The Day I met Todd - By Darren Lawrence aged 25

It was back whenever. Whenever Todd was playing London with Ringo. My girlfriend at the time and myself arranged to arrive in London early. We thought maybe we'd get to Hammersmith Apollo in time to hang around and perhaps meet Todd.
We got off the tube train and, walking towards the Apollo, realised that there was already a crowd there waiting. But as we got nearer we realised that Todd was already there signing! We panicked, ran to try and get to the front, but we were too late - Todd had finished and was gone. We were so very upset, it really was awful, but we consoled ourselves with the fact that we had at least SEEN Todd, a few feet away.
We hung around for a while longer, chatting to other Todd fans, all of which were presenting proudly thier autographed goodies. It really was horrible. So, as we had nothing to do at the time we decided we'd wait around and see who else came out.

Nils Lofgren came out and signed for fans-
'Can you ask Todd to come out again' we asked.
I think he's already been out but I'll ask him' he replied.

Joe Walsh came out and signed for fans-
'Can you ask Todd to come out again' we asked.
I think he's already been out but I'll ask him' he replied.
[Joe really was a nice guy btw, very friendly]


At this point we gave up hope.
We're stood by the barrier/gate and can see along the side of the Apollo and occasionally a member of the band would be seen in the distance. None of which was Todd.
We decided to go inside and take our seats. We'd been there a few hours and it was obvious Todd wasn't coming back.
Then in the distance we see him. Walking from the trailer to the Apollo Back stage door.
'TODD!' I shout.
He looks over.
'COME HERE!' I yell.
He looks at us and playfully motions 'no' before walking inside.
A couple of minutes later he re-appears.
'TODD!' I shout.
He looks over again.
'COME ON!' I yell.
He motions no again and starts walking back to the trailer.
'COME ON TODD!' I yell.
This time it worked and he doubled back and headed towards us. My heart was, amazingly, intact.
He headed straight towards us as the other fans were yelling.
'I'll see you in a moment.' he said, indicating that he was going to sign the other folks stuff.
He spent a few minutes making sure everyones goodies were signed and then returned to us.
We had a short conversation about different things.
Me: How's Michelle.
TR: She's away visiting her parents at the moment. At least that's what she told me, for all I know she could be goofing off somewhere.
He signed my stuff, shook my hand, and after a few more words of small talk (Rebop, etc) he went back to a few other fans that had gathered.
We grabbed him again before he left and told him we'd found some more stuff to sign.
'You again! You got more!'
We also gave him a present we'd wrapped for him.
Me: It's a very stupid present though Todd!
My EX: VERY stupid.
TR: Don't worry. They usually are with me!
We gave him this book of strange postcards and had written comments on them all and also on the back. Lot's of silly things like 'Darren has a Cat called Toddy. But he's not a good musician' that sort of thing. I was nervous about giving it to him because I thought some of them might be a little nasty:-

Picture of three old men stood round a microphone - Caption:'The recording of Skylarking continues'

Picture of a motorcycle display team forming a human pyramind - Caption: 'On the road again with Utopia'

And the worst one....
Picture of a very large pig with a farm handler - Caption: 'Meatloaf in action!'

They made me laugh at the time and I hope Todd Laughed too.

Todd said goodbye to us and left. That was it.
Later on, of course, we saw the show and Todd was great.

I was in shock for a couple of days after meeting Todd. It was made all the more special that he came down because of my insistant yelling, and how he treated me and my ex special when it happened. Thanks Todd.