I recognised a bloke in The Swan pub in Stourbridge
back in about 1993, it was quite an exciting time to be in Stourbridge if you liked homegrown music talent, Ned's Atomic Dustbin, the Wonder Stuff, and of course Pop Will Eat Itself.

So I sees me a white skinny bloke with an impressive beaky nose, has his dreadlocks dyed red and bundled up around the back of his head, having a quiet pint with someone else I didn't recognise and I twigged- it was Clint from 'The Poppies'!

Now I've alwas been a rock-orientated music fan, in fact I was probably wearing my Iron Maiden tour t-shirt at the time but I thought- go up and say hi. But I was pissed.

So, I did the typical thing..wandered over and said- 'Hi, aren't you Clint?' to which he openly greeted me with a a raised eyebrow and a faint smile.

Then I bollocks it up.

'I'm sure your stuff is great, I've never seen you of course but anyway...'(his smille went even fainter) -'but it's nice to see you drinking in a regular pub with real people and not being a stuck up wanker'- (had I had a drink? I think I may have) at which point his smile drops, and in a classic case of images going into the eyes and coming out the mouth with no censorship, finished ' With your hair like that you look like that Alien Queen monster'.

To his credit he didn't say anything but the person who was with him interrupted with 'You're just one of those people with a 'star' complex, you have to try and bring people down just because they're famous and you're not' at which point my bravery vanished and I stumbled off realising I had come across as a massive twat.

I recounted this to my brother a couple of days later, hoping he would vindicate my behaviour by saying what a wanker Clint was, but instead he said- 'Oh no, met him a few times now and he's a really, really nice guy' (my brother worked a a music recording venue in Stourbridge so this was entirely plausible).

Shit.
( Rotating Wobbly Hat That's not a banana. THIS is a banana., Thu 8 Oct 2009, 18:19, 1 reply)

I met Clint a few times
He's an absolute legend, and I was a really annoying little gobshite back then. All credit to the man.
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Fri 9 Oct 2009, 12:58, closed)