I met Gene Parsons (Byrds) at a couple of solo gigs that he did over here a few years back. He's a biker. We spotted each other by the BSA t-shirt he was wearing and the copy of "Adventure Motorcycling" that I had stuffed into the waistband of my jeans. At the time I had finally begun to get somewhere with my guitar playing, having abandoned all attempts to learn by studying the technicalities and relying instead on sixth sense and instinct. We had a long discussion about how this worked in kinda the same way as countersteering, ie your subconscious mind has it down pat if you just let it loose, but your conscious mind hasn't got a clue what's going on. I was quite impressed that he was genuinely interested in my ramblings and took the trouble to listen properly and respond intelligently to them. In return he showed me the intricacies of the stringbender device fitted to his guitar, which he designed/developed with Clarence White. A thoroughly nice guy who retains a boyish grin into his sixties. I also met Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett of "Little Feat" a couple of times. The seat cowl of my monster still bears their signatures, but they're wearing a bit thin now.
Geoff Duke 5 star racer... 4 Star engineer 5 star person Phil Read... 5 Star racer... 1 star person Mike (later Michelle) Duff 3 star racer and a great person. John Surtees ... Superbe Racer.. Brilliant engineer... Unpleasant as a person. Mick Walker.. a loveley man. Will be sorely missed. Mick Grant. One of lifes gentlmen.
I've met and been in the company of loads of famous and influential people/celebs. Can't think I would call any of them my hero. They all had one head, two eyes, a nose a mouth and have a shit from the same place, so they're not really special are they.
Some like to think they're special. That Lembit Opik thought he could walk straight through me when I (literally) bumped into him on the parliamentary estate. He was wrong.
Would that be the same Lembit Opic that rides a GS1000 and is the new Director of Communications for the Motorcycle Action Group ?
Yep, he's the leader of the All Party Parliamentary Motorcycle Committee, and married to one of the Cheeky Girls. But he's still a twat.
Got to ride from Silverstone to Cheltenham in the company of Malcolm Uphill some twenty years ago, just me on a ZXR750 with Malcolm on an a grey import Honda 400 with the gear change swapped over to the right & his friend on another 400. It was wet & their pace was quite quick, to say the least, through the Cotswolds, pulled over into a petrol station & I almost fell off my bike when these two old boys pulled off their helmets. Not the I knew who Malcolm Uphill was at that moment in time. I did the following day though!
Same here; I had some toothless old goon chase me on a Pan European, he had a Phil Read replica lid on and was fookin' quick. Turns out it wasn't a replica lid...
He was involved with Gabriela Irimia ( The Cheeky Girls ). They were engaged but never married - and split up in July 2008 after a "difficult period" in the relationship. He was chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Motorcycling - The current chair is Steve Baker MP (con). (Opik hasn't been an MP since 2010) Your info is slightly out of date Fig...
I almost ran him over when he stepped into the road in front of my bike new the Imperial War museum… And no he's an advisor for MAG?
I've worked with ITV producing conferences for them a few times and met a fair few of the talent, some that stood out: Ant and Dec - the most professional people I've ever worked with, whatever you think of them I've never seen anyone handle a live event better. Dec even chatted on the phone to my daughter Phillip Schofield - very nice and easy going Tim Minchin (before he was very well known) - brilliant, really top bloke, he made up a song on the spot about watching porn in my client's hotel room whilst we doing his soundcheck. It was also one of the first times he did this: The less good: Melvin Bragg - stuck up wanker Clive Woodward - had his own 'people' for his presentation at the event Russell Brand - he was actually a nice guy, very polite but he turned up for the after dinner entertainment 30 mins late and then was in the toilets for 10 mins before he went on stage (I suspect white powder might have been ingested - this was about 6 years ago). He went on stage and did 30 mins about wanking, people were walking out. The girls were all over him in the bar afterwards though...
Met Roald Dahl when I was in Primary School. Everyone else I want to meet just runs away. One day Pepper Pots, one day!
