A first-hand account of meeting Charlie Watts: 'Keep on rocking'

It's strange who you meet in the unlikeliest places: tales of a series of random celebrity encounters from a summer in Europe

A stylish Charles Robert Watts, aged 2, with his mother Lillian and father Charles in Piccadilly Circus in 1943. Charlie was known as Charlie Boy, while his dad was called Charlie. Getty Images

Charlie Watts, drummer for The Rolling Stones poses for a picture in December 1963, the same year he joined the band. Getty Images

This photo taken on July 22, 1965 in London shows The Rolling Stones, (from L to R) drummer Charlie Watts, guitarist Brian Jones, guitarist Keith Richards, singer Mick Jagger and bass guitarist Bill Wyman. AFP

English drummer Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones, circa 1965. Getty Images

The Rolling Stones performing 'She Smiled Sweetly' on the Eamonn Andrews show, on February 5, 1967. From left to right Brian Jones, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts. Getty Images

A portrait of The Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, taken on December 10, 1968. Getty Images

English drummer Charlie Watts of the rock group The Rolling Stones at Heathrow Airport in London, along with his wife Shirley (left) and their daughter Seraphina, in 1972. Getty

Charlie Watts, drummer of The Rolling Stones, in 1976. Getty Images

Drummer Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones, at a British concert and sporting a new David Bowie style feather cut. Getty Images

British drummer Charlie Watts as The Rolling Stones perform at Earl's Court, as part of their Tour of Europe '76, London, England, in May 1976. Getty Images

The Rolling Stones, 1977. (L-R) Charlie Watts, Ron Wood, Keith Richards, Bill Wyman and Mick Jagger. Getty Images

From left: The Rolling Stones's Keith Richards, Ron Wood, Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts arrive by yacht at Chelsea Piers on May 3, 1994 in New York to kick-off their 'Voodoo Lounge' world tour. It is also the first time the Stones have toured without their bass player Bill Wyman, who left the group the previous year. AFP

Drummer Charlie Watts performs at the opening night of the European leg of The Rolling Stones's Forty Licks Tour at the Olimpiahalle Spiridon on June 4, 2003 in Munich, Germany. Getty Images

Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones and his wife Shirley attend the 41st 'Pride of Poland' Arabian Horse Auction in Janow Podlaski, south-east Poland, in 2010. EPA

Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones poses for a portrait on November 14, 2016, in New York. AP

Ronnie Wood, from left, Charlie Watts and Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones perform on July 15, 2019, in New Orleans. AP

It's strange who you meet in the unlikeliest places. My summer was a series of random but interesting encounters with celebs of differing magnitude, none of them planned but each with its own little bit of excitement.

By far the biggest star I bumped into was Charlie Watts, drummer of The Rolling Stones. Sitting outside the Bibendum cafe in London's swanky South Kensington on a warm summer's afternoon with wife and child, I looked up from my plate of charcuterie to see a little old man strolling casually down the road, incongruously dressed in a raincoat done up to the neck despite the fine weather. It took about two seconds for the face to register.

"Charlie Watts," I shouted to the surprise of other lunchers, and couldn't stop myself from running across to him and grabbing his hand. "Charlie, I'm a great fan. I saw you last week in Hyde Park, you were fantastic. Keep on rocking."

I realised it must have looked slightly ridiculous, one elderly man (myself) enthusiastically shaking the hand of an obvious stranger in the street, but Charlie was nonplussed. "Thanks man," he replied with just the faintest smile before shuffling off down the Brompton Road. It made my day.

Then, a few days later, in a sleepy provincial town in south-west France, we were enjoying an open-air communal lunch by the banks of the river Vincou when I started up a conversation with the chap seated to my left. Chatting about the weather, food and livelihoods, it turned out he was Giles Darby, one of the "NatWest Three" investment bankers who got caught up in the Enron scandal a decade ago and ended up doing time in prison in Texas.

I've covered plenty of financial scandals in my time, and met many of the perpetrators of frauds big and small, and they all have an air of obsession with their case. Giles was rather less obsessive, although we did spend a while talking about the high-profile circumstances of his arrest, extradition and eventual imprisonment for crimes of which he still protests innocence.

But it was obvious he was happy just getting on with life, back in business as an investor in the leisure industry, and having just bought a property in the beautiful medieval town of Bellac in the Haute-Vienne region of France, where we were.

"I haven't told my side of the story yet. Maybe I will one day, and there is explosive stuff there, right at the heart of the British business and political establishment," he said. I look forward to reading that, Giles.

At the same enjoyable gathering I was introduced to the mayor of Bellac, Jean-Michel Doumeix. He has been running the little conurbation (population about 5,000) since 2008, and seen it through some pretty dark days.

In my faltering schoolboy French, I asked how the global financial crisis had affected Bellac. He explained that the main business of the place was agriculture, which was not so badly hit by the recession. Bellac had in days gone by been one of the leading leather processing centres of France, though that had died out many years back.

"But we suffered from the English disease. Property prices fell when the English stopped buying second homes here. It's getting better now though," he said.

I asked if he had a political allegiance, and he beckoned me closer conspiratorially. "I am socialist, like Francois Hollande [the former-French president] but I do not tell anybody that. The town would never have voted for me if they knew."