Sidepodcast - All for F1 and F1 for all

When Giggles met Murray and Stirling - A swanky event in London with two veterans of motorsport

Published by Alex Andronov

After Sidepodcast announced the once in a lifetime chance to hear Murray Walker interview Sir Stirling Moss, I girded my bank account into action and booked my ticket.

The venue was to be the RAC - a members only club - in central London. A very swanky part of London. The dress code required a tie and so I got dressed up and headed to the venue. The RAC is a pretty swanky venue steeped in car history. They even have old cars just sitting in the lobby. I would like to tell you that I made copious notes about what this car was but sadly I got distracted by something else.

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As I delicately supped at my glass of Champagne, I discreetly made a few comments on Sidepodcast just to let everyone know what was going on. After a while I decided to check if I could actually see Murray or Stirling. So I had to look away from my iPhone (other mobile doohickey devices are available) and look around the room.

Suddenly there they were. People were all being very polite and not approaching, they looked like they were in conversation with friends. But of course, let's face it, they were probably just in conversation with people who were more pushy than me. I tried to very subtly snap some pictures. It would appear that clandestine reconnaissance is not in my immediate future. For me subtle = shaky!

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Slowly the room started filling up and I got chatting to a number of Formula 1 fans. I recommended that they all immediately check out the website of the greatest Formula 1 podcast in the world. The general consensus was that now they were here they would check out the talk, but they would check out the site afterwards.

While I had been chatting to these people the crowd had increased in size and a line had appeared for photos with Murray.

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I passed my iPhone to a young guy who looked like he could deal with the modern technology.

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There we had it. The key shot, bit blurry perhaps but it was proof nevertheless. I didn't get a chance to talk to the man himself because he was being distracted by the lady in the previous shot who had switched over to his other side. It didn't matter, I was happy!

I wondered about taking a few more photos (and even some video) while I waited for dinner.

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Suddenly, we were whisked into a large dining room with lots of enormous round tables and plenty more new people to meet. I was sitting between a guy who didn't like Formula 1 anymore and a guy who was one of the James Bond stunt drivers. They were both very interesting to talk to. Dinner arrived.

I wasn't sure what was going to happen next. It seemed that there was some kind of rostrum ready for them to speak on. In all of the excitement I managed to spill gravy on my tie. The main attraction of the evening began with a short film talking about Sir Stirling's career, and after that Murray and Stirling took to the stage.

They started going when the microphones weren't working properly and so it was hard to work out exactly what was being said. Murray asked him how he got started in racing and he talked about his dad. Murray asked if Stirling had been pushed by his father and Stirling said that his dad was hard but fair. Put it this way, he said, if he had done something wrong he would get his mother to talk to his dad for him.

Then, thank goodness, they fixed the microphone and I managed to record the rest of the session. There were some absolute gems in the recording, and although the quality wasn't great, it was worth it.

With that, the mingling really got going. It was a great evening so thanks to Sidepodcast for the tip off and for all of the comments through the evening.

The two men are legends, and when you get a chance to listen to legends it isn't expensive, it's priceless.