A Strange Romance lol!

On one of Gene’s visits to Stratters, he brought a young friend with him. Francis was on sabbatical from his studies as a psychiatrist, and came from Gene’s home town. It must have been quite a holiday for this quiet, bespectacled young man, touring with Gene. As he was a friend of Gene’s, I would smile politely and say hello whenever I saw him, but he kept very much in the back ground, whenever Gene came in the switch room to say hello/goodbye and give me a friendly kiss on the cheek, Francis would wait outside. He came and went quietly, and to be honest, I barely noticed him. Except that Gene would use him to wind me up, they had rooms next to each other, but were forever in each other’s rooms and were determined that I shouldn’t know which one of them I was speaking to - between them, they had me tied up in knots!

Gene invited me to one of his shows just outside of London and the three of us travelled down together. It was rather nice being sandwiched between these two nice young men, I found that Francis had the same cookie humour as Gene and we got to know each other a lot better on that short journey. Francis and I watched the show from the side of the stage, we stood companionably in the wings, enjoying the feel-good factor that Gene always generated in his audience. Gene came to join us in his dressing room during the interval before leaving us alone together, to go and sign autographs. I was wearing a woollen coat that I’d knitted myself, and Francis said how much he liked it, he said other nice things too before Gene came back. Francis told Gene that I’d knitted my coat and immediately he asked if I’d knit him a sweater! Francis looked a bit put out - "Aw, I was going to ask her that" he complained..

We went back to the wings to watch Gene in the second half of the show, after a while I realised that Francis seemed to be standing very, very close to me - you might say ‘invading my air space’. I turned to look at him and found him staring down at me - he wasn’t wearing the ‘Michael Caine’ horn-rimmed specs and as I gazed up at him, realised that he was actually quite a handsome guy and then something very strange happened - I felt my heart pounding like a drum, it was one of those ‘sudden realisation’ moments, we stood like that for a while, until we realised that Gene was coming off stage. Francis held my arm tightly as we made our way back to the dressing room. Gene must have felt the electricity crackling between us because hetook one look at us and decided he was going to sign a few more autographs. Francis and I used the opportunity to - er hum - get to know each other a bit better ;-)

Francis held my hand very tightly on the way back to London, and Gene was holding the other one, but in much more casual manner lol! They dropped me off at Ashley Court, Gene gave me a friendly kiss goodnight, but Francis got out of the car and walked me to the door of Ashley Court and gave me a passionate goodnight kiss. I went to bed that night feeling rather baffled by this unforeseen turn of events. I was on the late shift the next day, and hadn?t been in the switchroom long before Francis popped his head round the door, seeing that I was alone, he came in and shut the door. He sat on the chair next to me, with a look on his face that was asking had last night really happened? He kissed me - just to check, I think, then feeling more confident, kissed me again. He said it was such a shame that we had only got together now as Gene?s tour of the UK was at an end and they were both about to go back home, but he asked me if I would go with them to the airport to see them off.

On the day they were due to depart I met them at the hotel, there was also another young lady there who was going to drive us all to the airport, I thought I detected a slight sense of surprise when she saw that I was included in the party. Gene introduced us, telling me that she was the wife of Gerry Bron, his record producer (Gerry Bron was also the brother of actress Eleanor Bron). I wished that Francis and I could have spent a little time alone, but it wasn?t going to happen. When it was time to catch their flight, Gene gave me a big hug and a kiss, then led Mrs Bron away so as to give Francis and I just a small moment in which to say goodbye - bearing in mind that the others were only a few feet away lol! - we gave each other a big hug and a nice long kiss, Francis made me promise to write to him, saying he?d write as soon as he got home.

On the journey back from the airport, Mrs. Bron asked me how well I knew the boys, I told her that I?d known Gene for a while but I had only just met Francis. She told me not to get too attached to either of them as they were both in steady relationships and Gene was even on the point of getting engaged. This information didn?t bother me too much, I doubted I would ever see Francis again - it had to have been the quickest flash in the pan ?romance? on record! I re-assured her that we were just friends. And I was happy to be just be friends with Gene, admittedly we had a touchy-feely relationship, but Gene?s girlfriend had no reason for concern!

In fact I was the one who wrote as soon as I got home - and Francis replied quite quickly, I enjoyed his letters, they showed a different side to the quiet young man I?d barely got to know. He wrote in a confident, amusing style, and I wished I?d been able to get to know that side of him. Inevitably of course, our letters became few and far between until they dried up altogether, but I still saw Gene when he came to England and I would ask him to remember me to Francis if he should see him again, as he was now back at University.

But Gene?s friends weren?t always so nice - I always found it odd that he should be such good friends with the Rolling Stones when their attitude was in complete contrast to Gene?s....

Next ....The Rolling Stones and a strange metamorphosis........