Did I tell you I met James from Starsailors mom?! By Caroline

Ah yes, well this surely has to have been my highlight of 2001. Unfortunately I didn't bother taking a photo to prove it ("Err, can I take a photo of you please?" "No, you psycho!"), but it really did happen. I know, I know, it's almost too good to be true, but you'll just have to believe me. In fact we're basically like family now, cos his sister was there too. And loads of the bass players friends too (woo hoo!). 

Experience what the, err, experience may have been like through this cunning computer simulation.

(This is just James' head with make-up crudely drawn on to make him look like a woman)

Where it happened...

V2001, Weston Park. I was supposedly covering the festival for Kic FM, which basically meant I got in free and didn't have to do much work.

How it happened...

Well, I went with one of the station's employees. We were waiting at the guest entrance and he buggered off somewhere, so being the naturally sociable person I am (!) I started talking to the other people waiting at the entrance.

Err, so that's it basically. I started talking to this friendly Scottish woman. I eventually got round to asking her why she was there.

"I'm here for one of the bands."

Just one band? Hmm, so either she's a crazy, obsessed, middle-aged pop fan, or she works in PR?!

"You might not have heard of them, they're called Starsailor?"

Well of course I've heard of them, but they're crap. I'll just tell her I've heard of them.

"I'm the singer's mother."

Oh thank God I didn't tell her how crap I think they are.

Now you can hardly be star-struck just from meeting somebody's mom, but I couldn't get over how nice she was. She was just completely lovely. His sister was really friendly too. Same name as me funnily enough, but a year older than me. Was going to either Harrow or Harlow to study journalism, probably Harlow, but I didn't hear probably. Hey, didn't Steve Lamacq do journalism at Harlow?

Later on...

There's a lesson to be learnt here. DO NOT SPLIT UP FROM YOUR FRIENDS AT A FESTIVAL, BECAUSE YOU WILL NEVER FIND THEM AGAIN. After walking around for literally an hour, with my friend Jenny on the other end of a mobile phone, in vein trying to give me directions to their car, I decided to cut my losses and see a band. It was either Toploader or Starsailor I think. I hated Starsailor. But y'know, it was either Starsailor or Toploader.

So I ended up watching Starsailor, on my own, like a sad lonely bastard.  But standing there as part of a crowd, with the rain pissing it down, muddy field, no coat... like a metaphorical ray of light breaking through the clouds (yeah, I think that's enough) Starsailor suddenly began to make sense.

Even later on, nearly finished my story now, well done for getting this far...

Good job I bothered seeing Starsailor, cos backstage (daahling) his mom came up to me and asked if I'd seen them. With conviction I was able to say that I had, and that they were brilliant.

One last thing...

As a newly converted Starsailor fan I went to see them at One Live in Birmingham (hosted by Steve Lamacq!). James Walsh said hello to his mom who was there in the audience, and I thought to myself "Whooo, I've met her." So proud.