We'll Meet Again?

O.k Sylvia, you made me think of more recent memories, so I’m going to fast forward 30 years or so into the 1990's.

I heard on local radio that Gene was coming to the Corn Exchange in Cambridge - I hadn’t seen Gene for about 30 years - too busy with marriage, bringing up the children, working - the usual things. I just had to go. I got a letter off to Gene that hopefully he would pick up as soon as he arrived at the theatre, telling him that I was coming to see the show and reminding him of those far off days and enclosing copies of the photos I’d taken of him all those years ago, and bringing him up to date with my life. But when I rang the theatre I was told that there were hardly any seats left, there were a few seats available for Thursday. The problem was, I had a rather important meeting Thursday evening - one that I dare not miss, a VIP was going to be there and I was expected to attend (hee hee - this is a story in itself lol!) Then I got a reply from Gene asking me to send some recent photos of myself and my family and to let him know which show I would be attending. My friend told me to skip the meeting and go to see Gene - so I had to be really, really ill - couldn’t possibly attend lol! When I rang the theatre again, I was told that the only seats left were ‘restricted viewing’, I said I’d take whatever they had. In the meantime, I sent Gene a recent photo of me and my family, and said I’d be there Thursday evening.

Our seats turned out to be right up in the ‘gods’ and behind a pillar - at least one of them was. We decided that one of us would sit behind the pillar during the first half of the show then change seats for the second half. It was great to see Gene singing on stage again, and see such a full theatre - Gene still had the fans eating out of his hand! I saw the first half of the show then moved behind the pillar so that my friend could see the second half - this was the bit where he read out letters and sang requests. He’d also added a new bit - now he was handing out presents and bouquets to the ladies in the audience - all sat in the first few front rows It had become obvious from the banter between Gene and the audience that a large group of his fans followed him around and block booked all the best seats at the front of the stage. Husbands were asking Gene to present wives with bouquets for birthdays, wedding anniversaries etc. At one point, Gene put his hand in his pocket and drew out something that he kept hidden in the palm of his hand, he mentioned a lady?s name and asked her to come to the front of the stage as he had a present to give her from her husband. He handed her a key, telling her that the present was a brand new car!

Then he started to read out letters he?d received - as soon as I heard him say " There?s someone out in the audience tonight who I haven?t seen for a very long time......" My heart began to beat so loudly I thought the whole audience could hear it. Gene went on to tell everyone about our days at Stratters and I prayed he wouldn?t go on about my attempt to dress up as a student to fool him - it had been such a sad attempt, I still cringed at the memory of it. Fortunately he didn?t, but he did want to know where I was seated in the theatre - I stayed hidden behind the pillar, but he shaded his eyes, looking at every part of the audience asking again for me to make myself known, at that point my friend waved his arms around to get Gene?s attention and yelled "she?s here!" Of course everyone turned round to look at us - I mean how embarrassing is that? Well - it was going to get a heck of a lot more embarrassing! Gene insisted that I came down to the stage to see him, he said he had something for me. It was an awful long way down to that stage, but I didn?t have a lot of choice, the usherette came to the end of the row and I had to get up and squeeze past all the others on my row before making the descent down two flights of stairs - there was an usherette at the top of each one to show me the way down, then another one at the back of the theatre motioning me to take that long walk through the auditorium to the stage, walking down that slope in high heels with my knees like jelly was difficult enough, but apparently I wasn?t make the journey fast enough as the drummer started to play a brisk march in an attempt to get me to quicken my steps lol!

Gene beckoned me up onto the stage, he told me I hadn?t changed a bit - yeah right! I was now in my fifties and he hadn?t seen me since I was in my twenties! I couldn?t be sure that he really remembered me, after all, he must have met a million trillion girls from all over the world in the last 30 years - I was just one of them. He gave me a kiss on both cheeks then motioned for me to do the same, he gave me a quick hug and whispered " Just like old times eh?" I had to concede that perhaps he DID remember me after all, maybe the photos had triggered a few distant memories. He returned the photographs to me, asking if I would send him copies, these were copies, but never mind, it was a reason to write to him again ;-)

The local newspaper got wind of this incident and came to interview me lol! It turned out that the mother of the young reporter was a big Gene Pitney fan, and wanted to know all I knew about him!

Then more recently, someone I knew was involved in a nostalgia radio show for BBC Radio, and he asked me if I was still in touch with any of the pop stars* from the old days as he wanted them to be interviewed for this program. I found Gene via his website and he agreed immediately to take part. His friend Dave, who ran the website was interested in how I knew Gene, and I gave him a brief run down and emailed the photos I?d promised to send Gene a few years earlier. "My, what a cute couple you make" was his response, after he?d received them lol!

A while ago, I saw in my monthly magazine that they were looking for stories about kindly deeds by famous people, I immediately thought about Gene and his kindness to those three young fans. I wrote to the magazine with my story and sent the photo I?d taken of Gene at my switchboard. I didn?t hear anymore and forgot all about it, until one day, about a year later, I was flicking through the magazine when suddenly I saw this very familiar photograph - they had finally got around to printing my story!

*I I decided to try to track down Craig Douglas for this programme, but couldn?t find anything on the web that might lead me to him. The next person who I thought might be willing to take part was Dave Berry (Little Things, The Crying Game) who was from my home town and who I knew very well, I?d started his first fan club for him. We had met up again when he too, had come to do a gig nearby, after a break of far too many years, and had stayed in touch, so I was able to contact him without any trouble, he was also able to tell me how to get in touch with Craig. It took a few missed phone calls, but eventually I found a message from Craig on my answer phone, it was really great talking to him after all these years, and he too, was happy to take part in the radio programme - job done lol!