nationalities.

I’ve been joined on the tour by people who know nothing about the subject but are eager to learn about it. And I’ve been joined on the walk by people who have studied the murders for years and have a fantastic and in depth knowledge about the Jack the Ripper killings.

But one of the strangest request was when I was called up by Green Day’s record company who asked if I’d be able to take the band on a private Jack the Ripper Tour that night.

Now, I have to confess, up until that point Green Day had managed to somehow evade me. In short, I’d never heard of them. But I agreed to do the tour and to have the tour filmed and so duly appeared at the Truman Brewery on Hanbury Street where I met the film grew and awaited the arrival of Green Day.

By this time I’d mentioned who my client for that night was to my sons and had learned from them that I was about to take one of the world’s major rock bands on a Jack the Ripper walk. 

Time was fairly limited so, when the band arrived we were only to do the Jack the Ripper sites around the brewery. But it most certainly caused quite a stir in the area as we walked past other Jack the Ripper tour groups whose participants couldn’t get their cameras out quick enough.

The band themselves were genuinely charming and asked some really great questions and made some truly pertinent observations. I am also pleased to report that I have since become very familiar with their work and so, if you’ll pardon the pun, I can honestly say that I’m no longer a British Idiot as far as their music is concerned.