Geekabilia Cleethorpes had mostly interested me with only one guest announced - I knew it wasn't going to end up being one of those massive events - that if it was any further away in the country I couldn't justify attending (as much as I wanted too) - but I knew Cleethorpes was gettable to by bus (and a trip across the water via Humber Bridge) and the travel and ticket I would consider on the affordable end. So anyway this was a two day event, Good Friday (luckily for me there was no guests that were Friday only) and the only day I was planning to attend - Saturday.
I decided to attend this event simply because my Doctor Who poster (which I will promise at one point I will shut up about on this blog - but not for a few more months I reckon) featured 24 signatures before today, and none of the people who signed it have played the role of The Doctor. So excitingly for me among the guests at this event was Peter Davison who played the Fifth Doctor, and could end up being potentially the first in a run of the next couple of months of actors who played the iconic role - and there is some irony in getting a Doctor on the day first episode of a new series premiering. But besides that they ended up announcing a couple of other guests that interested me (including 2 further Who actors and 2 from another poster project I am working on).
So if you have ready any my earlier blog entries about conventions, it's always an out of town convention equals an early start - with a 6.20am wake up to be on the bus by quarter past seven, I basically listened to music while writing down random things and reading a bit of Audrey Hepburn's biography (I covered her career from The Unforgiven until My Fair Lady during this trip) and I arrived in Grimsby (yes, of Sacha Baron Cohen fame) to get a bus (which is a short journey) into Cleethorpes, have to say both these drivers were very nice, I wish I could say the same about the third driver who I got while in Cleethorpes as he was a bit on the grumpy side to get to the leisure centre where it was held and I got to the venue at about 9:15 and pretty close the front of the line (I was stood behind a Mother dressed at the 10th Doctor who had sons dressed as Harry Potter and Darth Vader - which included a lot of arguing about who would win a fight, I personally think Vader but didn't want to say incase Harry Potter put a spell on me.
When I got in I got a free goodie bag for pre-booking my tickets which included Angry Birds Star Wars rubbers (as in erasers - not condoms), Simpsons badges and Terminator Salvation DVD (from Germany), I'm not complaining since it's free. And me loves free stuff...
The First guest I met simply because she was at the end and that was Claire Gutteridge (who I keep wanting to refer to as Lucy Gutteridge - the female lead of Top Secret!), she was extremely lovely, talked to me for a fair while and seemed happy to be there. She also said she was honoured that I wanted to add her to my Doctor Who poster!
notice she is the first person to put season and episode number on and I guess at the moment she is the "newest" actor on there.
After Gutteridge I went to Alan Harris, who is best known for playing bounty hunter Bossk in The Empire Strikes Back. Okay, so here the price written online and even going in was £10, but I got to his table and it turned out he was charging £15 a signature and I didn't see this until after I got my items signed (I had 2) but explained and he took my word for it, I firstly added him to the Doctor Who poster
and then added him to my Belgian Top Secret poster! Which I'm shocked I've got three names on it now since I got Ian McNeice on it in 2009 and remained only signed by him up until this year.
The third guest I met since I still had the poster unrolled was the main reason for attending - The Fifth Doctor - Peter Davison who was a friendly chap and had a steady cue (I got complimented on my poster by somebody in the cue) and happy to finally add somebody who played the iconic role, and he of course signed over himself...
And the poster has it looks now with 27 names! I think I would constantly bore people with this picture - if anybody read this blog...
I then went to meet Luke Barnes, who if you watch GOT you will probably remember his face at least,, who was another nice fella who I talked a bit about Hull with and he added his name to my Game Of Thrones poster.
Final guest of the day for me is Ross O'Hennessy, extremely musclebound and another Game Of Thrones actor, was also very friendly
And here is how my Game Of Thrones poster looks now with four names, obviously this looks less impressive than the Doctor Who at the moment but once more names get added this will give it a run for it's money I think (a couple of upcoming events could see me get past 10 names on this face)
And that was it for guests - I met 5 of the 7 guests so that the batting average was great there (Chris Rankin was from Harry Potter which I am not working on and there was one other Doctor Who guest Terry Molloy who is already on the poster), I bought a cream cake and a can of coke and was out of there by 10:50, and I had a quick look around Cleethorpes buying a couple of DVDs.
Overall, this is the shortest amount of time I've spent at an out of town convention (50 minutes!) but if a future event brings a couple of guests I want to meet then I wouldn't say no to attending again. I did look around the stalls but there wasn't enough on the stalls for me.
I decided to attend this event simply because my Doctor Who poster (which I will promise at one point I will shut up about on this blog - but not for a few more months I reckon) featured 24 signatures before today, and none of the people who signed it have played the role of The Doctor. So excitingly for me among the guests at this event was Peter Davison who played the Fifth Doctor, and could end up being potentially the first in a run of the next couple of months of actors who played the iconic role - and there is some irony in getting a Doctor on the day first episode of a new series premiering. But besides that they ended up announcing a couple of other guests that interested me (including 2 further Who actors and 2 from another poster project I am working on).
So if you have ready any my earlier blog entries about conventions, it's always an out of town convention equals an early start - with a 6.20am wake up to be on the bus by quarter past seven, I basically listened to music while writing down random things and reading a bit of Audrey Hepburn's biography (I covered her career from The Unforgiven until My Fair Lady during this trip) and I arrived in Grimsby (yes, of Sacha Baron Cohen fame) to get a bus (which is a short journey) into Cleethorpes, have to say both these drivers were very nice, I wish I could say the same about the third driver who I got while in Cleethorpes as he was a bit on the grumpy side to get to the leisure centre where it was held and I got to the venue at about 9:15 and pretty close the front of the line (I was stood behind a Mother dressed at the 10th Doctor who had sons dressed as Harry Potter and Darth Vader - which included a lot of arguing about who would win a fight, I personally think Vader but didn't want to say incase Harry Potter put a spell on me.
When I got in I got a free goodie bag for pre-booking my tickets which included Angry Birds Star Wars rubbers (as in erasers - not condoms), Simpsons badges and Terminator Salvation DVD (from Germany), I'm not complaining since it's free. And me loves free stuff...
The First guest I met simply because she was at the end and that was Claire Gutteridge (who I keep wanting to refer to as Lucy Gutteridge - the female lead of Top Secret!), she was extremely lovely, talked to me for a fair while and seemed happy to be there. She also said she was honoured that I wanted to add her to my Doctor Who poster!
After Gutteridge I went to Alan Harris, who is best known for playing bounty hunter Bossk in The Empire Strikes Back. Okay, so here the price written online and even going in was £10, but I got to his table and it turned out he was charging £15 a signature and I didn't see this until after I got my items signed (I had 2) but explained and he took my word for it, I firstly added him to the Doctor Who poster
Overall, this is the shortest amount of time I've spent at an out of town convention (50 minutes!) but if a future event brings a couple of guests I want to meet then I wouldn't say no to attending again. I did look around the stalls but there wasn't enough on the stalls for me.
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