Mick Fleetwood's personal appearance at drum store in Archway (London) 1988

[THD]

A friend alerted me to the fact that Mick was to make a personal appearance at John Shearer’s drum store in Archway (London) on Sat 18 June 1988 ,so I rang up and got the details On the Saturday , I was behind schedule as I was trying to make some recordings of my guitar playing to give to Mick at some point ,but had to abandon this , and as a consequence, when I got to Battersea Park train station I knew I would never get there for 2.00 and very nearly gave up the mission I’m glad I didn’t though ! I turned up at about 2.30 which was quicker than I’d estimated, but Mick hadn’t arrived! I paid my £2 (yes! two pounds !) there were only about seven other people there in the basement , all younger than me . We waited and more young drummers arrived , but no sign of Mick ! The manager of the shop (John Shearer ?\)assured us that Mick was on his way, and we waited and waited and the shop owner would go off , and make another phone call and say he was coming, but he seemed to be getting a bit agitato We were all beginning to think it was not going to happen , and it was an hoax. But to our surprise, and delight, eventually Mick arrived ,together with his blonde pony tailed Australian manager and a black African conga player. Mick was charming(my diary says “articulate ,funny and relaxed “) people crowded round him to get albums signed (it never even occurred to me to take one !)and he answered questions. Most of the others there were teenage drummers and I think they were a bit shy about asking questions though there was some technical stuff about how he tuned his snare etc There was a pair of lads who introduced themselves as some sort of relatives of his , or sons of a family friend , and he realised the connection when they explained. I asked about his experience, recalled it a book about the supernatural ,written by the Pete Barden’s dad (Peter Green and Mick had played in Pete B’s Looners ) where apparently, on the way back from a gig ,they saw a ghost of a naval officer floating above the rural road which frightened. Mick no end ! He said “yes” he did believe in ghosts.! I also told him about the missing: Color Me Pop (BBC 2 TV prog from 1968 ) and asked him if it still existed. He said he didn’t know. This was the first time I’d talked to Mick ,(though subsequently I have, on occasions, had mostly hurried ,but sometimes lengthy chats with him outside hotels !) I explained that I had written to the BBC about it, but to no avail !He signed autographs for those that wanted it, and even had his own B&W 10X8 photos for those that didn’t bring one ! He posed for photographs- I took a few (wish I’d done more in retrospect !) Th out of the blue , he said to his manager “maybe we could get all these people to come and see the concert “but his manager shook his head ,and said “maybe we could do six pairs of tickets “-so we all wrote our names on bits of paper, which were put in a drum case, and Mick made the draw and pulled out the six bits of paper., and read out the names .The manager of the shop persuaded Mick to play the drums for us (don’t think this was part of the plan )……so then we all went upstairs and he did a drum demonstrations which was very impressive) Much fancier than he would ever do with the Mac I think the African drummer joined in Again this was very different from his normal “ less is more blues shuffle style “ (Mick ,for some reason plays down his ability “I can’t even do a roll ! “ he has confessed ,yet he did the most sublime pressed roll on Need Your Love So Bad- but I digress )This was just superb stuff apart from anything else we were standing only 10ft away from one of the worlds premiere (sorry !) drummers who was letting rip ! And then he stopped , the shop guy thanked him and they were through the door , in the car and off !

Oh I nearly forgot : was my name on one of those bits of paper ?

To be continuued ?