Jan 10: Never meet your heroes they say...

Have you met any of your musical heroes?

Perhaps you've bumped into them on public transport, at a motorway service station perhaps? (Watford Gap used to be famous for that back in the day).

Maybe it was on public transport? 

In September 1989 I went to see Jethro Tull on their Rock Island tour at Manchester Apollo. Here's the set list they played that night.

There's a long story about that Sunday night, which I may tell at some point during the year. The upshot of it was that one of the friends I went with ended up as part of the production, during a performance of the song 'Budapest', and I ended up with a backstage pass. Much more on songs about cities in future posts..

This is the actual backstage pass that I had that evening over 35 years ago. It's stuck to the box which contains a cassette tape. The tape contains a recording of an American concert, during which Ian Anderson loses his temper with the audience... it's very good.

At the end of the concert we went up to the rooms where the band were going to be gathering after the concert. I actually have my diary from that year still (and a few other years). I shall be drawing on that for memories of other concerts.

Here's what I wrote in my diary:

"There was heavy security... went up to the top of the Apollo and to the Tull only dressing room; met the wives of Martin Barre and Dave Pegg, and a person who'd seen Tull about 300 times. then Martin Allcock [who sadly died all too young] arrived and took several bottles of wine - Martin Barre and beaming Dave Pegg was next - introduced ourselves and thanked him for the concert then met Ian Anderson - he's quite short and talked for about 10 minutes. He said he could never be a teacher when I told him what I did for a job"

I was teaching in King's Lynn at the time and had to drive back there from Manchester via Rotherham to drop off my friends. It was 2.30am before I got home... with teaching the same day.... that was a tiring one.

There's an excellent article on the history and legacy of Watford Gap services, which is due to be demolished to make way for a more modern electric vehicle charging facility to reflect the changes in car ownership. This used to be where bands who had played in London would refuel on the way back north as it was open in the early hours. Many bands met up there..

In October 2025, my son met one of his heroes. He is a big fan of film soundtracks, and in particular the work of Warren Ellis, who plays with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and he met Warren at a screening of film about Marianne Faithfull at the BFI. 

Quite a moment for him.

There were also some interesting stories from those who filled in my Google Form ahead of the blog's launch...

Here's a sample from those I've received so far, with thanks to the people who shared them - I'll share some more in due course.

• Angus was at school with Tom Robinson
• Matt has had a series of encounters, but one that stands out was having a pint with Jarvis Cocker in 'The Blue Bell' in Conwy when he was on holiday there in the late 90's. He also came into the butchers where he worked and ordered a sandwich! 
• Sandra danced on a table with Chesney Hawkes after a lock in at the university bar
• David was a few urinals down from Jon Bon Jovi once
• John once burst into Brian Connolly from The Sweet's dressing room to tell him he was a huge fan. He looked at his watch and said, " F*** off, son; I'm on in five minutes."

More to come....

So, who have you met?

Did you have a chat?

Were you star struck?

Please share your celebrity encounters on the Google Form below and I will share some of the best ones in a future post or two depending on who turns up.