small-time name-dropping

Kermit danced around the shop with glee when he came in to collect it.

I had a career's advisor (Kinky King) whose wife is first cousins with John Cale. I understand he is loath to attend family gatherings back in the Valleys.

It was a big room, mind. Manchester Apollo, I think it was called.

I once sat on the table next to Stephen and Gillian from New Order in Pizza Hut in Bath. They had deep pan pizza and a lager EACH!

Also, somewhere at home I have a Christmas card from Andy Partridge (XTC). It wasn't actually sent to ME, but that's another story...

I sometimes work at a company headed by Barbara Bach's sister (and Ringo's sister-in-law, duh).

I waited in line at Pep Boys on Hollywood Blvd. right behind Ruth Buzzi. She's from Stonington, Connecticut, near my hometown, and I wanted to say hello but she shot me an evil look.

I bought lunch at KFC behind Tone Loc.

I worked for about two weeks at a photo agency in New York with John Woo from the Magnetic Fields and a guy from Railroad Jerk. They were both really nice.

I opened a backstage door for Rivers Cuomo once. He was trapped back there. I saw him struggling with the door for a few minutes and went over to help. He didn't say thank you.

The guy who played Spike on Happy Days works in the art department on some of the commercials I've worked on. .

So it's an obvious joke, but I'm imagining Mr. Merritt unleashing a balletic orgy of violence with a submachine gun while birds fly about to an acoustic rendition of "Love is Lighter Than Air."

Not that you're joke isn't really funny, Ned.

My favourite experience with name dropping, however, was a conversation I got into over breakfast with my significant other's parents. Turns out that his mom sold her apartment in 60s NYC to John Fogerty, hung out with the Black Panthers, appears in the Woodstock movie, hitched to Vermont, took a plane chartered by Ken Kesey and the gang, and somehow ended up in the Yukon practising buddhism. His dad ran a club in the Yorkville district of Toronto during the sixties...at this club, he got Led Zepplin to perform, and Jimi Hendrix was all lined up to play until he got stopped at the border for drugs. How he ended up in the Yukon was even more foggy...

Now that's what I call good name dropping.

I think if you're gay and you live in a North American city, you've probably seen and spoken to a drunk Rufus Wainwright at some point in the past three years. He gets around. My friend Lisa lost her virginity to Jeff McDonald from Redd Kross about 20 years ago. They still don't acknowledge each other at parties, it's sad.

As the Nedtopia threads on That Other Board confirmed, we apparently walked right by him on Saturday night in a bar. Somehow I missed the golden opportunity to do something about it then and there. (Current approach -- to borrow a line from Dee Plakas of L7's father and shout in a hoarse Greek accent "I DID NOT RAISE YOU TO BE A ROCK AND ROLL PARTY BAD ASS!")

-As a kid growing up near Princeton, I used to sneak into the university to use their computers--and spent time talking to the crazy hobo guy who was always roaming around the computer cluster and mumbling to himself (a man I later found out to be uber-genius John Nash, the subject of 'A Beautiful Mind'..)

-One of my college suite-mates moved out to the Pacific Northwest after she graduated, and found a cheap house to live in out there-- she didn't realize until after she moved in that she was living with Negativland.

'sides that i've bummed a smoke from ian astbury, had a long conversation with denis johnson, watch jarvis from pulp pick up on very young girls, got drunk and demanded gowan to sing 'strange animal', met neil young when i was a young bastard and i dream of hanging out with eugene o'neil every night.

My friend was smoked up by Silverchair in some motel in Ohio. Yay for him.

My ex went bowling with Ed Harcourt and band. Yay for her.

A former housemate claimed one of his aunts is married to Bob Dylan.

the lead track on this live album is named after me because i was so drunk and loud in the audience...true story!

https://www.discogs.com/release/3138280-The-Hat-City-Intuitive-They-Must-Be-Clapping-For--Me

Visited a Barney’s and it was just me alone with Pusha T and his road crew. “y* told me to come.”

Passed Michael Shannon leaving the Jesus Lizard at the Metro. I assume everyone eventually bumps into him at Chicago gigs.

I worked for a travel company that went to bits of West Africa. I was flying to Cape Verde on a proper budget airline once when the voice came over the tannoy saying 'hi, I'm Bruce Dickinson and I'm your pilot for this flight'. I turned to the person next to me and said 'lol, must be him off Iron Maiden' but got zero response and dropped it without further thought. At some point, I found out that Dickinson had indeed flown a few commercial flights and had worked for that particular airline.

1) I would 100% have said hello.
2) I often lay awake and gnash my teeth at the sheer range of puns left unsaid in that shabby off-white interior.

Phil Mossman, who now plays in LCD Soundsystem, was my first and only guitar teacher. He was the first person I ever heard say 'take coals to Newcastle'; I didn't know it was an idiom, and he was bemused by my massive overreaction.

Famous people seated at the next table:
* Pat Benatar (brunch in Malibu, pregnant)
* Roy Wood (fish restaurant inside a pub, Ashbourne)
* Preston from The Ordinary Boys (lunch at The Savoy, silly silver pumps)
* Christopher Biggins (lunch at Nottingham Playhouse, expressing bewildered bemusement at being frozen out by Bobby Crush)

Also:
* Rebecca Adlington dancing at a Hot Chip gig (and loving it)
* Rupert Everett with his shirt off at Trade
* Su Pollard on the dancefloor at a Nottingham gay club in 1983 (big flailing energy)
* Peter Hook in Hebden Bridge, at a performance of Lust For Life by Katie Puckrick, Clem Burke, Glen Matlock, Kevin Armstrong etc (normcore fleece, charisma dialled right down)
* Craig Revel-Horwood holding court at the bar in a Nottingham gay pub (charisma dialled right up)

my sister in law cleans mr bean's holiday house

I worked a Saturday job with Claire from Steps for a while.

Rupert Everett with his shirt off at Trade

nice

I was once having breakfast in Annapolis and seated behind me was... Michael Steele.

the lead track on this live album is named after me because i was so drunk and loud in the audience...true story!

https://www.discogs.com/release/3138280-The-Hat-City-Intuitive-They-Must-Be-Clapping-For--Me

― scott seward, Saturday, March 30, 2024 6:34 PM

hero.

behind me was... Michael Steele.

Republican or Bangle?

combining a couple of recent ones, I once ate breakfast in a cafe in Muswell Hill while William Reid was at a nearby table

who now plays in LCD Soundsystem

if it helps make this even more small-time, he stopped playing with them about 18 years ago

He left in 2011 but sure.

In my early 20s in DC I hung out with Ian Mackaye probably half a dozen times without realizing it was him. He was a friend of a friend and we’d get dinner and see gigs every so often. I knew of him as a historical personage but I personally didn’t mess with Dischord/Fugazi stuff so I didnt recognize him and it never came up, I just thought he was an old scene head. He was super friendly and fun to talk to, and it wasn’t until I put the pieces together a few years later that I realized it was likely bc a dude like that must be able to spot it immediately when someone doesnt know who they are and must appreciate the respite from the usual topics/questions

I ended up getting sushi with some friends instead of staying to the end of Lolapalooza in Chicago in the 00s and one of the friends-of-friends that joined us was Beth Liebling of Hovercraft. I think she didn't mind leaving early since her ex-husband Eddie was playing the headlining spot

I once set up an in-store promo for Peter Case.

I worked at Bomp/Alive/Total Energy when those MC5 tapes from John Sinclair were being reissued in the mid-90s. John (sometimes with Wayne) would stop by the office and we'd all go for lunch. John carpooled with me and skunked up my car enough to give me a contact high for a couple of weeks. Good times - RIP beatnik Santa Claus.

At the North End Pizzeria Regina on a weekday night about eight years ago, Steven Tyler sat in the booth next to our table, along with two women who I'd guess were industry scarf/leather top hat/distressed denim consultants. I think they were catching a bite before Janet Jackson at the Garden. A lowkey but very Bostony hum rippled through the restaurant, with a few customers going to the booth for a quick audience with the saint, but mostly they got to dine in peace. I did manage to snap some pix from behind a chili flakes shaker.

Some friends of mine lived next door to the Young Ones House, so Ken Bishop's Nice Twelve recorded their parts in front of their outside wall. One of them now lives next door to Ken Pustelnik of the Groundhogs and his mum once invited Lol Tolhurst to her barbecue to be nice because he didn't really get on with any of the neighbours.

Dale Griffin of Mott/Peel sessions fame worked in my local pub, pre-fame.

My son's friend invited him round to "Auntie Sue's" for dinner one night and now he's really good friends with both her and her best pal, and they go to gigs together. They're the girls from the Human League.

My daughter was at one out of Idles' wedding.

I'm the guy that shouts for Especially For You on the Arab Strap live album.

A late 70s-era photo of my brother and his mates headbanging was used for the cover of a NWOBHM compilation.

I once told Beverley Knight I wasn't sure where the guy with the key to let her into the studio upstairs was.

I once (actually twice) played in a band with someone from the Alabama 3.

I was in a conversation group with Dave Brock from Hawkwind, although I don't think I said anything to him. Later, I did say hello to Arthur Brown.

The guy from Ozric Tentacles once glared at me.

Tom Baker intimidated me at a book signing, age 7.

Ooh, I’ve met Beverly Knight and I’ve had a beer with the drummer from Alabama 3.

Mark Burgess is here at this fairly empty bar. (Chameleons cancelled a gig across the street

My brother got a nod from iggy at Miami Intl the other day

Our car was hit this week by the daughter of a Happy Days cast member.

whoa!

Yesterday over lunch, in the light of new research, I was able to tell my mother that she was married to someone who was married to someone who was married to someone who dated someone who was engaged to Muhammad Ali. She didn't look much fussed either way.

I'm sorry I'm just catching up but the "Hello Muddah" thing takes the fucking cake.