And a little bit more. Now you have destroyed another icon for me. I never imagined that Jezzer would bother to stop for a red traffic light.
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Steve Vai
Norman Watt Roy
Steve Hackett
Bruce Welch
Pete Townshend
Derek Forbes
Bruce Watson
Mark Brzezicki
Gary Moore
Dave Sharp
Dominic Miller
Nicko McBrain
Suzi Quattro
Steve Harris
Bruce Dickinson
Better still, they have all met me!
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Generally I found the attitude in NY was to leave famous people alone. For example, one of my colleagues took his visiting cousin out to breakfast in Greenwich Village only to have said cousin tugging frantically at his sleeve because they passed a Hollywood star having breakfast.
When they were out of range the cousin asked why they didn’t stop when they saw Harvey Keitel having breakfast with ‘someone’. ‘Because we don’t do that here’ was my colleague’s reply, before adding ‘the someone with Keitel was De Niro’.
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In 2005 we were dining in an Italian restaurant in New York and on the next table was a man whose face I recognised, but I couldn’t remember who he was. A few years later I was watching the Sopranos when a new character in, I think the last series, appeared and I instantly knew it was the man in the restaurant. It turned out to be the director, producer and actor, Sydney Pollack who, sadly, is no longer with us.
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One of the most irritating of such tales was from a fellow Brit in an upscale NY restaurant with other, visiting Brits. A very elegant couple came in, whispers started, camera phones were whipped out but the British table had no idea who this was, so ignored it.
Through the meal, out of the corner of his eye my friend could see people approaching the man for selfies and autographs but didn’t really look over.
At the end of the meal my friend went to pay, only to be told that ‘the gentleman on the table over there insisted on paying your bill’ indicating the ‘star’ or whoever that had caused the stir.
So, my friend went over to thank him and say there was no need, but very kind etc etc and the gentleman concerned said ‘hey man, I just wanted to show my thanks. You and your friends were the only people to respect me and my lady, you didn’t stare, you didn’t hassle us, you just let us be and I want to thank you, because I really appreciate it’.
Where it gets really irritating is that when I asked him who it was, he still didn’t know!
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That’s just not fair, to tell the story, then not say who ‘the person’ was!!
We all have to go away now, and think who it might have been.
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That story has bugged me for years and years.
I feel better for having shared it 
I can’t believe he didn’t at least ask the waiter. His wife was equally unimpressed when he couldn’t tell her, either, and she was at the restaurant with him.
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My first job after leaving school was to help out at a swimming pool servicing company in a neighboring village, I used to go round peoples’ houses with the boss and basically do the dirty work, etc.
On one occasion we parked up outside this huge pile of a place, I followed my guv’nor in through the back gate. He went up to this short skinny guy and said “hello mate, I’m here to service the swimming pool filter, where’s the shed?” The guy said “oh right, follow me please” so off we trotted. My boss clearly had no idea who this was and thinking he was the gardener continued to boss him around and give him orders. An hour later with the work completed, my boss said “right, we’re off now” and handed him an invoice.
On the way back to the van I turned to my boss and said “you do know who that was don’t you?” He said “wasn’t it the gardener?” I said "no, that was Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of Iron Maiden! He said “who? Never heard of him”.
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Funny that you should mention Rod Stewart.
One of my wifes’ best friends was the senior Concord stewardess for BA & was responsible for the comfort of all the VIPs flying Concord. This consisted of royalty, wealthy business people, famous sports people, actors/actresses & musicians.
She maintains that the nicest of all was Rod Stewart. Without fail he always had time for anyone who wanted to speak to him & get his autograph etc. All this at a time when his rock star persona was that of the hell raising womaniser!
My own contact with the famous from the music world is rather more modest. Around the turn of the century we found ourselves sitting at a Pizza Express in the city we live, next to a table occupied by Ralph McTell, his wife & a couple of friends. Ralph lives for part of each year in a home he owns a few miles from my city. When they got up to go I went over just to say how much we enjoyed his music & that we had seen him live half a dozen times. We ended up speaking to him for over 10 minutes, a little about music but mainly comparing our favourite locations in Cornwall!
Over 10 years later musical friends of his, Show of Hands, performed in our local theatre in December for three years running & my wife & I had the same seats for each performance. So did Ralph, sitting next to my wife! He acknowledged us the second & third times &, on the last occasion, said to her, ‘We must stop meeting like this!’. A thoroughly nice person. We are going to see him perform in Falmouth this coming weekend.
My final encounter with fame concerns The Blues Band. I formed a casual friendship with Gary Fletcher, their bass player, who I meet in the mid 1980’s when we were both racing model cars. With some success I should add! When I told Gary of my fondness for music he always contacted me so that we could meet up for a chat & a beer if he was playing anywhere near where I lived.
On one such occasion, when they performed at the then largest venue between Bristol & Lands End, the Cornwall Coliseum, Gary arranged back stage passes for us to meet the band after the show. I was excited at the thought of meeting Paul Jones, Dave Kelly, Tom McGuiness & Rob Townsend, & had several things I wanted to ask them. When Gary introduced me Paul Jones said ‘Did Gary really race model cars with you?’. When I said he did they immediately bombarded me with questions about the car racing, particularly wanting to know if Gary was as good as he had told them he was!
We shared a beer & chatted for a few minutes but basically said nothing at all about the concert I had just seen. The only musical thing I recall being discussed was how good Steely Dan were & how much the whole group admired them!
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I helped erect a marquee in Oliver Reed’s garden once…
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Must have been a very thirsty job…
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Back in the early seventies I regularly used to go and meet my now wife for lunch, travelling on the London Underground. I was on my way back to work one day and standing next to the door opposite me in his trademark sheepskin was none other than Bobby Moore. I still regret to this day not having spoken to him, even if it was just to have thanked him for helping to win us the World Cup.
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I worked briefly one summer in a pub in Hertfordshire next to one of their training grounds. I have served many ( too many probably) a pint to the great man and his England team mates.
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