Encounters with Musical Heroes

[Hugh Weldon]

In the Obits & Birthdays section Norman wrote:

John Cale was doing a teacher training course at Goldsmiths' College, New Cross, during the Big Freeze of 1962/63. He was on placement at an East London school where my friend taught. The school was closed down due to a burst boiler, the teachers still had to report in but had nothing much to do. My friend was (is) a viola player, and he and the student sat around for days playing together, fiddling around you might say*. Cale said that he was organising a performance of one of his compositions and my friend was invited to play. But somehow, the invitation never materialised.

OK, file story next to: Julie Driscoll, Des's coat, back of chair, you know the score.

*in the best tradition of after-dinner speakers, I pause for the hoped-for laughter. Some hope.

and I wrote:

Norman, I think this really deserves a separate thread. Not that we would want to sink to scurrilous goss about celebs, but more how you crossed paths with somebody you were really in awe of. The examples already given of coats on chairs and viola practice should rule out stage-door johnnyism. I'll kick off elsewhere to avoid thread drift.

Unfortunately I can't provide much myself on this, unless you include the night I helped the Michael Garrick trio load their van. I was more a fan of Dave Green, but Trevor Tomkins needed more help with his drums and I didn't get a chance to say anything to him. Drummers eh.

[Des]

I still have rows with Grant of Massive Attack because of my cat doing his business in his garden.

[NormanD]

I sat in the row behind Phil Lynott at the London Prof Longhair concert in 1978. A young woman in the seat behind tapped me on the shoulder and kindly asked me to pass a joint "to Phillip", which I duly did. He puffed and then returned it thisaway. I declined a puff as I was a germophobe with some knowledge of show bizz goss, and the thought of hepatitis was uppermost in my mind.

Phil (Phillip to his friends) was wearing an Afghan coat. Had I known, I would have knocked it off the seat (pause.......pause........see above for explanation of 'pause')

....and NOT apologised.

[Hugh Weldon]

Maybe it's not the first time for this one, but I seem to have forgotten to mention the occasion a friend and I spotted Morrissey on the pinball machine in the Edinburgh Castle in Camden.

Me: "That's Morrissey you know".

Friend: "Nah, you sure?".

Me: "I'm sure it is."

Friend "OK, I'm going to ask him. Are you Morrissey?"

Morrissey (for it was he) "No."

[will vine]

Unfortunately I can't provide much myself on this, unless you include the night I helped the Michael Garrick trio load their van. I was more a fan of Dave Green, but Trevor Tomkins needed more help with his drums and I didn't get a chance to say anything to him. Drummers eh.

Ha! Michael Garrick....a van? When he used to pitch up at our club he brought his horrible electric keyboard with him in his three- wheeled Reliant.
As one of the organisers at the club I often had to help musicians get their act together. Unloading and carrying in the late Martin Drew's drum kit was the worse job - he always insisted on bringing the whole rock drummer affair. Helping him pack up at the end of the evening really tested my patience. On asking Mark Taylor one night if he needed a hand in with his kit he said "No thanks - this is it"-He was more or less wearing it, a wonderfully stripped down kit.
Drummers' for obvious reasons always took longest to pack up and were therefore most easy to chat with and I always found it surprising how thrilled they were to have a couple of weeks work in the book. They'd be as keen on doing a two week tour Vince Hill as they would working a night with a big name jazz star.

[will vine]

Unfortunately I can't provide much myself on this, unless you include the night I helped the Michael Garrick trio load their van. I was more a fan of Dave Green, but Trevor Tomkins needed more help with his drums and I didn't get a chance to say anything to him. Drummers eh.

Ha! Michael Garrick....a van? When he used to pitch up at our club he brought his horrible electric keyboard with him in his three- wheeled Reliant.
As one of the organisers at the club I often had to help musicians get their act together. Unloading and carrying in the late Martin Drew's drum kit was the worse job - he always insisted on bringing the whole rock drummer affair. Helping him pack up at the end of the evening really tested my patience. On asking Mark Taylor one night if he needed a hand in with his kit he said "No thanks - this is it"-He was more or less wearing it, a wonderfully stripped down kit.
Drummers' for obvious reasons always took longest to pack up and were therefore most easy to chat with and I always found it surprising how thrilled they were to have a couple of weeks work in the book. They'd be as keen on doing a two week tour with Vince Hill as they would working a night with a big name jazz star.

[kas]

Umm, There was a rock singer and occasional novelist here in my hometown whose music I loved, but who had created an aura of being extremely sharp tongued and slightly nasty, hence unapproachable.
He was also at least as tall as I was, and all that meant I chose to not disturb him if I happened to see him about.

My "coat moment" came quite by accident, when we took our kid to the daycare for the first time. It turned out his daughter and our son shared the same group.

Chatting about kids and going to the same birthday parties can bring people together as much as a joint, I guess.
He turned out to be a very friendly bloke as much lost with being a parent as I was...

I think an illustration may be needed here. That's him:

[Tom McPhillips]

of course I've had a few but my favorites are:

I've had reason to stand in close proximity to Mr Zimmerman several times in my career and never had the courage to exchange a single word...

on the other hand I'm a proud member of Declan McManus's club - the one that we formed when we mutually discovered that neither of us had ever managed to listen to the whole of Dark Side of the Moon...

But to square the circle I did manage to thank Mr Cale for feeding my ears for so many years at a fashion event where his wife was being honored...

[Des]

I had the pleasure of sitting next to Jali Sheriffo Konteh on a flight to the Gambia a few years back - 6 hours of fascinating conversation about kora-playing and West African music in general. I had to wait over a year to actually see him perform and it was great to catch up with him again after the gig.

[Adam Blake]

Rico Rodriguez in Argos in Kensington High St.

Raymond Douglas Davies in a newsagent in Highgate.

Phil Lynott in the bar at The Roundhouse.

Many more in the course of 50 years on the fringes and periphery of showbusiness.

[AndyM]

This is second-hand but it makes me smile.

A very extrovert American friend of mine was queueing in the bank in Los Angeles. He notices a man in the adjacent queue, recognises him and shouts "You're Little Richard!".

Richard turns towards him, widens his eyes, does the full jazz-hands thing and shrieks "Woooooooooooooooh!".

Nothing like that ever happens in the Hove HSBC.

[Rob Hall]

This is second-hand but it makes me smile.

A very extrovert American friend of mine was queueing in the bank in Los Angeles. He notices a man in the adjacent queue, recognises him and shouts "You're Little Richard!".

Richard turns towards him, widens his eyes, does the full jazz-hands thing and shrieks "Woooooooooooooooh!".

Nothing like that ever happens in the Hove HSBC.

You should move to to Co-op. It won't happen there either, but you'll feel better about it not happening.

[Adam Blake]

Great story, Andy.

[Dominic]

I just met - and spoke to - at least two members of Cornershop,

Oh, and everyone should move to the Co-op.

[Des]

Blimey, I'm channelling Neil Foxlee.

http://manchestermule.com/article/coop- ... mentalists