In 1985, I was travelling
with Mojo Filter from Harwich to Hamburg by
boat to play a week in a club on the Reeperbahn. It
was gonna be a godawful journey...23 hours on a
boat...I HATE boats!
At the ferry terminal, I was on the phone...a call
box, cellphones were only available on Mars.
Paul Cooper interrupted my call to my girlfriend by
saying:
"Hey... guess who's in the queue to get on this
boat?"
"Who?"
"Kate Bush"
"Yeah right...you mean someone who looks like
Kate Bush?"
"No....I mean fuckin' KATE fuckin' BUSH"
I put the phone down on my girlfriend...a huge Kate
fan who was quite beside herself with excitement and
extremely pissed off at the same time. We walked back
to the queue. Sure enough.... a few places down the
queue...there she was.. with brother Paddy and regular
beau, Del Palmer.
OK...let's be cool about this.... I'm gonna be on a
boat for 23 hours with my idol... I was even carrying
the latest edition of "Smash Hits" magazine,
bought because it had the promo for Hounds of Love in
it. I will bide my time and be patient.#
Of course....once we boarded the boat and she and Del
waved goodbye to Paddy.... the pair of them fucked off
to a cabin and that was that. Fuck! missed my chance.
That night...we we got pissed in the bar and caused
some superficial damage to the boat....but that's
another story!
The following morning, and with a bit of a hangover,
our drummer reported that he had seen Kate go into the
on board cinema... Ghostbusters was showing. I parked
myself outside the cinema....and waited...Smash Hits
in hand.
She came out with Del.... this was my chance!!!
Like a complete imbecile... I lunged at her and asked
if she would sign my mag....and uttered some toss
about how much I thought she was the second coming and
the new album was amazing. She was very gracious and
sweet and explained that she was off to do a TV show
in Germany and she couldn't bare flying which was why
she was travelling this way.
I've met some amazing people in this bizarre
occupation, including Paul McCartney, George Martin,
Tom Jones, Smokey Robinson... but I've NEVER been as
shaky as this...and I've not asked for autographs.
But....we are talking about the most individual talent
here. Woo hoo!!
