meeting your idols

I am still very pleased with my two interviews at the home of fellow Dutch proghead Arjen Lucassen (we watched music video's and listened to albums from his very extensive record collection (from Hawkwind and Pink Floyd to Triumvirat and The Beatles), my short meeting with Christian Decamps in the dressing room before the second Ange gig in 30 years in Holland, my shake hands with Peter Gabriel before a concert in Utrecht and my meeting with Thijs Van Leer at a festival in Arnhem, I even helped him to carry his Hammond organ from his small van to the stage  And when Japanese bands Gerard and Ars Nova toured through Europe, I succeeded to do interviews with both bands, especially my meeting with the #1 Japanese keyboard wizard Toshio Egawa was very pleasant, I am a huge fan of Gerard their super-bombastic keyboard driven progrock

Back stage with the whole of Gary Husband's Force Majeure at Birmingham: Husband, Jerry Goodman (very chatty, and signed my Flock CD!!!!), Randy Brecker (very dry humour), Matthew Garrison, etc.

Edited by Dick Heath - November 01 2007 at 09:23

NaturalScience wrote: Am I weird for not considering any musician, athelete, etc. an "idol"?  I don't have any deep desire to meet any of these people in real life, despite having admiration and respect for their talents.

I know what you mean - maybe it's my age, but I don't think I idolise anyone as such - I'd like to meet Neil Peart, but he is obviously such a private person I'd probably end up apologising for saying hello - remember:

"I can't pretend a stranger is a long awaited friend"

In the past I've met & had a beer with Lemmy, had Eddie Clarke (again from Motorhead) nick my seat at a Def Leppard gig (hey, I was 17 OK & knew no better! ) so had a great chat with him (they'd just got back from their first tour of the USA, supporting Ozzy) & as a child, nearly got run over by Aker Bilk (old British jazz-man), for which my mother had a real go at him for driving too fast...

Geck0 wrote: My mate Dave had drinks with Muse once in a club.  Lucky b*****d.

NaturalScience wrote: Am I weird for not considering any musician, athelete, etc. an "idol"?  I don't have any deep desire to meet any of these people in real life, despite having admiration and respect for their talents.

I don't think there's anything weird about that. I'm much the same way. Although it would be interesting to see what my favorite musicians are like in the real world, I don't care enough to actually do anything about it (like waiting for hours to get a chance to exchange a few words). Perhaps if I bumped into Robert Wyatt or something, I might thank him for his music, but that's about it.

I've met Anthony Phillips and john Mayhew. Chatted for about three mins or so. Jolly nice chaps.

I also pushed in front of Bill Bruford at a bar once, but I didn't know it was him, until I saw him take to the stage with the Earthworks, half an hour later..

Sir Robert of Wyatt after Soup Songs at RFH 1999.

We shook hands,has a brief chat and he signed a copy of one of his albums.Luvverly bloke.

Hate to stick out here, but I met Nextel Cup driver David Reutimann in the NHIS garage and he is a really nice guy, he was actually pretty shy. I think people don't realize that their "idols" are real people just like the rest of us here.

Am I weird for not considering any musician, athelete, etc. an "idol"?  I don't have any deep desire to meet any of these people in real life, despite having admiration and respect for their talents.

Bj-1 wrote: No, actually. I've met Panzerpappa and they are really nice