My favorite encounter was having a drink with Eric Clapton after a charity gig he did. Really nice guy and very down to earth. And here in the USA, I had quick chat with President Jimmy Carter in a local restaurant when I was living in Georgia. He had come to town to see his Grandson graduate.
I got off a train one Friday in 1999 at Battle station and walked along the platform and over the footbridge chatting to Desmond Llewelyn aka 'Q' from the James Bond films, having found myself right by him upon getting off. I asked him if he'd seen the upcoming 'The World Is Not Enough' to which he said he hadn't and that he only had a very small role in it. I said to him that a Bond film without him in it what not be the same and he thanked me. Lovely guy. He sadly died about a month-or-so later.
Jumping on the name dropping express....like el Punal, my Dad went into the Pub trade after the RAF and we ended up in Shoreham. During the winter months we had Jim Parks and Les Lenham in on a regular basis as they were brewery reps when they weren't on a winter tours. Jim Parkes found out I liked cricket so he got me a place on the Sussex CC coaching classes, where my bowling coach was John Snow and my batting coach was some new bloke from SA called Tony Greig. Working in aviation I have meet various, the most memorable were Bo Derek and George Kennedy (Naked Gun), Olly Reed on a regular basis. He once turned up for a flight to Guernsey in a dressing gown and pajamas. When I asked why he replied "cause Peter (O'Toole) bet a a hundred quid I wouldn't do it. Did a bit of film extra work, had a fag with Gwyneth Paltrow on the film Sliding Doors. Had numerous coffees with Jasper Carrot when he filmed The Trial of Jasper Carrot. Seen Charles Dance chat up my Misses on another film set, then he did a runner when she introduced me to him and said "Can I bring my husband"? when he asked her out. Sold a garden furniture set to Laurence Olivier when he had house near Steyning. I had to deliver it put it together and then they (him and Joan Plowright) asked me to stay for tea. Which was nice! Had lunch at 10 Downing St after Maggie was reelected in 84. A reward for looking after her campaign flights that went out from Gatwick. My boss was not amused and thought he should have gone iso me. He was even more pissed off when he was told he had not passed the background security check
Have had several flight sleb brushings - most recently Nathan Ake and Chris Powell were both on our holiday flight last year (not together obviously). Chris and his Mrs were next to us in the passport immigration queue and Ake and his partner were sat a couple of rows in front of us on the plane (one of the cabin crew said to me at one point 'there's supposed to be a PL footballer on the flight but I don't know who he is..............'. I sat a couple of seats away from Jay Z on a flight from New York (I didn't know who he was, it was only after landing and some ground staff went running over to get selfies as we got off the Heathrow shuttle train that I found out). BA lounges very often have slebs in them too - best I remember seeing is Ronnie Wood getting turfed out of the First lounge at JFK for lighting up a fag and refusing to put it out
Who would have thought it?
I did a similar thing to Jamie Theakston at Loftus Road when he sat next to me, he enjoyed the experience so much he encouraged his mate to sit next to me the whole of the 2nd half.
I suppose the main difference was, mine was not preplanned I was just hammered.
