GRcade

Played football with Matt Smith for a few years as a kid.
Sat on a table with Michael Schumacher in an Indian restaurant in the 90s sometime (again as a kid so I was just sat there unaware of the enormity of it)
Met Gary Lineker at a charity cricket match
Met Lenny Henry and Phil Jupitus when they came into a shop my dad used to own.
Una and Frankie from the Saturdays watching the Northampton Saints (when Una was with Ben Foden) train when I was at work.
Russell Kane on a plane to Orlando 3 years ago.
Oddly yesterday flew home from Spain with Bryan Gil (Spurs player) sat behind me.

Saw Bradley Cooper in LA last year.

Saw Martina Navratilova outside the Capitoline museum in Rome.

Was on a flight back from Rome with Jim Kerr.

Stumbled across Andrew Cuomo doing a meet-and-greet thing just off 5th Ave. in New York.

Was on a flight back from New York with Billy Connolly.

I'm sure I've been on at least a couple of flights with Michelle Mone

Been on the same train carriage as a heavily-bearded Peter Mullan.

Shaun Ryder once sat down next to me in the Dry Bar in Manchester.

And pushing at the boundaries if what could reasonably be described as a a celebrity now:

Saw Spider from Coronation Street at the entrance to Sankey's Soap in Manchester.

Saw Tracy Shaw from Coronation Street on Market St. in Manchester.

Saw Sandy Toksvig at the Kelvingrove art gallery in Glasgow.

Van Foster wrote:
Saw Spider from Coronation Street at the entrance to Sankey's Soap in Manchester.

Saw Tracy Shaw from Coronation Street on Market St. in Manchester.

Oh that reminds me. I was out with my mum a year or two ago and we saw some woman that was in Coronation Street. But I haven't watched it in 30 years so I had no idea who she was and I can't remember her name either.

Nothing major but this would be mine:

Ran into Domhnal Gleeson twice in Dublin. First time I took a pic of him with my wife and we told him he was great.
Had a quick chat with Aidan Gillen at my wedding venue in Dublin the week before the big day.
Saw Brooke Shields shopping at Brown Thomas in Dublin.
Walked past Jack Whitehall outside the Emirates Stadium.
Saw Joe Cole at Wembley before England v Germany at Euro 2020.
Walked past Nathalie Emmanuel at London Bridge station.

Last but not least...

Danced with Sam Smith on a random Soho street while hammered on the first big 'independence day' after lockdown.

Went to see Hollywood actor Tim Robbins play a gig with his folk band Rogue's Gallery in a small church in Salford and afterwards he met the 'crowd', we shook hands and my friend John said we were going to the Kings Arms down the road if he wanted to join us, and he said he might, but he did not.

Edit: actually I misremember that (it was 2010, a lifetime ago) - after we got out the church John said 'I don't actually fancy the Kings Arms, let's go back into Manchester', so we did. So maybe Tim Robbins did go and we stood HIM up.

My mate hates Herman Li from DragonForce because he tried to steal my mates girlfriend right in front of him, shamelessly.

I saw Boris Becker in NY and Johnny Vegas in London (Madame Tussauds).

When we were kids, my mate saw Pat Sharp in Hamleys and wrote "Pat Sharp from Fun House is in the building" on all the Etch-A-Sketch.

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Johnny Vegas in London (Madame Tussauds).

Waxworks do not count.

Moggy wrote:

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:Johnny Vegas in London (Madame Tussauds).

Waxworks do not count.

Well that rules out just about anyone in pop music or TV from 2005 onwards.

karl_fletcher wrote:I drove 8 hours to Indianapolis to see Tim Capello perform at an 80s horror movie themed night at some shitty bar. Afterwards he had a meet and greet and I bought 3 photos for him to sign to send to my brothers and a friend back in England. He was completely nuts.

Was he in The Lost Boys?

Mommy wrote:

karl_fletcher wrote:I drove 8 hours to Indianapolis to see Tim Capello perform at an 80s horror movie themed night at some shitty bar. Afterwards he had a meet and greet and I bought 3 photos for him to sign to send to my brothers and a friend back in England. He was completely nuts.

Was he in The Lost Boys?

yep



and family guy referenced it

BOR wrote:Oh, how could I forget?!

Mark Lambett - The Chaser

Mark was gigantic!

Apparently he was my former boss' teacher at school. And was awful at the job.

Moggy wrote:

Van Foster wrote:
Saw Spider from Coronation Street at the entrance to Sankey's Soap in Manchester.

Saw Tracy Shaw from Coronation Street on Market St. in Manchester.

Oh that reminds me. I was out with my mum a year or two ago and we saw some woman that was in Coronation Street. But I haven't watched it in 30 years so I had no idea who she was and I can't remember her name either.

I once saw Pat Phoenix arrive in THE Barratt helicopter to open a new housing estate. An iconic 70s moment!

Bumped into Sean Connery in Manhattan in 2006. My friend asked him if he knew where Bloomingdale's was. He seemed weirdly happy to hear British voices. Saw Julianne Moore on the same trip shopping in a Quicksilver shop too.

Other that it's mostly just seeing celebs walking around London. Saw Emma D'Arcy (House of the Dragon) plodding around Shoreditch and Bill Nighy (looking very sharp) in Soho. Saw Joe Thomas and Hannah Tointon from Inbetweeners in Soho too, actually.

I've had very few celebrity encounters.

When I was little I met the Rev Awdry. He signed a Thomas the Tank book for me.

I've met Dick Valentine from Electric Six a couple of times before and after gigs. He's a weird man. Scraping the barrel, also had a chat with their keyboard player Chris Tait. He's also in a band with a Patti Smith's daughter and he worked on the soundtrack to the game Always Sometimes Monsters.

I had a couple of near misses - David James came into a shop I worked in, but I didn't see him. Apparently he has massive hands. I was out in a rock club in Cardiff the same night Motorhead played the city, and there were rumours all night that Lemmy was going to the club after the gig/was there in a private room/was outside in the smoking area/had been and gone to another club. No idea if there was any truth to it.

Van Foster wrote:And pushing at the boundaries if what could reasonably be described as a a celebrity now:

Saw Sandy Toksvig at the Kelvingrove art gallery in Glasgow.

I don't think that's pushing the boundaries of celebrity, Sandi's a big deal.

For near misses, I treated my sister to one of those new Jumanji films at the cinema and lunch for her birthday a few years back. This was December 23rd. I said goodbye to her and went home while she went off shopping in Marks and Spencers and ran into Spider-Man. Tom Holland was apparently buying his mother a Xmas gift two days before Xmas. Which admittedly is a very Spider-Man thing to do.

Memento Mori wrote:... went off shopping in Marks and Spencers and ran into Spider-Man. Tom Holland was apparently buying his mother a Xmas gift two days before Xmas. Which admittedly is a very Spider-Man thing to do.

You'd think he would have bought something off the web.

I bumped into Alastair McGowen in Sheffield Train Station in 2004. His friend took our photograph and remarked that my phone was like something out of James Bond because it took pictures which always stuck with me.

I met Sean Bean when they were dedicating a spot to him on the Sheffield walk of fame. He seemed very shy and quite humble.

Eddie Izzard was stood behind me in the queue for the train from London a few months back. I didn’t bother her because everyone was stressed due to a prior cancellation.

I bumped into Nick Clegg on a walk in the Peak District. Lovely bloke actually. I thanked him for neutering Cameron and Osbourne for 4 years.

I think the weirdest was Rosemary Connelly came to do a talk at my church back home in the late 1990’s.

I saw Andrew Marr at the Bridge Theatre during the interval of Straight Line Crazy