Fame. fame, fatal fame

I've been mixing with C list celebs again.
I was in Beaties coffee shop the other day, and someone next to me in the queue picked up my free coffee voucher by mistake.
Imagine my surprise when I saw it was Slade guitar hero and glam rock legend Dave Hill!
Actually, I serviced his gas fires in my previous life as a gas fitter. So I said "Hi Dave"








Sunday I was in London for the Chuck Berry gig at the Hackney Empire. It was great and I had a ball. Mick Jagger's brother was supporting, but I missed him.




And outside, later, I heard someone in the crowd shout "tell Chris Jagger I'm here, he'll let me backstage". The security guy asked him his name and it was none other than 'Swords Of A Thousand Men' wacky punky rocker Eddie Tudorpole!
I took his photo.



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Before there were pop stars and movie stars, 'fame and fortune' wasn't a cool or seemingly available thing. The only famous people were people who excelled in their given field. Fame wasn't pursued as much as excellence, and that excellence bought fame I reckon.
But today, we're bought up to believe we can all achieve fame and fortune. When I went to sign on to a computer course at college, the 'building studies' sign-up line was none existent. But 'art, drama and media studies' had about thirty wannabe pop stars in a line. I see it all the time when I'm out playing, mothers bringing their daughters in front of me, saying "she's very musical, she sings all the time!".
Pop stars, not plumbers. That's what we're training our kids to be.
And at what age do you decide you're not ever going to make it? When you're forty and sitting alone in a bedsit thinking "it better happen soon, I'm fed up of feeling fed up!".
And if it happens, it life any better? I'm not convinced.
When I was 17 I told my Dad I wanted to be in a band. I didn't want to be in the building trade. My Dad, wise as he was, told me to get qualified, then do whatever I wanted. By the time I was qualified the band had broken up and I'd gotten used to having money and taking my girlfriend up snazzy Birmingham wine bars. So that was me for the next twenty years. Wow.
I'm blathering on about all this because I've been tidying up, and I've been finding remnants from past lives, past relationships. Pictures on me a teenager read to conquer the world. If I had a son or daughter wanting to go the 'arty' route, and me knowing they had little or no chance of success, would I be able to guide them as wisely as my Dad did me?
Isn't life great though? the twists and turns it takes, the decisions you have to make. Where you find yourself.. it's a constant journey. Or it should be at least. A living hell to me would be mortgaged to the hilt, stuck in a job I didn't care for and looking at the next twenty years with it all planned out as a mire of boredom.
I firmly believe 'life is what you make of it'. But I also hope I can recognise times when people don't get the chances, and make allowances for that.
What a load of prattle! (sod it, I'll upload anyway)