Keith Richard Telecaster ~Micawber~ (not quite, inspired by)

[Mor Paul]

Cool. I'll start doing impressions soon.

 

[kreig]

start with a biker jacket and tight levi's with holes in the jeans,real holes(NOT distressed holes, they won't count) and converse high tops!

I'd let you borrow my clothes, but they didn't fit my beer belly anymore and I gave them to Goodwill  :laughing8: :icon_tongue: ccasion14:

 

[JamesL]

That picture of Ramone...... Reminds me of forest gump.....

 

[OzziePete]

The Ramones.

Met them when I was working at Sydney Airport years ago.

They came through the security area screening point one by one. Their dark long hair, black leather jackets and ripped jeans (and a couple carrying guitar cases) stopped everyone flat.

Joey (the singer?) was tall, man. As they wandered down the concourse  heading to the First Class Lounge  :laughing3:, people would stop and stare at them, they took it in their stride. They looked like would kill someone rather than be nice.

Anyways, I was standing around in my police like uniform, gun, cuffs, hat, radio etc. And Joey comes up to me.

I'm thinking , oh no what's he gonna say?

To my surprise, he says, in a very thick (NY Queens type?) accent. "Aah hiya Officer, is there any space invader machines this side?"

It took a lot of self restraint to not laugh. To me, he sounded just like Barney Rubble out of the Flinstones, and the fact he was asking for a space invaders machine to play - when he looked like a serious rock'n'roll icon/god - made the scenario even more comical. I politely answered his question, asked if they were The Ramones, he kinda gushed "yeah", and said his good bye.

Blew the image a bit...... :headbang1:

 

[Mor Paul]

Awesome story!
My chances of meeting one of my idols is pretty much nonexistent.

I'm neither tall nor thin, so my Ramone days are over, it seems.

 

[OzziePete]

Awesome story!
My chances of meeting one of my idols is pretty much nonexistent.

I'm neither tall nor thin, so my Ramone days are over, it seems.

Nah, don't get too despondent about not meeting so called famous folks yet, Max.

I was working at a major international airport (Sydney is the largest airport in Australia) and a lot of flights had to come our way. That meant a greater potential to meet all the 'beautiful' people  :confused4:.

Often you'd just notice them going about their business of getting off a flight or going through customs or trying to get on a flight. And you really felt a goose going up to them and saying 'are you such-and-such'.

A couple of rare occasions I had to step in when they looked over my way with a help me look when they had a plane to catch in a hurry and had people wanting to talk to them or otherwise hold them up (photo and autograph requests etc.). But that was only when they were travelling privately without an entourage and had no minder or personal assistant to sort of step in and say to the fan: "look we really have a flight to catch, sorry."

It was a past time of mine to spot the celebrity. The female celebs were often the hardest to pick out in the crowd. If they didn't want to be identified, a lot of the women would just dress down, not wear a lot of makeup and they'd only look a little like who they were. That threw a lot of people.

When you had rock acts coming to town, they'd be escorted in and out of the airport by people. Sometimes we'd get called in to assist, a lot of times not. We had control of the security of the sterile area of the airport so once the folks went through the screening point, we'd look out for them. Often they just bought some duty free and headed into the pre arranged group lounge or first class lounge. Often the airline they were travelling with would assign a staff member to walk them through as a courtesy, to help them with duty free purchases and what not.

I have a fair few stories, of course. Work long enough at a major international airport and most folks do.

But really, if you just treat them like the average folks, most celebs just appreciate the time left alone to go about the business at hand.

I did have a couple of occassions where I was the 'johnny on the spot' who had to trouble shoot a matter involving a celeb or two and that was always a pressured situation. One was a famous American actor who had been to Sydney for a promo visit of his latest movie who got into a rather heated argument with a sales girl and was a real pig to her (he appeared intoxicated by somethiing and I warned him I was 1 radio call away from calling Customs and Immigration and bumping him off the flight due to suspicious intoxication and having the Federal Police look at his luggage) and another was a one hit wonder pop sensation from the UK who was too sexy  :icon_thumright:......to be searched after a positive result on the screening point ( also threatened with arrest for interferring with the operations of the airport security system and refusing to searched).

Out of that time, I would just stand by and watch them, sometimes we had eye contact and have a quick chat. At times, I struggled to keep my cool and not gush over them. But the only guy I really REALLY couldn't talk to, because of who he was, was George Harrison. He was my idol when I first got interested in music and I realised if I went to speak with him while he waited for his limo to be brought around, I'd make a bloody fool out of myself. I had a work colleague stand with him, and he struck up a good chat with him and got his autograph. I eventually bought the autograph.

I had a work colleague who had handed in his notice one busy spring at that time, and he went around LOOKING for celebs to sign his Official Notebook before he left the job! He spent 4 weeks running around at any suspected sighting grabbing all sorts of autographs, all whilst in full uniform on duty. He was leaving he couldn't care! Leslie Neilsen (Frank Drebbin ) thought it hilarious when Batch told him what he was doing (and duly signed the Official Notebook too). That Notebook, when he handed it in, read like a who's who of who had been in Sydney for that month. :laughing8:

Max, if you get into a group and gig around, you may end up supporting some 'names'.

Likewise, if you work at places where the celebs would pass through, like an airport or major hotel etc., then you may see them then too. But it is something that is often frowned upon by places such as hotels, and if a celeb is staying there they often just want to kick back after a long day and relax (and not get hassled by a worker there, for an autograph or a chat). You have to pick when is the best time to play the fan, in other words.

 

[DocNrock]

Max, your avatar looks like an album cover.  Not that that is a bad thing.   :icon_thumright:  The next Ramone.

 

[Mor Paul]

Right Said Fred, Ozzie?
Never liked them.

Well, apparently one of my best friend's dad used to party with James Taylor. If he ever gets hooked up again, I'm sure my buddy will try to invite me.

Well, this weekend, my brother (fan of crap like slipknot and korn) was asked about the Ramones. He had no clue who they were. He has a similar haircut.
He also discovered the Clash, which is great. He didn't know they are one of the bands I like.

I doubt NC is the best place to search for celebrities, but who knows?

 

[OzziePete]

Right Said Fred, Ozzie?
Never liked them.

Well, apparently one of my best friend's dad used to party with James Taylor. If he ever gets hooked up again, I'm sure my buddy will try to invite me.

Well, this weekend, my brother (fan of crap like slipknot and korn) was asked about the Ramones. He had no clue who they were. He has a similar haircut.
He also discovered the Clash, which is great. He didn't know they are one of the bands I like.

I doubt NC is the best place to search for celebrities, but who knows?

Cannot comment about your speculation, Max.  :icon_thumright: It was subject to an Incident Report and matters reported to the Minister (with my name splashed all over it!). No fault on my part, but the artist (and I use that term loosely when referencing this person) got a bagging. Who ever it was  :cool01:, they haven't made hit number 2.

NC is North Carolina? Sorry I'm from Australia and while I know that NY is New York, WA is Washington State and CA = California etc. I am not sure of some the other abbreviations. You would have tours going through the major cities, particularly in spring and summer? The artists have to sleep over somewhere? Mind you, I wouldn't make it your ambition to work at some hotel or elsewhere just because you'd meet some celebs, that would be pretty lame.

Also, I should have added that my experiences may well have been more pleasant than what others have had, mainly due to the fact I was wearing full uniform, looked like a cop and had the gun, handcuffs etc to prove it.

Most sane people would talk to us nicely as a result, and not try to be rude or aggressive. If I was in normal clothes I have often wondered how some of these celebs would have reacted to me coming up to them and talking to them. :icon_biggrin:

 

[Mor Paul]

Yeah, NC is North Carolina.
Not a huge state, but not tiny. A few cool acts, but for the international tours, NC isn't the hotspot.

 

[dbw]

I feel your pain... I live in Wisconsin.   :confused4:  At least I can drive to Chicago if there's someone exciting playing.

Edit: I also have lots of cigarette butts, PM me your address and I'll send 'em to ya

 

[guitlouie]

Hey, George Clinton was partying at my neighbors house, right here in Raleigh North Caklaki once.  We had a grand old time.

 

[Mor Paul]

Cool! I'm guessing you're talking about the George Clinton of Funkadelic/Parliament (I've got Tear the Roof off on iTunes ) and not the George Clinton who did Cheech and Chong music and the Austin Powers and Mortal Kombat scores.

 

[guitlouie]

Mr. P-Funk himself.  He was incredibly cool.

 

[Mor Paul]

Awesome. I love hearing about these things. This place is awesome for stories of that nature. This weekend, I was at a church event, and there was a band. The drummer sat next to me at lunchtime, and we talked a bit. He was pretty cool. It was interesting how the band had about 3 or 4 setups. The lead singer/rhythm guitarist had a death in the family, so the bassist took both jobs. The lead guitarist took bass. There was a guy who normally doesn't play with the band who took lead. Then the singer came back. The regular lead guitarist took rhythm along with the singer as well as occasional lead. The regular lead guitarist took bass again Sunday, when the bassist had to leave early. Pretty versatile folks.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

Who's on first?

Versatility is cool.  My old drummer could play guitar, bass, and sing better than anyone in the band.  A regular Prince, or Dave Grohl at the very least.  Guitar and bass, for all of their differences, are similar enough that I'm not surprised when people can play both instruments and their required styles well.  But drums, I don't see how anyone plays them at all, let alone well.  It would be easier for me to solve a Rubik's cube (gratuitous 80s reference) riding a unicycle on a tightrope than to play drums.

 

[OzziePete]

Who's on first?

Versatility is cool.  My old drummer could play guitar, bass, and sing better than anyone in the band.  A regular Prince, or Dave Grohl at the very least.  Guitar and bass, for all of their differences, are similar enough that I'm not surprised when people can play both instruments and their required styles well.  But drums, I don't see how anyone plays them at all, let alone well.  It would be easier for me to solve a Rubik's cube (gratuitous 80s reference) riding a unicycle on a tightrope than to play drums.

:laughing7:

Well, I can play guitar and bass if I am doing my own recording stuff. Not good enough on bass for my own tastes by get by.

I can find middle C on the piano and sit at it and work out some chords and arrangements a bit, but am very slow. If I drag out some old musical theory books, I can do some transpositions for arrangements too, but again very slow.

As for drums...... I can program a drum machine to kinda make it sound like a drum kit ( I have seen a few drummer sin a studio to have some understanding of what the actual drummers do. But I have sat behind a set of drums maybe 2 or 3 times and failed miserably. Was hard enough juts to get the co ordination going between the foot pedal for the bass drum, and hitting the snare. Forget doing a cymbal hit or a tom tom roll.  :icon_scratch:  Definitely a black art that the drummers have to sell their soul for, I reckon. Most of 'em are mad anyways. :laughing7:

 

[mayfly]

I always wanted to write a song called "switch" in which at the first chorus we'd all switch instruments. 
I'm sure we'd suck royally, but that would be part of the fun.  Then for the last chorus we'd switch back...

... and suddenly we'd stop sucking!  Hmmm - I gotta revive that idea.

 

[Mor Paul]

That would look cool. Toss a guitar to the bassist, a bass to the drummer, and drumsticks to the guitarist. Those things can't just be handed! They've got to be thrown.

 

[Mor Paul]

Well, a small update. I've got most of the wiring done. The difference between how the electronics are in the picture and how they are now is that the cap is on, and the leads for the jack are on.

I'm pretty happy with my soldering job.