diff --git a/server.go b/server.go
index 9e702bc..98b3bb3 100644
--- a/server.go
+++ b/server.go
@@ -260,7 +260,7 @@ func (s *Server) handleRegisteredCommand(command string, args []string) {
 			return
 		}
 
-		message := strings.Join(args[1:], " ")
+		message := strings.Join(args[1:], " ")[1:] // strip leading colon
 
 		// IRC is case-insensitive case-preserving. We can respect that for the
 		//  channel name, but not really for user nicks