Shame frontman Charlie Steen sparks viral reaction with lift story

Shame frontman Charlie Steen has gone viral after appearing in a video where he recounts an incident involving defecating in a lift while intoxicated.

The clip comes from the online video series A View From A Bridge, which invites participants to answer a ringing red phone on a bridge and tell a personal story, often emotional or unexpectedly profound. Recent contributors to the series include Jacob Collier and Simon Neil.

After picking up the phone, Steen explains that he is about to share “a story about friendship”, centred on one of the band’s managers, Paul, who he previously lived with.

“We were living in central London and it was four floors up in this old building. It was January and it was cold and it was bleak and it was wet, but I got the call from him and he was in the pub and basically needed some sorrows drowning,” Steen explained.

“And we were in there and we hit another pub and we end up at the Polish Club. So we got all this Guinness in our [bellies] and then the best thing to do at that time, it seemed, was to add all this vodka. But then last call came and we thought we’d carry it on into the night. Paul’s like, ‘Alright, I’ll go grab the beers then, I’ll meet you back up at the flat’. So I’m like, ‘Alright, I’ll see you back up in there’.”

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“So I get in the lift, close the doors behind me and this is the slowest lift in the fucking world. And that’s when my stomach just flipped and I knew there was nothing I could do. You know, I just needed the toilet and the lift was going and i couldn’t open the doors. And it was just climbing slowly and I just had to face the reality that I was gonna shit the lift. And in that moment, you can’t really get much lower apart from the squatting.”

Steen went on to say: “I was wearing a similar overcoat to this so I flipped it up penguin style and it wasn’t pretty. The worst part was that it finally reached the floor, the fourth floor where Paul and I lived. You’re then faced with a lift full of shit. And so I ran into the flat and grabbed bleach and I grabbed paper towels and I run back and I’m on my knees and I’m trying to erase what I’ve done.

“And I hear Paul coming up and the clinking of beer bottles coming up the stairs. And he turns the corner and I just hear the bag drop and the beer bottles break. He goes, ‘What have you done?’ The smell, the smell… what have you done?’ and I’m like, ‘I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry Paul!’

“Most people you know would choose never to look at you again, they would just kick you out. But how many people can truly say they have a friend who in that moment got on their knees and helped me clean it up? I love that man a lot and there’s no reason to after that story. And then the next morning, he woke up as he was passing my door and I sort of looked at him, he looked at me and he was like, ‘That was a big night wasn’t it?’ and i was like, ‘Yeah.’ And there was a pause, and he goes: ‘You shat the lift.'”

At the time of writing, the video has racked up 14,600 likes on Instagram. Among those reacting was Ellie Rowsell of Wolf Alice, who commented that the story was “beautifully told”.

Shame released their fourth studio album ‘Cutthroat’ in September. In a four star review, NME wrote: “‘Cutthroat’ is at its most intriguing when it showcases the band’s depth and multi faceted nature. In addition to the electronic elements (‘To and Fro’, ‘After Party’), there’s also the artsy spaghetti western pastiche of ‘Lampião’ and the pristine jangle pop of ‘Spartak’. They’re risky, sure, but they also meld with Shame’s idiosyncrasies enough to remain identifiably them.”