THE lead singer of an American rock band has been reunited with a fan that saved one of the band’s North-East gigs more than a decade ago - after a 'teenage dirtbag' threatened to bring it to a halt.

Brendan Brown, front man of Wheatus - came face to face with Laura Jade Smith for the first time since their performance at Middlesbrough Town Hall in 2003.

The singer’s iconic spectacles were stolen midway through the performance, but Ms Smith saw them being waved around in the crowd and retrieved them – so the gig could resume.

The group, who are most well known for their smash hit Teenage Dirtbag which reached number two in the UK music charts in 2000 - were in Middlesbrough yesterday to perform as part of Teesside University’s Final Fling – and they took the opportunity to come and thank Ms Smith.

The 27-year-old, who lives in Ormesby in Middlesbrough works as a nurse at West Park Hospital in Darlington, was reunited with the New York rocker outside Middlesbrough Town Hall, where memories of the venue are on display.

The memories are part of the My Town Hall campaign which is being run by Middlesbrough Council whilst multi-million pound restoration work continues on the Grade II listed building.

Speaking about the night, Ms Smith said: “Many of us crowd-surfed and inadvertently infiltrated the stage.

“The atmosphere was electric, however we were soon grounded with a shock – somebody had stolen Brendan’s iconic Teenage Dirtbag glasses straight from his face.

“Putting my detective skills to the test, I managed to slither through the crowds to weed out the thief.”

With a quick and sneaky swipe, she managed to retrieve the glasses whilst they were being carelessly waved around boastfully by the culprit.

The American said the gig “would have been over” if his spectacles weren’t retrieved.

“It saved it – that’s for sure,” he said.

“I was really shocked when they were taken – I just thought oh no, what do I do now.

“It was a moment of panic – I was looking around and was like oh boy, I need to get these back."

Ms Smith was greeted with a big hug, kiss on the head and an autograph for her troubles.

“Brendan was back to being his iconic self in no time – the autographed ticket has pride of place in my memory box," she said.

The American rocker added: “It was wonderful to meet her again – I remember the Middlesbrough gig like it was yesterday. It was such a great crowd and it provided one of the stand out memories for us because of what happened."

Bruna Silva, president of Teesside University Students’ Union, said: “Teenage Dirtbag remains a floor filler at all our club nights and we know our guests will love seeing the legendary Wheatus playing live.”