I think you may very well win this thread, Ann_Tenna - not only did you meet someone very famous but also whilst they were, in a sense, making history. In Lennon's defence he was off his face on Lord-knows-what at the time. I don't think he was a particularly bad person, but he was that unpleasant mix of self-important and self-hating.
Yoko, I've never actually heard a bad word about from anyone that has met her on a superficial level. Again, I don't believe the tripe about Yoko being a bad person at all. As I said earlier in this thread, I did meet her earlier this year after she hosted a talk about her new book. She politely declined photos and autographs, as it was getting late and she wanted to rush off to get some dinner, but the most surprising thing about Yoko is how shy, unsure and softly spoken she is in person, completely the opposite of what you'd expect from the media-fuelled "dragon lady" persona.
It's well known that Yoko is fiercely intelligent, manipulative when she wants to be, and has a marked talent for money-making and negotiation, but she has never come across as a particularly confident, extroverted person. She was also wonderfully self-deprecating both times I've seen her.
Sorry to ramble, but I find her an endlessly fascinating person - and I like her music, too. She's massively overdue a reappraisal.
My sister, for years, has done music lessons at Dovedale primary school in Liverpool (the primary school which Lennon and Harrison attended. In that time Yoko Ono has been incredibly generous with the school in terms of both with time and money,
She has visited the school on multiple occasions to open various things or for special celebrations, at one stage donated £25,000 to the school and also rather brilliantly donated a huge 'walking piano' to the school (I've heard that it is the actual one used in the movie Big, but I can't be certain of this).
Considering she met John once he had moved to London and has no reason to feel any ties to his childhood home and school, it is incredible that she has always kept it in her thoughts and helped when possible.
I agree, a re-appraisal of her is definitely overdue, and the above should go some way to showing the class of the lady.
My sister, for years, has done music lessons at Dovedale primary school in Liverpool (the primary school which Lennon and Harrison attended. In that time Yoko Ono has been incredibly generous with the school in terms of both with time and money,
She has visited the school on multiple occasions to open various things or for special celebrations, at one stage donated £25,000 to the school and also rather brilliantly donated a huge 'walking piano' to the school (I've heard that it is the actual one used in the movie Big, but I can't be certain of this).
Considering she met John once he had moved to London and has no reason to feel any ties to his childhood home and school, it is incredible that she has always kept it in her thoughts and helped when possible.
I agree, a re-appraisal of her is definitely overdue, and the above should go some way to showing the class of the lady.
What a lovely thing for her to do - as you say she has no direct affiliation with the school, so this is very good of her. Maybe they should do an award in HER name for the most musical child in the school
Jessie J... Didn't want to be recognised, all while shouting this fact at the top of her lungs for all to hear
Russell Brand...Never had an opinion on him, though never understood the lothario tag he was given in his early days. That all changed as he was charming and all round a decent guy
John Cleese... Very chirpy and conversed briefly
There's more due to my line of work but can't think of them all in one go
Jessie J... Didn't want to be recognised, all while shouting this fact at the top of her lungs for all to hear
Russell Brand...Never had an opinion on him, though never understood the lothario tag he was given in his early days. That all changed as he was charming and all round a decent guy
John Cleese... Very chirpy and conversed briefly
There's more due to my line of work but can't think of them all in one go
Jessie J is the very embodiment of the phrase that empty vessels make the most noise.
I met John Lennon and Yoko Ono when they were doing their bed-in/peace thing in Montreal in 1969.
I was fourteen at the time. A couple of friends of mine and I happily ditched school that day to go downtown to the Queen Elizabeth Hotel to wait to meet him.
We were die-hard Beatles fans, and our favourite Beatle was John.
When we met him, though, it was like a slap in the face, a real wake up call, because he couldn't have been more of a jerk. He was terrible, insulting everyone...talk about his "peace". I later learned that he was into snorting heroin at the time. I was a naive fourteen year old and didn't know squat about that.
He was a dick, but oddly, Yoko Ono was very nice. She gets a lot of flak, but she was very pleasant to us, spoke with us and smiled. She was a gracious woman.
There are pics on a Canadian site of our meeting with John Lennon and Yoko if anyone wants to see. Let me know and I will post the link for you.
Back in 1975, a boyfriend and I were sitting at our local watering hole, seedy rock and roll dive, and Art Garfunkel was sitting at the table right next to ours. The tables in this joint were pushed together. He was sitting right next to me. He was there as a band that he was promoting was playing that night. He was very quiet, and focused on the band. During breaks, he just stared straight ahead.
One girl recognized him and approached him. She had a piece of paper in her claw, and a pen. "Can I get your autograph for my mother?" she asked him.
I thought it was a hoot! Her mother! Since Art Garfunkel was so quiet, I didn't know how he'd react, but he was very nice and signed the girl's paper and addressed it to her mother.
When the boyfriend and I left the club, perched on the boyfriend's motorcycle, almost ready to roar away into the night, I looked at the club's entrance/balcony as we were ready to go. Art Garfunkel was standing there, and caught my eye, and gave me a huge smile and waved at me.
Oh! I went to the Festival of Festivals in Toronto in '78, I think it was, and I got to dance with Donald Sutherland. Some might laugh, but trust me, this man looks so much better in real life than he does on film. He was wearing a black velvet jacket that evening, he's very tall, and his hair! It was shiny light blond. He looked fantastic.
We had to buy tickets to get booze. I drank a couple of screwdrivers, and my friend (same friend who was with me when I met Lennon) bet me that I wouldn't have the guts to ask Donald Sutherland to dance with me. Of course, I was up for the challenge, but I made my friend stake over a couple of her booze tickets lest I humiliated myself.
I drank another screwdriver and approached Donald Sutherland and asked him to dance. What a nice man, a perfect gentleman. He took me into his arms and we danced together -- to this day I can't remember the song we danced to. He was super. He asked me what work I'd done lately, as if I was in films. I don't know if he was pulling my leg or not. "I work at Traveler's Insurance company as a secretary!" I babbled nervously. He laughed in a mellow way.
I met John Lennon and Yoko Ono when they were doing their bed-in/peace thing in Montreal in 1969.
I was fourteen at the time. A couple of friends of mine and I happily ditched school that day to go downtown to the Queen Elizabeth Hotel to wait to meet him.
We were die-hard Beatles fans, and our favourite Beatle was John.
When we met him, though, it was like a slap in the face, a real wake up call, because he couldn't have been more of a jerk. He was terrible, insulting everyone...talk about his "peace". I later learned that he was into snorting heroin at the time. I was a naive fourteen year old and didn't know squat about that.
He was a dick, but oddly, Yoko Ono was very nice. She gets a lot of flak, but she was very pleasant to us, spoke with us and smiled. She was a gracious woman.
There are pics on a Canadian site of our meeting with John Lennon and Yoko if anyone wants to see. Let me know and I will post the link for you.
Back in 1975, a boyfriend and I were sitting at our local watering hole, seedy rock and roll dive, and Art Garfunkel was sitting at the table right next to ours. The tables in this joint were pushed together. He was sitting right next to me. He was there as a band that he was promoting was playing that night. He was very quiet, and focused on the band. During breaks, he just stared straight ahead.
One girl recognized him and approached him. She had a piece of paper in her claw, and a pen. "Can I get your autograph for my mother?" she asked him.
I thought it was a hoot! Her mother! Since Art Garfunkel was so quiet, I didn't know how he'd react, but he was very nice and signed the girl's paper and addressed it to her mother.
When the boyfriend and I left the club, perched on the boyfriend's motorcycle, almost ready to roar away into the night, I looked at the club's entrance/balcony as we were ready to go. Art Garfunkel was standing there, and caught my eye, and gave me a huge smile and waved at me.
Oh! I went to the Festival of Festivals in Toronto in '78, I think it was, and I got to dance with Donald Sutherland. Some might laugh, but trust me, this man looks so much better in real life than he does on film. He was wearing a black velvet jacket that evening, he's very tall, and his hair! It was shiny light blond. He looked fantastic.
We had to buy tickets to get booze. I drank a couple of screwdrivers, and my friend (same friend who was with me when I met Lennon) bet me that I wouldn't have the guts to ask Donald Sutherland to dance with me. Of course, I was up for the challenge, but I made my friend stake over a couple of her booze tickets lest I humiliated myself.
I drank another screwdriver and approached Donald Sutherland and asked him to dance. What a nice man, a perfect gentleman. He took me into his arms and we danced together -- to this day I can't remember the song we danced to. He was super. He asked me what work I'd done lately, as if I was in films. I don't know if he was pulling my leg or not. "I work at Traveler's Insurance company as a secretary!" I babbled nervously. He laughed in a mellow way.
Really nice man.
I thin he's pretty gorgeous full stop!! Think it's the eyes and the voice. His son isn't bad either ;-)
There's at least one other story somewhere on this thread/site about him being on a plane and using this exact phrase. Seems like a right cretinous individual.
I must admit if he said that anywhere within my earshot my response would be to turn to him and say " yes, I can see you are a very rude, small man who probably has a very small penis" and turn back away again.:D
Met OJ Borg (think he's a Five Live presenter and does the Lotto results on occasion) last year during the Giro D'Italia big start in NI, really nice dude.
Haven't met anyone else but a friend went to school with Rory McIlroy and has met him since, says he hasn't really changed at all though his parents are a nightmare apparently. She has also served Ant and Dec and says they're so down to earth
I think you may very well win this thread, Ann_Tenna - not only did you meet someone very famous but also whilst they were, in a sense, making history. In Lennon's defence he was off his face on Lord-knows-what at the time. I don't think he was a particularly bad person, but he was that unpleasant mix of self-important and self-hating.
Yoko, I've never actually heard a bad word about from anyone that has met her on a superficial level. Again, I don't believe the tripe about Yoko being a bad person at all. As I said earlier in this thread, I did meet her earlier this year after she hosted a talk about her new book. She politely declined photos and autographs, as it was getting late and she wanted to rush off to get some dinner, but the most surprising thing about Yoko is how shy, unsure and softly spoken she is in person, completely the opposite of what you'd expect from the media-fuelled "dragon lady" persona.
It's well known that Yoko is fiercely intelligent, manipulative when she wants to be, and has a marked talent for money-making and negotiation, but she has never come across as a particularly confident, extroverted person. She was also wonderfully self-deprecating both times I've seen her.
Sorry to ramble, but I find her an endlessly fascinating person - and I like her music, too. She's massively overdue a reappraisal.
I agree with you about John perhaps being on something when I met him. I was only fourteen and I was naive about drugs back then, but he could have been into the heroin. I remember reading later that he used to snort it, and he was thin when I met him.
Yoko was very quiet and sweet, and as I mentioned, I spent most of the short time I had in their hotel suite talking with her as she was such a nice woman.
A friend of ours who also met John and Yoko the same day we did, but went to the room after my friend and I left, once was in New York and spotted Yoko Ono on a street somewhere. She followed Yoko and caught up with her, and said hello to her. She told me that Yoko could not have been more gracious and friendly, though quiet.
My sister, for years, has done music lessons at Dovedale primary school in Liverpool (the primary school which Lennon and Harrison attended. In that time Yoko Ono has been incredibly generous with the school in terms of both with time and money,
She has visited the school on multiple occasions to open various things or for special celebrations, at one stage donated £25,000 to the school and also rather brilliantly donated a huge 'walking piano' to the school (I've heard that it is the actual one used in the movie Big, but I can't be certain of this).
Considering she met John once he had moved to London and has no reason to feel any ties to his childhood home and school, it is incredible that she has always kept it in her thoughts and helped when possible.
I agree, a re-appraisal of her is definitely overdue, and the above should go some way to showing the class of the lady.
That is wonderful! She is as generous as she is kind, isn't she? I don't understand why the media at the time, perhaps not now, were so harsh regarding Yoko Ono.
Here is the link I promised to find for you on that Canadian site, featuring photos of John and Yoko meeting our late former Prime Minister, Pierre ElliotTrudeau, and (yours truly and my friend )
If you scroll down to Photo #7, you will see my friend and me with John and Yoko.
I don't mind posting my old photos here as, trust me, I don't look anything now like I did back then.
I have to give credit where credit is due. Had it not been for my friend's perseverance and outright stubbornness, I would never have met John and Yoko. She would not give up, and she hounded John Lennon's manager via telephone for days until she wore him down.
Here is the link I promised to find for you on that Canadian site, featuring photos of John and Yoko meeting our late former Prime Minister, Pierre ElliotTrudeau, and (yours truly and my friend )
If you scroll down to Photo #7, you will see my friend and me with John and Yoko.
I don't mind posting my old photos here as, trust me, I don't look anything now like I did back then.
I have to give credit where credit is due. Had it not been for my friend's perseverance and outright stubbornness, I would never have met John and Yoko. She would not give up, and she hounded John Lennon's manager via telephone for days until she wore him down.
Thanks to my friend!
Oh that so cool! A memories you can certainly treasure!
Here is the link I promised to find for you on that Canadian site, featuring photos of John and Yoko meeting our late former Prime Minister, Pierre ElliotTrudeau, and (yours truly and my friend )
If you scroll down to Photo #7, you will see my friend and me with John and Yoko.
I don't mind posting my old photos here as, trust me, I don't look anything now like I did back then.
I have to give credit where credit is due. Had it not been for my friend's perseverance and outright stubbornness, I would never have met John and Yoko. She would not give up, and she hounded John Lennon's manager via telephone for days until she wore him down.
Thanks to my friend!
I think you just won the internet . Amazingly cool, and you got to dance with the lovely Donald Sutherland - officially extremely jealous
Comments
I am so jel - I absolutely adore Ken Hom. A wonderful cook and a lovely, humble Man.
Can't say enough about him that is good :-)
He's on a promotional tour at the moment. Look out.
Aww, that's lovely to hear - that he's the same in real life I mean.
Oooh, will do; we have a lot of his recipe books at home. Would love to meet him!
My sister, for years, has done music lessons at Dovedale primary school in Liverpool (the primary school which Lennon and Harrison attended. In that time Yoko Ono has been incredibly generous with the school in terms of both with time and money,
She has visited the school on multiple occasions to open various things or for special celebrations, at one stage donated £25,000 to the school and also rather brilliantly donated a huge 'walking piano' to the school (I've heard that it is the actual one used in the movie Big, but I can't be certain of this).
Considering she met John once he had moved to London and has no reason to feel any ties to his childhood home and school, it is incredible that she has always kept it in her thoughts and helped when possible.
I agree, a re-appraisal of her is definitely overdue, and the above should go some way to showing the class of the lady.
What a lovely thing for her to do - as you say she has no direct affiliation with the school, so this is very good of her. Maybe they should do an award in HER name for the most musical child in the school
Russell Brand...Never had an opinion on him, though never understood the lothario tag he was given in his early days. That all changed as he was charming and all round a decent guy
John Cleese... Very chirpy and conversed briefly
There's more due to my line of work but can't think of them all in one go
Jessie J is the very embodiment of the phrase that empty vessels make the most noise.
He visited a theatre in my town a few years back. People said he was very modest, polite and courteous to everyone.
What a fantastic memory! Lovely.
I thin he's pretty gorgeous full stop!! Think it's the eyes and the voice. His son isn't bad either ;-)
I must admit if he said that anywhere within my earshot my response would be to turn to him and say " yes, I can see you are a very rude, small man who probably has a very small penis" and turn back away again.:D
I have a bit of a crush on him too. Even in the Hunger Games!
He's got this magnetism to him.
And Donald Sutherland - I've always thought he was gorgeous, lucky you!
Haven't met anyone else but a friend went to school with Rory McIlroy and has met him since, says he hasn't really changed at all though his parents are a nightmare apparently. She has also served Ant and Dec and says they're so down to earth
I agree with you about John perhaps being on something when I met him. I was only fourteen and I was naive about drugs back then, but he could have been into the heroin. I remember reading later that he used to snort it, and he was thin when I met him.
Yoko was very quiet and sweet, and as I mentioned, I spent most of the short time I had in their hotel suite talking with her as she was such a nice woman.
A friend of ours who also met John and Yoko the same day we did, but went to the room after my friend and I left, once was in New York and spotted Yoko Ono on a street somewhere. She followed Yoko and caught up with her, and said hello to her. She told me that Yoko could not have been more gracious and friendly, though quiet.
That is wonderful! She is as generous as she is kind, isn't she? I don't understand why the media at the time, perhaps not now, were so harsh regarding Yoko Ono.
We should go on a double date with the Sutherlands! Your choice who your date is, I don't care. I agree with you, they are both gorgeous! *drool*
Thank you very much regarding my way with words, beer on the weekend helps a little!
I was lucky to dance with Donald Sutherland, and he was very handsome, gorgeous. What made him even more attractive was his personality!
He has a retreat in Quebec's Eastern Townships, did you know that? He's still a Canadian boy at heart.
Year One
If you scroll down to Photo #7, you will see my friend and me with John and Yoko.
I don't mind posting my old photos here as, trust me, I don't look anything now like I did back then.
Here's my friend and I with our 'name tags' added to it.
I have to give credit where credit is due. Had it not been for my friend's perseverance and outright stubbornness, I would never have met John and Yoko. She would not give up, and she hounded John Lennon's manager via telephone for days until she wore him down.
Thanks to my friend!
Oh that so cool! A memories you can certainly treasure!
I think you just won the internet