I’m Happy to do it for you
By Pat Deese
Sitting at work. It’s
Sept 2nd (1986) I ‘m trying
to be calm knowing that tonight I am England-bound, and tomorrow I might see
Paul. London’s cold after an all-night
rain. On the plane I am unable to sleep,
hurting, aching. The next day I am
sitting outside MPL asking myself, “what am I doing here?” I should be sleeping, warm, dry. Is it worth it all? Need I answer that? I’m waiting with my fellow partners in
pursuit, Kathy Jones and Laurie Ross.
After four hours of waiting and no food in nine hours, we agree to go
off to Wendy’s for food and a warm-up. Coming
out of Wendy’s we go into shock and panic at seeing a 12x12 foot billboard of “Press
to Play” on a truck driving by us, heading down Soho Street to MPL. We chase this thing down the street, in time
to see a license plate drive up (no car mind you, just a license plate floating
in midair with neon letters spelling out 900 MPL), and I screech to all, “Here’s
here!”, running out in front of a cab.
Paul looks as gorgeous as ever, in a lovely suit, standing
with Linda accepting a rose and a teddy bear from a fan. I go into the usual state of oblivion when he’s
around, no hearing and seeing a thing but those eyes. What follows as usual is a pieced-together
effort from all involved. Kathy asks if
she can tell him how much her daughter Heather (2 ½ years old) loves “Press,”
which Heather calls “Bo-press”. He says
yes, and he takes her hand as she proceeds to tell him. I want to get across how great I think the
album is and yell out, “I love the album!” to which he nods his head and gives
a look, his eyes rolling, like the end of “help!” I look on, unable to even snap a photo. He heads for the door and it’s nearly curtains
as he trips over a bag someone left in front of the door and does a flying leap
up in the air as we all prepare to catch him if he lands! He’d have all of us to carry him in! He turns to see what he trips on, grins, and
goes in. We all rush across the street
and see him look out the second floor window at the billboard, still parked
nearby. Then he gives us all a wave.
The wait is on. There
are about 10 of us although at one point it was closer to 25, but most had
given up waiting while we had gone off to eat, some only missing him by 10
minutes.
He comes out about an hour later, stops at the doorway, and
says, “Let’s pose, Lin.” While he had
been inside, I had come up with the idea to say something to him to try to get across how much the past 22 years have
meant, but it’s a hard thing to say, to get out the right words. So I walk up to him and say, “I want to thank
you for the past 22 years.” He grins, Linda
makes some nice comment that I can’t recall, and he puts his hand high in the
air and says, “I’m just going to have to slap this girl five!” And raises his hang really high in the air,
and does a slow-motion slap me five into my outstretched hand!
Then it’s autograph time.
Someone gives him a picture of himself to sign, and he says, “Who’s that
ugly guy?” He Begins discussing the
album in general, saying how it has a little bit of everything on it, and I
make a comment about that and tell him how fabulous I think “Angry” is. He nods and smiles. Someone manages to get next to him for a
posed picture and he says, “no shaking allowed!” By now people are beginning to come out of
the woodwork, although I never noticed this at the time even though I wonder
who he keeps signing for! It is not
until I get my pictures back that I notice the amount of people who stopped
when they recognized him. Even a London
delivery man coming out of MPL takes his turn for an autograph and grins as he
receives it.
As everyone continues snapping pictures, he suddenly puts
his hand behind his head in a very feminine fashion, and says, “You’d think I
was Samantha Smith (a very hot disco singer)!”
Someone asks if he is having any Buddy holly celebration and he replies
with, “Yes, a star-studded celebrity luncheon, and I’m not telling you guys as
you’ll all be there!” He turns to Linda
and says, “and don’t’ you tell them either Lin as they’ll all be there!” Then he heads for the car, and as I stand
there looking, I receive a smile and a wave.
Are we greedy or what?
The following Wednesday finds us at MPL again hoping for a repeat
performance and what a performance we got!
Little did we know the TREAT in store.
Upon arriving at MPL, we discover that Paul is having his Buddy Holly luncheon
that day, really close by. We know John
has driven off to the train station to pick him up, and we’re trying to decide
what to do. Should we go look for this
club? Well, as it happens, John’s car
arrives at MPL minus Paul, so we know we’ve missed him arrive at the
party, but as a result, I would have a
super encounter with him later. We find
the club which turns out to be practically around the corner. We see various other celebs arriving including
George Martin, who dutifully signs autographs, and when asked whether he’d
record again with Paul, he says, “I don’t know but it’s goo t know I have a
good friend.” At this moment an event
occurs that is destined to give Paul some bad press. One of the photographers got too close to the
club entrance, which we could not really see because it was under a
covering. As a result, he was punched by
Paul’s “minder” (bodyguard). Now we
remembered this photographer from similar circumstances, seeing Paul at the
Buddy Holly celebration in 1984, and he probably deserved it. But needless to say, it was all blown out of
proportion the next day in the papers describing the minder as burly (something
he certainly wasn’t), and it took away from the luncheon, in fact only one
paper wrote it up properly.
About the time Paul was about to leave, people again came
out of nowhere. Although the club was
located down a small alleyway off a main street, it was amazing how many people
stopped by. Several older ladies were on their break from across
the street and were explaining how they couldn’t wait to se that “cutie”
Paul. Paul posed inside the foyer for
the photographers, holding up a statue he received as they made him an honorary
citizen of Lubbock, Texas. As he headed
for the car through the crowd, he said several times, “Girls, mind you don’t
hurt the photographers, now girls, please be careful, don’t hurt the
photographers.”
A mad dash finds us at MPL in minutes, hoping Paul is headed
for the same place. We beat him as they
look a longer route. His first words
upon getting out of the car were, “That was quick!” And he laughed. Someone gave him a wrapped package and
someone else asked, “What’s in it?” Paul
yells out, “It’s mine, she gave it to ME!
You’re not seeing!” Kathy gave
him a plaque and he glanced at it saying, “That’s very deep!” Kathy manages to get a quick autograph and
then as someone else asks, he says, “I’m not doing autographs now, just
pictures, and I have to see a man about a dog.” I felt bad at this as I had planned on
asking for an autograph for a friend (Hi Robb).
I didn’t mean to sound pushy but I said sort of pleadingly, “Please Paul,
it’s for a friend. Please?” I sort of called it out over the crowd to
him. He gave me an “I’m sorry” look and called
back, “Leave it with Sally” (MPL worker). I felt really bad then and quite mad
at myself for being so pushy. I hadn’t
intended that.
The crowds as usual grew, and by the time Paul was ready to
leave, the 20 or so that saw him arrive was not closer to 40. The bodyguards also arrived taking positions
on either side. They made me
nervous. (We read in the paper the next
day that they had been hired because of death threats against Linda!) Before Paul left, two girls came out. We had seen them there another day, and now
we realized they were Heather and Mary, dressed very normally, and certainly
looking like any young girls.
Paul’s driver John had gone off with the car, so we were not
prepared for Paul to come down the stairs so quickly, and after a stop at the
desk he headed for the door. He soon
discovered he had no car available! The show
began. He started with a goofy grin,
sort of like a manikin like pose, his hand on his hip, which I managed to catch
with my camera. He then threw himself up
against the door, pressing his nose against the glass and crossing his
eyes! At this point I shipped out my
movie camera. I filmed a bit of him
pretending to be bored, yawning, and I didn’t even see this until I got the
film back, and he’s sticking his tongue out!
Someone approached the door wanting Paul to autograph something. WE all kept telling him not to, but Paul
opened the door and obliged. Then he
went back to “performing” again. You had
to be there. Every time he did something
loony, we all screeched, laughed and snapped pictures. It was a riot and he seemed to enjoy it as
much as we did. Linda would occasionally
glance out. He’d walk away, we’d grin,
and he’d come back looking for John. We’d
all shake and heads to tell him, “No, he’s not here.” Much to our disappointment, John finally
arrived after five minutes of antics.
Paul came out then and a few people grabbed him for
autographs. I had decided against
it. The crowds were too much and he
obviously was in a hurry. I was still
mad at myself for earlier. So I
contented myself with taking a few photos.
He started to head for the car and he turned down a few more autograph
requests, saying “I’m in a hurry. I’m
really in a hurry.” He came near me, by
the car. I had something from my friend
to hand him. As I handed it to him, he
said, “What’s this?” I told him what it
was and then to my utter amazement he said, “OK, what was it you wanted me to
sign? Do you have it?” I was stunned. I could not believe that he remembered and
that he took the time to oblige when he was I such a rush. I didn’t have a pen and he waited patiently
while I borrowed one. He kept saying “I’m
in a hurry” and I kept thanking him over and over saying, “I didn’t want to bother you, it’s for a
friend or I wouldn’t have asked.” And he
just grinned and said, “It’s okay.” He
said, “I hope half an autograph will do, I must go.” I said thanks and I was all choked up because
the way he came through and had taken the time to stop and to remember by
request with all those people around.
Not that he remembered me as an individual but that he remembered a fan’s
request and that he realized I hadn’t meant to be pushy. It’s amazing the memory he has for faces as
there were quite a lot of people around, yet the second he saw me he
stopped. He drove away, and me, I was so
pleased and happy at what had just occurred.
I’m sure that I drove Laurie and Kathy crazy repeating what he had done,
but I ‘m also sure they understood why.
They know how he is. He always
goes out of his way to accommodate his fans.
I have seen it happen on occasions myself and have read it or heard
stories from others. I’m sure that at
times he’s sick of it, but he goes on.
He did say in a recent interview that his real fans have stood by him
and supported him, so perhaps this is his way of thanking them. Anyway…there’s no one like him!
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