Strangers On A Train:Meeting a 60's Legend (at least to me!)

Just goes to show you never know who's sitting opposite you on public transport! On a recent train journey from Peterborough to London, I had an interesting experience. Firstly, feeding your baby means you're automatically more likely to have people start talking to you..."ah! isn't he cute" etc...secondly, as I was to find out these folks didn't live in the UK and believe it or not in other contries people actually talk to one another...thirdly, we're talking outside of London, where it has been known for people to talk to strangers, not like on the tube, where people get worried that you're a weirdo. Anyway, one stop into our journey and this family get on, now we were kinda spread out, coz when we got on the train was fairly empty and we had the pushchair and all the baby stuff with us. So we were taking up 2 of those table spaces, one on either side of the aisle with 2 seats on either side of each table, so we figured we'd better compact a little and let some folks sit down. This middle aged couple, whose kids have sat down at the back of the carriage, in the seats behind us, are like "do you mind if we sit here", so I say sure no problem. I've just started feeding my 9 month old son, Taylor, who is incredibly cute, according to objective opinion, not just ours! The guy's saying like isn't he cute, how old is he, is he your first, etc. So we chat about fatherhood and all that jazz for a bit and I'm thinking this guy looks like he's got that edge, like artist/poet/musician, hard partyer, or ex-hard partying type, on the boho tip. His missus looks like she was probably a right cracker back in the day but they've both been living the life, so I start telling them that I'm taking him to his 1st festival (Lovebox) the next day and he's asking whose playing etc and I think, I knew it, they're like music heads and whatever. We chat about festivals, they mention a couple that they're going to (not realising he means to play at!!) and when we get onto Glastonbury, he's telling me they were their in 2005 and he was at the 1st one in '71. Now the coin still hasn't dropped, despite the fact that the wife is American, former glamourpuss stylee, I figure they're some eccentric old school festival going types. Eventually in telling a story about the mud in 2005, he tells me he was struggling to get to the Avalon Stage to play a set, so I'm like, "oh you play, in a band what are they called", thinking Avalon Stage, the age he is, could well be some 60's/70's hippy outfit I'm familiar with but probably not. He says "I'm Terry Reid", I say "No way, yeah I know you, I've got 2 of your records, River and The Most of Terry Reid, at home!" I think he was quite chuffed that I knew him, I guess most folks of my age wouldn't have a clue. I'd heard his wife call him Terry but he looked pretty different, 30 odd years on from the last picture i'd seen of him, so i never would've guessed. I was in my element chatting to him for the rest of the journey, hearing abour recording with David Lindley and Willie Bobo and remembering the story where many, who haven't actually heard him, are familiar with his name from, I ask him, "If I remember rightly weren't you Jimmy Page's 1st choice to front Led Zeppelin?", he says yeah and he couldn't do it at the time but told Jimmy, "I've just been working with these 2 guys in The Band of Joy, Robert and John, you should check 'em out", the rest as they say is history!!...bet he must be a bit gutted really, he tells me he saw Jimmy last time he was over, he came to a gig he was playing at Ronnie Scotts. Lovely bloke and I promise to see him again at one of his future gigs, next time he's in the country and hopefully I can bring the boy and he can meet him when he's a bit older.