Some name dropping:
Sometime in the hot summer of 1976, I was having a meal with Joe Strummer (we were friends; I had been the booking agent for the 101ers) in a long gone restaurant, Asterix, at the less glamorous end of the Kings Road in Chelsea. We were conspiring about something or other when Joe spotted Joan Armatrading, dining alone, a few tables away.
I was rather shy , but Joe decided to bowl over and tell Joan how much he loved her music. We listened to Capital Radio a lot that summer, and Joan's music was played very often.
Joan was kind, and grateful, even though we interrupted her lunch. I have never forgotten how she was happy to spend some time talking with two rather odd looking blokes that she didn't know, and who just loomed up to her table...