Random Encounters with Celebrities

[Slim]

I saw Sunetra Sarker, "Zoe Hanna" in Holby CIty and "Nisha Batra" in Brookside, in Top Shop on The Strand in 2007. A few years earlier when I lived in London, probably in 2000 or so, I saw Nicola Stephenson (Margaret from Brookside) and Angela Griffin (best remembered as Fiona Middleton from Coronation Street) together in a small basement night club in the West End. I think they were both in Holby City as well, at the time.

I remember seeing the BBC DJ Mark Goodier driving a van emblazoned with Radio 1 branding while out in a car one day in the '90s, but I can't remember where.

I met John Deacon (Queen bass player) at a swanky party given by Reuters to their market data customers at St Catherine's Wharf in December 1995. I was the only person there who recognised him. I wasn't 100% sure it was him, so I went up to a woman he'd just been chatting to and asked her "excuse me .. was that John Deacon you were talking to?" She replied that she had no idea who he was, but he said he played bass in a band. I talked to him for about 20 minutes. He was really humble and friendly. I wanted to talk to him about his bass guitars, he wanted to talk about market data and network protocols. But he did have an anecdote about being trapped in a hotel in Japan because it was surrounded by fans as far as the eye could see.

He also had a few choice words about the prospect of Queen touring with George Michael on vocals, which was being touted as a possibility at the time. He very definitely wasn't keen on the idea.

There was a photographer present at the do, taking photos of people with amusing props. I still have a pic somewhere of myself with one of my colleagues, in which we're both wearing Mexican style sombreros and ponchos. John agreed to have a photo taken with me but annoyingly, the photographer had already left. Wouldn't that have been a nice little memento of a night out in London?

I saw Budgie (Siouxsie and the Banshees drummer) standing around on London Bridge, talking to someone on a mobile phone, about 20 years ago.

[The Picnic Wasp]

I saw Sunetra Sarker, "Zoe Hanna" in Holby CIty and "Nisha Batra" in Brookside, in Top Shop on The Strand in 2007. A few years earlier when I lived in London, probably in 2000 or so, I saw Nicola Stephenson (Margaret from Brookside) and Angela Griffin (best remembered as Fiona Middleton from Coronation Street) together in a small basement night club in the West End. I think they were both in Holby City as well, at the time.

I remember seeing the BBC DJ Mark Goodier driving a van emblazoned with Radio 1 branding while out in a car one day in the '90s, but I can't remember where.

I met John Deacon (Queen bass player) at a swanky party given by Reuters to their market data customers at St Catherine's Wharf in December 1995. I was the only person there who recognised him. I wasn't 100% sure it was him, so I went up to a woman he'd just been chatting to and asked her "excuse me .. was that John Deacon you were talking to?" She replied that she had no idea who he was, but he said he played bass in a band. I talked to him for about 20 minutes. He was really humble and friendly. I wanted to talk to him about his bass guitars, he wanted to talk about market data and network protocols. But he did have an anecdote about being trapped in a hotel in Japan because it was surrounded by fans as far as the eye could see.

He also had a few choice words about the prospect of Queen touring with George Michael on vocals, which was being touted as a possibility at the time. He very definitely wasn't keen on the idea.

There was a photographer present at the do, taking photos of people with amusing props. I still have a pic somewhere of myself with one of my colleagues, in which we're both wearing Mexican style sombreros and ponchos. John agreed to have a photo taken with me but annoyingly, the photographer had already left. Wouldn't that have been a nice little memento of a night out in London?

I saw Budgie (Siouxsie and the Banshees drummer) standing around on London Bridge, talking to someone on a mobile phone, about 20 years ago.

That's an amazing John Deacon story. That must count as one of the last, fairly lengthy chats he had with anyone before going off the radar. He's someone I would love to have met to talk bass amongst other things. I'd be quite happy to go along with anything he wanted to chat about. He was a much bigger contributor to Queen than many realise. A bit of an electronic wizard as well.

[Fishy]

Nick Nairn the chef..this lunchtime.. well it was his gaff we were at

[Slim]

I happened across Tom Cruise in the financial district of Hong Kong one night in 2000. Actually I hadn't noticed him but my girlfriend at the time suddenly piped up with "it's Tom Cruise!"

Three or four other people were with him. They were all looking upwards, perhaps at something interesting happening on one of the upper floors of one of the many tall buildings around us. I offered a friendly "alright, Tom!". He looked my way, and in that very cool and nonchalant Tom Cruise way, replied in kind with "Alright". He was actually wearing aviator RayBans and chewing gum.

He'd bought a house less than a mile from me in Dulwich the same year, always thought it was ironic that the only time ever saw him was on the other side of the world in Hong Kong.

In 1995 Tracy Brabin, now Mayor of West Yorkshire, was "Tricia Armstrong" in Coronation Street and I found myself standing next to her on a packed Central Line train one Friday lunchtime that year. She was with her partner and a child in a pushchair. Just before I got off the train at Liverpool Street - we were standing right next to the door - I said to her "see you on the telly later then". She gave a gleeful laugh. She clearly loved having been recognised, and she waved to me from the train as it sped away.

I saw Hugh Cornwell at Tottenham Court Road tube station in 1994.

[Thenop]

If you can call a Mayor of a large city (Rotterdam) a celebrity I met those, 2 of them at the same time. It was at the 650th anniversary of the city, and there were festivities and an exhibition. I was there with a group of fellow drummers to lighten up an airwalk that displayed photographs of the city through time. I think there were 4 stops, all accompanied by different percussion instruments.

Both of these guys are dead now, and it has probably something to do with drinking habits. Some people had been spending quite some time creating this, putting it together, getting the press lined up, and when the moment was there they were all but flying across everything to get to the bar. 

So yes, I met them, in passing.

[Slim]

I saw Will Self with one of his kids emerging from a sports shop on The Strand in the early noughties.

Dave Brewis, guitar player in the Kane Gang and producer of the first Prefab Sprout album worked at a guitar shop in Newcastle in 1983 and he sold me a Les Paul there in May that year. His Kane Gang bandmate Martin Brammer stood next to me at the urinals during a break during a John McLaughlin set at Newcastle Uni in 1988.

My favourite of all celebrity encounters was with Paddy McAloon in a greetings card shop in Newcastle City Centre, in April 1988 and I wrote about that here.

I was reclining on a cruise ship at Barbados a few years ago when Shaun Williamson, best remembered as "Barry from EastEnders" strolled past my lounger.

I noticed the music journalist / reviewer Paul Morley loitering in the foyer at the Vue cinema at Leicester Square in 1996. I recognised him from his occasional appearances on BBC2.

[Slim]

I was sitting in the window at a coffee shop at the top of Haymarket in the West End when I noticed Richard E. Grant strolling across the zebra crossing outside, in 1999 possibly. I saw Tessa Peak-Jones ("Racquel" from Only Fools and Horses) coming the other way along Oxford Street in 1996 or 1997.

I said hello to Neil Hamilton, then a Tory MP and former minister under John Major, just off Regent Street in 1995. He was wearing squash whites and carrying a sports bag. He was pleasant, but a little wary.

I saw Des'ree coming the other way near Trafalgar Square, accompanied by a man in a business suit, in 1998-ish. She looked very sharp in a black leather jacket.

I noticed Jerry Hayes in a branch of Rymans on Fleet Street in 2001. He'd been a left-leaning Tory MP and occasional TV personality, but had lost his seat in 1997.

On the 3rd August 2001 - I know the date because I'd gone for a long walk around London to celebrate 15,000 days on Earth - I saw Sir Bernard Ingham, once Margaret Thatcher's press secretary, near Westminster. When he noticed that I'd recognised him, he scowled at me from beneath his remarkable overgrown eyebrows.

One evening while strolling to Covent Garden tube station from a restaurant, I noticed the actor Simon Callow gazing into the window of an antique shop. 1997 probably.

For a time I used to go to lunch at Yo Sushi on Poland Street, just off Oxford Street, every Saturday. On one of these occasions I noticed Chris Difford eating with a young man who looked remarkably like Marti Pellow at one of the tables. They got up to pay the bill at the same time I did. The Marti Pellow lookalike smiled at me very pleasantly. Later I realised it was actually Marti Pellow, they'd been working together. Probably 2000 or 2001.

[Slim]

Probably the first celebrity or recognisable figure I ever spotted in the wild was Peter Fairley, ITN's science editor, in May 1979. I was visiting London for the weekend and I decided to walk from the hotel in Tottenham Court Road to the Post Office Tower. My route took me past what were at that time the ITN offices on Wells Street and I saw him getting something out of a car there.

On a train on the way to a Rush gig in Stafford in 1979, my friend Barry and I happened upon Steve Harris, Iron Maiden bass player, propping up the bar in the restaurant car and chatting to the steward. He raised his can of lager and greeted us warmly when he saw the Rush patches on our denim jackets.

I saw Peter Green coming the other way on Regent Street in 1994. Said hello and shook his hand. Wish I could say he was warm and engaging, but it was like greeting a zombie.

Saw (Whitesnake guitarist) Micky Moody at the London Music Show in the early '90s, talking to someone on the PRS stand.

I've seen Andrew Bridgen, erstwhile MP for NW Leicestershire and COVID crank in Tesco at Ashby-de-la-Zouch a couple of times.

I saw Michelle Collins, better known as "Cindy Beale" from EastEnders, hurrying along Oxford Street with a child in the late '90s.

And I do believe that's the lot!

Except that I think I saw Alan Alda in the lobby of a hotel in New York in 2000, but I'm not at all sure about that one. I only caught a brief glimpse.

[Matt2112]

A conversation with the young 'un about Gladiators reminded me of the time I was in the gym one afternoon in 1998 and "Wolf" came in and did what looked like a fairly light workout; he was starring in the local panto at the time.

Not wishing to disturb him much, I nodded to him and said, "Alright!" and he responded in kind.

[David L]

A conversation with the young 'un about Gladiators reminded me of the time I was in the gym one afternoon in 1998 and "Wolf" came in and did what looked like a fairly light workout; he was starring in the local panto at the time.

Not wishing to disturb him much, I nodded to him and said, "Alright!" and he responded in kind.

Lucky he didn't rip your throat out

[Pricey]

I recall, possibly 2002, flying home from La Guardia following the Rush shows in TO and NYC, whilst sitting at the gate, John Cleese came towards us on the back of one of those people carrier things. We made eye contact I smiled and he then made an amusing gesticulation with his arms, as his driver realised it was the wrong gate and almost handbrake turned.
Mid 00's I chatted with Gareth Southgate briefly in Roule's Covent Garden, he was pretty boring.
Flying home from Florence similar year / period I had a nice chat with the Italian football ref ... thingy what's his name  .

[dom]

Collini?

[Pricey]

Yes that's him, Collina.
There was a time he was almost as big a celebrity as the players.

[Matt2112]

In the early 2000's I was in a nightclub which had two rooms, one of which I used only because it was quicker to get served at the bar.

Aussie soap star/popstrel Holly Vallance was booked to make a promo appearance in that room, and unfortunately for me, the start of her performance coincided with me getting a drink at the bar.  Of course, I wanted to escape to the other room, but all access had been roped off while Vallance was "singing" (she was clearly miming).

As I tried to find some way out, I ended up being at the end of the front row of spectators and could go no further; grumpily, I gave in and just endured the 15 minutes of being feet away from a flash-in-the-pan pop star whose music I despised.

When she finished, she walked along that front row, high-fiving some punters as she went with a broad grin on her face. She passed about three feet away from me, making brief eye contact.

"You're shite!", I said to her face, drunkenly.

Im not terribly proud of that moment nowadays.

 

[Slim]

A couple I'd forgotten about: I saw the theatre director, playwright and occasional actor Steven Berkoff strolling through Covent Garden in the late '90s. I recognised him from his roles as Astronaut Steve Minto in UFO and a bad guy Russian in the second Rambo film.

I also saw Jim Broadbent in roughly the same place, at about the same time.