went to school with Nik Kershaw - do I win a badge?

I once asked him for an amusing anecdote about said pop star, he (my Dad, not Nik Kershaw) thought for a minute and said... "We used to call him Kershaw." Cheers, Dad...

... was the mother of Jon Fratelli of landfill indie band The Fratellis.

She was quite nice and good at art. Never met her son.

...but Mr G went to school (Godalming) with Ben Elton and my dad was at school with Roger Moore (Battersea).

Alisdhair Willis, husband of Stella and son-in-law of thumbs-aloft, mop-topped, suspiciously auburn-haired bass-player of that little known Liverpool beat-combo The Beatles.

Ali was a nice enough guy but he was a bit of a poser, as some teenage lads are wont to be.

oh and the arctic Monkeys and Jenny Murray from womans hour

With the drummer out of Imagination's younger brother, plus the older brother of a fellow who ended up playing guitar with the Tygers of Pan Tang.

No good? New Zealand readers will surely be impressed that I attended school with Michael Galvin, best known for his role as Doctor Chris Warner on the nationally famous soap opera Shortland Street.

Still no good? I was in the year below The Word's own Andrew Collins at middle school in Northampton.

No? I went to college with Jason Wing, part of the UK Olympic Bobsleigh team at the Lillehammer Games in 1994.

No?

Thomas Adès, the composer, conductor and pianist. He was ludicrously talented.

but it bears repeating. I was at the same school as the inestimable Mr H of this parish, though I suspect he was leaving as I was starting. I was there between 63 - 73; from 66 in the senior school, when DH was in the 6th form? I don't think he would acknowledge me in the street, though.

Ronnie Scott, the Kemp brothers from Spandau Ballet, Zammo from Grange Hill, Danny from Hearsay and Trevor Nelson the DJ.

And me obviously.

...a chequered batch of university chums:

Jack McConnell, former First Minister of Scotland
The current President of BAFTA LA
A woman now in charge of Star Wars marketing globally
Several quite large scale purveyors of exotic substances
That Stuart Hepburn who was in Taggart a bit

And some years after I left, multiple murderer Charles Ng went to the same school. My dad taught him...

No?

I'll get my coat.

Although that Philip Glenister was my wife's assistant for a bit...

doesn't even have a Wikipedia page -> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brakenhale_School

with a lad caled Persil Brown. He never became famous, but it's a great name. Sadly, it was actually spelt Purcell, but never let the facts get in the way of a good soap powder joke.

I was at school with Chaz Jankel (Blockhead). True.

I was at school with Ed Balls. We had a classmate called Richard Small (no word of a lie - his parents must have hated him). The teacher in one lesson thought it was great to refer to us as Small, Balls and Ellcock. He'd probably get sacked for that now.

I was taught by Rhys' dad at Primary School. I remember him coming in one day. He was pretty tall back then, too.
My Gran used to know Glenda Jackson's mum in Birkenhead. Never liked her, apparently.
I used to know the drummer from Starsailor?

Alan McGee, El Presidente of Creation Records was the year ahead of me at primary school, and my younger brother's best friend was Robert Young - later "Throbert", then "Dungo". Bobby Gillespie arrived later - I had moved schools by that point, and was then at school with future TV presenters Carol Smillie and John Nicolson.

The drummer from my first band (Max Headroom & The Car Parks, 1978, still at school) is now a QC. As there is a major reunion later in the year, I will find out if there is anyone else who has become famous.

...Duke Special, aka Pete Wilson - all round good egg, then and now - who was three years below me, and TV current affairs personality Mark Simpson, who was in my year and Head Boy no less. Also a good fellow. (We both went on to do History at university with, I'm afraid to say, Ian Paisley jnr. I shudder at the memory.)

A few years after we left school a crazy man with a home made flame-thrower burst in and wreaked havoc during an exam. Turned out he'd been a former pupil (a few years above me - never knew the guy) who was harbouring grudges about the kind of careers advice he got at the place. It's no laughling matter - kids were injured and traumatised, it made the national news - and I don't make light of it or excuse his actions (he subsequently died in prison) but frankly, he was right on the money about the careers advice: even in my day it was crap... especially the day we got a careers lecture from some character called Major Twig (from Special Branch, we assumed). You couldn't make it up...

Zak Starkey joined my school for O levels - he didn't say a great deal and when we'd all go for drink in the pub opposite he'd put the Stones on the jukebox, leaving people muttering 'gosh but he's probably HAD CONVERSATIONS with Mick Jagger'. It also took a while for our Maths teacher to self censor his whistling of Fab's tunes in the corridor.

was at Fettes with Tony Blair. Says he was a bit of a wanker even then.

* Seasoned broadcaster and Nationwide presenter John Stapleton
* Andy Kershaw, for it is he.
* Dame Shirley Bassey's bongo player.
* Sid the headmaster, who roomed at Balliol with Denis Healey.

but my Dad shared the school drama prize with Joan Plowright. He says he was much better than her and should have won it outright.

Was at school with me but I don't know his user name. So, before he posts these:

Albert Lee - blues guitarist - now with Bill Wyman's All Stars, he'd left long before I got there. As had Steve Rider.

Bob Beckenham - as Bobby Valentino he played the violin for Fabulous Poodles, the Bluebells and Hank Wangford. I remember him playing mandolin in assembly once.

Arthur Smith - comedian mentioned in Mr Hepworth's moan about Radio 4 panel games. Then known as Brian, he was my patrol leader in the school Scouts. He used to write sketches for the school revue and I also remember he wrote a play for the inter-house drama competition about an ageing footballer. His next play with a football theme "Evening with Gary Lineker" ran in the West End for quite a long time.

from the much maligned Bluetones....

That's your lot. Early 80's Heston wasn't a hotbed of musical and sporting talent.

I once worked with a guy who told me that he once played Joseph in his school nativity. He went to a boys school, so the female parts had to be cast by doing a joint production with the local girls' convent school. His Mary was a cherubic poppet called Marianne Faithfull.

I went to a fee-paying private school and I can honestly say that NO-ONE became anything especially interesting (self-damning, I know). Plenty of accountants, the odd banker and a few businessmen-done-good, but no sportsmen, musicians, actors, politicians, TV stars etc

... of The Blow Monkeys was a few years above me in grammar school in Norfolk. Robert Howard (for it is he) joined part-way through when his family emigrated back from Australia, and he was best known for defacing desks with his nickname ("Bubs") and always playing T. Rex on the 6th form common room stereo...

Nick Lowe and Brinsley Schwarz went to my school, though as I'm a mere youth of 51 they'd left before I got there.

"Loveable" Nick Griffin of the BNP was in the year below me. He was an odious little shit then, and the passing years don't appear to have helped.

My mum taught Roger Eno in primary school, and my friend Emma's late father taught Brian E at art college in Ipswich.

I used to see John Peel shopping with his wife in Ipswich from time to time in the early to mid 80s.

Bottom of barrel now comprehensively scraped....

I went to school with Big Cook Ben, who appeared in the CBeebies 'classic' Big Cook Little Cook. This will be familiar to anyone with kids of about 3-6.

the current Mrs b went to school with Corrine Drewery (of Swing Out Sister fame) and Timmy Mallett (of annoying little twat fame). Don't think it was at the same time. And she babysat for both Sting and Suggs (definitely separately) when at Uni.

Mine is far more prosaic. I went to school with Norman Hughes, who won Olympic gold playing hockey in 1984.

Can't think of anyone else famous.......although we were taught English by the legendary Dave Kent.

I once wore Ian Holm's trouser's...erm am I on the right thread?

Mayall was about 3 years below me and hence an irritating oik.

Emily Blunt, years after me, sadly.

And someone who was in Aqualung.

I used to sit in the same Medieval history tutorial with Tom from the Chemical Brothers. And I get irritated every time it's mentioned in an interview with them as if an interest in Medieval History was odd, so imagine how they feel. Had I not had to miss a year due to ill-health, I'd have spent a lot of time with the pair of them discussing the Wars of the Roses.

Indeed, in the same house (this tells you that it was a boarding school):

British arthouse acting mainstay Jason Flemyng (he was in Lock Stock...)
BBC foreign correspondent James Coomarasamy - thoroughly good egg

Not in my house but in school at the same time:

Leftie firebrand Mark Thomas (a right tosser, he made me crawl through cowshit once)

Evening Standard sartorial commentator Nick Foulkes

Ubiquitous classical music proselytiser Charles Hazelwood

Nobody famous ever came from Hull (apart from Maureen Lipman), so that blows any chance for me. The best I can do is the school having (nearly) the same name as a character in a SF sit com - David Lister.
I did bump into Carol Smillie once - literally. I had no idea who she was, though she clearly expected me to. I recognised the Dulux dog she was with though.

Zowie Bowie about thirty years ago...he called himself Joe then, as you would.
It was after he disappeared from our social circle to decamp down South that we discovered who he was. Very quiet, very nice lad.... not into bragging about his Old Man obviously.

...is the only one I can recall from my first school, and considering it is over 450 years old, it doesn't seem to have spawned a particularly glittering alumni. (Actually, one of the guitarists from The Blue Aeroplanes

My second one seems to have been a sporting hotbed, starting with Sir Roger Bannister, and finishing, just under four minutes later, with Jeremy Guscott, Jason Gardener and two football managers I've never heard of. It also formed the tender years of Curt Smith (Tears for Fears) and Egg from This Life. Best of all, Arnold Ridley (Playwright and member of Dad's Army so ancient looking that he appeared to be deceased even when acting) also went there.

All of this, I have just learned from Wikipedia.

Richard Hammond was in the year below me. My sister even went out with his brother for a while.

Seemed to be able to interest the ladies, even tho' he was in the 4th form and they were only entered in the 6th form, if you forgive the phrase.
Bastard.

My brother (4 years younger) was in the same year as Kojo Annan, son of Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the UN. I remember him as a massive 14-year-old who was the rugby team's secret weapon...

At university (Exeter) I was in the same Hall of Residence as Thom Yorke (then the singer and writer for 'On a Friday'), a decent beat combo featuring a pair of saxophone players. They played at a friend's birthday party (under a makehift marquee in the garden) before splitting and reforming as Radiohead.
'DJ Thom' was also the mixer-in-residence at The Lemon Grove, the slightly seedy oncampus nightclub where I later met my wife!

But he was long gone when I started. Olympic rowers Greg and Johnny Searle who were younger and Paul Casey who was much younger.

Ian Curtis was in the year above me at school in Macclesfield and Stevie Morris in the year below (until he was expelled for sniffing illicit substances I think). I remember writing out a school library ticket for "Curtis I" as a lunchtime library volunteer. The film "Control" got it wrong showing him in a school blazer as we didn't have those in 1973 - we could wear ordinary jackets and a school tie.

I also came across a really supercilious mate of a mate while at university who used to sit around in shades, combat jackets and leather gloves - called Andy Taylor. He left after one year and transferred to Leeds where he formed some Goth band and changed his name to Eldritch... (think he was worried about being mistaken for a member of Duran Duran).

I was at school with Dave Mattacks, he of Fairport Convention etc, and Bob Clouter (great name!) of Mickey Jupp's Legend. Then at university (and, indeed in a band) with Guy Evans of Van der Graaf Generator. Viv Stanshall was also at my school, though sadly before I arrived. My father (who was a master there) remembered him driving a stake into the First Eleven cricket pitch (some jolly vampire-style jape, perhaps, or just an attempt to get out of games), and being a pain in the arse on a school trip to Tuscany.

Was that place a feeder for Eton?

My school's cricket team once went as far as Oxford. On the cricket subject, the school most famous name was Douglas Jardine (a tad before my time) who was adept at giving the Aussies a bashing (literally). We may need that sort of tactic this summer.

Chris Bauer (you Wire fans may know him better as Frank Sobotka) used to date a roommate years ago -- a relationship for which a hole punched in the living room wall served as the point finale.

Oh, and Kimberly Rew once borrowed my pen.

It's quite good, actually, but what IS his accent all about?

My best mate's Dad did his National Service with Jim Dale from the Carry On films.

Apparently "He thought he was bloody funny and never stopped arsing about".

Who'd have guessed?

My Dad apparently dated the lovely Joan Sims a few times, back in the early Fifties. Complete this amusing couplet to win a prize: "She was only the railwayman's daughter/But she got about more than she oughta/ ...."

Another even more tenuous family connection is that another elderly family member taught at Southend High Sch (for it was there) for some years and towards the end of his tenure, one of his least favourite pupils was none other than "that Stanshall boy", yes it's Viv again, who was nothing but trouble. He was then expelled for fighting, or something.

.. The Feelgoods?

Lee Collinson (Brilleaux)
John Wilkinson (Wilko)
John Sparkes
John Martin (The Big Figure)

Wilko was the only person I have ever known to use the word Uxorious on his website, so if your relative was an english teacher, they did a good job.

Okay, okay, I've seen Jason Orange from Take That on the toilet..

borrowed my Green Final (Aberdeen Saturday night sports thingy).
AND he gave it back, before going of to see Wet Wet Wet at The Exibition Centre with Alex McLeish. His (ex) wife was a bit of all right tho'.

Of Iron Maiden was in the year above me at school - a big Ritchie Blackmore fan if I recall - looks just the same now as he did at 16

I went to school with a boy who lived in a garden shed with his family and brought roadkill into school. He turned up one day with a large cardboard box containing a dead fox! Brilliant! He thought the science teachers would be impressed. They weren't but we were! It was Norfolk! Does he count?

Kevin Ball (former Portsmouth and Sunderland player)
John Metcalfe (recording artist that has appeared on a WORD cover CD)
John Digweed (superstar DJ)
...and my son was at the school at the same time as Gareth Barry (now Aston Villa's captain) although by then the school had changed its name to William Parker

My mum was at Bromley Technical College doing a secretarial course in the early 60s. Apparently David Bowie was there at the same time (he's a year younger than her) but evidently (and not unexpectedly) made no impact on her whatsoever. And I like to think of my Nana passing Siouxsie et al with a pursed lip and a shake of the head when shopping 'up the top' in the mid 70s but suspect Ms Ballion lived in one of the posher bits of Bromley so that probably never happened...

I went to school with Norwegian jazz keyboardist Ståle Storløkken probably best known for his work with Supersilent.

knew him at school, not a friend - but got to know him for a few years later on - good taste in music.
Chris Pond - Labour MP was in the year below me.

Keith Levine (Clash PiL) was in my sister's year - I remember him in the mid 70s', paint-spattered (just before Punk was on the horizon) trying to sell me a wah-wah pedal in the Cherry Tree pub in Southgate.

My wife's best friend at school married Rex Brough (BBC Radio/Record Producer and Ex-Harvey and The Wallbanger) - obscure or what?

A friend and fellow rocker at work went to school with Adrian Chiles (a good bloke by all accounts).

I forgot - used to run and train with Peter Brugnani - then a good 400m runner - later a member of the GB 4-man Bob sled team, later played American Football - now coach of the Spanish American Football team (if that makes sense!).

... but David Baddiel did have a number one with ‘Three Lions’, and he was in the year below me at school.

Meanwhile, I was in the same class as both leading thesp Jason Isaacs (who once painted my toenails during a production of a Woody Allen play - long story) and film critic Mark Kermode, né Fairey.

Oh, and I was at junior school with Andrew Ridgeley -that’s his second mention on this thread.