Post by The End on Oct 22, 2007 13:53:41 GMT
22 November 2006
Paul McCartney was doing a rare signing in Virgin Records, but to meet the legend and obtain his autograph would mean sleeping overnight on the icy cold streets of London town in order to obtain a wristband for the signing at 12:30pm the following day.
It was a bitterly cold November 21st evening, and despite my brain and bronchitis telling me I was nuts, I left my house at 9:45pm on the Tuesday night and made my way to the train station and into London town.
I eventually arrived at the doors of Virgin Records, Piccadilly Circus at about 11:00. It was so weird travelling into town at that time of night - it just felt wrong for some reason!
Outside the shop I could see about 30 people all lying motionless in their sleeping bags, lined up along the display windows like there'd been a massacre! Some were wrapped in those silver sheets normally handed out to marathon runners at the end of a race - it was fucking cold!
There were actually more people in the queue than I thought there would be and following the line of multi-coloured bags which disappeared around the corner, I made my way to the back of the queue. As I turned the corner, there stretched out in front of me along the entire length of the road was sleeping bag after sleeping bag. "Shit - this isn't good" I thought!!
I followed the queue around to the next corner and was met with the same image - "BIG shit - this REALLY isn't good" I thought and continued on... I eventually found the back of the queue about 30 feet up the road around the next bend! A security guard was giving out numbered tickets so you wouldn't lose your place if you had to "go somewhere" (like for a big shit!) - I was number 199. Not as high as I'd expected, judging by the length of the queue, but still high enough! I asked the security guard what my chances were of getting a wristband - he wasn't hopeful!
But anyway, I pitched camp outside a Scottish Gentlemen's Outfitters shop - selling sporrans, various tartan fabric and kashmir sweaters at 25% off (I wondered if it was just their way of saying there was a sleeve missing!) - next to a bus stop with the Café Royal directly opposite on the other side of the road. I quietly unpacked my stuff which consisted of a fisherman’s chair, a blanket, umbrella and a flask of hot coffee - no sleeping bag! My intention was to keep warm under the blanket and fall asleep in the chair - I was wrong on both counts!
I was on my own having been dumped by 4 prospective queue buddies - including 1 member of the British Beatles Fan Club, 1 member of the Paul McCartney forum and 2 of my best mates - and I absolutely could not blame them: it really was bitterly cold!!
I sat there for a while staring up at the Christmas lights along Regent Street and feeling rather stupid! Fortunately, I wasn't alone for long as 4 other people soon joined me at the back of the queue - 2 young guys named Ed and Joe who were a brilliant laugh and spent most of the night experimenting in various ways to get stoned including the consumption of several cans of very dodgy imitation Diamond White cider called "White Lightning"; a really nice guy from Sweden (who's name I can't remember, sorry!); and a left-handed guitar player called James who'd brought an acoustic with him. "Wow, someone with a guitar - how brilliant is that?" is what our initial impression was but we quickly discovered he was a total cock! He was about 16 years old and although he was a fair guitarist, we were immediately put off by his very frank discussion of porn within 5 minutes of meeting him!
Then at about 12:00 we were joined by a vodka-swilling tramp, who sat down on the floor next to us and hurled abuse at the passers-by. This was funny at first but after an hour and a half it was a tad annoying especially as he insisted on reciting expletive-littered Pogues lyrics to us! He eventually fell asleep mid-song and then, as quickly as he arrived, he was almost gone - it took him a long while to get to his feet and then stagger away up the street swearing into his empty Smirnoff bottle!
Of course everyone wanted to know why we were lined up in the street (including myself!), and being situated right next to a bus stop didn't help! At first I happily told them that Paul McCartney was appearing in Virgin records, but after a few hours of this, my answers became a bit more inventive, including waiting for the Scottish Gentlemen's Outfitters sale, saving the dolphin, waiting for Christmas and protesting about Greenpeace's interference in world whaling. Well, it kept us amused for a while!
The lowest point of the night was at about 4:00am - after 5 hours on the street I was absolutely frozen, everyone else was asleep but I hadn't slept a wink and as I checked the time I realised I still had another 5 hours to go before the Virgin doors opened!!
Around about 7:00 the sky to my right gradually began to lighten - I have never been happier to see the dawn (and probably have never had reason to be!) which brought with it the prospect of warmth! I was wrong again - the prospect of warmth was quickly replaced by pissing rain at about 10:00!
Anyway, at about 7:15 I bravely stood up to see if my legs were still working and took a walk towards the statue of Eros and the multi-coloured illuminated adverts of Piccadilly Circus. I strode towards the lights like something out of a George Romero movie, and I as lurched onward I noticed that during the night the queue had grown by roughly another 300 people and more were joining on at the back all the time!
After my strange walk, I stopped off in Burger King on my way back to get 4 teas for the guys - how nice am I - and I was about to cross the road with the teas when I spotted that the entire queue had disappeared! "SHIT" I thought aloud, and imagined that the doors must have opened, I'd lost my chance to get in and my whole zombie legged experience was all for nothing!!
Then as I got closer, running with the 4 steaming-hot teas burning my hands, I saw the 4 guys still asleep on the floor but the rest of the queue had disappeared! I kicked the guy's chairs and shouted to wake them up very quickly (I edited a few expletives out there!) as the queue had fucking gone (oops, an expletive slipped through!) Once they were awake-ish, we gathered up all our stuff set off up the road to find out where the queue had gone!
Armed with our queue numbers (mine was 199, remember) we ran along the queue looking for our spot and eventually we did find our way back into our rightful place in the queue!
The doors actually hadn't opened! It seems everyone had woken up at about the same time and, with their sleeping bags and chairs folded away, they had gradually moved into the vacant space in front of them! And with everyone now standing erect, the queue had reduced by half a mile!
Unfortunately, the rest of the queue had decided that the 4 guys I was with needed an extra lie-in and so didn't bother waking them. How bloody kind!
At about 8:30, the queue started lurching forward and we got to the front of Virgin Records in about 20 minutes. I purchased my copies of "Ecce" and the DVD and was rewarded with a precious wristband entitling me to queue to meet Macca... with no guarantees that I would! About 20 people followed me into the shop and they didn't let anyone else in after that - there were still about 700 people left in the queue at this time!
Once we had purchased our two items, we were lead upstairs, in queue order, to the Australian section of the World Music department, where we would wait another 3 and a half hours for the arrival of Mr McCartney. Luckily the new Beatle album "Love" was blasting from the in-store sound system, so that broke some of the monotony!
Then just after 12:30pm on Wednesday 22 November 2006 (33 years to the day since the release of With The Beatles), Paul was suddenly there and walked within 10 feet of me, smiling, waving and giving his trademark thumbs up - he looked great actually despite his legal wranglings with that leggy blonde! After a media frenzy of flashbulbs and Heather comments the queue very slowly began to move towards Paul's signing desk. But it was getting on for 2:00 and we were convinced we wouldn't get there before he left.
But I finally met Paul McCartney...
It was a very brief but incredibly special moment because, after spending a sleepless night on the freezing cold streets of London - the coldest I have EVER been in my entire life - and having queued for a total of 16 hours, when my turn finally came, I heard the opening piano chords of Let It Be start playing as I walked up to meet him - talk about a lump in the throat!!!!!
Prior to that, in the queue, we were warned about asking him to sign anything other than the 2 'official' items - his new DVD and "Ecce" - he would not be signing any Beatle memorabilia, the Love CD, Xmas cards or babies. No cameras, video equipment, mobile phones or hand grenades were allowed... the list of "don'ts" was endless!!
When I got to the signing desk - "when I find myself in times of trouble..." - where Paul McCartney was sat, we both said hello and shook hands, I then handed over my 2 items for signing, and before I could blink they were signed and handed back!
I had all sorts of things in my head to say to him but instead I asked if he could possibly make the signatures out to me ("no personal messages" was on the "don'ts" list!) he said he "wasn't supposed to, but..." and he took one of the items back to write my name on it! I said a really intense "thank you very much" and shook his hand again. I think he knew I was thanking him for so much more than the autographs - at least that is what I am still telling myself. He said "you're welcome" and then for some strange reason I decided to wink at him - he smiled back, I shook his hand again and then I rather reluctantly walked away from the desk.
I was then ushered downstairs (not because of the wink!) and out of the store by a very burly security woman and into the pouring rain!!
And that was it!!
I slept all the way home on the train, went to bed at about 4pm-ish and woke up at 7-ish the following morning!
It was totally worth it!
Paul McCartney was doing a rare signing in Virgin Records, but to meet the legend and obtain his autograph would mean sleeping overnight on the icy cold streets of London town in order to obtain a wristband for the signing at 12:30pm the following day.
It was a bitterly cold November 21st evening, and despite my brain and bronchitis telling me I was nuts, I left my house at 9:45pm on the Tuesday night and made my way to the train station and into London town.
I eventually arrived at the doors of Virgin Records, Piccadilly Circus at about 11:00. It was so weird travelling into town at that time of night - it just felt wrong for some reason!
Outside the shop I could see about 30 people all lying motionless in their sleeping bags, lined up along the display windows like there'd been a massacre! Some were wrapped in those silver sheets normally handed out to marathon runners at the end of a race - it was fucking cold!
There were actually more people in the queue than I thought there would be and following the line of multi-coloured bags which disappeared around the corner, I made my way to the back of the queue. As I turned the corner, there stretched out in front of me along the entire length of the road was sleeping bag after sleeping bag. "Shit - this isn't good" I thought!!
I followed the queue around to the next corner and was met with the same image - "BIG shit - this REALLY isn't good" I thought and continued on... I eventually found the back of the queue about 30 feet up the road around the next bend! A security guard was giving out numbered tickets so you wouldn't lose your place if you had to "go somewhere" (like for a big shit!) - I was number 199. Not as high as I'd expected, judging by the length of the queue, but still high enough! I asked the security guard what my chances were of getting a wristband - he wasn't hopeful!
But anyway, I pitched camp outside a Scottish Gentlemen's Outfitters shop - selling sporrans, various tartan fabric and kashmir sweaters at 25% off (I wondered if it was just their way of saying there was a sleeve missing!) - next to a bus stop with the Café Royal directly opposite on the other side of the road. I quietly unpacked my stuff which consisted of a fisherman’s chair, a blanket, umbrella and a flask of hot coffee - no sleeping bag! My intention was to keep warm under the blanket and fall asleep in the chair - I was wrong on both counts!
I was on my own having been dumped by 4 prospective queue buddies - including 1 member of the British Beatles Fan Club, 1 member of the Paul McCartney forum and 2 of my best mates - and I absolutely could not blame them: it really was bitterly cold!!
I sat there for a while staring up at the Christmas lights along Regent Street and feeling rather stupid! Fortunately, I wasn't alone for long as 4 other people soon joined me at the back of the queue - 2 young guys named Ed and Joe who were a brilliant laugh and spent most of the night experimenting in various ways to get stoned including the consumption of several cans of very dodgy imitation Diamond White cider called "White Lightning"; a really nice guy from Sweden (who's name I can't remember, sorry!); and a left-handed guitar player called James who'd brought an acoustic with him. "Wow, someone with a guitar - how brilliant is that?" is what our initial impression was but we quickly discovered he was a total cock! He was about 16 years old and although he was a fair guitarist, we were immediately put off by his very frank discussion of porn within 5 minutes of meeting him!
Then at about 12:00 we were joined by a vodka-swilling tramp, who sat down on the floor next to us and hurled abuse at the passers-by. This was funny at first but after an hour and a half it was a tad annoying especially as he insisted on reciting expletive-littered Pogues lyrics to us! He eventually fell asleep mid-song and then, as quickly as he arrived, he was almost gone - it took him a long while to get to his feet and then stagger away up the street swearing into his empty Smirnoff bottle!
Of course everyone wanted to know why we were lined up in the street (including myself!), and being situated right next to a bus stop didn't help! At first I happily told them that Paul McCartney was appearing in Virgin records, but after a few hours of this, my answers became a bit more inventive, including waiting for the Scottish Gentlemen's Outfitters sale, saving the dolphin, waiting for Christmas and protesting about Greenpeace's interference in world whaling. Well, it kept us amused for a while!
The lowest point of the night was at about 4:00am - after 5 hours on the street I was absolutely frozen, everyone else was asleep but I hadn't slept a wink and as I checked the time I realised I still had another 5 hours to go before the Virgin doors opened!!
Around about 7:00 the sky to my right gradually began to lighten - I have never been happier to see the dawn (and probably have never had reason to be!) which brought with it the prospect of warmth! I was wrong again - the prospect of warmth was quickly replaced by pissing rain at about 10:00!
Anyway, at about 7:15 I bravely stood up to see if my legs were still working and took a walk towards the statue of Eros and the multi-coloured illuminated adverts of Piccadilly Circus. I strode towards the lights like something out of a George Romero movie, and I as lurched onward I noticed that during the night the queue had grown by roughly another 300 people and more were joining on at the back all the time!
After my strange walk, I stopped off in Burger King on my way back to get 4 teas for the guys - how nice am I - and I was about to cross the road with the teas when I spotted that the entire queue had disappeared! "SHIT" I thought aloud, and imagined that the doors must have opened, I'd lost my chance to get in and my whole zombie legged experience was all for nothing!!
Then as I got closer, running with the 4 steaming-hot teas burning my hands, I saw the 4 guys still asleep on the floor but the rest of the queue had disappeared! I kicked the guy's chairs and shouted to wake them up very quickly (I edited a few expletives out there!) as the queue had fucking gone (oops, an expletive slipped through!) Once they were awake-ish, we gathered up all our stuff set off up the road to find out where the queue had gone!
Armed with our queue numbers (mine was 199, remember) we ran along the queue looking for our spot and eventually we did find our way back into our rightful place in the queue!
The doors actually hadn't opened! It seems everyone had woken up at about the same time and, with their sleeping bags and chairs folded away, they had gradually moved into the vacant space in front of them! And with everyone now standing erect, the queue had reduced by half a mile!
Unfortunately, the rest of the queue had decided that the 4 guys I was with needed an extra lie-in and so didn't bother waking them. How bloody kind!
At about 8:30, the queue started lurching forward and we got to the front of Virgin Records in about 20 minutes. I purchased my copies of "Ecce" and the DVD and was rewarded with a precious wristband entitling me to queue to meet Macca... with no guarantees that I would! About 20 people followed me into the shop and they didn't let anyone else in after that - there were still about 700 people left in the queue at this time!
Once we had purchased our two items, we were lead upstairs, in queue order, to the Australian section of the World Music department, where we would wait another 3 and a half hours for the arrival of Mr McCartney. Luckily the new Beatle album "Love" was blasting from the in-store sound system, so that broke some of the monotony!
Then just after 12:30pm on Wednesday 22 November 2006 (33 years to the day since the release of With The Beatles), Paul was suddenly there and walked within 10 feet of me, smiling, waving and giving his trademark thumbs up - he looked great actually despite his legal wranglings with that leggy blonde! After a media frenzy of flashbulbs and Heather comments the queue very slowly began to move towards Paul's signing desk. But it was getting on for 2:00 and we were convinced we wouldn't get there before he left.
But I finally met Paul McCartney...
It was a very brief but incredibly special moment because, after spending a sleepless night on the freezing cold streets of London - the coldest I have EVER been in my entire life - and having queued for a total of 16 hours, when my turn finally came, I heard the opening piano chords of Let It Be start playing as I walked up to meet him - talk about a lump in the throat!!!!!
Prior to that, in the queue, we were warned about asking him to sign anything other than the 2 'official' items - his new DVD and "Ecce" - he would not be signing any Beatle memorabilia, the Love CD, Xmas cards or babies. No cameras, video equipment, mobile phones or hand grenades were allowed... the list of "don'ts" was endless!!
When I got to the signing desk - "when I find myself in times of trouble..." - where Paul McCartney was sat, we both said hello and shook hands, I then handed over my 2 items for signing, and before I could blink they were signed and handed back!
I had all sorts of things in my head to say to him but instead I asked if he could possibly make the signatures out to me ("no personal messages" was on the "don'ts" list!) he said he "wasn't supposed to, but..." and he took one of the items back to write my name on it! I said a really intense "thank you very much" and shook his hand again. I think he knew I was thanking him for so much more than the autographs - at least that is what I am still telling myself. He said "you're welcome" and then for some strange reason I decided to wink at him - he smiled back, I shook his hand again and then I rather reluctantly walked away from the desk.
I was then ushered downstairs (not because of the wink!) and out of the store by a very burly security woman and into the pouring rain!!
And that was it!!
I slept all the way home on the train, went to bed at about 4pm-ish and woke up at 7-ish the following morning!
It was totally worth it!