Claim to fame
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- duckseason3
I helped Andy Roddick buy a speaker for his iPod back when I worked at an Apple store – he went with a Bose.
I was returning to work, with a burrito bowl from Chipotle, and caught an elevator with Sam Rockwell and his german shepherd and he said, "Chipotle, huh?" To which I replied, "Yup." and then got off at my floor.
I was at a party in a bar sponsored by Kangol and drunkenly started talking to the dude next to me while waiting for my free drinks, turns out he was the manager for DJ Quik and I said I was a fan. He told me Quik would love to hear that and pointed to the person at the end of the bar leaning against the wall. I stumble over and say, "Hey! I love... (cue drunken brainfart) that one song..." I proceed to start humming the tune to "Tonite" and say, "Yeah..." He told me he wished he were as drunk as me. I informed him that it was an open bar and that he could be if he wanted. We laughed and I stumbled away.
I was at my old local spot having a beer after work when someone sits next to me, orders a beer, and says, "What a day..." to which I replied, "Tell me about it." We subtly raise glasses, and he walks off to make a phone call. The bartender excitedly came and asked if I knew who that was. I didn't see his face but the voice sounded familiar. She informed me it was H. Jon Benjamin.
- DaveO2
My dad used to be a roadie for a Sheffield band (Shape of The Rain) and claims that Pink Floyd saw their light show and decided to go and make their own.
He also used to see Joe Cocker out and about at gigs. "Total pisshead" he said.
- DaveO7
I was running the backstage portrait studio at the Ralph Lauren 50th show and have the following claims from that night:
1 – Robert De Niro came up for his portrait and i didn't recognize him – he looks really different off camera. I told him to wait for a moment because they were finishing up. I had 60 seconds with him, and the only thing i could think of saying was to point out the restoration work on the ceiling that we'd done for the show.
2 – I said 'Bruce, can we get you over here for a portrait' – and guided him to a wall, touching his shoulder. Bruce of Springsteen fame.
3 – I made Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain laugh. Anne Hathaway has a really dirty laugh.
4 – Kanye came into the backstage area and walked right past our lighting, and i greeted him with 'What's up Mr West" – i like to think that he recognized it as a gag on the 'wake up mr west' lyric from the first track on Late Registration.
5 – I held Anderson Cooper's glasses
6 – I stood on Steven Spielberg's toe
- If i were a troll, i'd log into each of my accounts and +1 you many times, but i have but one to give.
1, 3 & 6 are sublimeNairn - Finally an explanation for Spielberg's mid-career dip.Fax_Benson
- If i were a troll, i'd log into each of my accounts and +1 you many times, but i have but one to give.
- mathinc1
Pissed next to James Brown.
I went to high school with, and had a crush on actress Beth Riesgraf (she drunkenly told me once she was crushing back, swoon). She had a kid named, Pilot Inspektor Riesgraf Lee, with Jason Lee.
My grandparents were friends with Dennis Quaid. Used to go out to dinner with him and his girlfriend, and have them over from time to time.
My dad went to a David Bowie concert right before he got big.. said there were 40 other people at the concert.
My pops also once mentioned, "In college, I sold t-shirts at this concert once for a band called the Red Hot Peppers or something. Weird guys." He had no idea they became famous.
Worked in a restaurant where a lot of celebrities came in.. but the coolest part was when they shot Oceans 11 at the hotel I worked at. So I saw Pitt, Clooney, etc. walking in the tunnels below the casino.
Oh, and design-related I ended up hanging out for hours with Michael C Place (Build) and Joshua Davis. Being a design/flash nerd at the time I was awestruck.
When I was 10 or so my mom dropped me off at the 49ers training camp and I chased down Joe Montana for his autograph. I literally popped out from behind a column in a restricted area where me and another kid were hiding. He tried to pedal away on his bike but I caught him.
I think that's it.
- monospaced1
I was backstage at a small punk show in the '90s and Gwen Stefani (not yet lead singer) changed her clothes right in front of us. I'm guessing she was still a teenager.
- mg335
I helped Barry Manilow shop for pants once when I worked at Banana Republic in 2002. I thanked him for all the sweet songs my mom cried to after her divorce in the 80s.
- robotinc7
I used to work at a vfx company that had a secret sister company that did digital makeup and beauty work on actors/actresses. Its a huge business, though they couldn't show or talk about their work for the longest time as its all covered in NDAs. Same folks have done all the de-aging of actors in Marvel movies.
Anyhow, its the fall, and they are working on a movie with Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Mcconaughey. Its 300 or so shots removing her crows feet, and tucking his waddle back into his neck. I take a break to visit my uncle in Austin, and at the time he had a gallery attached to the Four Seasions hotel. I step outside, and Mcconaughey walks out of the hotel, past the gallery and down to the restaurant. He thought I was star struck, but in reality I'm starring at his waddle in person, and thinking about my compositing buddies. Good times.
The waddle is real.
- haha, i have a friend who spent a couple of weeks of her life de-camelToeing a Famous Artist's footage for a music video.
So strange .Nairn - haha, great.Fax_Benson
- lolpango
- I spent so much time rebuilding mel gibson’s face and neck i started naming his valleys and ridgesscarabin
- haha, i have a friend who spent a couple of weeks of her life de-camelToeing a Famous Artist's footage for a music video.
- tank022
I danced with Natalia Imbruglia at a Drum & Bass party way back somewhere in Ghent. I remember the line up:
Doc Scott, Trace, Suv & Bassment. I guess it was in 1999 or 2000.
- Nairn1
For reasons that I can't remember, I had VIP tickets to see DJ Shadow at a gig in Kings Cross, London. For whatever reason, I ended up going alone, something which I'd never done before.
I swanned around awkwardly pre-gig and settled in the 'VIP Lounge' or whatever it was, where there was precisely one other person in there - another nerdy-looking ginger bloke.
Being awkward nerdy ginger blokes, we never said anything to each other beyond a bare recognition of the others existence via a slight head nod.
Other guy left and I finished my beer and then went down to the the show when it started.
Turns out other nerdy ginger bloke was DJ Shadow. I had no idea.
- Nairn1
Back in 2001 or so I shared an overland train from Kentish Town with Ulrikkkkka Jonsson one late summer afternoon. She was stood by the door with the low warm sun streaming through, illuminating her flat yet attractive breasts.
We matched a gaze at one point and she idly smiled my way before getting back to her thoughts.
- lajj4
My dad, who was a sailor in the 60s once had a beer with Mick Jagger and Keith Richard in a Liverpool pub.
A couple of years ago, I was waiting for my coffee at the shop and next to me was Olivia Wilde. She said hi and I said hi back, so we can all conclude that we had a conversation.
- Nairn0
It's curious to me. I'm very wary about going down the route of my own proper claims to fame as they all basically harken to a period in my life long-past. It'd feel a little e-pill-esque to wallow in the memories of a happier, more successful era.
I will mention one though, not a lovely one - I'm pretty goshdarn sure I am in part significantly to blame for the current culture of Hippy Crack (Nitrous Oxide) usage in Britain.
We did a Glasto at the end of the shroom-selling era (2005?) and took a few big-ass tanks of nitrous to sell. I'd ordered bright yellow latex (biodegradable, i figured) balloons, thousands of which we bought. Great incidental marketing as our brand was yellow and brown. 'Just follow the trail...'.
As far as I know, we were the first to really go to town selling NOx at a festival, whereas (somewhat like shrooms) it was something always done, but quietly, on the downlow. We were not quiet.
I will never forget staring out at the end of the main avenue behind the pyramid stage at something like 3am, from the stall we had, at a sea of yellow balloons covering the entiriety of the avenue. Literally - as far as I could see. I felt sick.
I'd witnessed literally thousands of people get off their face right in front of me - quick inhalation and staggering off, blundering through the crowds, recovering, coming back again for more. I'd seen people empty out their last few quid in their wallets for more balloons. Hence 'crack'. I'd seen people I'd previously respected and an other in my employ try and get women, including young adolescents, to flash their tits for free balloons. I kicked two people out when I saw that shit going on. Fucking assholes.
After we'd sold up, we'd made a tidy penny, but I was aghast at what I'd been part of. Filthy business. I resolved there and then that I wanted no more of any of that sort of shit.
Anyway, everthereafter, NOx became a thing, quickly resulting in a change of law in selling it (I still have two tanks I can't fill up - I should probably sell them on eBay) and now the streets of London are filled with nitrous whip cartridges, befouling by fuckhead bastards.
.
Because I'd resolved to leave at that point, I had no part in what came after for the company I'd founded then left. That's when the REAL money came in. Oh well. I have my principles.
*stares at not entirely wonderful bank balance
- Nairn0
@DaveO, re: Gallaghers
My first proper job in London was in studios in Kentish Town. We had a water-cooler near the main entrance, so one morning i went to refill, half asleep and likely stoned-over/hungover. I remember not being on top form, whatever.
As I'm filling I hear shwiff-shwiff-shwiff shwiff-shwiff-shwiff from outside so peer out the main door and see two plastic anorak-clad blokes walking around the stairs, evidently going to the photography studio on the next floor.
I slowly resolve them and upon a sneer from the one in front, finally recognise that it's Noel and Liam Gallagher.
I remember thinking at the time "aww, that's so sweet - I got negged by Oasis!".
- Amazing! I actually remember saying to Liam "how's your kid?" – like i was actually his mate!DaveO
- Projectile8
My mom (with a bit of my help) saved the Bushmen tribe of South Africa
The true indigenous people of SA, before Xhosa and Zulu people arrived and built farms and pushed them out.
After Mandela, 1994 etc. she went on a crusade to get them rights and land. Until 1970 it was legal to shoot them like a jackall. They literally had no land or money and were dying out. She got together with some lawyers and made a case for them, got them registered etc. etc. and eventually got them 200,000 hectares of land where they could live off the land, hunt, and basically keep their culture alive instead of having to move to the city to find work.
One time they were all at my house when I had a birthday party. My mates came to me wide eyed.. "dude I literally just smoked a blunt with a bushman!!"
Good times, good times. Mom's passed and I haven't checked in on them... but we did what we could.
- Morning_star2
The band I was in during the 90s supported Devin Townsend's Strapping Young Lad on their first UK tour. He showed me a yoga technique to use on the toilet that encouraged those stubborn 'tour' poo's to vacate one's body quicker and more easily. It works a treat and I use it to this day. Thanks Devin.
The band also stuck hardcore porn on a pillar in front of the stage at Northampton Roadmenders. It was very distracting. However in a cruel twist if karma, when Kerrang review the Underwolrd show they gave our band 5 stars and "the most rocking moment".
- “Some people never got over Vietnam or the night their band opened for Nirvana.” – Robnb
- Tru dat.Morning_star
- Gardener3
The claim to fame I'm most proud of vinyl-wise is selling a copy
of a Banksy painted sleeve on the bay a few years ago. I never
knew I had it until I had a dig through my 12"s one day and came
across it, I have a lot of records that were sent to me via the station for free in the 90's and the fact it was in mint condition too helped. To this day is still the most expensive Banksy vinyl related artwork to have been sold.
- dee-dubs1
Darth Vader (David Prowse) listened to the unborn me when i was in my mums pregnant belly!
- Gardener5
I wrote in to TV show Jim'll Fix It when I was 12 in 1974 and
was 14 when they eventually invited me on the show. I knew
when I first applied to the BBC that the only way I would ever
stand a chance of appearing on the show would be if I asked
Jim to Fix It for me to do something really easy, hence my
request to attack Rod Hull's 'Emu'.
The episode was broadcast Christmas Day 1976 - and to add
extra spookiness, my now wife who was 11 then remembers
seeing me on it and thinking at the time that I was "a bit old"
to be on the show, cheers love!
The Jim'll Fix It badge I was awarded was later auctioned for charity after the Savile scandal broke and now resides in a
Black Museum in a glass case especially dedicated to the show.- another side story - my dad paid me £5 to wear a T-Shirt on the show advertising his 2nd hand shop 'Sellit & Soon'Gardener
- that's quite a claim to fame there, on TV with two of the creepiest celebs of that generation!!dee-dubs
- So did you witness any of the inappropriate Savile behaviour whilst there?dee-dubs
- alas no, though even at that age I could tell he was well creepyGardener
- That's crazy! I used to always want to write in to Jim'll Fix It. Thank god I didn'tBaskerviIle
- https://www.youtube.…SlashPeckham
- haha, yeah thanks!Gardener
- Luckily you were "a bit old" to be on the show.garbage
- I'm thinking you're "a bit old" to be on QBN! hahaah. jk. I thought I was one of the oldest people here and I was 3 in '74.fooler
- BusterBoy3
I've met Barbara Eden (I dream of Jeannie)