They say never meet your heroes...

Samgb

I met Bill Bailey once.

Well, i didn't 'meet' him as such. But i used to work on Castle St in Liverpool and you would often see either sportsmen, people playing gigs, or actors who i guess were staying in the one or two boutique hotels along there. Bill Bailey walked past me and i did the thing i always do when i see someone famous - realise i know them, fail to immediately place them, skip straight to smiling, nodding and saying 'Alright mate?' To which i have invariably had a very positive response.

See also:
Me to John Parrott
Me to David James
Me to Ian McCullough
Me to Lemmy
Me to former St Helens RL Coach Iain Millward
Me to Joost Van Der Westhuizen
and most impressively of all - Me to Game of Thrones' own Charles Dance. Yes, as he leaned on the corner of Castle St outside Pret A Manger smoking a pencil thin cigarillo, i exchanged blokey pleasantries with Tywin Lannister himself.

Best of all was 'meeting' Liverpool and ROI legend John Aldridge in the urinals in the English Rose in Woolton. Unzips, relieves, looks right as man  with distinctive moustache takes his place at the wall of piss...'Alright Aldo?...' I am now mate'

   

 

Nitefly

littlegreenman said:

Sometimes they're wrong. I met Marianne Vos yesterday backstage at Le Tour de France and she was totally charming. The most successful woman in cycling, ever, and she had all the time in the world for this old fan.

So.  You're not little.

You're not green.

What other porkies have you told us?

V. disappointed.

TheMarlin

Nitefly said:

littlegreenman said:

Sometimes they're wrong. I met Marianne Vos yesterday backstage at Le Tour de France and she was totally charming. The most successful woman in cycling, ever, and she had all the time in the world for this old fan.

So.  You're not little.

You're not green.

What other porkies have you told us?

V. disappointed.

She’s three foot seven!

Clarky

I met:
Satch a few times... he's a lovely fella
Vai once.. really disappointing, felt like meeting a 'brand' rather than a person
Billy Sheehan though is an absolute diamond
Pierre van der Linden [a drummer hero of mine that plays for Focus] is awesome.. I was like a star struck kid back in Feb having breakfast with him in Tampa.. actually all of Focus are awesome.. we became friends [particularly with Udo and Menno]. at Cruise to the Edge and stayed in touch...
Malmsteen was wasted, but quite a good laugh
Met Steve Hackett a few times on various tours where our paths crossed.. an absolute gent and really chatty..
Met Jon Anderson [briefly on tour]... diva.. and Rick Wakeman [same tour].. lovely bloke.. and Rick's son Oliver [keys for Ozzy] on a different tour.. and he's a blast..
Robert Fripp several times [as you'd expect I guess].. thought he was going to give me lines.. and he's mad as a box of frogs..
Mike Portnoy at CttE.. seemed like a down to earth bloke
Tony McAlpine at CttE.. really chatty.. lovely fella
Steve Howe [had lunch with him in Tampa].. really nice guy.. I wish I was a little less star struck tho.. lol..

EricTheWeary

relic245 said:

Not a hero at all but met Tony Hadley. 

I was working as a mini cab driver in between jobs. Picked him up at his house, drove him to the bbc, waited an hour before driving him home picking up his dry cleaning on the way home. 

Was in the car with him about 3 hours. He talked a lot, mostly about himself. 

I didn't get a tip....

I love the Hadley story that just before Live Aid happened a reporter was asking him about Ethiopia. 
' yeh, I think we're touring there next year.'

munckee

I met the dandy Warhol’s after a gig of theirs in southsea Year’s ago they were really nice. 

My dad decked John Lennon in a pub in York after a Beatles gig, my dad said to his mate that he preferred the stones without even knowing the band were in the pub, Lennon went for him and my dad decked him. 

jonnyburgo

I walked past Shaun Ryder in Manchester during the Manchester years I said alright Shaun then he said Piss off pal, on yer way. Hehe.

fields5069

Samgb said:

Best of all was 'meeting' Liverpool and ROI legend John Aldridge in the urinals in the English Rose in Woolton. Unzips, relieves, looks right as man  with distinctive moustache takes his place at the wall of piss...'Alright Aldo?...' I am now mate'

   

 

I think you mean Newport County legend.

We could have got Aldo for our under-12s award ceremony, back in the early 80s, but he couldn't make it. Maybe he'd gone to Oxford already, I'm not sure. Anyway we got Tommy Tynan instead, and to be honest in hindsight Aldo wasn't fit to lick Tommy's boots so all's good.

sev112

Clarky said:

I met:
Satch a few times... he's a lovely fella

Did he have his trumpet with him?  

VimFuego

.

slacker

tony99 said:

Seen and met a few with working millions of concerts, boxing, football, sports personality events and what not. Never seen any proper diva behaviour but one particular gig we were all told under no circumstances should we look Miss Diana Ross in the eye.

Didn't realise she was a fucking gorgon.

I would need concrete evidence. 

Anyway I've met a couple of people over the years 

Bob Wilson at a autograph signing in the 70s, absolute gent to a child with a shocking home made haircut.  

Jerry Donahue at a trade fair-gent

Russell Web at a gig-had a drink with him and my mate spoke to John McGeoch (RIP). Richard Jobson was talking to some one else. Saw them again on the same tour and they remembered us and had another drink in the bar before the gig. 

Accidently met Carl Froch in a hotel. I dont do any kind of sport and he was saying hello to people. I thought he was just a friendly guy; said hello, swapped pleasantries and found out who he was from a fan who paid to see him the following day. 

doogz84

Clarky said:

I met:

Billy Sheehan though is an absolute diamond

I'm a big fan of Sons of Apollo, Winery Dogs, and most things he's done tbh. Tremendously talented guy, and always seems like a lovely chap in interviews etc.

But he's been a scientologist for nearly 50 years, and something that makes me untrusting. Religion generally does that, but scientologists are a particularly odd bunch IMO.

Clarky

sev112 said:

Clarky said:

I met:
Satch a few times... he's a lovely fella

Did he have his trumpet with him?  

trumpet??? lol

Clarky

doogz84 said:

Clarky said:

I met:

Billy Sheehan though is an absolute diamond

I'm a big fan of Sons of Apollo, Winery Dogs, and most things he's done tbh. Tremendously talented guy, and always seems like a lovely chap in interviews etc.

But he's been a scientologist for nearly 50 years, and something that makes me untrusting. Religion generally does that, but scientologists are a particularly odd bunch IMO.

Billy never mentioned anything about that...
we just put the world to rights and talked rock'n'roll and stuff over a few beers
another bassist that's a top fella is Jonas Reingold.. he was playing with Hackett the times we met [we were playing the same festivals]..  the real good laugh in Hackett's band though is Rob Townsend.. Rob is tons of fun.. and an absolute monster sax player..

Kittyfrisk

I loved John Cooper-Clarke's work since the early days and met him in 1982 when I was working in Durham Uni.
I was escorting him from his dressing room, down the stairs to the main hall where the gig was (he wanted to go in through the crowd).
The stairs were ceramic tile, John was wearing his trademark winkle pickers... with very smooth soles.
 So, he slips, lands on me & I manage to stop him falling & hold him up.
There was a lot of 'fookin' 'ell, that nearly fookin' killed me, ya fookin' coont'.
The gig was brilliant, he was brilliant, I met one of my heroes & he passed the test  

iseverynamegone

not_the_dj said:

iseverynamegone said:

Supported Supergrass once and they complained to the promoter that we raided their rider and took all the bananas . R&R. 

Did you?

Not really , just made it up so I could be called out on tinter-net . I mean it was almost 30years ago who would be bothered to care right? 

JAYJO

iseverynamegone said:

not_the_dj said:

iseverynamegone said:

Supported Supergrass once and they complained to the promoter that we raided their rider and took all the bananas . R&R. 

Did you?

Not really , just made it up so I could be called out on tinter-net . I mean it was almost 30years ago who would be bothered to care right? 

Did you take the bananas? 
I was once accused of eating a load of pork pies in a function room that we were rehearsing in . I did of course eat the pies as did the rest of the band (it was 1982 and we were hungry).
On that Saturday afternoon we auditioned for  Joe Flannery (Friend of Brian Epstein and The Beatles, aka The secret Beatle.)  who my mate met on a bus.
Joe noticed  my mate was carrying a guitar and made conversation.
Next weekend Joe turned up at our rehearsal. He was a great guy and sat through our racket till the bitter end.We were 16 at the time.
His verdict was.  To our lead Guitarist who was also trying to be lead singer   "Stop singing you cant sing but you can play.
                            To me i was playing Rhythm and murdered Roll over Beethoven because it was in the wrong key for me and first time i had ever tried it. " you can sing backing vocals ok"
We murdered all early Beatles stuff not knowing who he was or what his connection was with the Beatles. (Thank Christ for small mercies.)
He told us we were good musicians and young and if we stuck together and carried on playing we would have a chance of  "Making it"....  Needless to say Lead Guitarist got the hump and took the drummer with him to another band. Tosser. 

not_the_dj

iseverynamegone said:

not_the_dj said:

iseverynamegone said:

Supported Supergrass once and they complained to the promoter that we raided their rider and took all the bananas . R&R. 

Did you?

Not really , just made it up so I could be called out on tinter-net . I mean it was almost 30years ago who would be bothered to care right? 

The question was did you take the bananas. Seemed like a nice little amusing story, I wasn't questioning anything other than that. 

VimFuego

I think the fact that he got all defensive means he did take all the bananas. And clearly Supergrass have never got over it either. 

HerrMetal

I'm going for a strong denial of the Banana theft.