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Met up with Alan last night ( he did well with Pete). It was nice to meet someone from this group, the first time for me, and it was a pleasure meeting Alan, a really nice guy.
The Pete Townsend talk itself was at the Boiler House which is part of the old Truman Brewery site in Brick Lane, so the walk to/from the location involves fending off ceompetitive restaurant staff trying to coax you into their establishment. To be fair, the smell from some was good, but I am on a diet, so a no no for me.
The room was very high, seating was cramped, and the staff had not prepared the sound (microphones were awful). The evening was organised as a Times Plus event through Waterstones, so the interviewer was will Hodgkinson who writes for The Times among many publications. We had quite good central seats for the talk about four rows back.
Pete arrived, looking nervous at first. Once both Pete and Will sat down, and tried to talk, there was horrendous mike feedback, then the mikes cut out. Mikes were switched, and still not working well. Pete was irritated by this, and said tos top until the mikes were sorted. Cue applause from the audience. It was poor management of simple technology by the venue hosts. Pete tried to downplay it by sayiong he had come by train, so did not have time for a sound check, but any good venue would have sound checked themselves. after this Pete looked more relaxed, and really got into the flow of talking to Will about the book, music and events from hsi life over 45 minutes before a 30 minute q&a sesssion from the audience. My cynical side does wonder if the people who asked the questions were stooges as the questions were clinical and complex in their delivery, and no-one stumbled as you would often get from an audience member. Add to this that any awkward questions were avoided until the last question when Pete was asked if The Who would be playing the UK after the USA dates, and he said "What's the UK? UCK!" That was that.
I enjoyed listening to Pete, and could have happily listened to more despite the cramped seating. After the talk ended, it was then a free for all to get books signed. I thought Waterstones were cheeky as they asked full book price on teh night despite the event being high price (£10 Times members, £15 non members). Often at talks like this they give a discount versus the ticket price. Probably due to The Times running it they could not though. On the plus side, if you wanted, you coudl have got as many copies of the book signed as you wanted. Hoorah for the eBayers! Alan benefitted from this though as he had bought a copy elesewhere cheaper, so was able to get that signed as well. 🙂
I followed Alan in the queue, and my book was taken from me, so I did not get to hand it to Pete in person, and at the same time while asking if I could get my autograph book signed, was pushed away with contempt by his manager. That was that, book signed, and I was moved on. Alan did better though, as he will explain. Despite that, glad I went as I got to meet Alan, and Pete was well worth listening to.
At the time, I did not think it was a great sig from Pete. In hindsight, looking at some other signed work out there, it is not too bad.
a great experience nigel all the same,i have noticed at these events he has been signing his signature a bit rushed,compared to his pre signed books available at w/s and such,i got my two books i ordered today,they look more slowly written
Thanks for that Nigel sounds like you and Alan had a great night , my book turned up today too
