If you are wanting to celebrate something important then there’s no better place than Newcastle’s Quayside, Gary Spedding said the morning after the night before, when he accidentally ran in to Johnny Depp.
Spedding, a rugby player from North Shields, was in the Bridge Tavern, Newcastle, having a quick drink with a friend when he went upstairs to use the toilet and spied Depp in a closed off corner about to leave.
It was about 30 minutes before the US court was due to give its judgment in his defamation case against Amber Heard.
“I said hello, shook his hand and said ‘good luck’,” Spedding told the Guardian. “He took the time to acknowledge me and look at me even though his security wanted him out of there. He was very gracious and his manner was quite calm. He seemed quite humble and straightforward.
“He couldn’t stop for a photograph because his security were worried about him getting mobbed so he was straight out, more or less.
“He seemed to be relaxed and relatively happy. There were people saying hello to him and wishing him well.”
Depp was with his friend Jeff Beck, whom he has been accompanying on stage during the musician’s UK tour. That has meant appearances at the Royal Albert Hall in London and Sheffield city hall, with the pair performing, among other things, a cover of John Lennon’s Isolation. According to Beck, he and Depp are “musical soulmates”.
Beck and Depp are due to take the stage again at the Sage in Gateshead on Thursday evening.
At the Bridge Tavern, witnesses said Depp had fish and chips and asked about the Tyne Bridge. Depp and Beck were later joined by the musician Sam Fender.
Spedding was surprised to see him but not starstruck. “I’m not very big on celebrities, to be honest,” he said. “Excuse my language but I don’t actually give a shit about celebrities. I’m not that kind of person, I’m not fussed.
“I do like his movies though. I think he’s a good actor and he obviously has something about him. But I would never squeal and get excited over a celebrity. I’d get excited over rugby players.
“He obviously just wanted to be somewhere with his friend, who’s a musician, and relax and enjoy himself. He came to the right place to do that. Newcastle is one of the best cities in the UK to get out and about, to have a drink and a laugh. It was a beautiful day yesterday, so the Quayside was glorious.”
There were also sightings of Depp in North Shields, and staff at the charity North East Homeless were pleased that Fender could be seen wearing a badge in support.
Rumours that Fender, who is from North Shields, took Depp to the charity’s base were not true, a spokesperson said. “That would have been great, but no.”
The actor later won his defamation case against Heard, in contrast to the libel hearing in the UK, which he lost.
Spedding said his view of the court case was that no one was a winner. “It has done irreparable damage to the struggle for victims and survivors of domestic violence and abuse, regardless of who has won. The spectacle has been horrendous for the people involved, but also the wider world.
“I was just glad he was having a nice evening given all the stuff he’s been through over the past few weeks.”