Random Encounters with Celebrities

[Slim]

Over the years I've occasionally happened upon a famous person by chance, as most of us have I'm sure. I started making a list a few weeks ago. Turns out there are loads of them, too many for one post (and my attention span) but I'll make a start and keep going (in no particular order). Most of them are from my time in London.

Post 'em if you got 'em!

In 1996 or 1997 I sat next to the woman who played 'Anna', Terry's girlfriend, in Brookside on the tube. She was reading a script. Looked up her name just now: Kazia Pelka. She was in Coronation Street as well apparently.

In 1996, I went to a go-karting event laid on by one of our vendors for the department I worked in, and the F1 racing driver Mika Salo was a speaker there. In October 2004 I saw him again when he walked past Sari and me on his way into Helsinki Vantaa Airport. Remember Sari? She was a frequent TNMS contributor for a couple of years in the noughties although she used the userame 'Sary'.

The Labour politician Paul Boateng, then a shadow home affairs spokesman, sat opposite me on the Northern Line in 1995. He eyed me slightly suspiciously on realising that I'd recognised him, perhaps sensing a degree of contempt which I had politely tried to disguise.

A few weeks before Christmas 2001 I saw Ed Bishop, UFO's 'Ed Straker', in the Tesco Metro at Covent Garden. As a diehard UFO fan since the age of 10, I went up to say hello to him, and say how much I'd enjoyed UFO. He was very gracious.

I saw Mike Oldfield at Heathrow Airport in the late '90s, looking a bit scruffy.

[Fishy]

Saw Russel Harty on a Glasgow - London train.. he sat couple of rows behind us.. think he got on at Carlisle or Preston..

Saw Kirsty Wark at breakfast at the Auchrannie Hotel in Arran earlier this year

Saw Ian Hislop at a tube station years ago.. could have been Victoria

Scottish footballer Alex Mcleish sat next to me at Gatwick departure gate for a flight to Glasgow couple of years ago

Walking out of a Todd concert in Manchester a few years ago and I spotted his wife Michelle..who was walking straight towards me...  I said hello and told her what a great concert it had been

[Thenop]

Mostly football players since I lived closby the Feyenoonrd stadium area.
However, one of them Peter Bosz lived in the area where I delivered mail at the time so I saw him quite a bit. Must have been early 90s. He is the current PSV manager.
To make this a bit more surreal: my wife was a vet's assistant in those days so she saw people come in with their animals. One day a man with a Golden Retriever walked in, she looked at him and asked: can I get you name please? He smiled a bit and told her his name.
So she got home, I asked her about her day and she said 'the strangest tings happened...a man walked in with a retriever and when I asked his name everyone looked as me as if I was mad..'. So I asked what was his name:
You guessed it, Peter Bosz, a famous football player at the time.

Many more no doubt, but always in passing by and because people can bo so out of context, you vaguely recognize them and only later realise: Hey! that was (fill in name)!

[David L]

I saw Mike Oldfield at Heathrow Airport in the late '90s, looking a bit scruffy.

Moonlight five o'clock shadow?

[pxr5]

Living in Stanmore used to see the odd celeb shopping there - Robert Runcie, Clare Raynor, Big Boy Barry (who remembers him?). 

Saw Ruth Madoc outside the theatre in Bristol. Asked for her autograph but only had a beer mat lol.

Jackie Charlton having a coffee at a cafe at Dyce Airport, Aberdeen. My wife went up to him and asked if he was Jackie Charlton  - duh.

[Nickslikk2112]

When I was at Derby College, I sometimes used to meet up with my dad if he'd been down to London on business, it'd be in the dining car and he'd buy me a can of beer. One time we'd got Tony Benn and Mick McGahey sitting across from us. Wedgie was talking serious left-wing guff and Mick kept telling Tony that it was his round and he wanted a whisky...

Once sat behind Gary Lineker and Willie Thorne at an England v India One day International at Old Trafford.

Spent a day at the bar under a stand at Lord's for a wet NatWest final in the company of Colin Welland.

Nearly bumped into Annie Nightingale on a street in London.

Met Biff Byford in the bar at Sheffield City Hall when I went to see Sammy Hagar, had a nice chat and he signed my Sammy Hagar tour programme. Def Leppard were in the bar too, but everyone ignored them.

Saw the bloke with a Moustache from the Great British Sewing Bee on a street in Edinburgh.

[pdw1]

When I was at Derby College, I sometimes used to meet up with my dad if he'd been down to London on business, it'd be in the dining car and he'd buy me a can of beer. One time we'd got Tony Benn and Mick McGahey sitting across from us. Wedgie was talking serious left-wing guff and Mick kept telling Tony that it was his round and he wanted a whisky...

Once sat behind Gary Lineker and Willie Thorne at an England v India One day International at Old Trafford.

Spent a day at the bar under a stand at Lord's for a wet NatWest final in the company of Colin Welland.

Nearly bumped into Annie Nightingale on a street in London.

Met Biff Byford in the bar at Sheffield City Hall when I went to see Sammy Hagar, had a nice chat and he signed my Sammy Hagar tour programme. Def Leppard were in the bar too, but everyone ignored them.

Saw the bloke with a Moustache from the Great British Sewing Bee on a street in Edinburgh.

and a famous drummer or do you just want to forget that?

[Slim]

In my first days in London I went to a gig with my cousin, probably thirty years ago this month now I think about it. At the Hope and Anchor, I think. Annie Nightingale was sitting talking to Mark Lamarr in the bar.

I also saw Mark Lamarr chatting to his radio sidekick at the time, the comedian Mark Steel in a caff at the top of Regent Street near Broadcasting House (Langham Place), about half an hour after they'd been on air sitting on for Jonathan Ross. Probably 2003 or 2004.

I saw Steve Wright, the celebrated DJ who sadly passed away last year round there at roughly the same time, having a surreptitious phone call on a mobile phone outside Broadcasting House. I said "Steve Wright! Hello!" and he gamely replied "Hello, how are you?".

Just before Christmas 1996 I went to lunch at a swanky restaurant at Canary Wharf with a few work colleagues. I think we must have got it on expenses on some pretext, we wouldn't normally eat there. Bob Geldof was at a nearby table with a couple of people in suits. Record business execs maybe. Seemed to be having a high old time.

In '97 and '98 I used to go to a restaurant at Notting Hill with my Japanese friend-with-benefits. Taking her to nice restaurants was an unspoken part of the arrangement. One time, Oliver Tobias - star of a couple of indifferent low-budget British action films and once touted as the next James Bond to replace Roger Moore (mainly by himself, if I remember correctly) was at the next table with his daughters.

[Nick]

Sir Ranulph Fiennes (explorer) in my local Morrisons, asked me if I knew where the bagged salads were. I noted he was pushing his trolley with very few full fingers.

Simon"our tune"Bates,Radio 1 DJ, in my local Tesco.

[captainkurtz]

Had a piss in Bristol airport next to the bloke from Tears foe Fears

Johnny Ball was on the same tourist trip with me in Cairo in 1998ish.  Then he was on my table for lunch on a boat on the Nile.  He was as lovely as you'd think he would be.  Nobody on the table referred to the fact that he was Johnny Ball.

Got a jab from Muhammad Ali in 1977 in a mosque in South Shields.

Steve Cram lived on my estate in the 1980's.  His mum made him get his medals out for me to look at when I happened upon his house whilst collecting money for charity.  He signed a picture for me as well.  He was really grumpy but his mum was very kind.  I think she was German.

[Nickslikk2112]

He was really grumpy but his mum was very kind.  I think she was German.

The British School's Athletics championships were once held in Chesterfield and we put up a couple of contestants from the North East whilst they were competing.

They told us to watch out for a kid called Steve Cram, they said he was a bit grumpy and his mum was German

Funny old world.

[Nickslikk2112]

and a famous drummer or do you just want to forget that?

I'd forgotten all about that 

Also forgotten that when I was at Birmingham University we had Wednesday afternoon off for sport. So I used to go and read the week's music papers at WH Smith. And most weeks Big John Thomas from Budgie used to come in and stand next to me to read the music papers. He wore the same white lapelled leather jacket that he wore on stage.

[Slim]

Had a piss in Bristol airport next to the bloke from Tears for Fears

Glad you mentioned that because I'd forgotten this one: at a John McLaughlin gig in the late '80s at Newcastle Uni I went to the loo and stood next to the singer from the Kane Gang (Martin Brammer) at the urinal.

Speaking of the Kane Gang, David Brewis who was their guitar player (and also produced my favourite ever record, Prefab Sprout's SWOON) used to work at JG Windows, a music shop in Newcastle and sold me a Les Paul in 1983.

[Fishy]

I had a piss at a wedding in Inverness about 6 years next to one  of the Proclaimers.. Charlie I think.. got a photo with him later in the evening ..

Also at another Todd concert at the forum in London 1993 .. Kim Wilde walked past me..

[Slim]

I saw Paul Stanley walking along Columbus Avenue in NY in 1987, with a very ostentatious chunky gold Rolex hanging off his wrist. I saw Paul Rutherford from Frankie Goes To Hollywood in a shop in Newcastle, some time in the '80s. He looked slightly uneasy when he noticed I'd recognised him, though I didnt bother saying hello.

I nodded to Nigel Planer from a window seat at Pret A Manger on the Strand as he walked past, and he smiled back, looking slightly sheepish and embarrassed for some reason.

In 1980 I stood behind Maggie Philbin in a queue at the ticket office at Huddersfield Railway station. She was co-presenter of the Multi-Coloured Swap Shop at the time, with Noel Edmonds of course, and Keith Chegwin whom she married a couple of years later. She was having a row with the British Rail employee behind the counter for some reason.