The other day me n' me ol' mate Simon met up in our beloved capital city. Before involving ourselves in the business of the day we ,of course ensconsed ourselves in a boozer to partake of a 'couple'.....We were down in our capital den of iniquity to meet with a certain 'rock n' roll legend ...a certain MR PETE TOWNSHEND , crazed guitarist of the parish and the 'ORRIBLE 'OO!'....He was doing a talk and signing copies of his newly released autobiography. We found our hotel in RUSSELL SQ and entered our cosy lodgings .The reception was 'manned 'by two fat miserable scowling exotic far eastern ladies totally ignoring us as they yattered on in Indian or Bangladeshi before snarling over her shoulder "SEVENTY POUNDS ,OUT BY TEN AND ..NO BREAKFAST!" throwing a key at Simon and a three story trudge up a narrow staircase to our luxurious twin cupboard.
We trolled across town to find BRICK LANEin the EAST END .We found a bar next to the OLD BREWERY ,where the event was taking place. and had a drink with a group of fellahs who'd followed THE WHO since the very early days....One was the original drummer DOUG SANDON ...An one of TOWNSHENDS oldest friends and one time flat mate and author of the excellent WHO biography MAXIMUM R&B..RICHARD BARNES....Barney to his friends! They were all good lads and we had a pleasant chat and a few scoops were consumed until the 'effin' boozer ran out of beer?????....
We went into listen to the main attraction and after an entertaining hour and a half ,as MR T' was in good form and seemed to be enjoying himself he got to signing the books. We queued up like good fans, i had my caricature to present to him ,i thought i might get a picture with me TOWNSHEND and the caricature....But being a typical corporate 'event', the place was run and organised by 'Bright young things' guaranteed to screw up any organised event. The security had luminous coats inside for some reason and could've only been in their teens. When i gave PETE the picture they pounced on me yelling "NO MERCHANDISE!" TOWNSHEND took it off me and chuckled and laid it on the floor beside him ,i passed the padded envelope and they flew into a noisy panic again ,TOWNSHEND looked at them and said "IT'S OK ,ITS ONLY AN ENVELOPE!"....He signed my book and laughing he thanked me as we shook hands, i said "Cheers ,Pete!" and our dedicated pain in the arse organisers wouldnt allow any pictures ,so that was that!...We retired back to the boozer and they had even less ale than before. A WHO family member called WOLFY offered to get the picture signed and returned to me, but i thought "Nah!it was meant as a gift and it would've been great to get a picture and i was hoping to get it dedicated to THE LOVELY LYNNE, but we're the fans who spend all our money ,queue and sleep in hovels in Russell Square ,etc ,the corporate shitheads in the reserved seats get the perks ,etc. But i met PETE TOWNSHEND, so i'm happy.
His signature is nearly as totally indicipherable as my own. I was going to put it up on the blog, but the dang blasted computers playing silly buggers again ,so you'll have to make do with the TOWNSHEND caricature AGAIN!!!!