Doppelgänger - A New York Moment

In New York on one of my occasional Stateside trips to visit relatives, I was walking on The Bowery one balmy evening in 2005, zigzagging across the street between the gridlocked traffic.

'Hey man...' a voice called out from an open car window, '..hey...Robyn Hitchcock...I love your music...' 

At the time my grey hair was fairly unkempt and I was wearing a black & white polka dot shirt. I'm also quite tall, so I guess it's a plausible mistake, not to mention a flattering one - I've been a fan of the great man since The Soft Boys' 'A Can of Bees' LP in 1979.

I half-smiled in the guy's direction as the traffic moved on and then noticed a small spring in my step. It was the first time I'd ever been mistaken for someone even slightly well-known - and it was someone I liked!

My second experience as a doppelgänger (this time of a different musician) was in the same city a few years later and in a slightly more public arena....but that's another story. 

For now here's Robyn in 2010, performing a pretty obscure 1988 b-side and a long-time favourite song, Ghost Ship.

(I met Robyn Hitchcock once in the late 1990s and neither of us - or anyone else in the room - remarked upon any physical similarities between us!)