Can I have your autograph?

Yes, even John Cale has fans who want his autographs and sometimes even pictures with him. You were able to get an autograph? Or even a photo with him? How friendly and grumpy can he get?

autograph ? tick
picture ? nope

the grumpy factor i believe depends on how much coffee john has had, the best autographs are the early ones, they started to become a squiggle around the time of Drella.

Yeah, I agree with fireball. I’ve got three early ones and you can actually see them as John Cale. I have a few squiggles. And I also have one where the pen didn’t quite make it across my Fragments CD booklet. It started off okay, then it didn’t work, and then it started up again – thus, Jo___ale. The concert had finished in the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and staff were requesting that people leave the hall. It was evident that Cale wasn’t gonna make an appearance to sign any autographs. It was after he did the Fragments set with B J Cole on pedal steel guitar. 2001. I loitered in front of the stage with a few others and told the stage manager, in a strong Welsh accent, and with total confidence, that I had grown up with John in Garnant. The guy looked me right in the eyes and said, “You didn’t really grow up with John, did you”. To which I replied, “Noooo”, with the pathetic voice of a failed man. “Sit down there. I’ll see if John will sign it”. I gave him my Fragments CD booklet and a Bic biro. I sat down next to a girl who mumbled something like, “Grumpy old Cale”. She was also waiting for an autograph. Then, back came the stage manager and passed us the autographs. The girl got a squiggle and I got Jo___ale. And my Bic biro, which never worked again.

Zig

ah, my copies of his signature are on gig tickets :-D my sister has a signed cd of Circus, and we have the signed vinyl Circus also. My Dad has some more, but . . . that doesn't count

Your Dad's dont count!!!! Surely he was the one who introduced you to Cale??!!!

err . . . it was both of my parents who introduced me to the Very Wonderful Mr John Cale. I'm not sure which of them 'found' him first.

jivedot wrote:autograph ? tick
picture ? nope

Same here. It’s a pity that he’s such an unapproachable grump most of the time, but on the other hand: If he was any different, had he written and would he still write all this great music? We can't change him anyway. All we can do is hope to catch one of the less grumpy days.

I'm not sure how much I would want a picture of myself with Mr Cale - my presence would ruin it. I love pictures of him, though. I definitely wouldn't dare approach him to ask for a picture or anything, but I'm not sure whether that's more because he's scary or because I'm a scaredy-cat.

By now I have three autographs and two photos with him. And I must say he seems to get nicer...hehehe... He was most grumpy in Wroclaw. Huh, he was so bad mooded, tired, in pain? No idea! But he was obviously annoyed by the people who asked for autographs. In Norwich we approached Nita Scott and had an unbelievable delightful meeting with the Maestro after the concert. He was really good mooded and even kind of talkative. And in Essen he was sitting outside and willingly wrote autographs. Somehow it seems that it gets easier to get his autograph. Good for us fans!

By the way, Isabel, I don't believe that there's a connection between grumpiness and creativity. I know so many unbelievable creative people who are not grumpy at all; even creative cynics who are really friendly. But I also believe that after standing 90 minutes on stage people feel like taking a rest instead of meeting fans.

So, I'm quite happy and lucky that I got the chance to meet him!

I just got both autographs and a photo with him in LA and he was in a great mood!! It took him a while to actually come out to the after party, and he only stayed for about 10 mins, but he was extremely sweet to the the people that stayed late to see him. When he was signing my mom's program, he accidentally messed up and then said sorry and started over so it would look better.