Phil Egan

I was staying in a hotel about 50 kilometers outside Marseille, it was the only place I could find, with a journalist, a news reporter from the Observer.

And he was driving.

I didn't drive at the time.

So he was driving.

So I was dependent on him for a lift.

So we had gone out to the Irish bar on the Sunday night and it was all kicking off in Marseille.

I was like, good to be out here.

And he's like, I've got to go in there.

I said, okay, yeah, you've got to come with me.

Like, if you want to get back to your hotel, you've got to come with me.

So we had to leave the safety of the bar and drive

right into into the middle of the riot so we had this little white pewter i remember and um every time like i didn't know this guy it's very nice guy but every time i thought like this will do so we'll just try and go a bit further and we literally drove down a side street beside the riot like and he just said this is perfect

Let's get out.

And how does one report on a riot for The Observer?

Is he there with a notebook in front of him?

He just disappeared.

And I was like, well, okay, I'll wander around.

You should have got a great copy out of that.

But yeah, but at the same time, you're also...

It was a riot.