In my youth, about 1973/74, I and a few of my school mates were well into Rory and we'd go to his concerts whenever he played in Manchester.

It was a custom at these concerts for everyone to rush to the front when he came out to do his encore. I and my mate managed on this particular occasion to get right up against the stage and literally feet away from the great man. As he turned to leave the stage, he dropped his bottleneck and it bounced about on the stage. I managed to be the first to react and grab it. I had it for almost 12 months and it was very difficult to convince people who it actually belonged to, I didn't give a shit to be honest I knew whose it was.

12 months later, at the next concert, I took it along with me with the intention of handing it back to him, but in naivety, I rushed to the stage holding it out towards him and the roadies pounced on me. Very understandably, all they could probably see was the flashing metal of the bottleneck. I was ceremoniously manhandled until I was able to convince them of my intentions. They took the bottleneck off me and one of them passed it to Rory. He turned and put his thumb up in my direction. What a feeling that was ......