MEETING DARREN HAYES!

(i'm sure their might be a few of you thinking who? he used to be the lead singer in savage garden and now he is a solo artist) 

15th July 2007 

so it's sunday 15th July 2007. leeds party in the park. Darren told us on the tuesday he was playing on the sunday and i knew i had to go (much like today with the feeling at koko on friday)

 'welcome to my lion’s heart, I’m just pleased to meet you' (that was what my blog was called and a line from one of his songs)

Darren’s train had got delayed and he was in the pub and we went into the pub looking for food and seen him at the bar! very surreal. And so unexpected.  My heart is racing I’m all over the place. It still doesn’t seem real but here is my story.

We almost didn’t go into the pub as I didn’t really want pub food. my friend Kelly dragged me in, I said then that it didn’t look like it would still serve food at 8pm. Kelly asked and they said no. the girl serving as the bar asked if we wanted a drink. I wasn’t as sure as I was starving but said yes anyway as I was thirsty. Then as Kelly was paying I spotted Richard!!


I Seen Richard (Darren's partner) standing beside a group of people at a table. Spot that ear to ear smile anywhere! I did I double take to make sure it was him then said to Kelly omg it’s Richard. She turned to look then turned back to me and said omg it’s Darren. I’d seen this bloke standing beside Richard with his back to me dressed in a black top; I didn’t think anything of it. I didn’t look that closely you know how many tall, dark and handsome blokes stand in a bar ;) and it didn’t for one minute cross my mind that it was Darren. But of course it was. I’d seen Darren I just hadn’t recognised him. I wasn’t watching what was going on around Richard and it never entered my thoughts that Darren was with him. I’d just kind of assumed he would be off doing some work somewhere and they there waiting for his return. It never dawned on me they were all sat at a train station waiting for a train! Kelly however had recognised it was Darren. I’d spotted Boyd. In my defence Darren’s sooo much taller than I thought he would be and he’s thinner in real life and he REALLY did have the back of his head to me! It was seriously I split second I seen Richard, looked again at him to make sure I was not going mad and then told Kelly omg it’s Richard. It was that smile of Richards I recognised straight away, Richard has the most amazing smile I’ve ever seen. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him without a smile unless he was onstage on the big night in.


Darren was standing at the table with everyone (Richard, Boyd, Tracey and some other people) and I’d said I wasn’t going to interrupt their table to say hi. That would have been rude. A guy arrived at the table and I heard Darren say ‘do you want a drink?’ then to my amazement Darren started walking towards the bar and stood beside Kelly. He would have clocked us being the queue and stood at the end of it. What a gentleman.

When he came the bar beside us I knew I HAD TO go and say hi. If I didn’t I’d kick myself forever and I knew that. But I’m the most shy person. Normally I would think twice. There was never an option to not go and say hi when Darren came and stood beside Kelly. So I calmly walked around Kelly and tapped Darren on the elbow. I don’t know what was going though my head. I think it was just omg it’s Darren. Kelly tried to talk me out of going over to him but before she had a chance to stop me I was tapping his elbow. I’m so glad my manners didn’t fail me when my brain stopped working though.


I went over and tapped his elbow and said hi Darren. I think it crossed his mind if he was meant to know me or not because he looked a little confused and then said ‘oh hi’. Now would been a good time to say him I’m hayley and this is Kelly but I didn’t think to do that. Instead I said sorry and it was nice to meet him and he asked ‘did you see the show today?’. I looked down at the muddy mess I was and said yes. He said ‘aww im sorry’. it was so cute. I will never not ever forget the way he said it. It was purely amazing. It was soft spoken, and completely genuine. Just the accent too, I dunno what it was but I just loved the way he said it. I just said ‘its ok’ and it was nice to meet him and thank you and turned to walk away. Tracey came over and asked if we had tickets to the tour and I said yes. We were about to go over to the far table and as I turned to walk away but Darren started talking again so obviously he was happy with us talking to him. He wanted to say hi or he wouldn’t have re-engaged me in conversation as was leaving! I’ve never felt so special. He asked ‘where are you from?’ and I said Nottingham and Kelly said Newcastle. I think that might have confused him as he clearly had recognised my accent as not being the Nottingham one. I don’t know why I said Nottingham and not Northern Ireland. I think I was just trying to keep it simple as that was where I was heading back to. Darren asked if we’d been delayed too as his train was delayed until 8:45. We said no and Darren said ‘I was just saying earlier, I dunno if you heard, how great it was for you guys to stay around for the show’. I said thank you and nice to meet him and we went over to a far table. Darren was buying sol a drink when I was leaving and I sat at a far table with kelly shaking with nerves and coldness! Darren was sitting typing away like a demon on his laptop (we know now he was blogging on myspace!) Tracey checked his train; I noticed later it was now 21:00 on platform 9 when I went to check mine, poor Darren! We had to leave for my train – I hoped Darren didn’t miss his! I discovered later when I came home that he just run onto the train with this crew just as it was leaving. By this stage I was beyond starving as we hadn’t had time to grab some food before getting on the train and trains at that time of night don’t do food. Grr.


it rained ALL day at PITP, we were soaked through and covered in mud. Looking terrible wasn’t how I’d planned meeting him since 2002, and bare faced too! That makes me sound so vain but whenever I got anywhere nice or go to see Darren I wanna look nice. I’m glad I got half way cleaned up and had dried off a bit before we met Darren. I’m just cringing that when he asked if we'd seen the show, I looked down! Why oh why did I look down? Luckily I’d decided to take the plastic poncho off. Well actually I took it off to clean my shoes as it was getting in the way and couldn’t be bothered putting it back on. Thank god for laziness! However Darren did still see the state of me! My trousers were so muddy and wet and trailing the ground I couldn’t go anywhere trailing mud behind me so I rolled them up. Too bad Darren has to witness this highly unfashionable and mud soaked me!


Anyone who has yet to meet him, your day WILL come. Whenever people said that to me I believed it, I wished that it would be sooner rather than later. 5 years was a while though ;).  Maybe fate found me. My thanks for helping with the tour tix! *big grin* :D. I believe in karma and I helped a lot of people on the Friday, about 100 people thanked me and on Sunday I met him, fate has a way of catching you…. when you least expect it too! I remember being so gutted when Geo told me she’s seen Darren at the bar in Soho after one of the gigs but now it doesn’t matter so much as my experience was just that, meeting him in a pub. At the bar.


I should have told Darren I was proud of him. Miracle I managed words at all! I said thank you and sorry a lot. This was about 8:08 ish. At 9:15pm I was still a shaking mess on the train! I probably looked like a drug addict that needed their next fix lol. He looked gorgeous in his black jacket and jeans. I remember the jacket having a groovy logo. Don’t ask me what it said! Darren’s soo cute in the flesh! All I could see was a side burn in my face! He’s so tall. I should have told him it was me that was time machine’s biggest fan! Maybe he knows that was me already. Maybe he knows my name maybe not. I don’t mind. Kicking myself I didn’t say what dates of the tour I was going to! I cant believe phone died a death half way through pitp so I couldn’t even tell anyone. I phoned mum on Kelly’s phone but she wasn’t home. My heart was still skipping beats on the train! I should have told him I was a fan, I guess he figured that one out and loved this delicate thing.

Can’t believe I bounded up to him and spoke to him so normally when I had so many probelms before at Sheffield. (for those who don’t know I seen Darren at the gate outside Sheffield in 2006, him on one side me the other. he'd done the impossible and made me go mute! and I didn’t even manage to say hi). Looking back now at the encounter in thw white rose pub, I did say thanks and sorry a lot and Darren was asking the questions!! I’m really shy and although I didn’t look it I am seriously, I was dying inside. Darren says he’s shy but he certainly didn’t seem it. He was just so lovely, so soft spoken, just adorable and so tall and sooo cute. If he keeps it up I might even fancy him again!!! He’s beautiful, both inside and out but he's much more gorgeous when you’re standing beside him!! Its great to see so many DJs saying how adorable Darren is when you meet him....id have to agree ;)


Shame I didn’t have the nerve to ask for a photo, he was on down time in the pub though so didn’t want to bother him too much. And my camera is MEAN!! And my phone was dead. There will be a next time. After i got back home that night (i almost go stranded in Derby, i spoke too soon when i told Darren my train was all ok) i discovered Darren had left a message on myspace page. it said 'great to put a face to the name hails'. i've spoken to him since about that day and he said 'you looked like you had hypothermia when i met you, poor thing'

that night i just knew i had to go say hi or i'd kick myself. that not wanting to regret not doing it forced me to over rule the shyness and just go do it. i was fine when i was chatting to him but afterwards i sat shaking for 1hr 1/2. just overwhelmed. shocked. excited.

 

so that was the story of the first time i met him.  up until a year ago i had never uttered a word to Darren, now i've had the chance to meet him and a few times just say hi after that.

newcastle september 25th 2007 

The next time i got to see him was after newcastle on his tour in 2007. we waited away from everyone else aware he probably wouldnt want to be in the crush and as he walked past us said hi and waved. i sat there frozen. half with shock the other with being so damn cold! i kick myself i didnt manage a wave and say hi at least.

 

manchester 30th september 2007 

then came manchester the week after. that night we were told he would come out and say hi and do autographs. i waited my turn in the line, almost at the end of the line and i said hi and held out my pic from leeds i took of him onstage and he looked at me and said 'its hails right?' i just about managed 'yes' when i picked my jaw up off the floor. why would he remember ME? after Darren had left that night i just jumped up and down, i laughed myself to sleep. i laugh when im shy or nervous although i've never laughed in front of him. i remember saying im sooo not tired i could get out of bed and jump up and down and my mate said go on then and of course a few mins later i was asleep. like a kid who swears they arent tired and ends up dead to the world.

New year's eve 2007 / New years day 2008

my encounter on New year's eve this year we never planned on staying to see him. we went round so a friend could give another friend a card for him from her and we were waiting for the others to come down from the cloakroom and just decided then to say. Darren was adorable, again i just stood and watched on. he said 'i recognise some of you from myspace, hi hails' and without even managing many words i just looked at him and said 'hiya this is olly' and pointed to her stood beside me. bless olly is shy too and has stood back when Darren has been about so i literally stood on her heels so she couldnt run and introduced Darren to her. that was all i said that night to him. it took alot of guts for me to shout out from the group. i was stood at the back of said group too.

Darren walked past me the second Day in manchester in march this year when he briefly came out after the soundcheck. On his way past just said 'hi, you alright?' i just managed a 'yeah'. words again failed me. i was cold, my feet killed, i was knackered from the day before but yeah i was alright ;)

i wish i could chat away to him, the more i meet him the more i seem to have words fail me! lol

 

Then came the moment i'd been waiting for.

The Soho Hotel - DVD Screening - Friday 13th june 2008.

my chance to get to properly meet him, to say hi, to get a pic, it is of course my signature on here.

it was Thursday 12th june 2008. 8:30am, Darren's sister in australia rung my mum in ireland to tell her i'd won a ticket to an exclusive screening of his new concert dvd at the soho hotel in london. so i got up went to wor,k went to london, watched the dvd, meet him, got my pic, came home went to work again.. all in 24hrs!

As soon as the DVD was over Darren run down the stairs waved and left. Everyone was wondering where he was a queue and Darren had suddenly gone. It was such a surprise when we got outside of the screening room to discover Darren patiently spending time with anyone who wanted it. A pic, a signature, a hug… he freely gave his time and he just looked so happy. I waited until pretty much everyone has met him and as his PA Tracey called is there anyone else?

 I went over and Darren looked so excited to meet us all and as I said hi he threw his arms around me and said ‘hi you alright?’ I calmly said ‘I’m good thanks how are you?’ he said words to the effect of he was good too. For a second it was just like a friend saying hi and giving me a hug. i didn't really comprehend to after the fact that hug was his! He smelt sooo good and I wasn’t expecting a hug, I was kinda taken aback but in a good way. That hug just seemed to go on for ever but at the same time be far too short.

I gave him his card we had all signed. Well see that was where I went wrong. I felt the need to correct the fact not all has signed it, so as I got over excited and talked way too fast and tried to explain I’d passed it around and anyone who wanted to write in it did and some people didn’t want to…. I just stopped. I took a deep breath and put my hand on my chest. Darren looked at me; I think slightly concerned if was getting enough oxygen or else a bit scared of my ramblings on!

I asked if he would sign my pic and he said yes so then I had to find it in my bag and the pen. I couldn’t find the silver one so I had to give him the dodgy gold one, as he stood and wrote love D on my pic I smiled. The he wrote To Hails and drew a little cartoon of himself and a thought bubble with love hearts. I stood watching him but wasn’t really paying attention to what he was drawing. I’m touched at that little cartoon. Tracey came over and watched him draw it. I was still holding the photo wallet from boots and he asked if it was for him and I just embarrassed said no. Tracey remarked the girl on the front was hot. I went to put my piccie back in the wallet whilst trying to get the pen off him and the lid back on before it covered him! In my haste I managed to smudge my signature, grr! No worries the best is yet to come….

He then said ‘we need to get this picture’. I had COMPLETELY forgotten about the pic in the moment and that was the only thing I wanted when I went over! I’ve said to him before online that when I met him I don’t like asking for a pic because I think it might be bothering him. As I put my arm around Darren’s shoulder (like he had mine) and rested my head on his shoulder all that run through my head was smile naturally and how soft his shirt felt. It was that gorgeous fluffy material. Meanwhile all this time Ade was patiently waiting with my dodgy camera whilst dying for the loo. Sorry Ade! Love you! So Ade came over and took the piccie and then Darren said to him, 'make us laugh', Ade just said 'look at me' lol! I laughed nervously and the second pic is more us grinning than laughing! I thanked Darren and left him to it.






 so that is my massive story of Meeting Darren Hayes. if you survived or even cared enough to read it you deserve a medal.

xx 

OMGsh, wow!

Here's a list of the people I've met, Aside from the Feeling obviously.

Trisha Goddard
Letitia Dean (Sharon Rickman, EastEnders)
Perry Fenwick (Billy Mitchell, EastEnders)
Michelle Ryan (Zoe Slater, EastEnders)
Derek Martin (Charlie Slater, EastEnders)
James Alexandrou (Martin Fowler, EastEnders)
Natalie Cassidy (Sonia Fowler, EastEnders)
Pam St Clements (Pat Evans, EastEnders)
Kim Medcalf (Sam Mitchell, EastEnders)
Steve McFadden (Phil Mitchell, EastEnders)
Patricia Potter (Diane Lloyd, Holby City)
Ian Aspinall (Mubbs Hussein, Holby City)
Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Gina Yashere

And I saw The Queen when she came to open the middle school built next to my old Lower School and I've been in the same nightclub as Kate Lawler from Big Brother 3

Guess which one I'm most proud of...

On_the_wireless:

Guess which one I'm most proud of...

 

 erm pat evans?

only kidding!

i've stood beside Brain Dowling (BB2) at a Darren Hayes gig in soho in june 2007. i seen bill clinton and George bush drive past me in black out people carriers i say seen..... i saw their cars at least!

xx
 

Mine are mostly , well all! band members; some of which you might not know! Dan Gillespie, Richard Jones, Scouting For Girls, Fall Out Boy, Lead singer of Panic at the dsico (i cannot remember his name,, brandon somehting?), Motion City Soundtrak, OKGO, Drummer from Long Blondes, Sugarcult, Tom Yorke (RadioHead), SuperGrass, Reuben, James (Busted!), Cobra Starship, Matt Willis (Busted!), The Frattellis, I really can't think! Hoping to meet Steve Coogan in October though!!!!

Hails, that's amazing! I'm so chuffed for you that you got to meet Darren. He's always come across as one of the nicest people in the world, and your story proves it true! I, too, am incredibly shy and never really have the courage to go up to someone famous and chat to them like you did Darren. The first celebrity I met was Peter Davison, who was in Manchester straight after the Doctor Who Children In Need special last year. He's my favourite actor to play the Doctor, so I was incredibly nervous about the whole thing. It all took place at this event called Collectormania, which is a sort of sci-fi convention. It was  the first time I'd been to one, and I spent the majority of my time there wandering around and trying to get accustomed to it! There was a Doctor Who talk on in the morning, and after about 5 minutes everyone who'd gathered there was told that Peter was running a bit late. So we waited for a bit. But sure enough, not long after, he made his appearance. I really can't describe how I felt as he walked into the room. The main thing that was going through my head at the time was, "It's really him. Oh my God, it's really Peter Davison!" And he was just as lovely as I imagined he'd be. He was in very good spirits, and happily answered any questions the audience had. I, of course, had lost all ability to speak and think properly, so I avoided making my way up to the microphone. He had to leave in the middle of the talk, though, as he had to make his way to the autograph area. The rest of the talk continued with the actresses who played the old companions Jo Grant and Nyssa, as well as the girl who played the statues in 'Blink'. Afterwards, I went and joined the queue for the autographs. This being a sci-fi convention, the majority of the people in the queue had either brought Doctor Who dvds or were taking the free glossy Doctor Who photographs that the convention had provided. I decided to bring my dvd of The Last Detective instead, as it was at the time the only thing I owned with Davison in it. I don't know what it was, but as soon as I came within about 10 feet of him, my brain just went dead and all attempts at coherent speech evaporated on the spot. When I got to the front, I gave him the dvd, at the sight of which he paused for a moment and looked quite shocked. I started to panic slightly, but it disappeared when he started grinning and said, "What a fantastic series!" I laughed with relief! He signed it and gave it back to me, and I courageously mustered a, "Thank you!" before I left. Later on I went to the photo shoot (as I didn't trust my camera at all. Well, that, and taking photographs was supposedly prohibited), where it was all very synchronised and the participants had, at most, a second or two with the celebrity. James Marsters had just done his (he walked past me on his way out), and so we started queuing up for Peter. Again, speech failed me as soon as I saw him, and I grew steadily more nervous the closer to the front of the queue I got. As soon as it was my turn, though, he was lovely. He put his arm around me and said, "I'm sorry it's all such a rush, but I have to catch a plane straight after this!" I gave what I hope came across as a sympathetic laugh, beacuse I just couldn't get my brain into gear to talk at all. The photographer took one picture (which is normally all you get), but something happened and he had to take it again. I wasn't exactly complaining! After the second one was taken, I wanted to say, "Thank you," but I just couldn't get it to come out of my mouth, so I walked off in ecstatic silence!

I think that's the worst I've ever been around a famous person, and I would love the opportunity to meet him again and talk to him properly. But it still remains one of my highlights of 2007! More recently I met Daniel Lanois, who's a producer and singer (he's worked with Bob Dylan and U2, the latter being why I met him in the first place) earlier on this month. I was down in Dublin and thought I'd take a trip out to Hanover Quay to see if U2 were going to be there, and I ran into him early on in the morning. In the afternoon, I was joined by a couple of fans from all over the world (Germany, Denmark, Italy and America), and we all chatted while we waited for the band to make an appearance. Sure enough, shortly after two o'clock, Larry Mullen turned up in a Mercedes and drove into the garages beside the studio. The same happened with The Edge about half an hour later (I did manage to give him a wave, though. He waved back!) and Bono, late as usual, turned up just before five o'clock. At that point, I had to leave. Knowing that Adam wouldn't be turning up until tea-time (and that the band wouldn't come out again until about 11 o'clock at the earliest), I went back to the hotel, content in knowing that I'd seen them. Thankfully, I seemed quite calm as well, so when I do eventually meet them I may be in a better state to talk than I was with Peter Davison! Speaking of Dublin, I also passed Noel Edmunds in the St Steven's Green shopping centre a year ago. I've also met the members of Ghosts, who are lovely. Always great for a chat! And that's it, I think!

      

Wow these are great stories, I am also rather shy but when the chance to get a photo of a certain soap star arrived I virtually jumped on him.

In September 2007 me, my husband to be, our son and a load of friends and family went to Looe in Cornwall for our wedding. We got married in a Cavern and had a wonderful day. The day after most of the wedding party left, leaving me, my new hubby (Paul), our son (Tom) and Paul's Aunty Maureen (who had come all the way from Australia to Derbyshire and then to Cornwall just for our wedding) to enjoy another week in Cornwall.

Anyway my story beings on our last day in Looe, Paul was booked into the local Tattooist to have his latest tattoo finish, we'd both had tattoo's here previously and knew all the guys in the shop. When we got there they were chatting about how Martine McCutcheon and Johnny Briggs had been out in one of the local pubs the night before and that the production team had been asking locals to come and be extras on the last day of shooting. I had heard that a new soap was being filmed in Cornwall but didn't know it was being shoot in Looe.

Me, Tom and Aunty Maureen left Paul in the tattooist knowing he was going to be at least a couple of hours and went for a walk round Looe. As we walked towards the Quay there were a lot of people standing around so naturally we went to see what was going on. They were shooting a scene where Ed Speleers was running along the quay, unfortunately I got in the way and Ed almost fell over Tom's buggy. So we quietly made our escape before anyone told us to leave. We walked round the corner to see another member of the cast being interviewed.

We went back to the tattooist and told them we'd seen Jason Donovan and one of the guys got really excited about it, which was quite funny. As Paul wasn't finished yet we went for another walk round. I decided that I wanted to go and look at the Radley handbags in this little leather shop, while there the owner came rushing in with Jason following her as he needed the toilet. When he came out I pounced on him and asked if he'd have a photo with a lovely lady from Australia (Aunty Maureen) he said yes although you could tell he was in a hurry. I took the photo and said thanks and he smile and dashed out of the shop.

We went back to the tattooist and Paul was finished, showed the guys in the shop my photos which they loved, it's quite funny that a load of supposedly butch tattooist got really excited over Jason Donovan. It still makes me smile when I see the above photo to think that Aunty Maureen came all the way to England to have her photo taken with another Australian. PS - hope the photo's aren't to big, I've been trying to resize them in photobucket but it's the first time I've do it. x

 lovin the piccie of jason and your auntie Diana!

 Trillian you sound just a tad like me! words fail me, im lucky if my manners dont when a popstar is around!

xx
 

Thanks, it was like the icing on the cake, get married in a gorgeous place and meet a soap star. x

Some brilliant posts in this thread! I havent met many famous people but I can include Prince Andrew, Lord Mountbatten of Burma, Edward Woodward, Chris Balderstone, Peter Wilson(Duke Special), Adrian Love and Ron Hill. I have also been to a garden party at the Queens place in London

Wow fantastic!!!!

Cat Deeley, Jeremy Clarkson, Quentin Wilson (ex top gear), Peter Kay. Thats it really.

Not a substantial list as some of yours......

bigbird75:

Peter Kay

I would LOVE to meet him! His live DVDs are brilliant!

Only ones on my list are The Feeling, and I know I've been very lucky to have met them as many times as I have 

As far as I'm aware, I've never met anyone even vaguely famous.    You're all lucky!

Erm Glasto "Spots" or meets. Danny Dyer's mate helped me out of the mud on Friday. A couple of my mates met Joe Lean (from the Jing Jang Jong) on Saturday. We met Sam from Get Cape. on Sunday and Tord from the Wombats(and later high-fived all of them from the tiniest stage ever) who's a right charmer and one of the funniest drunks ever. 

hmmm... no1 ... I gotta have met someone famous... met 3 welsh rugby players at disneyland when I was 10 or sommin

 

Really wanna meet Kelly Jones (stereophonics)

I've met a grand total of one famous person........Nick Knowles (the bloke off of DIY SOS)........that might be the least inpressive one on here..........