British singer James Blunt was left nursing a sore face and a bruised ego when he tried diving into a crowd of fans at a gig and smashed straight into the ground.

The You're Beautiful hitmaker often attempts to bolster his rock 'n' roll credentials by stage-diving into his audience but he has suffered frequent mishaps trying the stunt.

At Britain's Glastonbury festival he was unable to make his way back to the stage, and during a U.S. gig a security official tried to eject the singer from the venue after his leap because he failed to recognise him.

But Blunt's most embarrassing - and painful - moment came when he jumped offstage into the audience but his fans moved aside at the crucial moment, leaving the pop star to smash face down onto the floor.

He tells U.K. talk show host Graham Norton, "I have learnt that you have to warn people you are going to do a stage dive. I once didn't give that warning and ran in, the crowd parted and I just smacked the ground in front of my friends.

"It's gone wrong several times. In Chicago I jumped off the stage, ran towards the audience and a large security guard who didn't recognise me tackled me to the ground. And, at Glastonbury the stage was too tall for me to climb back on to. There was one man on the stage and as I begged for him to help I realised he was the Bbc cameraman, broadcasting to the nation!"