Matt Monroe’s son used to fancy my sister. So he used to come up on his bike and chuck stones at her window. One day either him or his mate, dave, threw a bit hard and cracked it. My Dad went apeshit and marched down the road to berate the parents of this teenage miscreant. The door was of course opened by the great man himself and all talk of paying for the window were lost in an invitation and a warmed glass of fine brandy.
Two points. Matt Monroe, possibly the finest crooner England ever produced lived in a detached 4 bedroom house in Ealing without gates and opened his own door to a stranger. Secondly, my Dad didnt drink and had to be given a lift home by Matts wife. I wish it was my story but my Dad is 90 and doesnt really do Test Pressing
I used to work in the biz so I’m not going to go there but…
In the early days before I got a deal I shared a studio space in Mcr with a mate, we pooled our gear together. One evening the door opened and Juan Atkins and Derrick May walked in, looking bemused I might add. It was their first visit to Mcr (invited by Graham Massey iirc).
Some 10 or 15 years later I was working on the tills in the food section of the new M&S store in Mcr, I had the pleasure of serving many a Corrie actor and also Martin Freeman (he was lovely).
My folks live opposite Peter Kay in Bolton, seen him quite a few times but never spoken to him!
Funny thread.
One of (or could have been both) the twins’ from Hi de Hi used to come to our house to teach my mum guitar.
Met Griff Rhys Jones, Suzi Quatro and Richard Branson while working as a trainee chef.
Many years later unknowingly (security reasons) helped prepare a business lunch for then PM John Howard, through some agency work, while backpacking in Australia.
Bumped into Simon Day 3 times at 3 different clubs during a 24hr session in Ibiza, either going into or coming out of the gents. He was with Nicky Holloway.
We exchanged a smile and a nod each time, but by the final time in the following afternoon, the facial expressions were more suspicious.
A couple “blind” ones that are too good not to share all about MEGA-famous actor guy (we will call him M for short) and who for some reason seems to play a recurring walk-on role in my life-
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M is sitting court-side at the basketball game as he so often does. My friends and I have been gifted the seats across from him by a headphone mogul. 1 minute in to the game my friend who has brought a camera with a telephoto lens is hysterically laughing to the point where he can barely speak. Slowly and with effort he explains to us that while sneaking a picture of M he discovered that M has HUGE testicles. We all take turns all night looking and the tennis-ball size nuts of this super celebrity and laughing so hard that we didn’t watch even one minute of the game.
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I am hanging out in the village with a friend who is basically a “famous panhandler” he is known for making fun of people until they give him money to stop. We see M a block away wearing the most obviously fake disguise- a dime store orange wig that is placed sideways on his head and a curly-cue glue on mustache. He looks totally absurd and his drawing more attention to himself then he would if he just walked down the street with no “disguise on“. As he comes close to us my panhandler friend starts to harass him in a good-natured way, as you would do to anyone who is basically walking down the street wearing a clown costume. Suddenly I feel myself levitating and realize that four giant men are carrying me and my friend away from M. They aren’t hurting us but they’re literally lifting us like little babies. We are told to “leave that man alone please” and I go on my way thinking I could never have a weirder encounter with M…
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My friend’s friend moved from from France to the village and found work the first week as the sous chef in a restaurant downtown known for having a wait staff comprised entirely of drag queens (not transwomen I don’t want to mislabel people but actual drag queens with outrageous wigs etc. who identify as men outside of work). French guy found a cheap room in a disgusting downtown hotel/flop house with one of the waitresses. We often wound up at his apartment because it was right by the Astor place cube which was a central meeting place in the pagers-only era. One day we left the cube to smoke a blunt in the flophouse and inside we are greeted by French guy’s roommate naked save for his long green work wig and behind him pumping savagely is M, naked except for the same stupid crooked red toupee as last time. He barely pauses, looks up at us, yells “don’t knock it til you try it my friends” at which point we beat a hasty retreat and spend the rest of the afternoon dumbfounded and repeating the story to each other to make sure it really happened
My brother is not an imbiber of the MJ. Moves to LA in the mid-aughts and promptly gets a job at a restaurant called Ford’s Filling Station–the chef/owner is Ben Ford, son of Han Solo himself. One day he goes back in the kitchen and there is Ben sharing a toke with his dad, who, being a congenial fellow, offers my brother the spliff. He turned it down and we still give him shit about it–how could you turn down a smoke from Indiana Jones?
Dijon
I was on one of the trips with simon Day and Holloway in Ibiza…
I cant share the story here…
Is this M? Don’t really go to cinema/have television so wondering who he is. The outfit is something else though.
Haha. Small world.
Cannot remember the year, but must have been mid 90’s because The Fast Show was still running.
Ha, no idea, just a guess… pic is Mickey Rourke. Google him now, that one is pretty tame tbh.
Simon Day’s autobiography is a great read and pretty clear on his pastimes. He misses out a few years as he says he was a coke addict so nothing of interest really happened.
Mark Williams was friends with my flatmate in Brighton and used to come round a bit. They knew him through the House night he put on - Spaniel Racing.
David Rodigan was my commuting buddy most Monday mornings for a few years when I worked in the West End as he lived around the corner from me in Acton. One of the nicest men you could ever hope to meet.
My office was also in the same building as James Grant Management (agents), so shared the lifts on numerous occasions with all sorts of celebrities (and probably loads more I didn’t even know) - Ant & Dec, Leigh Francis, Gary Barlow & Mark Owen, Davina McCall, Graham Norton, etc.
Yay to Rodigan!
I’m really happy to hear this, it doesn’t come as a surprise but just ace to hear.
Charlie?
My flatmate’s name or Simon Day?
Your flat mate!
Maybe, can’t remember. Long ginger hair, had finished her degree and was waiting tables at a hotel along Kings Road, where our flat was, along with 2 other girls. were you round as well?!
Ah no, someone else! Must have done a confusion. Yes, I was living in Brighton around then.
Simon Day’s autobiography is a great read and pretty clear on his pastimes. He misses out a few years as he says he was a coke addict so nothing of interest really happened.
Never knew that, but I always remember there being some sketch of his I watched once where the character was talking about becoming successful and your mates thinking you’ve become a wanker because you do too much coke and the fact it seemed to lack any actual funny bits made you wonder if he was the actual character.
I was only there 1st August '98 to end of May '99. Must go back for a visit one day!
I used to start work at 12 and pass Damian Harris every day as he was, i guess, headed to the Skint office, which must’ve been very close to my flat.