Did you ever sit outside the house of a pop star back in the day?

[StanfordPines]

A very famous pop star in the 80s grew up near where I now live.
Some people who lived here at the time talked about how there used to be groups of girls sitting outside his parents house.
I remember this being a thing for lots of bands back in the 80s.

Did you do it?
How did the address get found out and circulated?

No. I remember a girl at school somehow got a boyband member's phone number though. Or claimed to. I memorized it, but was too scared to ever call it! Probably wasn't even his, thinking about it now.

I used to live in Bath and Nicolas Cage used to live there too. He used to sit by his window and wave out at people. He seemed to quite like being on view. Don't think people set up camp though.

You should read the book Freak like me, confessions of a 90s pop groupie. It's brilliant lockdown escapism. Very funny, poignant and honest. Lots of waiting outside houses/in airports and studios

Simon Le Bon's parents' house.
I looked the address up in the phone book in my local library (they held all the national phone directories). His parents must have forgotten to go ex-directory!

@Omeara

I used to go to Matt Goss’ flat in Maida Vale!

But how did you find out the address?

Lots of people at Simon Le Bon’s house!

@MenopausalMrs

I sat outside Five Stars house a few times 😂 They lived a few miles away from me during their heyday... Pretty sure that's not very rock and roll!!

My friend and I went to Five Star's house when they lived in Romford, Essex. Plucked up the courage to knock on the door. Their mum said they weren't in but we did get a photocopied sheet with their autograph.

A-ha all had houses in London in the 80's. I spent a lot of my time there, another fan told me their addresses.

But how did you find out the address?

Another fan gave it to me when we were waiting for them at an airport! I think they loved masses of fans turning up everywhere as they used to say what days they were flying out in interviews. I spent many an hour with several hundred others at Heathrow or outside radio stations!

Might've knocked about in Peckham in '88.....

Commercial Road?

Another one here for Simon Le Bon, although only to keep my obsessed friend company 😂

No, but I once got very lost driving around Cornwall with an obsessive friend looking for Tori Amos’ house.

I used to go to Matt Goss’s flat in Maida Vale too, and alternating to Craig’s house in Kilburn. The thrill of them coming out and saying hello!

My foreign exchange girl wanted desperately to go to Pinner. We lived nowhere near Pinner. And I hated Duran Duran.

I didn't but then I was obsessed with Queen's drummer, Roger Taylor. This was early 90s, I was 14 and all my friends were into E17 and Take That. I remember thinking I'd die if I never met him, that my love for him was genuine and very real.

Thanks to the wonders of Instagram and Wikipedia I now see he's married to a woman who's a similar age to me. I feel robbed.

I did drive DD to the bakery in Holmes Chappel where Harry Styles once worked. It was a Sunday and closed, she was too embarrassed to have her pic taken in front of it so my dad got out and did a really cheesy thumbs up, big grin to the camera 😂 DD was mortified 😂

@Omeara
Those Peckham girls were a bit fierce....!

Maida Vale was Clive court wasn't it?

No, but I would have done if I'd known where they lived! It sounds terrible now. I did have Howard Jones's phone number and phoned it a couple times but it went straight to answer machine. Hardly surprising! If he'd answered I probably would have hung straight up.

5 Star, I lost loads of my life to those fuckers!

But then after that my proudest moment is doing something for Ben from Curiosity Killed The Cat.....

I looked after his dog!

Bros (Luke I think) lived close to my friends house which was right around the corner from a catholic girls high school (and they were our schools arch enemies, anyone from Merton they will know the school)

Anyway we went to meet another friend who was hanging around the Bros flat she wasn’t there but who should walk out not just Luke but Matt and the other one. I can remember thinking Matt had the most incredible eyes (I was too shy to talk) my friend being quite forward tried to snog Matt

Of course this story became embellished and word soon got around we were invited into the flat

What a great question!

No, never.

But my grandmother used to proudly tell 2 stories:
Story one, that her son (my dad) was so goodlooking [he was. I don't take after him] that girls used to come and sit on the wall opposite their house in the hope of a glimpse of him
Story two, that a Rolling Stone lived opposite them.

Both stories true. Wasn't until I read the KS biography years later (and after she'd died) that Keith Richards didn't live there until long after my dad grew up and moved out.

I'd spent YEARS thinking girls had sat on Keith Richards's wall, with their back to him hoping to glimpse a look at my dad!

(sorry, not KS, KR!)

@MenopausalMrs me too! We must have grown up in the same area!

Does this still happen or are people happy following their idol on Instagram?

An extremely famous current pop star started up playing where I live and still lives locally.
One day I was sat in a cafe and noticed hoards of people coming past. Turned out that famous pop star had turned up at the near by music venue/ pub and done an impromptu gig. Word had got out and loads of people started heading there.