{ Lick That Riff! }

Well the title says it all. To be honest if you’ve just met anyone from one of your favourite bands then I’ll let you off. Maybe you’ve met one of your guitaring heroes before? Maybe the lead singer from the greatest rock band in history? Maybe the trumpet player from a 2 tone band you love?

I thought that I would do this post as I actually have met a few of my heroes in the past. I have met one of the heroes in my Influential Guitarist post.

But first I’m going to tell you the story of when I met Carl Barât, (For those of you who don’t know who he is, then you should be ashamed) He used to be guitarist/singer in the Libertines along with Pete Doherty. Carl then joined The Dirty Pretty Things and still plugged away some great guitar songs .Most notably their first album. I don’t know what he’s doing now, hopefully getting the Libertines back together!

Anyway I remember the Dirty Pretty Things (DPT) were playing at my favourite club in my hometown, so me and my mate just had to attend. This was one of my favourite gigs ever by the way! My mate came round my house we had about 6 cans then we went to the club. I remember we were drinking snakebite and black, which usually would have been £3.50 each! However I knew the barmaid so she was giving us them half price (Another reason why this gig was so great) so we’d had a good few drinks before the gig and then they came on. Amazing uproar followed around the whole room. The weird thing was that nobody was really crowd surfing, that was, until my mate decided to get up, and once he had done it, practically every man and his dog followed suit.

Anyway after the gig we all went upstairs to get some more drinks and there was talk that the band might appear afterwards as sort of an afterparty. After waiting around upstairs for at least 40 minutes the crowd started to fizzle out as all expectation of the band appearing went out of the window. There was only a handful of people left and me and my mate were in that handful. And then, out of nowhere, the band appeared! I was in awe. There was Carl, who had co-written some of my favourite songs of all time. We didn’t go straight up to him though. He was already being mobbed with requests for pictures and the like. When it did eventually wind down me and my mate did go up and get a picture with him and also had a chat. One of the nicest people that you’ll meet, he was quality.

Above is the picture of me and Carl, just hanging out as you do. And please ignore the big chunk of fat that’s attacking me!

So that was one time that I met a true hero of mine. Now on to another. Around October last year I started University. It was Freshers Week! For those of you who don’t know, this week is a blur and if it’s not then you haven’t done it right. Anyway on the first monday of Freshers Week, Supergrass were playing at the same club DPT played at. It was going to be amazing! I had only got into Supergrass properly at the end of 2007 so all of their songs were still fresh in my memory and I was going to love every minute of it. The only thing that was stopping this was the fact that I had been out drinking all day since 9 in the morning (Weatherspoons opens at this time!) By around 9 at night I was pretty hammered, but was still adamant at making the gig and enjoying Supergrass.

To be honest, I can’t remember too much from the gig, so I’m not going to go into too much detail about it, just that it was a great gig. During the gig I lost my mates somehow, so I decided to look round and search for them. I looked in the main room, side room and outside. They were nowhere to be seen. I decided to check the Upstairs bar as sometimes its easier to get a drink up there.

Anyway as I was walking up I could see Supergrass down one of the corridors (Obviously going into their dressing room) the only difference to this from other gigs, was that at other gigs there had been at least two bouncers guarding the door so you could never get in. Only this time, there wasn’t. I was amazed, and with split second precision I sneaked into their room. There they were, with the support band and some groupies, who, to be honest I think had just done the same as me. On the table there was about 30 bottles of spirits. I was in heaven. Alcohol, Supergrass and groupies. Good times! So I hung out with the band and then partied with my friends afterwards, great night. Here’s a picture with Gaz Coombes who was in my Influential list.

So that’s two of my heroes I’ve met before. I have also met a few other people. Most Notable: Liam Watts (The Enemy Drummer), Billy Lunn (The Subways Frontman), Tom Clarke (The Enemy Frontman), Patch Ripp (The Ripps Frontman), Bob hope (Emmerdale – For All You British Emmerdale Fans!), Kevin Thornton (Coventry City Footballer)

Here’s a pic of me and Liam Watts from the Enemy.

So who have you guys met before? Any of your all time  heroes? Maybe just some random Guitarists after gigs? Please Share your stories, and if you want me to post any of your pictures on a future post, then please feel free to send them to lickthatriff@googlemail.com and I shall get them posted!