The Way We Were - Gene Pitney

 

I’m so glad to have found some fellow Gene Pitney fans, as after telling you how I first met him, all kinds of great memories have come flooding back which I would love to share with you.

Gene had a really wacky sense of humour, and there was never a dull moment when he was staying at Stratters. He loved those silly ‘electric plumb’ jokes that circulated during the Sixties - unfortunately I can’t remember any, so if anyone else can - I’d love to hear them again. Gene’s way of telling a joke cracked me up as much as the joke itself. He’d start out by saying "Freda, I wonder if you could tell me something?" " Yes?" I’d respond, all eager to be able to help him in some way, " How can you tell when there’s been an elephant in the fridge?" barely stifled laughter as his question sinks in. " I don’t know Gene, how CAN you tell when there’s been an elephant in the fridge?" " He left his footprints in the butter - ba boom!" Oh yes, the old ones are the best - but these silly jokes were quite new then, and it was great to get a reaction from someone who’d never heard them before - and Gene professed to know ‘em all - so began the search to find a joke he didn’t know. Gene also loved to play tricks on me, for instance, he would ring in from outside the hotel and, disguising his voice, ask to speak to Gene Pitney, when I’d say he was out and could I take a message, he’d proceed to give me this long and convoluted message that didn’t make any sense, then, speaking in his normal voice, he’d say " Now you will make sure I get that message, won’t you Freda!" He got one over on me so many times that finally I decided it was major payback time, and I enlisted my friend Jenny to come up with something really good.

I made quite a few new friends, thanks to Gene. There was one young man called Dennis, who came to interview Gene for his local newspaper, Dennis was on the fringe of the entertainment world, in that he was Entertainments Officer for Lewisham Town Hall, part-time DJ and wrote a music column for a local paper. We spoke several times on the phone when he rang Gene, then one day he came in to see Gene and popped his head round the door of the switchroom to say hello. We became good friends after that, and sometimes went out socially - well, you can’t turn down an invite to the Lord Mayor’s Ball, can you? Anyway, I told Dennis about our plan to play a prank on Gene, and he wanted to be part of it, which turned out to be quite useful inthe circumstances, as Dennis was one of those rare young people who had a car. Knowing how accommodating Gene was with his fans - he never refused to see or speak to any of them who rang or waited outside the hotel for him, I knew he wouldn?t refuse to do an interview. Gene was in Oxford for a few days, so we arranged that Jenny should ring him at his hotel and ask if he would agree to give an interview to one of the students for their University Rag. Of course he agreed. The plan was for me to dress up as student lol - or at least our idea of how a university student might look - although I think we may have overdone it a tad :-/

Jenny?s brother lent me his duffle coat, which was about 2 sizes too big, Dennis came up with an outsize pair of dark glasses, which concealed most of my face - good , we thought. Jenny lent me her black leather ?John Lennon? cap (remember those?) to hide all my hair, but it wasn?t really capacious enough and it seemed to sit on top of my head, there was no way I could keep my long fringe inside it. Finally I wore my black leather boots and my shiny black ski pants. Originally, we?d hoped to disguise my gender, as Jenny had just said ?a student called ?Kim?, would be interviewing him, but that became too difficult. A rare sight I must have looked, so just as well Jenny and I didn?t have to go by train!

We couldn?t set out until Jenny and Dennis had finished work, and then it took ages to get there as we kept getting lost, we arrived at the theatre just as the show was ending. It didn?t seem as though there would be any chance of getting through the stagedoor, there were hoards of screaming fans blocking our way. Dennis, brave man, fought his way through and somehow managed to get in the stage door. As luck would have it, the ?roadie? for Gene?s show turned out to be an old school mate of Dennis?s, and he came out with Dennis to help fight our way through the fans. It was pretty nasty, I can tell you - giving birth? Pulling teeth? Sticking pins in my eyes? Far less scary than taking on Gene?s fans! Because I was dressed so strangely, the fans got the impression that I must be ?somebody?? and tried to snatch at my hat and glasses - I was never so grateful to get through the crack that the stage doorman allowed us to slip through. He slammed the door shut against the fans who hammered on it demanding to be let in too.

Stuart, the roadie, didn?t have a clue what was going on, he led us to Gene? dressing room and I heard him saying to Gene, "my mate Dennis has come to see you and he?s got a strange German bird with him". Strange German bird!!! Strange, perhaps, but German? Lol! I confess to feeling rather foolish standing there, in Gene?s dressing room, he was sitting down, but jumped up and came to peer at me, in an instant he?d whipped off my cap and glasses and declared that he?s known it was me a straight away - oh poo :-(

He said that I?d have to get up very early in the morning if I wanted to fool him - but didn?t think I?d ever succeed! For once Gene wasn?t going to sign autographs at the stage door - a wise decision - instead, we all went out of the main entrance of the theatre, just as if we were part of the audience, and walked down the street to Gene?s hotel which was close by. Only a few fans followed us and recognised Gene. We went into his hotel and thankfully the fans stayed outside. We sat in the enormous lounge, Mike Hurst of The Springfields, joined us, on the other side of the lounge sat Cilla Black and Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas. Gene called over to ?Chilla? as he called her, to come and join us but the group decided to stay on their side of the lounge. We had coffee and sandwiches and a jolly good laugh, both Gene and Mike said how much they liked my shiny black ski pants and wanted me to stand on the coffee table so that they could get a better view of them lol! Needless to say, I declined. It was 2.30 am before we finally said we had to go, poor Dennis had to drive all the way back and get up for work in the morning, as did Jenny - only I was going to get a lie-in. Mike and Gene came with us to where Dennis had parked the car, they both gave Jenny and I quite passionate kisses - Dennis had to do with a hand shake Lol! Mike said he would be popping into Stratters to see Gene and would pop in to see me too, and that perhaps we could go out some time. Well, Mike was tall, dark and handsome - why not?

next - Gene's amazing generosity