I wandered into my local (to work) Waterstones today, and there in the corner was the author Martina Cole doing a book signing. Others who have been, or will be, doing the same include Tony McCoy, James May and Gary Linaker. This got me thinking about those 'celebrities' we have seen in ordinary circumstances - thus ruling out actors on the stage, or the Queen etc. (unless she has been spied at the end of platform 6 at London Bridge with a notebook and binoculars!).

The more incongruous or obscure the better; for example, I have seen Norman Tebbit shopping in Horsham, James Bolam in Sainsbury's Pulborough. Bryan Ferry in HMV Chichester is probably not incongruous...but you get the drift!

Just a bit of fun!

I once got Tony Hart's camera fixed for him when I worked at Dixon's, and Rick Wakeman was a regular customer when I worked in Camberley.

 Anthony Head (prime minister on little britain) has been on my tour bus around bath.
I've also shook hands with Richard Branson after wining 3rd prize in an art competion - i was 9 at the time !

I met Lady Diana Spencer and her dad (the 8th Earl Spencer, the older one who sadly passed away) on a grain plant we were building for him at Althorp. He came along a few times as he enjoyed being with "people like us", he even brought a slab of beer along for us a couple of times.

David Essex on a train between Holmwood and Dorking.
Ollie Reed (good rest his soul) in varoous pubs round the Dorking Area.
Tiff Needell evey day for a couple of years at boarding school.
Andre Previn, Virginia Mckena, Barry Sheene all at their homes when I worked for a tool hire company many years ago

We have at least one member of the forum who keeps popping up on my TV !

I've met various supposedly "famous" people through work and related stuff - people like Dave Rowntree formerly of Blur, Tom Watson MP ('Dial M for Murdoch') and various SF authors by accident - Charlie Stross being the obvious one. I knew him when he was a struggling magazine writer and then somewhere along the line all the hard work paid off for him.

Thankfully while I get to meet some of these people, it's the ones who are well known for doing stuff and who are almost universally good sane people - unlike some of the well known for being well known types.

I do keep running into this arrogant chap from Finland who wrote his own operating system though 

Grainne Seoige - O Donohues Baggot Street
Sile Seoige, Brian O'Driscoll (quite a few times) various rugby players - Keilys Donnybrooke
Joanna Lumly - Super Market in Dublin
Prince Philip  - Windsor Great park - Long story but threw him out of our area in the park for security reasons (didnt realise it was him)...
Dath Vader (another long story) but he taught me to Fence (which quaifies me as a Sith Dark Lord).
Johnny Herbert, Rob Collard...
Theres more but....

David Cameron, 6 months or so before he became PM. Saw him horse riding and wished us a happy Christmas.

my sister and mother were walking down oxford street and a short gentleman in a puffer jacket was walking the other way to which my sister said
"that p**f in the puffer jacket looks like Yuri Geller!" the gentleman let out a cough as he passed and my mum confirmed it was Yuri Geller and he got a full earful of my sisters colourful description,,,


as for me i've had the missfortune of catching 2 celebrities peeing in places they shouldn't at festivals, and they got treated like any other punter!

Derek Nimmo in Oxford Street.
Pat Phoenix (Elsie Tanner) and Anthony Booth (long haired scouse git) got a kiss from "Elsie" 
Eartha Kit at a party.
Grace Jones at another party.
The Big Yin in a hotel bar in Kirkcaldy.
Dave Lee Travis on platform 2, Newcastle Central Station.
The one memory I treasure the most was when I met John Lennon  walking towards me in a street in Liverpool.  When we were almost level I thanked him for all the great songs and he actually stopped and chatted for about 5 minutes. He was so friendly, easy to talk to and guess who forgot to ask for an autograph   

cheers John.

Quote from: scotsoft on September 28, 2012, 03:51:15 PM

The one memory I treasure the most was when I met John Lennon  walking towards me in a street in Liverpool.  When we were almost level I thanked him for all the great songs and he actually stopped and chatted for about 5 minutes. He was so friendly, easy to talk to and guess who forgot to ask for an autograph   

cheers John.

You mean John Lennon forgot to ask for your autograph

Back in the 70's Anita Harris (whom some may remember) was enjoying a short cut avoiding the crowds at Heathrow. Unfortunately myself and approx 30 other Cubs were also being shown around behind the scenes. I wonder if she ever caught her plane after all those autographs ;o)
Back when I worked in banking Nick Berry was in panto in Hastings whilst also being in Eastenders. He came in the branch to cash some money and went to our 'jobsworths' till. 'I don't care, you not cashing this cheque until I've seen proof of identity!'. An advert for the panto with his picture dead centre was sellotaped to one side of the large cashiers window. Give him his due, he came up with some.
Gareth

Terry Venables in Tottenham Court Road

Robin Cook MP in a tearoom in Pitlochry

Kenneth Williams in the Griffin Pub in Glasgow
(Not strictly qualifying as he was appearing
in the adjacent theater and artistes came in
the pub for publicity photos)

Archie MacPherson in Glasgow Central station

Shook hands with Mark O'Shea at a modellers convention at Telford a few year ago.

I went to school with Bob Hoskins, he used to live in the house opposite ours.  He was always a bit of a rogue and was one of those lads that all the other boys were afraid of, but to us girls he was charming