Rubbing shoulders

[Onelife]

Just returned from a visit to Birmingham botanical gardens and very lovely they were too. We decided to take in a little lunch and whilst waiting to be served l noticed this chap standing next to my wife who bore an uncanny resemblance to Sir Cliff Richard... on returning my wife remarked.....was that who l think it was? Yeah l said, it was my old mucker Cliff although l don't think he reconised me even though he came and had his lunch on the very next table to us.

I actually felt sorry for him and his companion as it wasn't long before the camera's started appearing from here there and everywhere ....that being said he didn't seem to mind and obliged all who asked.

Apparently he's performing at the Birmingham Symphony Hall tonight.

So which famous people have you rubbed shoulders with?

[Quizzical Bob]

The list is endless. My shoulder has been three inches away from Her Majesty's. Numerous politicians, ambassadors, film stars.

I suppose the latest was a few years ago in the lounge at Los Angeles airport waiting for our flight back home when I was sharing the salad bar with Antonio Banderas. He's actually shorter than me

[Stephen]

Dame Shirle Bassey
Hugh Bonneville
Mark Foster

The list has ended

[Manoverboard]

Well, I could name a few but I won't ... as an aside ' Delboy ' will come out top by a Country Mile.

[Raybosailor]

As a football referee I was often invited by the Notts. F.A to watch matches with hospitality and rubbed shoulders with all the England stars of past and present plus of course players from the countries they were playing.

But my hero was John McGovern th e captain of Forest when they won back to back European cups in the glory days of Clough & Taylor, I met all three several times but John is the nicest guy you could wish to meet. He was present at an event the other week and he posed for photos with everybody that asked and was prepared to talk to people unlike some sports stars I've met.
He still works at the City Ground in the hospitality department and there can be no better man for the job.

My grand daughter is a dancer and has appeared at the Theatre Royal in pantomime for the last seven years and at shows on many occasions at the Royal Concert Hall and I have met several stars from the screen and stage but I'll never forget the first time I met Jemma Louise Coleman of Doctor Who and Emmerdale fame, she is beautiful not just in looks but also in nature.

Me ? I'm just the bloke with the scruffy builders trousers that always has a pencil balanced on his lughole.

[Whynd1]

Once in Santa Margarita I literally did rub shoulders with Jerrry Springer, he bmped into me whilst crossing the road. He did have his arms round two ladies so no wonder he didn't see me.

[Quizzical Bob]

As a football referee I was often invited by the Notts. F.A to watch matches with hospitality and rubbed shoulders with all the England stars of past and present plus of course players from the countries they were playing.

But my hero was John McGovern th e captain of Forest when they won back to back European cups in the glory days of Clough & Taylor, I met all three several times but John is the nicest guy you could wish to meet. He was present at an event the other week and he posed for photos with everybody that asked and was prepared to talk to people unlike some sports stars I've met.
He still works at the City Ground in the hospitality department and there can be no better man for the job.

My grand daughter is a dancer and has appeared at the Theatre Royal in pantomime for the last seven years and at shows on many occasions at the Royal Concert Hall and I have met several stars from the screen and stage but I'll never forget the first time I met Jemma Louise Coleman of Doctor Who and Emmerdale fame, she is beautiful not just in looks but also in nature.

Me ? I'm just the bloke with the scruffy builders trousers that always has a pencil balanced on his lughole.

We e you a ref too, Ray? I used to be a ref, but only at local pub league level.

[Delboy]

As a hotel manager prior to retirement, we often had various personalities of TV, Stage & Screen stay at the hotel.

As well as having two major golf courses, a links & lakes courses, the hotel also had its own own football pitch which was laid by the same company which laid the millennium stadiums pitch. As a result most of the premier division football teams stayed, as did the national teams of England & Wales, men & women's teams. Our assistant general manager was chef to the England under 21 football team.

I could give a list of personalities especially footballers and team managers I met whilst they were staying at the hotel, including Sven Eriksson, Sir Bobby Robson ( a real gentleman) David Beckham, Ryan Giggs amongst many from the world of football. Had to put Sam Alladyce in his place, when he was staying with Bolton team, who he was manager of at the time.

We had a long corridor in the hotel of signed & framed football & cricket shirts who had stayed, including a signed shirt by surviving members of the 1966 football World Cup winning team, who attended a reunion dinner at the hotel. We also had a second hotel in St Albans, Earl Mountbatten's old home, which used to be where one of the FA cup finalist teams use to stay prior to the Wembley final. This was in the days when the teams were shown on TV leaving the hotels on way to the final
shown on TV leaving the hotels

Margaret Thatcher was guest speaker at a function held at hotel, which was original opened by Michael Portillo. Stephanie Beacham the actress also stayed.
Over the years, not only in the hotel trade I have had the pleasure of meeting many well known personalities, a lot who are no longer with us or past there sell by date.

[Quizzical Bob]

As a hotel manager prior to retirement, we often had various personalities of TV, Stage & Screen stay at the hotel.

As well as having two major golf courses, a links & lakes courses, the hotel also had its own own football pitch which was laid by the same company which laid the millennium stadiums pitch. As a result most of the premier division football teams stayed, as did the national teams of England & Wales, men & women's teams. Our assistant general manager was chef to the England under 21 football team.

I could give a list of personalities especially footballers and team managers I met whilst they were staying at the hotel, including Sven Eriksson, Sir Bobby Robson ( a real gentleman) David Beckham, Ryan Giggs amongst many from the world of football. Had to put Sam Alladyce in his place, when he was staying with Bolton team, who he was manager of at the time.

Margaret Thatcher was guest speaker at a function held at the hotel, which was original opened by Michael Portillo. Stephanie Beacham the actress also stayed.
Over the years, not only in the hotel trade I have had the pleasure of meeting many well known personalities, a lot who are no longer with us or past there sell by date.

My wife was at school with Stephanie Beacham, only two years below her Stephanie was in the same year as my wife's sister.

[Onelife]

Many years ago l competed with my dogs at dog agility shows and on one occasion had her Majesty the Queen looking on...she was that close that had she held a sword in her hand you may well have been addressing me as Sir Keefy Onelife.

I used to drink in the same pub as Chris Tarrant just before he became famous on tiwas.

Like Stephen, l have enjoyed the company of Dame Shirley Bassey and Hugh can'tspellhisname at the Adonia naming ceremony.

l would like to think of myself as as good friend of Carol Marlow even though she hasn't sent me a return Christmas card.... yet!

[Quizzical Bob]

Many years ago l competed with my dogs at dog agility shows and on one occasion had her Majesty the Queen looking on...she was that close that had she held a sword in her hand you may well have been addressing me as Sir Keefy Onelife.

I used to drink in the same pub as Chris Tarrant just before he became famous on tiwas.

Like Stephen, l have enjoyed the company of Dame Shirley Bassey and Hugh can'tspellhisname at the Adonia naming ceremony.

l would like to think of myself as as good friend of Carol Marlow even though she hasn't sent me a return Christmas card.... yet!

How did you get on against the dogs, did they always win?

[Raybosailor]

As a football referee I was often invited by the Notts. F.A to watch matches with hospitality and rubbed shoulders with all the England stars of past and present plus of course players from the countries they were playing.

.

We e you a ref too, Ray? I used to be a ref, but only at local pub league level.

Bob pub league matches are the most difficult to ref for a number of reasons, for a start you are relying on club members to run the lines who think they know the rules better than you or are often out of position to spot infringements. When you have two qualified refs running the line you can work your angles on the pitch which means less running about if you know what I mean.

The higher the grade of football there is usually a better understanding of the rules of the game from players and coaches, but not always. I remember being in a pool of refs who were elected to ref a weekend of trials where Forest and Birmingham were trying out young lads hoping to be signed up by their respective clubs. One of the games I officiated in there were more than the usual amount of foul throw ins from the Birmingham team and they had a goal keeper who kept making short goal kicks to his defenders and the ball never left the area so I blew up for every offence. At half time the Blues coach came up to me and said your a bit keen ref these are only kids, I replied by saying they are kids that hope to be pros one day so they should learn the rules and if you don't want your future pros to play to the rules why hire a referee.

If there are any young players on this forum give your refs a break they are usually doing a near impossible job against another 22 unqualified refs.

[Onelife]

Many years ago l competed with my dogs at dog agility shows and on one occasion had her Majesty the Queen looking on...she was that close that had she held a sword in her hand you may well have been addressing me as Sir Keefy Onelife.

I used to drink in the same pub as Chris Tarrant just before he became famous on tiwas.

Like Stephen, l have enjoyed the company of Dame Shirley Bassey and Hugh can'tspellhisname at the Adonia naming ceremony.

l would like to think of myself as as good friend of Carol Marlow even though she hasn't sent me a return Christmas card.... yet!

How did you get on against the dogs, did they always win?

It's the way l tell um QB ....Oh, and yes there have been times that l've crossed the finishing line before my dogs but that was mostly due to me losing my way round.

[qbman1]

Ah, the name dropping thread....!

Can't remember them all, but I can think of a few whose paths I have crossed in the course of business over the years:

Rowan Atkinson
Windsor Davies
Ronnie Barker
Gaz Coombes (Supergrass)
Gabrielle Drake (now, who remembers her ?!)
Michael Heseltine
David Dundas (scraping the barrel a bit there !)
Marquess of Tavistock and his wife before becoming Duke of Bedford
Raymond Blanc

Then I have met my favourite singer, Al Stewart, a few times and we were staying at a hotel on the Isle of Wight at the same time as Michael Buerk. Also met numerous gardening "celebrities" at various shows - Alan Titchmarsh, Joe Swift, Toby Buckland, Jonathan Moseley (flower judge on The Great Allotment Challenge) plus loads of others

And on cruises, apart from chatting to the entertainers such as Tom O'Connor, that bloke from The Drifters, a really, really famous West End star who did a couple of Christmases a few years back (she clearly made a big impression as I can't remember her name!) - ooh, and don't forget Martin Daniels (!!), we have also met Murray Walker, Timothy West and Prunella Scales as passengers

Also, on our very first cruise, one of our table companions was Tony Maudlsey who is currently starring in Hairspray on stage and Benidorm on the telly and has been in loads of film and TV stuff. He was great fun.

Will that do ?

[Quizzical Bob]

Ah, Gabrielle Drake! I remember her well from an issue of Mayfair.

[qbman1]

Dirty boy!

She was even better in the flesh!

[CaroleF]

I think Gabrielle Drake was in the old series of The Brothers! It was a series aboout, I think, a haulage firm? It also starred the late Glyn Owen - Paddy O'Meara in Emergency - Ward 10, now who remembers that?

Sorry a bit off thread - have been close to HM The Queen many years ago when my parents used to take us to watch Polo at Smith's Lawn in Windsor. She, along with Charles and Anne used to come out at half time to stamp the divots down on the grass. Years ago when I was nursing in London we had Lord Snowdon as a patient and also the late Michael Aldridge who was in the early episodes of "Last of the Summer Wine" - he was lovely, I remember talking to him about the evening dress I was intending wearing to Matron's Ball.

[qbman1]

Ooh, Matron !!

[gfwgfw]

Mr Derek Kane

[GillD46]

We had dinner in the Orchid on Arcadia with Bobbie Davro the night before Tony's 60th. He knew one of our table mates and joined our table for the celebration. The following night, the night of the birthday, during his show, he got the whole of the Palladium to sing Happy Birthday to him. Then later, Clem Curtis sang it to him, in the style of Marilyn Monroe singing to JFK, when we had a drink with him in Electra.

We have been fortunate to briefly meet quite a few " celebrities" over the years but the highlight for me, was standing next to HRH at a Buckingham Palace Garden Party - she smiled and nodded at me.

[Quizzical Bob]

We had dinner in the Orchid on Arcadia with Bobbie Davro the night before Tony's 60th. He knew one of our table mates and joined our table for the celebration. The following night, the night of the birthday, during his show, he got the whole of the Palladium to sing Happy Birthday to him. Then later, Clem Curtis sang it to him, in the style of Marilyn Monroe singing to JFK, when we had a drink with him in Electra.

We have been fortunate to briefly meet quite a few " celebrities" over the years but the highlight for me, was standing next to HRH at a Buckingham Palace Garden Party - she smiled and nodded at me.

HRH who?

[screwy]

Don't know about rubbing shoulders...I have and still am locking a few up..!!!!
Ged Evans--Footballer.
Fred Talbot---weather man.
Stuart Hall---we all know him.
Owen Oyston--Blackpool FC Owner.

The list goes on.............Mind your fingers, clang.!!!!

[GillD46]

We had dinner in the Orchid on Arcadia with Bobbie Davro the night before Tony's 60th. He knew one of our table mates and joined our table for the celebration. The following night, the night of the birthday, during his show, he got the whole of the Palladium to sing Happy Birthday to him. Then later, Clem Curtis sang it to him, in the style of Marilyn Monroe singing to JFK, when we had a drink with him in Electra.

We have been fortunate to briefly meet quite a few " celebrities" over the years but the highlight for me, was standing next to HRH at a Buckingham Palace Garden Party - she smiled and nodded at me.

HRH who?

The Queen!

[Quizzical Bob]

We had dinner in the Orchid on Arcadia with Bobbie Davro the night before Tony's 60th. He knew one of our table mates and joined our table for the celebration. The following night, the night of the birthday, during his show, he got the whole of the Palladium to sing Happy Birthday to him. Then later, Clem Curtis sang it to him, in the style of Marilyn Monroe singing to JFK, when we had a drink with him in Electra.

We have been fortunate to briefly meet quite a few " celebrities" over the years but the highlight for me, was standing next to HRH at a Buckingham Palace Garden Party - she smiled and nodded at me.

HRH who?

The Queen!

Her Majesty would be HM

[GillD46]

I stand corrected.