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Ever Embarrassed Yourself?


Pete Academy
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Met Ian Gillan and all I could think to say was "you had a guitar shaped swimming pool". What a total plonker I was, Ian Gillan for goodness sake !

I was fairly young at the time, but then I suppose at least the conversation was different :)

EDIT: Hmm, seems I am always putting my foot in it even on this thread as it was mean't to be "bass hero" and I don't think Gillan played bass :rolleyes:.

Edited by purpleblob
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kevin shields was at a gig i played a year or two back - the whole place was 'look...it's kev shields'...but i just about managed to keep my cool...

until i saw him nodding his head to one of our noise breakdowns...then i lost if for a bit.

i wouldn't have dared to speak to him.

:)

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[quote name='Pete Academy' post='601600' date='Sep 17 2009, 07:22 PM']Has anyone ever met their bass hero and been literally tongue-tied? Or done something stupid?

I was at a music industry trade show in the 80s, in a small demo room, listening to an EV PA demo. I stepped backwards and trod on an extremely tall person's foot.

John Entwistle.[/quote]


i met tommy whittle at his folks home and chewed my reed trying to play something for him

[url="http://vzone.virgin.net/davidh.taylor/whittle.htm"]TW[/url]

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Not quite my hero, but probably many people's. I met Tal Wilkenfeld & Jeff Beck after the Manchester gig this year. Jeff was in the doorway of the bus, and Tal was sat on the bus. I brandished a photo and a pen over Jeff's shoulder, and Tal got up and signed it very graciously. I tried to hold a brief conversation (bit of a gibbering wreck at this point, as not only is she a fabulous player, but she's even lovelier in real life than I expected and as sweet as could be), again over Jeff's shoulder - he was attempting to sign loads of stuff that other people were thrusting at him - and he thought I was talking to him. He turned round saying "what?", and I just said "sorry Jeff, I was talking to Tal", in a kind of "don't bother me now!" way. Afterwards I was mortified. I thought "I just dissed Jeff Beck!"

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The first time I met Glenn Hughes, I went into starstuck git mode and actually told him it was his "fault" that I took up playing bass. I could have died afterwards. This was when I was living in Brazil. I went to see him at a gig in Sao Paulo with my wife.

The second time I met him was back in the UK about six months later, and guess what, he recognised me. He said "hey, I remember you, I met you in Brazil" I thought how cool is that, my hero remembers me. At this point I said sorry for what I'd said when I'd met him before, and we had a bit of a laugh about it. Great guy is Glenn, always a complete gentleman whenever I have seen him.

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I went to one of Billy Sheehan's Ampeg clinics in Manchester in the early nineties.

Queued to say hello afterwards, but by the time we got to the big man I was literally tongue tied. Fortunately my brother came along too who organised the short conversation on my behalf: " Hi Bill - his name's Guy" - "Nice to meet you Guy - I'll sign this photo for you ...Bye!"

Still cringing at the memory some 18 years later!

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Not so much me, but my mother! :)

Was having a quick chat about music with Richard Bona (as you do) at one of his shows at Pizza Express Jazz club in soho, pretty nervous you know, and my mum comes up and says to me mid-conversation....

"Tell Richard how many basses you have Simon"

She obviously had the best intentions, and was just trying to try and make me look like a 'serious bassist in the eyes of Mr Bona'......but I probably went a little red lol

Si

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Met Jullian Crampton on a jazz gig we were playing at and didn't realise who he was until someone introduced him, I just thought he was just some bald guy who was particularly amazing on bass. That was awakward, although I did have a really good chat with him about why he turned down the Massive Attack gig after apologising for not knowing who he was and he just said "no one ever remembers the bass player!"

Met Terry Gregory and John Curry when auditioning for Bass Tech and that made me lose my nerve in the audition, so much so that I couldn't even describe what a triad was. John was really cool about it though and just told me to relax and play the best bass lines I knew. I passed but couldn't afford to go which sucked.

Met Janek Gwizdala while he was warming up on the Markbass stand and Steve Lawson at the bar at Bass Day 2005 and just didn't know what to say to either of them other than "you're awesome man... I mean... you're really awesome... wow... you're awesome!" That was also quite awkward.

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[quote name='Sibob' post='601848' date='Sep 17 2009, 11:19 PM']Not so much me, but my mother! :)

Was having a quick chat about music with Richard Bona (as you do) at one of his shows at Pizza Express Jazz club in soho, pretty nervous you know, and my mum comes up and says to me mid-conversation....

"Tell Richard how many basses you have Simon"

She obviously had the best intentions, and was just trying to try and make me look like a 'serious bassist in the eyes of Mr Bona'......but I probably went a little red lol

Si[/quote]

LMAO..... Mums are great aint they?

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When I was about eighteen Jack Bruce came into the camera/hifi shop Iwas working in and I asked him to autograph my guitar case that I had with me.
It had my first bass an old Vox in it.
He was really obliging but when i look back it must have been a cringeworthy moment.
I wonder where that case ended up,I sold about a year or two later.

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I don't think I've ever met any of my favourite bassists. Except Norwood, but I was chatting to Angelo (who's a top guy) so I didn't get a chance to speak to him.

I suppose Norman, Horace and both of the Bruces would be the players I grew up on, but I've never bumped into them and their bands had all broke up by the time I started going to gigs.

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