The night Shane Warne and Brendon Julian snuck out in the middle of a Test to attend a Rolling Stones party

Brendon Julian was just a young buck on Australia’s tour to England in 1997. His eyes were opened to the world of Warnie when the pair partied with the Rolling Stones.

Shane Warne is often called cricket’s first rock star, but let me tell you about the night we snuck out of the hotel to meet one – in the middle of a Test.

It was 1997, during the Lord’s Test match and Warnie got invited to this party for Rolling Stone’s guitarist Ronnie Wood at Café de Paris, a very famous nightclub in London.

He asked me to go with him and I said, ‘mate, it’s the Test match! … But I’m not even playing, so I’m definitely in for it!’.

“OK,” said Warnie. “We’re going to have to sneak out.”

Even in those days it wasn’t cool to be going out in the middle of a match and Ronnie’s party wasn’t starting until 11pm, like they normally do in London.

We hopped into the taxi to go to Piccadilly and there’s hundreds and hundreds of people out the front of the nightclub.

Warnie, Ronnie and Mick: Shane was always the life of the party.

It was like a who’s who Hollywood night and it was all roped off and we couldn’t get anywhere near the front door.

I said to Warnie, ‘mate, just stand behind me and I’ll be your bodyguard.’

So Warnie puts his hands on my shoulders and I start yelling, ‘Shane Warne’s coming through, Shane Warne’s coming through, Shane Warne here, coming through,’ and pushing people out of the way for about 30 metres, all the way to the door.

In the end, the crowd was all cheering, ‘Warnie! Warnie!’ but the bouncer stopped me and goes, ‘mate, who the f*** are you?’

I was sweating up a storm by this point and I puffed my chest out and gave it my best, ‘mate, I’ve got Shane Warne behind me, I’m his bodyguard.’

… We were in and we were led out to this back room and ended up spending the next three hours with Ronnie Wood and his wife, Jo and it’s a who’s who of show business.

Brendon Julian says he has spent his life as an accidental tourist in the Shane Warne show. Picture: Ray Titus

Heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis was there, Jay Kay from Jamiroquai, Elton John came in later and it was just this incredible night.

We got a photo with Ronnie before I eventually said to Warnie at about 2.30am, ‘mate, we have got to go. You’re playing and it won’t look good if people find out we were out.’

Of course, next thing we know – front page of The Sun the next morning is that picture of Shane Warne and Ronnie Wood … only I’ve been cut out of the frame!

It saved me from getting a talking to by Tubby Taylor like Warnie copped, but really, I needed the publicity!

And being cropped out of that photo was really just a continuation of a lifelong theme for me of being an accidental tourist in the Warnie Show.

The ‘ball of the century’ match with Mike Gatting – that was my Test debut.

Not long after Warnie’s delivery, I took my first Test wicket and no one even congratulated me because they were still looking at Warnie getting Gatting on the big screen.

I remember coming down into the huddle and eventually saying, ‘boys! Bloody hell, I’ve just taken my first Test wicket!”

And they went, “oh yeah, well done, BJ. But it’s Warnie!”

That’s my whole life and I’m grateful for it.

Warnie and the famous Gatting ball.

We first met way back in 1990 on a youth tour to the West Indies.

Warnie, Darren Berry and Steve Bernard organised a surprise 20th birthday for me in Jamaica and I remember afterwards going to McDonald’s with Flem (Damien Fleming).

Warnie was there making his way through a stack of cheeseburgers, where he had removed the meat, lettuce and gherkins – kept the cheese in there – and was just piling fries in between the buns.

Flem and I laughed our heads off going, ‘who is this bloke?’

Our friendship evolved from there and we were always great mates. I will miss him dearly.

Originally published as The night Shane Warne and Brendon Julian snuck out in the middle of a Test to attend a Rolling Stones party