CAROLE'S ACCOUNT

It all started on Friday PM, before I left home.
I had been instructed to call the hotel & speak to Billy's pa who would be organizing the meeting etc.
It was my hope to just 'meet' Billy on Friday & then interview him on Sat, as I felt I would do a better job, if I wasn't sat there with my mouth open, gasping in awe at him!!
I felt once we were introduced & I had had chance to overcome that, I would more likely be able to conduct an interview anything like professionally.
Anyway, when I got through to the hotel, I asked for the pa's room & this guy answered asking who I was.
I explained that I was Carole Page & my call was expected, I run the BI FC & am hoping to pose a few questions to Billy at some point over the weekend.

"Well this is Billy" came the reply .
(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
There was no mistaking that voice.
Don't ask me how I managed to keep a controlled & calm conversation going, it is something I will never know.
I'm just glad he couldn't see me.!

He told me that his pa had popped out for an hour & that I should phone back then.
In a state of complete & utter shock, I said, OK I would. I was on the verge of hanging up. No questions or comments came to my mind, I just wanted to let escape this yell of disbelief that had developed inside me .
However, before I did, he quickly added,
"So, Carole Page eh ??"

"Yes, " I replied. "Did Jane mention that I had taken over running the club?

"Yes", he replied. "you know it could be heaven... or it could be hell " & laughed.

I also laughed & said I was sure it wouldn't be the latter.

He then said that everyone who had ever worked on his PR had been lined up & shot (?) but not to let that put me off !!

I laughed & said I would try not to!

He then suggested I phone back in an hour when his pa should be back.

I said I would & apologized if I had disturbed him, he said, not at all, see you later & hung up.
I don't think I'm actually able to describe my reaction when I put the phone down, but lets just say that it was a cross between sheer elation & complete disbelief.

Well, after eventually speaking to the pa, he arranged for us to meet him back stage before the show on Friday when he would give us our passes.

Straight away we were taken to the backstage area.
Apparently there at the time were all of The Who stars, but I didn't actually notice any of them as I walked past them, I had seen the ‘vision’ in the distance as soon as I entered & saw & heard nothing else.
As we approached Billy was in embrace with a short petite blond with long golden curls. For a minute, I was anxious thinking he would not want to be disturbed, but when we were introduced, he excused himself from her & turned & greeted us warmly.
He shook our hands & asked us exactly what we wanted.

I handed him the printed sheet I had prepared. It had an introductory piece about the HP & how I had chosen the most commonly asked questions to put to him, some of a professional nature & some personal.
I asked him if he would have a look through & allow us to tape his replies sometime tomorrow.

Whilst we were chatting Chris Quentin approached him & asked him if they were 'doing town' over the weekend, & I thought we would loose his attention at that point, but not only did he return immediately to us, but picked up the thread of conversation without any effort.
He was wearing what you see in the photo, with the usual black boots & a wonderful 'coffin' on a chain around his neck.
I admired it & asked if I could open it. Apparently it had a skeleton inside.
Although, he was quite happy for me to do so, I could not manage to open it (hands shaking !!??) He had a try himself, but had no nails to do so & it was decided to leave it. The only other difference was the glasses he was wearing had a mauve tint to them. The first thing that struck me was how well he looked, really looked. He seemed quite stocky & his hands were really warm & soft.

Anyway, he asked if he could keep the copy of questions, if we had another set & was scurried off to makeup.

I had earlier asked if he had had a chance to see the site yet. I got the impression that he hadn't & gave him one of our cards.
I suggested he had a word with the manager of the hotel where he was staying to see if they were 'on-line' & if so to give it a try.
His reply was something to the effect that he would have to learn to type such small F***ing letters !!!

He then laughed & said he would see us tomorrow.
His pa invited us back after the show for refreshments & said in the meantime he would set something up for our interview.
Ultimately he suggested we ring him at the hotel the next afternoon.

We (well I ) floated out of there & tried to concentrate on the show.

I am actually a Who fan & have seen them live before, but for the first 10 mins or so, I could not bring myself to focus or concentrate on the show.
My mind was still backstage!
After about 30 mins, the moment arrived & this figure bounded onto the stage. He was dressed (for his part) in a well cut suit, (grey), shirt & tie.
I will be doing an actual review of the concert at a later point.
I have to say I found it very strange seeing him so briefly before he ran off stage again. In my eyes he is the star & I didn’t really enjoy seeing him in a ‘bit part’.
Don’t get me wrong, it was great to see him & he played the part brilliantly, brilliantly, but it was a strange feeling seeing him disappear so soon after coming on.
After the show, we went backstage & met most of the Who, & enjoyed the free hospitality refreshments.
What a day.
Before we left, we confirmed with Billy’s pa what time we should phone the next day & off we trekked to where we were staying.
It took us 2 hours to get there (due to a number of circumstances I wont bore you with ) & it was BITTER cold.
However, once tucked up in my nice warm bed, I lay awake for ages reflecting on what had happened to me that day & still couldn’t quite absorb the enormity of it.

. The next day, we arrived at the venue & went straight back stage & asked to see the pa, but was told he wasn’t there yet. Disappointed we went to the bar for a drink & tried again about 30 mins later.
This time, Billy was sat waiting for us holding the question sheet & looking absolutely GORGEOUS, GORGEOUS!
GORGEOUS !!!!
He greeted us warmly & was VERY welcoming.
At that moment his pa brought over his dinner ( a clear, spring vegetable soup, with French bread & 2 bananas)
Billy said he was ‘starving’ & really needed some substance to ‘soak it all up’.
I suggested at that point that we leave him to have his dinner in peace & went off to collect autographs from the other Who members on a programme, with possible future use as a HP prize.

When Billy had finished, his PR called us over & brought us all a drink, Dave & I had Coke & Billy had still Evian water.
We then started chatting for about 5 mins or so, when I suggested we start on the questions & we switched on the tape.

As soon as I have the OK back from the various depts, the transcript will go on line & you can read for yourself how the interview went, but what I will say & what most surprised me was how EASY Billy is to interview.
He was warm, funny, very relaxed, as obliging as you could ever wish him to be & very open & frank in everything we discussed.
I had been a little anxious about the fact that he is used to being interviewed by top professionals, highly paid experts & here were we, 2 ordinary people who had never really conducted a professional interview before & I was worried that we may come over as a bit incompetent & that he might be irritated by it.
But I took myself sharply with 2 hands & firmly forced on my ‘professional head’. I took a deep breath & swept aside all the thoughts of him that kept coming into my mind & determinedly concentrated on the job in hand.
I knew if I blew this opportunity, I would not get another & I desperately wanted to show everyone that I was a good representative of the fan club.

It went well.
Of course I could have done with just another 5 mins or so & there were quite a few questions I didn’t get chance to ask & some I only thought of after, but then I guess that’s all par for the course???
What I will say though, is how REALLY, REALLY nice he was, he is. He was SO friendly & really seemed genuinely pleased to be participating in the Fanclub once again. In fact we were interrupted several times, once in fact by Harvey Goldsmith (you know?, big, big guy ) & I thought we would loose Billy’s attention, but he politely smiled & said, "Let me think about it, I’m doing this interview at the moment, one thing at a time
please "
Well, I felt so proud.
Even after a few other interruptions, he remained attentive,
"This is for the fanclub," he said, "for the important people, the people who matter"
Even after we finished, he made time for my ‘hug’ & a couple of photos.
He smiled a lot & laughed a lot & seemed to be completely at ease.
He was not rude or abusive, or impatient, in fact he was wonderful.

He was just GREAT.!!!
As we were leaving, he called after me,
"Thanks for keeping the club going by the way, I’ll send you a fax from time to time" & shot the MOST AMAZING GRIN.

I’ll never be the same again & that’s for sure !!!

We went directly to our seats for the show & immediately the lights went down, I have to confess to a few secret tears through the first 5 mins of the show, as the emotion was finally allowed to escape.

After the show, we said a brief thanks & goodbye to Billy & watched as he left with his driver & a girl at either side.

It was indeed a weekend to remember.

As this goes on line now you will see that the OK has come through for us to publish the interview.
I hope you all enjoy reading it.
It is the very latest, ‘hot off the press’ comments from our man himself, hopefully answering some of those long awaited questions.

Billy has also taken some time out to hand-write a personal message to all his fans & this is shown on the ‘Billy’s message’ page.
If this is not wonderful enough, Billy has promised to update us periodically whenever he has anything new to report.
I know we will all look forward to it.

For now I would like to wish you all a very Idol 1997.

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