I'm new here and I've been following this thread with great interest for a long time now.
So here's a long - but by no means exhaustive (my memory isn't that good!) - list of all the celebrities, major, minor and somewhere in between, I've met, heard stories about, served in shops (been working in retail on and off for the past fifteen years) and had dealings with. Some of them may surprise you but I'll try to stay the right side of legal
David Penn (magician who appeared on
Britain's Got Talent) - Rude, arrogant, self-centred clot
Alan Moore (comics author) - Really up himself, too vain to wear glasses even though he's as blind as a bat
Chloe Vevrier (internet celebrity) - Very sweet and kind
Paul Hatcher (did the 'stare out' sequences on
Big Train) - Utterly pretentious, vastly inflated idea of his own limited talent
A certain bit part and pantomime actor who lives in my home town shall remain nameless, as he has been known to report people who criticise him (however mildly) online to the police - but take it from me, he is a grade-A pompous berk!
Sally Chidzuoy (BBC
Look East presenter) - Down to earth and friendly
Keith Altham (journalist, press agent and author) - Lovely bloke
Peter Bagge (comics artist) - Great guy
David Hess (sadly deceased horror actor) - A real pussycat, soft-spoken and intelligent
Bruce Boa (the 'I wanna waldorf salad' guest from
Fawlty Towers) - Saw him in a pub and he looked absolutely furious, glowering at everyone, so I left well alone!
Michael Cronin ('Bullet Baxter' from
Grange Hill) - Very friendly and funny
Giovanni Lombardo Radice (AKA John Morghen) (star of
Cannibal Ferox) - Camp as Christmas but very entertaining and witty
Ben Dover AKA Lindsay Honey - Chatted about his time with rock bands and his (ex?) wife Linzi Drew working with Spike Milligan
Christopher Biggins - Sat me on his knee and told me a joke (I was seven or eight)
Lisa from Steps - Smiley and chatty, got a kiss from her
Lloyd Cole (of the Commotions) - Looked a bit grumpy and rumpled but was perfectly affable
Jerry Sadowitz - Again, his litigious nature forbids me from saying too much, suffice to say that nobody gets 'too close' to this bloke before the shutters come crashing down and you're persona non grata.
Jim Davidson - Arrogant, pompous berk with a crowd of sycophantic hangers-on laughing too loudly at his feeble jokes
Jimmy Jones (old school blue comedian) - Very friendly and chatty
Leo Sayer - Posed for photos with me, signed my programme and tour flyer, couldn't have been nicer
The Counterfeit Stones - All five of them were great
The Bootleg Beatles - The guy who plays John Lennon slagged me off behind my back, not knowing I was standing about three feet away from him, calling me "that prat with the glasses in the front row". I challenged him (in as civil a way as possible) and he muttered something about "Only joking mate". Absolute tosser!
Windsor Davies - Approached him to shake his hand and he bellowed "Why don't you f*** off!" (Breath was vile too)
Gina Bellman - Didn't say much but was nice enough
Hank Marvin - Acted like a right grouch when I asked him to sign an autograph for my mate and his mum. Really got my back up (as I was broke at the time) and I said "I sold my guitar to buy a ticket to this show" (which was true) - he looked down his nose and said "Nobody
forced you to come here tonight". I would have said more but there was a queue of gruesome middle-aged harpies who would have slapped me to death for dissing their hero. No surprise to me that he let his own son die in poverty...
Geri Halliwell - Seemed really upset that nobody noticed or paid any attention to her. Left the store in a right huff!
Tim Brooke Taylor and
Graeme Garden of
the Goodies - Absolute gentlemen, unlike their grumpy gnome mate
Alice Cooper - Did a brilliant cheesy pantomime villain lurch toward me and shouted "I'LL BITE YOUR FACE OFF!" then shook hands with me and signed a CD for me
Keith Allen - Saw this horrible little man at Euston Station, he shouted "You can stop staring, yes it's me" to which I replied "Sorry, who the f- are you?" which took the wind out of his sails
Norman Wisdom - Passed him in a train corridor, I smiled and said "Hello Norm", he threw a cup of coffee over me and stalked off to his compartment with a face like thunder! I dread to think what had rattled his cage that day...
Rolf Harris - Approached him outside a theatre, went to shake hands with him - I wasn't drunk or bugging him or anything - he growled "Get your f-ing hands away from me" and scuttled off
Terry Gilliam - Spotted him in an art bookshop, I managed to stammer "I love Monty Python", he grinned, said "Thanks, man" and patted me on the back...talk about starstruck!
Michael Palin - Really hate to say this, maybe I caught him on a bad day, but he was very standoffish and dismissive, whereas
Eric Idle (who's supposed to be 'difficult') sent me a lovely letter and personally signed photo!
Rik Mayall - Approached him and asked him to sign a piece of paper for my then-girlfriend, he snapped "F*** off, I've got my hands full". In other words he had a cigarette in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. Bet it would have been a different story if I'd been "a super girlie"
Adrian Edmondson - Friend of mine went to see the Bad Shepherds, Edmondson snubbed ALL his fans and stood in a corner with a bunch of toffs sipping red wine. My mate asked him "Is there going to be another series of
Bottom?", to which Edmondson sniffed "No, because it'll be s**t". Later that night the doorman told my mate that Edmondson had responded to a polite request for a dedication from a bloke whose wife had died with "F*** off, I don't do requests". Sounds a real charmer, doesn't he?
Roger Daltrey - Very unpretentious and down-to-earth
Ray Davies (Kinks) - Shook my hand and called me a "good lad" when I told him how much I enjoyed the 'To the Bone' album (which shows how long ago this was!)
Tom Petty - He wasn't at all well but he still shook hands and signed a piece of paper for me
Susanna Hoffs and
Jay Roach - She was lovely but he stood there like a radioactive crab glaring at me!
Ann and Nancy Wilson (Heart) - Both delightful, getting a hug from Ann made my day / month / year!
Bernard Manning - Gentleman, very softly spoken and kind (honestly!)
Linsey Dawn McKenzie - Mouthy, common, vulgar, rude, snotty - get the idea?
Bobby Gillespie (Primal Scream) - Sixth form socialist, dances like a baby giraffe on ice
Tom Baker - Saw him striding toward me on Covent Garden, he was huge and looked absolutely mental yet still gave me a big friendly grin when I said "Hello Mr Baker"
Roy Castle - Asked him for his autograph when I was seven, he said "Stick that pen up your a*** and play Swanee River". A bizarre thing to say which is why it's stuck in my mind for thirty-plus years
Charlie Brooker - Miserable, ignorant, hard-nosed git
Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) - One of the oddest looking people I've ever met but really funny and kind
Michael Winner - Absolutely lovely (again, honestly!)
Roger Moore - Gentleman to his toes
Natalie Banus (page 3 girl) - Very friendly and sweet
Melanie Blatt (All Saints) - Seemed quite shy but pleasant enough
Shelly Poole (Alisha's Attic) - Lovely
Lenny Henry - Approached him after a show in Blackpool when I was ten, he shoved me out of the way saying "You've had your f***ing money's worth"
Jack Tinker (late theatre critic) - Witty and charming
Kim Newman (author and critic) - Great bloke
Stephen Fry - All sweetness and light until someone disagrees with him, then he turns into Ebeneezer Scrooge
More to come... memory permitting