Ever met a famous musician…. but not realised at the time?

[Kex]

[color=#000000][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]Have had a few instances, firstly a long time ago I was in The Guitar Workshop shop in St Michaels hill Bristol(sadly long gone). [/font][/color]

[size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#000000]Was trying out a bass they had for sale, just doodling away in the corner when some bloke starting trying to join in – totally put me off and decided to stop. [/color][/font][/size]
[size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#000000]Wandered around and as I was about to leave the shop owner said ‘you do realise who that was? ’ turns out it was [/color][color=#000000]Mark Knopfler. [/color][/font][/size]

[size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#000000]Doh ![/color][/font][/size]

[RhysP]

I once mistook composer/musician Michael Kamen for a roadie backstage at the Royal Festival Hall, even going so far as to give him some stuff to carry onto the stage for me, which he did. I didn't find out who he was until the evening when he came out on stage & started playing.

[ahpook]

I don't know...maybe I've still not realised.

[Twincam]

Yes a funny story.

I was visiting London years ago in my teen years I don't think I was really old enough to be in a pub I was probably 16 or 17. My dad and step mam wanted to go shopping before the shops closed I didn't so they give me a few quid to go look around the area. But what I was interested in was this pub with music coming out and there were a lot of people there and some door staff. So I said I will go get a coke in there.

Somehow feeling brave I managed to get served for a pint (result) it was packed and the only table and seats were near the band. So I went and sat down rather naively. Anyhow the guy singing at the front playing bass kept looking at me and stopping, making fairly friendly jokes at my expense things like "am I comfortably there" and "do I know who he is" etc etc which got a few laughs. I'm thinking (with all of one pint of fosters in me) who is this guy thinking he is all that.

Anyhow at the end of the set i wanted another drink but the bar was packed and this guy gets off the stage and I follow him to the bar as the crowd parts for him, I notice he is getting a lot of attention from women. Anyhow I find myself next to him and he starts chatting with me asking where I'm from etc and he gets my a pint. I'm really happy with this and feeling very grown up and thought it was cool he blown off these women who were desperate for his attention to chat quickly with me.

I didn't get to finish my next drink as I was found by my dad and step mam who weren't to happy especially as they couldn't get in first of all and second I should not have been drinking.

Wasn't till halfway to Hastings I thought sh*t that was Martin Kemp. Years later my mate who didn't believe me asked him about this on Twitter he couldn't remember it though (surprise surprise) and my mate still does not believe me but it is true.

Edited May 5, 2016 by Twincam

[wateroftyne]

Very recently... Midgue Ure.

I chatted to him for a while about a mutual acquaintance. It was only afterwards someone mentioned in passing that it was him.

I felt very foolish.

[mingsta]

Haha, oh yes!!!

I was in the London Bass Centre (now long departed) back in about 1991.

Jamiroquai had just gone big with their first album and I proceeded to bash out several of their bass lines very badly and at top volume in true teenage music shop demo stylee.

There was this skinny american dude sat on the stool next to me and he started chattin, he even asked me to show him how to play a RHCP bassline that I'd been bashing out. Anyways, really nice guy. I was after a new bass, and he was telling me how he played Warwicks and babied them when they were new, but had dropped them down flights of stairs etc at various venues.

It was only a few days later that I put two and two together and realised that I had been chatting to STUART ZENDER!!! Props to him for not calling me out on my awful aping of his bass lines! He must have been laughing inside, but also filled with warmth and satisfaction that his lycrical basslines had touched the lives of so many yoots...many of whom should never ever be allowed anywhere near a bass guitar.

[Kevin Dean]

1984 I just moved from the isle of wight up to London & I was staying at a friends house in Islington , First night out we jumped into his VW Bettle to pick up a few of His friends on route to a gig , I was sat in the back & was introduced to some chap called Mark , My mate told me He played bass , but he said He was playing washboard in a band (the Skiff Scatts )that night at The Hope & Anchor .We got chatting about my nice new Overwater bass (one of the first at the time) & I sort of didn't show any interested in His Fender P , He then asked me if I knew Mark King & I was more interested in talking about my band . later that night I said "Who do you play bass for then ?" Mark " Oh I play in a band called Madness "

[Gareth Hughes]

Yes, and this was quite painful.

Original band I was in was playing one of it's first big (to us) support slots to Embrace. Venue was The Ulster Hall in Belfast - legendary for many reasons, not least being that Led Zeppelin played there and I had seen the Chili Peppers on the Blood Sugar Sex Magik tour and had my mind blown by the Rollins Band who were opening - point being that it is very hallowed ground indeed.

My bands label guy flies in an old colleague from his Sony days in London. Nice guy, how do you do, etc but I am way more distracted by 'F*****k me, I'm playing the Ulster Hall'. The embarrassing part comes in that I'm wearing my Einsturzende Neubauten hoodie and not noticing that this guy is giving me a somewhat curious look the whole time. A mere two days pass before I'm driving down the road when it hits me - 'That was Mark Chung from Neubauten!!!!!' He was their old bassist and I have watched that guy on videos countless times, so a quality 'Doh!!!!' moment. A very apologetic email was forwarded on to Sony later that evening.

[ratman]

In the late 80's I think it was, green behind the ears & just arrived in London from the sticks, the young Ratman was down at the Bass Centre in Wapping and found myself looking at a crazy looking bass. I'd never seen anything like it before, and as I stood there gawping at it this bearded bloke comes up and starts chatting. After a bit of small talk it transipres that he designed it. I was well impressed, and when I walked away I remember thinking that I'd never met anyone that could build a bass, especially one as unique as that.
Cut to a month later I picked up the latest copy of Bassist mag. There's that bearded chap from the Bass Centre on the cover. Ah. Oh dear. It's a guy called John Entwistle. Speechless.

[spike]

A few years ago I used to go to a jazz jam at a place called the Hat factory in Luton. The regular guitar player was called Neil and he was Scottish. One evening there was a second Scottish guitarist there called Jim and I just assumed he was a mate of Neil's. I jammed on a couple of songs with him and it was only later that I found out I'd been playing with Jim Mullen.

same venue, different evening I played with a drummer who was head and shoulders better than any jazz drummer I had played with before. I had no idea it was Clark Tracey.

[Rich]

It's the mid 80s and this fresh-faced callow youth -- believe it or not I [i]was[/i] young once -- was at the Bass Centre in Wapping (RIP, what a place that was back then) trying out a forest of basses and trying to decide what to blow a bank loan on. I'd pretty much narrowed it down to a choice between a Jaydee Roadie 2 (well it was the 80s after all) and a beautiful Pangborn Warlord, but all the while there had been this big guy with dreads down to his arse and a completely bizarre Jazz (fretless, entirely pink with gold hardware and a big brass slap plate in the end of the neck, sounded amazing) who had been thundering away all afternoon on a series of amps. After a while he came over and asked if I'd mind giving him a second opinion. Sure, says I, what on? He told me he was after a big touring rig and couldn't decide between a gigantic Peavey stack and an equally gigantic Trace stack. He liked them both, the Peavey had a certain [i]something[/i] about the sound that the Trace didn't, and vice versa, and what did I think? "See" he says, "the Trace sounds like this…" {cue massive avalanche of notes} "but when I do it with the Peavey…" {cue similar massive avalanche of notes} "see what I mean? There's something different about it. Is it a good different? What do you reckon?". Blimey, I thought, quite honestly it all sounds feckin awesome – bearing in mind that at the time, my amp was a 100 watt Phoenix PHA1 hybrid thing with a really crap 4x12 cab – but I had to admit that on balance the Peavey actually better suited the sound of his Jazz. He thanked me for my help and honesty, and then invited me to jam. So I fumbled along a bit, doing little more than laying down root notes for him to solo blisteringly over, just enjoying watching him play. There was something amusing about the contrast of such a big intimidating-looking guy with such a girly-coloured** bass, I think that's probably what he was aiming for. He really was a smashing chap though, but I never learned his name.
Went home, thought no more of it, ended up buying my Wal at a local music shop rather than taking out said loan for the Warlord.
Some months later, there's a music show on the telly – The Tube I think? – and there's a fella called Terence Trent D'Arby being introduced to the nation. And who's there behind him, brandishing a bright pink bass? Yup. Turns out his name was Cass Lewis.


** no offence intended whatsoever

[gelfin]

John Paul Jones.

I used to build custom flight cases and was delivering to Manson guitars when they were in Crowborough.
This guy came in to collect his triple neck acoustic, (and case) while I was there.
Took this pic, but only after he had left did Hugh tell me who he was.

[url="http://s970.photobucket.com/user/gelfin5959/media/MansonTriple.jpg.html"][/url]

Edited May 5, 2016 by gelfin

[charic]

JJ Burnell (I'd only played bass 4 weeks and was my first gig) and Herman Li

[mingsta]

Nice story Rich...and further proof along with mine and Ratman's that The Bass Centre was THE place for young callow youths to have random encounters with famous bass players back in the 80s/90s.

I hope you kept that Wal...

Edited May 5, 2016 by mingsta

[chris_b]

About 15 years ago I was at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York City and realised I was standing next to Yoko Ono. She's about 4" 6" in flat shoes.

I was going to tell her off for breaking up the Beatles but decided to let it be. (see what I did there?)

[uk_lefty]

Not a musician but I once asked Tracey Emin for directions to the bass centre (??) Near Liverpool street station. She didn't know. I realised it was her the next day. I also stood on her friends foot by accident.

[ras52]

I've chatted to Sir William Glock (former controller of BBC Radio 3 and the Proms) without knowing it.

In the world of that pop music, in the 90s I went on a songwriting course which was co-led by Elvis Costello. He was a late addition to the roster, and was introduced as Declan McManus. At the end of the week, he performed as Elvis with the Brodsky Quartet - at which point two of the younger students on the course were asking, incredulously, did you know that was Elvis Costello?!

[Rich]

[quote name='mingsta' timestamp='1462450661' post='3043092']
I hope you kept that Wal...
[/quote]
Certainly did

[Japhet]

A few years back I sometimes played at a jazz funk jam at a pub in Cambridge. A guy came on stage and started laying down some seriously good guitar grooves and solos. Really enjoyed playing with him. Afterwards I said to my mate (who was drumming); 'that guitarist is a bit tasty. Is he in a band?' My mate looked at me a bit quizzically and said ' Yes, they're called Jamiroquai'. Turns out I'd been sharing the stage with Rob Harris (Doh!). Have met and spoken to him numerous times since and he is an absolute diamond of a bloke.

[FinnDave]

The first time I met Jenny Haan (Babe Ruth band & early 70s pin-up) she was standing in my kitchen and I had no idea who she was. She was working as a carer and just then my mother-in-law shopping. We were talking about music and it slowly (very slowly) dawned on me that when she said she liked singing, she didn't mean in the bath. I think it was when she told me she'd be appearing at Summer Fest in Milwaukee that year that I started to wonder who she was. She ended up singing with my band for 18 months or so, and I have heard her repeat her side of that meeting in several radio interviews.

And not a musician, but...some 25 years ago I picked up the phone at work and found myself talking to a familiar voice I couldn't put my finger on. After a good 10 ten minutes of to-ing and fro-ing, he said 'do you know who I am?' and then told me...David Frost.

[AnalogBomb]

I met Jack Black a few years back after a Tenacious D gig in Leeds - thoroughly nice bloke and pretty much as you see him. Also, one of my Wife's best friends got married a couple of years ago and her dad is Craig Adams from The Mission/Sisters of Mercy etc.... got sat next to him and just talked about bass gear and got well oiled too!

[Happy Jack]

Does knowing a famous musician before he got famous count? Cos that's all I got.

[RhysP]

[quote name='Rich' timestamp='1462458289' post='3043186']
Certainly did


[/quote]

I used to have one like that, only difference was that mine was a natural finish.
Swapped a sh*tty old Rick 4001 for it.

[Chiliwailer]

Great stories up there, got a few myself.

First up is a Keith Levene, met him in 1999 and we instantly clicked and saw each other regularly. About 10 months later when we started to play together I asked him which band he used to be in, when he said PiL I felt proper foolish, but he absolutely loved that I was his friend for who he was, and not what he used to be. We've been close pals ever since.

In 1996 I think, a tramp looking guy came into a guitar shop I worked in, early Monday morning. He asked to play a very pricey dobro, we let him have a play and were all blown away by his playing. He humbley handed it back and said "I'll come back later with my manager". We all thought he was a rock n roll casualty, but he came back with his manager and a BBC film crew, turns out it was Peter Green getting ready for the Splinter Group. Such a lovely man, a bit odd, but a real pleasure to meet.

I was once joking with another customer about capo's, he started it off and was funny as f***. When he left my mates were like "that's Mike Myers". Top bloke he was.

I'll probably remember more later, 12 years in Denmark Street threw up some great celeb and muso stories.

[Kex]

My next one was a a young lad in Ireland, had relatives in Dublin and would go and stay with my Aunt for a few weeks.

Was sitting on the wall out side my Aunts house in about 1968 in Crumlin just outside Dublin when this tall skinny guy with afro haircut walks past,
In 1968 that was pretty unusual look for Ireland back then, asked my uncle who he was and he said some bloke in a band called Skinny Liz.

Well not far out, was of course Phill Lynott.