Brush with Greatness (or, "Hey, I once played a gig with him!")

[Crusoe]

😁Deep Purple's guitarist, Simon McBride lived at the bottom of my street. I don’t think I ever met him as he's about 5 years younger than me, but I do remember when he won the Young Guitarist of the Year competition. Does that count? 

[tauzero]

Back in 1990, the band I was in got ourselves in to pay on Telethon '90. The host was Jimmy Tarbuck, though the only time I got (briefly) to speak with him was at some ungodly hour in the morning, when we were wondering when we'd be on. I sought him out at the same time as a few guys from another band wanted to find the same thing. He looked along the line of us (about half a dozen black guys in proper band uniform and a white bloke in a lumberjack shirt) and said to me "You're not with them, are you?". Well, it was funny at the time.

 

More recently, I was on series 7 of Robot Wars (on Channel 5) with SMIDSY. Didn't talk much to Craig Charles but I did wind up Jayne Middlemiss (and nearly enticed her onto the back of my bike). We also took part in Techno Games as Sprocket - I did Techno Games 2, and I still have my silver medal from coming runners-up in the football. Got to have a chat with Phillipa Forrester, who was just spectating at the time due to pregnancy, and with Noel Sharkey. We also took part in the sumo, during which we opened SMIDSY's jaws, which was against the rules. Derek Foxwell came over to tell us we were disqualified and why, and then they wanted to film us being told about being disqualified. So we stood there, Derek came over to us, and said "You're disqualified. Now f*ck off." This explains why in the broadcast version, Derek is grinning as he tells us we're disqualified and we're trying not to snigger.

[HornetPinata]

I brushed with Steve Earl a bit more than intended when I accidentally locked him and myself in in a tiny space between two sets of sliding glass doors.

His security entourage's hurried movements outside of the building told a tale of stress and worry.

I'd intentionally locked them out of the building so that part went right whether they were happy about it at that point in time or not.

We had a brief chat Steve and I. I said "I'm sorry about this". He said "Its ok". 

Didn't feel quite as good at the time as it may sound tbh. Time really stands still sometimes when in the presence of great artists.

 

[SumOne]

So there, I am, in Sri Lanka, formerly Ceylon, at about 3 o'clock in the morning, looking for one thousand brown M&Ms to fill a brandy glass, or Ozzy wouldn't go on stage that night. So, Jeff Beck pops his head 'round the door, and mentions there's a little sweets shop on the edge of town. So - we go. And - it's closed. So there's me, and Keith Moon, and David Crosby, breaking into that little sweets shop, eh. Well, instead of a guard dog, they've got this bloody great big Bengal tiger. I managed to take out the tiger with a can of mace, but the shopkeeper and his son... that's a different story altogether. I had to beat them to death with their own shoes. Nasty business, really, but sure enough I got the M&Ms, and Ozzy went on stage and did a great show.

[SteveXFR]

I once played in a room next to where Peter Gabriel was jamming with a couple mates. Not sure that really counts. 

My daughters bands new guitarist is the son of a very famous folk singer. Does that count? He's really good. 

[madshadows]

Many years ago me and my mate Cliff went to see Ian Hunter at the Astoria in London, we got there really early so went to a bar upstairs in the venue and I notice the legendary Ariel Bender aka Luther Grosvenor (of Spooky Tooth, Stealer's Wheel & Mott The Hoople fame ) standing at the bar, we walk up to the bar and he turns and says to me "Don't I know you from somewhere" (which made my day !!) , we'd never actually met but we had a lovely chat the three of us, later he excused himself to go backstage to meet up with Mr Hunter, he was a lovely guy and so down to earth  

 

John 😎 

[Leonard Smalls]

Back in the early 90s when I was a trainee boom-swinger I worked on "Keeping Up Appearances". I found I got on very well with the late Geoffrey Hughes and after a few whiskies in the hotel bar we'd go and play on a couple of acoustic guitars, him strumming and warbling, me just using the bottom 4 strings. Gawd help anyone listening!

Edited March 15 by Leonard Smalls

[MacDaddy]

28 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Geoffrey Hughes

 

Eddie Yates! 😎

[BassTractor]

Philip Glass, with a nice-to-me twist to the story.

Our music college student choir premiered his "Satyagraha". Whilst studying there unofficially, I didn't have a student card yet and was not in the choir. Was a Philip Glass fan though, and wanted to partake.

So there's me crawling on the floor so as to gain access to the concert building - unseen by the doorman in his office at the artists' entrance.
That went well for some metres, but then I spotted one Philip Glass in that hallway. Just as I thought all was lost, I saw him smiling. Phew, and I passed him with a sheepish smile and a thankful nod.
Later, I went up to him, thanking him for his kindness and explaining why I'd done that. He appreared to be a very down-to-earth and friendly bloke, with great warmth. Even bought me a cuppa; should've been the other way round, but he wouldn't hear of it.

Helped by his friendliness, I dared ask him for permission to play one of his organ pieces, mentioning that I'd been practising for 18 months developing the techniques for playing minimal music. 
He said yes, and told me where the notes were and who to contact. Still have the notes; never performed it.

 

 

Edited March 15 by BassTractor

[Angel]

Back in 82 I was at Luton 6th form college. My mate said come and see this band, the singer throws cucumbers at the audience! We went to the tiny venue (Luton Tech College Student Union Bar). There was this big guy slouched at a desk at the entrance selling the tickets. My mate said 'that's the singer'. I grabbed one of the cheap A4 posters and asked if he would sign it. He said "sure, come with me I'll get all the band to sign" and we traipsed in and met all the band in turn. There was no stage, and I stood literally 1 metre in front of the guitarist the whole gig. It was a fantastic experience. The singer was Fish, the band Marillion.

 

 

Spoiler

Spoiler

 

 

 

[MiltyG565]

A while ago now, I spent a week at a music-writing retreat with Kaiser Chiefs bassist Simon Rix somewhere in Wiltshire. There were several other musicians and music professionals there who hadn’t achieved the same level of mainstream success, despite being great musicians with a wealth of knowledge about songwriting, but were obviously making a living from it.

 

Simon was very nice. He had a great mini-Ampeg stack which was very cool, and sounded great! He’s very into football and I believe regularly features on football podcasts etc. Apparently, Kaiser Chiefs is the name of a South African football team, and the simply knicked the name for their band. I suppose it’s a bit like Dundee United, which apparently is an insult in Uganda, although many people do not realise it references a Scottish football team.

[lurksalot]

As we have a few tenuous connections , my self and probably 10,000 others have met Pete Waterman with his train sets , but he made me a cup of coffee 😁, now I was thinking of giving him a kiss …I would then be 1 degree of separation from kissing Kylie

 

Also , Mrs Lurks’ mum’s best friend’s husband, was Francis Rossi’s uncle. Rossi would occasionally visit said family and everyone would wave as he drove round the housing estate in his Roller.

Furthermore , Mr Rossi having a few children would often send hand-me-downs to the family who then passed them to Mrs Lurks’ mum and then to Tom, thus my stepson was once clothed in rock clobber 😁

 

 

 

that was an apostrophological mare! 

[MacDaddy]

1 hour ago, MiltyG565 said:

Apparently, Kaiser Chiefs is the name of a South African football team

 

The football team Leeds United bought Lucas Radabe (and Phil Masinga) from.

They're Leeds fans MOT!

Edited March 15 by MacDaddy

[MiltyG565]

Just now, MacDaddy said:

 

The football team Leeds United bought Lucas Radabe (and Phil Madinga) from.

They're Leeds fans MOT!

They are indeed Leeds fans!

[Gasman]

I have had a fair few brushes with the famous but not much in the way of their magic-dust seems to have settled upon me!

 

1. 10 gig tour backing Ricky Valance (Tell Laura..) in the 80s

2. 8 gig tour backing Keith Harris and Orville the duck (OMG!) in the 80s

3. Joined the White Hor Airmen (a London Temperance 7/Bonzo type outfit) where I played sax alongside Rod Slater (ex Bonzos) for several months. We had a gig downstairs at the 100 Club and ex-Bonzo Viv Stanshall had agreed to join in - we went to his house and had a chat and a runthrough of the numbers, but he didn't show up!

4. One WH Airmen gig at he Grey Horse Kingston found jazz legend Ken Colyer with his cornet ready to play New Orleans stuff with another band, but he'd got his dates wrong and he was on his own. We invited him to play with us (very 30s dance band stuff with 'comedy') - he did and it went very well, tho' he looked a bit askance at Rod and I doing the Paul Whiteman-style sax harmonies...

5. Joined the house band 'Brix Six' - classic Bix jazz residency in the Bricklayers Arms Brentford. One night in walked Andy 'Thunderclap' Newman - he played piano with us  for half an hour (we didn't do 'Something in the Air' - I wish we had...)

6. My edgy modern jazz group 'Moebius Band' that I formed while up at Oxford featured an amazing keyboard player (Dave Jarrett) who soon after joined prog-rockers 'Quiet Sun'. based in Dulwich. Their guitarist was to-be Roxy Man Phil Manzanera. My brother and I jammed with Dave, Phil and others for Mr Manzanera's birthday party. Healso helped mix a studio session my other Oxford Band recorded in Tower Studios London.

7. Quiet Sun's drummer was Charles Hayward - phenomenal player who I last heard still gigs as a solo percussonist mainly in Europe. He and I spent 6 months trying to get a QS follow-on band together after Phil joined Roxy , we auditioned many musicians but I think our musical genre was, well, a bit far-out for most, especially the bass + lead guys from the Foundations! Try the Quiet Sun album for a taster...

8. Depped for the Temperance Seven a couple of times when they had West Country gigs that their regular saxist(s) couldn't do

9. Honked a bit of sax on Jonah Louie's 'On a Saturday night' - well mixed down at the end!

10. Played in the jazz band that features in a crucial scene in the middle of David Essex's 'That'll be the Day' film - I'm stage right with a ridiculous beard... 

11. My London band 'Sweeney' supported 10cc at the Scunthorpe Baths Hall in 1972 I think, and also supported the Pioneers at the RAF base in Northallerton. Their lead singer fell out with their two other frontmen and hitched a lift with us sitting on top of the PA in our freezing-cold diesel Transit to get back to London. The oil pump broke 15 miles down the road stranding us completely - he only had his satin stage gear on, it was -1 degrees. He phoned for a taxi and our guitarist abandoned us and went back to the Smoke with him... are you surprised? Rest of that story another time..

.
12. Lastly, the lead guitarist with my current band is Francis Lickerish, late of prog-rockers The Enid and composer of some amazingly good epic symphonic rock albums based upon the Arthurian legends - worth a Google and listen.

 

Right, I'll STFU now...
 

[nilorius]

The most biggest concert for me was 15 years ago, when i was invited to play with Latvian greatest piano player and composer, now 88 years old - ''Raimonds Pauls''. Not sure if any of You will mean something, but wikipedia will tell You from A-Z.

Edited March 17 by nilorius

[SteveXFR]

Jimmy Page stroked my lurcher.

[Newfoundfreedom]

The closest I ever got was one of the fifteen thousand or so claimed to be member of The Drifters got up and walked out half way through our set at a charity gig. 

 

Which henceforth gave birth to our pre gig team cheer "F##K THE DRIFTERS!". 

[musicbassman]

I did post this story on BC a while ago, but I'm posting again as I think it still proves that truth is stranger than fiction.

 

In 1975 I was playing on the island of Jersey with the remnants of a 60's pop band called Love Affair. (Remember them?)

We were doing some sort of cabaret show at a big hotel there.

We'd finished our set in the main ballroom, and then picked up word that Robert Plant and John Bonham were in the bar. Went and had a discreet look, and it certainly looked like them.  Plant was on crutches - I knew he'd had a car crash recently. Bonham looked completely out of it. They were surrounded by a posse of hangers on and music biz people by the looks of it.

Next thing we know, everyones cheering, and Plant and Bonham are heading towards the stage. Plant stops and talks to our drummer briefly, and then our drummer points to myself and the guitarist, and indicates we should go up on stage with Plant and Bonham.

The rest was a bit of a blur, quite honestly. Bonham was clearly more than a bit worse for wear but started fiddling with the drum kit. Then someone fetched a stool for Plant to perch himself on, and Plant suggested over the mic that we played 'Red House' Sorted out the key, and we were off.

I was doing my best, but was only one step back from pissing myself with fear, god only knows what it sounded like. Luckily our guitarist was an excellent player and carried things along, as Bonham was hardly able to keep time, let alone play well.

We played two lengthy numbers, half drowned out by whooping and cheering from the crowd, possibly undeserved. I cannot remember for the life of me what the second number was.

Most unexpected thing that's ever happened to me at a gig.

 

[SteveXFR]

My daughters band (who are really good) have played a few shows in the town center for various town events and twice, Danny Goffey from Supergrass was spotted in the audience. Seth Lakeman has been spotted as well but only the once.

[rmorris]

If "playing support to..." counts now then I was in a band that supported Dodgy (if you remember 🤣) in Cardiff. I recall annoyance that they would allow our stand in drummer to use the main body of their kit. He had brought his snare and cymbals thus necessitating me (not the drummer but the only car owner/driver) to retrieve his kit from the rehearsal studio or wherever - it was a long time ago 🙂.

Then we couldn't see the audience for dry ice but someone kept shouting iirc "F"*k off" throughout. I think it turned out to be the singer from the guitarist's other band 🙄

And we didn't get paid .....😡

[Mottlefeeder]

I was in the house band for an open mic night in Warrington, so we elected ourselves as support for Dodgy when their last / comeback tour included our pub.

I was playing a 5-string acoustic bass at the time and my main recollection was that the local bought-in sound guy had no idea what to do with a bass like mine.

Dodgy weren't impressed with the venue or the sound as I recall.

David

[matski]

I played a gig with Larry Steinbachek of Bronski Beat fame in the early 2000s: we were friends when I used to live in Amsterdam and did a one hour set of improvised weirdness at the Cannabis Cup with our drummer friend Al Treney and a Norwegian jazz guitarist under the moniker 'The Puffadelics'. After our set we had a load of stoners complimenting us and asking where they could buy our CDs, they were most disappoionted to learn that The Puffadelics only existed for that one hour

The obligatory Lemmy sighting: after we played a gig at the Covent Garden Rock Garden in '86, Mr Kilminster gave us a thumbs up and croaked "Good gig, lads!" at us.

This summer my band is booked to play at a festival and we go on stage just before The Mission - I was a big fan of the original Sisters of Mercy back in the day so that could be good!

 

Edited March 18 by matski

[nige1968]

The folk rock band who tolerate my bass services were starting to get festival bookings before Covid. Usually the headline acts kept themselves to themselves, but for bizarre reasons to do with extreme weather we found ourselves doing the whole drunken 'we are not worthy' thing backstage with Stanley Jordan, poor lad. He had nowhere to hide. My friend "persuaded" him to participate in a selfie -- as Mr Jordan was changing out of his stage clobber at the time, the crop of the photo makes it look like he's naked and sitting with a clothed man.

 

Brighton has its share of pop illuminati. We were next to Fatboy and Zoe in a queue for a kids' ride once and I used to occasionally see the late Gary Moore in places like WHSmith. But my favourite star spot was Nick Cave, standing patiently in a queue outside the fancy dress shop one Halloween.

[BassTractor]

Oh! Another one.
Trying to give you the story just as how it developed for me:


Got asked to dep on piano for rehearsals of some sort. Some players I knew and some new to me, and first we gathered around a cuppa. Great atmosphere. Someone had brought his granddad or summat, Jean (French male name), a friendly and humourous bloke if a bit silent - maybe uncomfortable in the situation.

As we proceeded to the rehearsal room, granddad followed us, which I thought was remarkable, but hey ... not my band!

So we start rehearsing, me highly concentrated on the notes, as this was sightreading.
Granddad sat to my side and a bit behind me. Looking half over my shoulder I noticed he was rummaging his bag and producing something from it, which irked me a bit, but I couldn't turn around and signal him to please stop. Notes, ya know.
Next thing is that I hear these immediately recognisable, bee-you-tee-full harmonica tones sent directly from the gods ... Granddad was only Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidore, flamin' baron of Thielemans. (Laughter ensued; they'd agreed to not let me in on this and to then watch my response.)

 

Edited March 18 by BassTractor