IT'S not every day North Yorkshire plays host to a rock'n'roll legend (unless you count Alistair Griffin).

So the good folk organising last Saturday's Fylingdales protest march were not sure what to expect. Would Thom Yorke, frontman of legendary band Radiohead, arrive with an entourage of public relations types, hair stylists and dieticians? Or would he tumble out the back of a stretch limousine, handing his wrap of cocaine to the giggling supermodels inside?

In fact, Thom defied almost every stereotype. He turned up alone and was unfailingly courteous to his fellow protesters and our own star-struck reporter, diehard Radiohead fan Matthew Woodcock.

For lunch he munched on a vegan onion bhaji, swigged down with a beer - a ginger beer, that is.

Mind you, he did have a raging hangover from a previous night's revelling in Ryedale's rock haunts. If anyone has tales from Thom's Pickering pub crawl, we'd love to hear them.

IF he's still around, the Diary hopes the former bartender at the buffet which once operated from the far side of the bridge at York Railway Station caught up with Thom during his visit.

Back in 1997 he used to play classic Radiohead tracks to entertain commuters. He told my predecessor Dick Turpin: "The managers don't know about Radiohead. They think I'm playing what they call cocktail music. They'd get a shock if they heard this."

Soon afterwards he left and it was announced that the buffet was to be replaced with The Lemon Tree. This, as far as we are aware, has never played Radiohead.

FINALLY on this topic, at least we now know how to encourage a large police presence on the streets of North Yorkshire: just organise a small, peaceful demonstration against US military policy.

MICHAEL Theakston, of the famous Masham brewing clan, died earlier this month. Yesterday the Daily Telegraph carried an obituary for the man who transformed Theakston ales into a world-wide brand. His mastery of marketing didn't always go to plan, alas. "At a photocall with a bull, to publicise the firm's Black Bull beer," the obit noted, "the smoke from Theakston's cigar so enraged the beast that it ran amok around the brewery causing much damage."

WE are surprised and delighted to report a Diary success.

Earlier this month we told how Wendy Walker had discovered a Home Guard certificate in the loft of her home in Huntington. It belonged to Alan Albert Warner and she wanted to give it back to him.

Mr Warner has since got in touch and we were able to post the certificate to his home in Strensall 60 years after he first received it.

He tells us he was a teenage Home Guardsman in his home village of Leavenheath, Suffolk, between 1942 and 1944. Once he was old enough he joined the Army full time.

Although he trained at Strensall, this wasn't what brought him to York full time. That came about after he met a York girl in Suffolk. He married Sylvia and resettled up here.

Having lived in the Yearsley Grove house from 1952 to 1992 he left to join family in Australia for a few years.

Mr Warner, 77, a retired worker at a Stamford Bridge plastics factory, was very pleased to get his Home Guard certificate back.

"I didn't realise I had left it there," he said.

Write to: The Diary, Chris Titley, Evening Press, 76-86 Walmgate, York YO1 9YN Email diary@ycp.co.uk Telephone (01904) 653051 ext 337

Updated: 09:03 Tuesday, September 28, 2004