In Private Eye, the Colemanballs column features silly things said by sport commentators that have been noticed by readers. Each one printed gets a crisp tenner! This week, one Green Gartside had his suggestion printed. Congratulations, Green!
It made me recall the time I noticed among a thick block of text listing 50 or so winners of a Smash Hits competition (I am estimating this to be around 1982) “D Gahan, Basildon”. And it was indeed the JCGE hitmaker.
Arguably the best one was Mark Hamill out of Star Wars sending in his 45p to enrol in the Dennis the Menace Fan Club! This was noticed (and celebrated) in the following week’s Beano.
So I want hear about other voluntary print media appearances from pop stars. A letter to the Editor from Rick Witter? Perhaps Wattie from The Exploited asked Alan Tichmarsh a gardening question in the Sunday Mirror?
Not quite pop stars, but it’s well-known comics lore that 2000AD printed a Judge Dredd movie “poster” submitted by young reader Danny Cannon…who years later directed the 1995 Dredd film.
That’s amazing!! What a great story. I actually remember that at the time and I probably even tried to draw one myself to enter the competition.
Similarly, a young Gerald Scarfe got a drawing printed in Eagle.
And in a similar vein, the teenage Peter Capaldi was a raging Dr. Who fan… https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2386587/Young-Peter-Capaldi-obsessed-Doctor-Who-badgered-staff-constantly.html
Makes you wonder why they ever cast Chris Ecclestone – who didn’t (and doesn’t) like Doctor Who. At all.
Perhaps it was the Mark E Smith approach – he claimed never to recruit Fall fans.
Ecclestone lobbied Russell T Davies for the job when it became known that RDT was doing the reboot.
And Ecclestone was just what the reboot needed. I really don’t think Tennant would have been so successful without Ecclestone doing the hard work of setting it going. I wish he could have been persuaded to revisit it for the Day of the Doctor. Good as John Hurt was, the part was clearly written for Ecclestone.
I once picked up the Coleman balls book in a book store. Was practically rolling on the floor I was laughing so much.
The only Colemanball I remember was from the legendary Brian Moore: “After a goalless first half, the score at half time is nil-nil.”
Morrissey was a serial letter writer, but pre-Smiths
http://www.passionsjustlikemine.com/magazines-presmiths.htm
Thanks! I’d seen some of those, but not all of them. I had no idea he was such a huge Depeche Mode fan!
A bit more niche, but round about 1989 New Model Army gave away a poster with a 12″ single. One side was a live shot, and clearly visible in the audience is Simon Friend who went on to be one of the guitarists and singers in the Levellers.
I once bought a book with the complete illustrations of the Mexican artist Jose G. Posada (he’s quite good: https://www.inside-mexico.com/jose-guadalupe-posada-creator-of-la-catrina/). The seller told me that his name was printed in the credits. As it turned out this was an early example of crowdfunding: the German publisher had asked people to pre-order the book, and once they got 1000 orders, they produced the first (and only) edition in 1974. They had a few pages at the end of the book with a list of all those who had ordered it.
Silly as I am I inspected the list, and found some surprising entries – among the usual suspects like Wim Wenders there’s one “Zappa, Frank” and “Van Vliet, Donald”. They must have taken the trouble to actually send a postcard to Frankfort, Germany, with their name and address.
Idly flicking through my old Crack-a-Joke book recently (all us kids had it in 1981) I spotted that one of the contributors was a M.Giedroyc from Leatherhead.
Thanks BC – I’ve had no occasion to drop this amazing fact into conversation with anyone who would be remotely interested until now.
You’re welcome, Cap’n. It’s the distinctive names that one notices, isn’t it? David Jones or Harry Webb may well have been regular correspondents to their local paper, writing about ring roads and sewage systems under the cloak of their real names.
Vaguely music related, but the BBC managed to broadcast an interview with a random Manchester City fan after a match without realising that he was their colleague Mark Radcliffe.
On a similar note, a few years ago a BBC journalist was sent to Liverpool to interview residents of a certain age about a Liverpool v Everton match in the 1960s. One vox-pop contributor turned out to be Liverpool’s ‘keeper from the match, Tommy Lawrence.
Henry Winkler might be the best random celeb vox pop of them all, in a story about the expansion of Heathrow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoNod701bhU
Jaz Coleman from Killing Joke was once Vox Popped on dreadful, Esther Rantson presented, Sunday Night BBC Show “That’s Life.”
It’s here on You Tube
Funnily enough, Buster Bloodvessel also appeared on That’s Life as an obscene turnip.
20 years ago I took The Malcontent by John Marston out of the Hull University library. In the front was written something like “This book is approved by Neil Codling”. That’s right folks – the ivory-tickler from Suede.
Codling sounds like exactly the kind of word John Marston would use to describe someat rude.
I once had a letter printed in Music Echo, I’ve yet to release a hit single.
Well done! I’m impressed, if no-one else is.
from the recent Best of the NME 1965-69, this choice reader’s letter:
Why do I get fan mail from bass guitarists and not girls? – John Entwistle
Brilliant! You can hear the pain in those words.
The girls were well-advised. Two words: Fiddle About.