I'm not close enough to the big boys to say mate, they tell me stuff out of kindness and because they've had help from me in my little world.
It reminds me of a very long story that has virtually nothing to do with anything but I'm going to tell you anyway because it was cool
Me and Mrs Smug agreed to project manage the construction of a fabulous villa near Gordes in Provence. It was for a Jewish couple, him being a showbiz agent and multi-millionaire.
We flew down and arrived only to find our on-site accommodation wasn't quite ready as promised. So we called the owner, in Mill Hill, who told us to take his Merc convertible out of the garage and have a couple of weeks holiday until our place was ready.
So we headed for Venice, having never been, and drifted through northern Italy stopping off along the way. We arrived at a fabulous place called Mantua with an incredible palace called Palazzo del Te. Incredibly there was to be a concert there, in a week's time, by Joe Cocker who I'd always wanted to see but never had. We went to the box office and it was completely sold out. I rang our new boss but he had no contacts
We went to Venice and timed our return for show night, listened out for the sound check and waited outside the stage door. As the band came out I collared the drummer and introduced myself. I reminded him that I'd been on security for a fancy party at a villa overlooking Cannes. He'd been playing, with Joe Cocker, at the Juan les Pins Jazz Festival and showed up, uninvited, chasing some lass ...
... I managed to get him in.
He remembered, put us straight on the guest list and we all went to the nearest bar to 'celebrate'