16-05-2005 19:22									#1
	Anyone heard of that mysterious "Piano Man" in Kent...? Remove this text

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4550069.stm

quote: Fantastic response to 'Piano Man' A helpline set up to identify a mystery man who stunned carers by giving a virtuoso classical piano performance has been inundated with calls. The man has not said a word since police picked him up wandering the streets of Sheerness, Kent, in a soaking wet suit and tie on 7 April. His social worker Michael Camp said the man, in his 20s or 30s, is usually very anxious but "comes alive" at the piano. Orchestras around Europe are being contacted to see if they know him. The National Missing Persons Helpline is appealing to anyone who recognises the man to come forward. Mr Camp said there had been a "fantastic" response. ... The man's talent came to light after staff at the Medway Maritime Hospital gave him a pen and paper in the hope he would write his name. Instead the patient, dubbed The Piano Man, drew very detailed pictures of a grand piano. The man shocked staff with a performance of classical music after Mr Camp showed him the piano in the hospital's chapel. ... The man has since written music, which has been verified as genuine. ... Several lines of inquiry have been followed, and the hospital brought in interpreters to see if the mystery patient was from Eastern Europe. He is now being held in a secure mental health unit in north Kent while an assessment is carried out. Mr Camp said he was "extremely distressed" and may have suffered a trauma. ... Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/4550069.stm

Weird one, this. Could he be an autist? We have autist twin brothers at uni. One of them jumps around and shows people how he once kicked a ball up a uni building. The other one is a soft dood who's with some girl who carresses him. None of them ever speak a word unless you really provoke a big reaction, which soemtimes includes speaking-like articulations.

So what about this dude?



Of course it might be very mysterious bullshit as well

Edit: reformatted and shortened the quoted text. Maybe some people will give it a try now.

	16-05-2005 19:41									#2
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Well, I just read about it. Strange story.

	16-05-2005 20:01									#3
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Strange indeed.

	16-05-2005 20:44									#4
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still not read it

but to be the thirth to say it: strange

	16-05-2005 20:48									#5
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He might be from the 24th century.

	16-05-2005 20:49									#6
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Strange.

	16-05-2005 20:59									#7
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It's also in the German news now. Strange.

	16-05-2005 21:00									#8
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I think he was preparing for a classic concert when he suddenly was confronted with some gangsta rap stuff. That shocked him so much that he lost all his memories, and tried to commit suicide by jumping into water. Also, due to the trauma, he's now literally speechless. His piano playing is a form of self-therapy. If they don't disturb him with more modern stuff there's a good chance for recovery though....

	16-05-2005 21:06									#9
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Spiegel.de says he might have been on a ship in the suit and then fell into the water, swam to the coast where he was found with a shock. Well, that's their idea of it

	16-05-2005 21:07									#10
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They're calling him Great Britain's Kaspar Hauser though

	16-05-2005 21:12									#11
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quote: Originally posted by BeBro I think he was preparing for a classic concert when he suddenly was confronted with some gangsta rap stuff.

As far as the article... Weird.

Maybe it's just a publicity stunt, though?

Although then the mental hospital people would have probably figured it out by now...

	16-05-2005 21:14									#12
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prolly so

	16-05-2005 21:19									#13
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Any UK poster we miss?....

	16-05-2005 21:40									#14
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They say he might be Swedish though...

	16-05-2005 21:41									#15
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He's clearly from an alternate reality!

	16-05-2005 21:47									#16
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Wow! PH sure has lost a lot of weight!

	16-05-2005 23:26									#17
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bump

	16-05-2005 23:40									#18
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Heard about him, but its not as interesting as when the caped crusader appeared in Tunbridge Wells.

	16-05-2005 23:47									#19
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At least he wasn't drunk and driving his car into innocent ppls houses.

	17-05-2005 00:10									#20
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quote: Originally posted by Ecthelion They're calling him Great Britain's Kaspar Hauser though

Beware of masked daggermen, eh?

Not David Helfgott?

	17-05-2005 00:17									#21
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Crusader? Helfgott?

	17-05-2005 00:19									#22
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quote: Originally posted by Japher At least he wasn't drunk and driving his car into innocent ppls houses.

Wait when he begins to remember!

	17-05-2005 00:35									#23
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If popular culture has taught me anything, it's that young men with amnesia are always highly-skilled government assassins. Just wait until he shoots his way out and goes looking for the man who set him up.

	17-05-2005 04:14									#25
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It seems a bit peculiar that they haven't managed to elicit any kind of response from him, spoken or written, in over a month. Not that it's unheard of, but I think in this case something doesn't add up, it's a hoax.

	17-05-2005 04:38									#26
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The source appears to be Reuters, and hundreds of online news papers have put it up.

Just to be more relative on things:

quote: Hospital chaplain the Rev. Steve Spencer said the man "is not the virtuoso that he has been portrayed in the press. He knows a small number of tunes and plays them over and over I recognized some John Lennon and a snippet from Tchaikovsky's 'Swan Lake.'"

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=762083

	17-05-2005 04:40									#27
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Yes Winston, next you'll be telling them it was me who made it up

On some German forum people agree he might be a time traveller

	17-05-2005 04:45									#28
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... What I don't understand is where did that picture in the first link / post come from... It's not the piano guy, is it? Because that picture doesn't look like a mentally disturbed man in a wet suit on a beach (at least not on the beach they were showing in the video also linked from the first article). Plus, he has there blonde hair, whereas on the second picture, it's dark with silver streaks. Something don't add up...

	17-05-2005 04:48									#29
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They just dressed him up for the first pic and made him pose for the camera.

Colour of the hair just appears different because of different lighting.

This is a time traveller!

	17-05-2005 04:49									#30
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quote: Originally posted by Ecthelion They just dressed him up for the first pic and made him pose for the camera. Colour of the hair just appears different because of different lighting.

Right.