To think I was targeted as a child at a tv show

[mademewonder]

This has only dawned on me as a possibility last night around 30 years or so down the line. I don't know if I'm BU to think it was anything but innocent or if others might've had similar experiences.

Background:

As a child (11/12 years old) I went with 2 friends and one of their parents to watch a live filming of a very popular prime time show. There were gaps in filming and we were allowed by friends parents to go for a wander round the arena and I suppose, buy souvenirs and drinks etc in the breaks.

Me and my two friends were approached inside the arena concourse by two men and they asked if we were there just the three of us. My friend lied and said yes we were (pretending to be all grown up).

At this point he gave us 3 backstage passes to meet the stars of the show and said to give a message to one of them. He claimed he was the flatmate of this man and to pass a message on that he couldn't make it.

After the show we went to the backstage area and a bit of a row ensued because friends mum and young sibling were with us. Friends mum demanded to be let in with us and she was.

I can't help wondering if something more sinister was going on though. The man we took the message to seemed quite irritated in general and what are the chances that we actually did bump into a "flatmate" inside the arena dishing out backstage passes? Surely he'd just give him a message himself?

Does this sound dodgy?

maybe it was that article, it's a grim read!

I remember in the 80's a roadshow for a Saturday morning kids TV show came to our local city. One of my Sisters friends (M) wanted to go and asked me to go with her for company. She would have been about 15 and me 12.
At the end of the set, one of the band members was talking to the crowd in front of the stage, he came to us and told (M) that he'd been watching her all day and he thought she was beautiful.

As he would have been nearly 40 at the time it was fairly inappropriate.

I've just googled it and found a video of the performance on youtube, it was 1986. So he would have been 38 and her 15. Eew.

I feel so naive! I'll never look at the band "scouting for girls" quite the same!

To be fair their name is a play on words of the book Scouting For Boys (scouts handbook). Nothing to do with procuring under age females.

@biglouis you dropped maths at 14 years old?

I remember reading select or q magazine which had a feature about manic street preacher groupies. The band seemed so proud of having them. Bloody awful really. Will have to see if i can find it.

Yeah, I was a fan back in the day.

There were some unpleasant rumours around. I should say more unpleasant than the 'consensual' sex with with 13 year olds that many fans seem happy to accept as not exactly okay, but not really that bad.

It's strange when you get a flash of hindsight isn't it?
Although I was 21 I was doing a short work placement at a regional tv station and one of the presenters was hovering nearby chatting with the producer, giving me a nice friendly smile...
When he'd gone she whispered to me to watch him as he was a "bit of a ladies man."
Yeah, and has now done time...

Just looked him up and noticed he was convicted of an assault which took place a year after I met him.
It's really obvious that many perpetrators were known for what they were by people around then but no one did anything.

Yeah. Same old story keeps getting repeated.

@GrolliffetheDragon what do you mean?

@Honkingallthewaytothebank Sorry, didn't make it clear I was responding to this:

It's really obvious that many perpetrators were known for what they were by people around then but no one did anything.

OP I am sorry to read your story. I was groomed aged 10, a bit longer term, and realised it was well wrong so told an adult (and was not believed; not relevant here, but FFS). The point is though that although nothing ultimately happened, it is an incredibly distasteful and slightly disturbing memory to have. I found when the JS stuff started formally coming out, that it had affected me a lot more than I'd thought. And that's with no actual abuse.