Random Encounters with Celebrities

[Nickslikk2112]

How could I forget, once shared a lift with Prince Naseem in Coles, Sheffield.

Seen Ian "The Bard of Barnsley" McMillan on trains a few times.

[pxr5]

Having a beer (underage at 17) in my local pub and stood next to me was Paul Young also having a beer. He was in the Q-Tips then and a mate of the Landlord.

[Matt2112]

Ex-footballer Geoff Horsfield's career was spring-boarded between 1996-1998 after 70-odd appearances for Halifax Town, when his goals - at a rate for us of 1.6 per game - were a major factor in our return to the football league at the time, but it was only last year when I actually met him: former players from that glorious era were invited to The Shay Stadium for a league game and I was the beneficiary of a pre-match hospitality package.

I was taking a leek in the gents and he came in and used the urinal next to me.  So of course I thanked him for what he did for us and quickly went over some away day memories and he was not only extremely gracious but inquisitive about how the currrent team were playing - the conversation ended with us shaking hands after having a laugh about making sure we'd washed them first. 

I worked with someone who played with Geoff for a while. Maybe at Carlisle, or Scarborough?? Anyway, he spoke very highly of him.

That'll probably be Scarborough, when his day job was brick-laying.

[Slim]

I said hello to Hugh Laurie when I passed him in Charing Cross Road in 1995. He replied with a disinterested "alright?".

Noticed the Labour MP Frank Field on the opposite platform at Westminster Station once in the late '90s. Noticed Sir Jonathan Miller a few feet along the platform from me while waiting for a Northern Line train in 2002. Can't remember which station, London Bridge probably. He was an author, theatre director, TV presenter and one of the original Beyond the Fringe crew with Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett and Peter Cook.

Went in Virgin Records on Oxford Street in 1996 to enquire if they had a copy of Victor. Just as I arrived at the counter, a pleasant old man wearing a cap was turning away from it. Before I could utter a word to the assistant, she blurted out "That was Ivor Cutler!"

I saw Terry Hall (Specials, Colourfield, Funboy Three) in Our Price records at Covent Garden in 1998. Always been a fan but never said hello, he was with a young woman and they were having a laugh about something.

Saw Jemima Khan on Bond street one day in the Noughties. She was standing outside one of the shops talking to someone on a mobile phone. Hugh Grant, maybe? I smiled at her. She noticed that I'd recognised her.

Passed Nigel Havers on Jermyn Street in 2006, I think he'd just come out of one of the shops.

Tony Robinson ('Baldrick' from Blackadder of course) peered through the window of the Sushi place where I was eating in Covent Garden, apparently fascinated by the rotating conveyor belt carrying Japanese delicacies. I waved, and he smiled from ear to ear, apparently delighted to be recognised. 1998, probably.

I saw Simon Ward (Young Winston, All Creatures Great And Small) on St Martin's Lane in the late '90s. Perhaps he was appearing in a play near there. Also saw Jamie Theakston there, sporting a moustache at around the same time.

[Matt2112]

I was working in a private healthcare clinic in Leeds who moved to bigger premises in about 2002 - the formal opening was conducted by long-standing Leeds Central (as was) MP Hilary Benn, current Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

He turned up with his missus in a red Nissan Micra.  He spent a fair amount of time talking to every staff member individually, including me of course.  He came across as a very pleasant chap indeed.

About six or seven years ago I was visiting a friend who at the time lived in Chiswick Green.  Minutes after he told me that quite a few celebrities lived in the area, we were walking over a rail bridge and Alex Jones of The One Show walked by us in the opposite direction, wearing a smart summer dress and shades.

[Matt2112]

A "Facebook Memory" from 14 years ago has just cropped up on my feed: I was playing with my band at a charity festival for a local hospice and, somehow, the organisers had persuaded Preston from The Ordinary Boys and Celebrity Big Brother and Lisa from Steps to each perform a short set, albeit their respective stars weren't exactly in the ascendancy at the time.

I didn't interact with Preston because word quickly got round the other performers that he was a complete knob, playing up to every pathetic pop star diva stereotype known to mankind.

However, Lisa was entirely the opposite, a smiling, charming young lady who willingly posed for photos, including a couple with my band mates and I that reappeared on my timeline today.

[Slim]

A particularly fondly-remembered encounter was with Elvis Costello, on Piccadilly, not far from Green Park tube station in 2003 - he walked out of a shop just in front of me accompanied by a young woman, and impulsively I shouted 'Elvis!' - he turned round and I stuttered something sheepishly about just wanting to say hello, feeling slightly starstruck - and he smiled broadly and offered a warm handshake - he couldn't have been nicer.

I found myself standing next to Ronnie Corbett, at the pedestrian crossing opposite Jermyn Street on Upper Regent Street late one night in the '90s. He was with his wife, very smartly dressed in a bow and tie. He looked up at me, expectantly waiting to be recognised - I smiled and said hello, and he said "hello, how are you?" - as if I'd been trying to get his attention, rather than the other way round. National treasure.

In 1984 or so I saw Paul Daniels smugly strolling through Eldon Square in Newcastle. A nearby woman exclaimed "Eee! It's Paul Daniels!" - and Paul obviously enjoyed the moment. About ten years later I encountered him again, emerging onto Regent Street from a side-street in his Roller, slightly incautiously, while I was crossing the side-street in question at the time as a pedestrian. I raised a reproachful eyebrow as he braked, and he gave me a withering look from the driver's seat.

Went for breakfast with the bonkers Japanese woman I was dating at the time at a Portuguese caff next to Fulham Broadway station in 1997. The Fairbrass brothers (from Right Said Fred) were also having breakfast there.

Around about the same time, I was walking along the Fulham Road one afternoon. Someone I recognised from the telly passed me coming the other way. She looked pleased to be recognised, but I didn't say hello. I only realised who she was months later - Sally Knyvette (Jenna from Blake's Seven).

I saw Janick Gers a few times round the pubs of Hartlepool in the late '70s and chatted to him a couple of times. But he was merely the guitar player in Hartlepool's own White Spirit at the time. My brother tells me that he brought Ian Gillan with him to one of Hartlepool's hostelries in 1981, which caused a bit of a stir. But I wasn't present for that myself.