Couple’s hang up over R&B star calls

A tune by a chart-topping recording artist has rung all the wrong bells with a frustrated Grotton couple.

Gerry Matley and his wife, Catriona Howard-Smith, have been deluged with shoals of telephone calls from adoring fans of American R&B hitmaker, Soulja Boy.

The Atlanta-based star’s latest tune, “Kiss Me Thru the Phone” hit the UK singles charts a month ago. Since then the couple’s home telephone has gone into meltdown. Because the singer raps a 10-digit phone number in the song and the first seven numbers link callers in the Greater Manchester area and beyond directly to their ex-directory home telephone.

Catriona, who ran the Hanging Gate pub in Diggle with her husband, said: “We are getting more than 40 calls a day at the moment from Soulja Boy fans.

“Mostly, the calls come from young girls who ring in the afternoon after they have finished school. But there have been extremes with callers phoning up at 3am asking to speak to the star.

“Many actually believe they are going to speak to the singer himself. We don’t want to burst their bubble — and we do try to let them down gently. But they simply have a problem believing we are actually in Grotton — not America.

“Some fans start singing down the phone to us, and, even though we patiently explain the situation, they find it hard to understand we have absolutely nothing to do with the singer.”

Mr Matley, a 54-year-old father-of-two, runs an energy assessment business from his home and for business reasons cannot change his number.

He said: “It must be a billion-to-one chance for someone to choose our telephone number to include in a song.

“Our lives have been turned upside down by the calls. Many fans think they are through to a showbiz hotline — not a private house. We are just going to have to tough it out until interest in the tune fades,” he added.

Soulja Boy — real name DeAndre Ramone — has become a massive star on the rap scene in the United States and received a Grammy nomination in 2008.

He had a public feud with Ice-T after the Gangsta legend said his work was garbage and accused him of killing hip-hop. In December, last year, he was held at gunpoint in his home by robbers.

Ms Howard-Smith knew nothing of the singer’s colourful personal life when the calls first began.

But she later solved the riddle when her daughter, Catherine (20) told her about the song and his popularity.

She added: “It is really bizarre. Some callers ask if I am his girlfriend.”

“I suppose it is amusing — but we wish it would stop.”