Alan Meets MACCA!!! - DM's Beatles forums

Despite my brain and my cough telling me I was nuts, I went!

I left my house at 9:45pm and made my way to the station. I got to Virgin Records, Piccadilly Circus at about 11:00 and could see about 30 people all lying motionless in their sleeping bags lined up outside the shop - some were wrapped in those silver sheets normally handed out to marathon runners at the end of a race - it was bloody cold!

There were more people in the queue than I thought there would be and I followed the line to the end which disappeared around the corner... and as I turned the corner there stretched out in front of me all along the entire length of the road was sleeping bag after sleeping bag. "This isn't good" I thought!!

I followed the queue around to the next corner and was met with the same image! I continued on and eventually found the end of the queue around the next bend! A security guard was giving out numbered tickets so you wouldn't lose you place if you had to "go somewhere" - I was 199. Not as high as I'd expected, judging by the length of the queue, but still high enough!

I pitched camp outside a Scottish Gentlemen's Outfitters - selling sporrans, various tartan fabric and kashmir sweaters- next to a bus stop with the Cafe Royal directly opposite on the other side of the road. I quietly unpacked my stuff which consisted of a chair, blanket, umbrella and a flask of 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 couldn't blame them!

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 the night finding 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 were soon were put off by his frank discussion of porn within 5 minutes of meeting him and he turned out to be a bit of a cock!

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! 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.

Of course everyone wanted to know why we were lined up in the street (including myself!) - and being situated next to the 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 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!!

I bravely got up for a walk at about 7:00 - just as it was getting light - roughly, another 300 people had joined the queue overnight and more and more people were joining all the time!

On my way back, I stopped off in Burger King to get 4 teas for the guys - how nice am I! I was about to cross the road with the teas when I spotted that the entire queue had disappeared! "mess" I thought and said aloud imagining that the doors must have opened and I'd lost my chance to get in!

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!! The whole of the queue had moved on past without even waking them up! I kicked their chairs and shouted to wake them up as quickly as possible and we then set off to find out where the queue had gone!

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! So, armed with our queue numbers (mine was 199, remember) we eventually found our way back into our rightful place in the queue! The doors hadn't opened - phew!

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 the precious wristband. About 20 people followed me into the shop and they didn't let anyone else in after that.

Then, in queue order, we were lead upstairs to the World Music section, where we would wait another 3 and a half hours for the arrival of Mr McCartney with "Love" blasting from the in-store sound system.

Then just after 12:30pm on Wednesday 22 November 2006 (33 years after 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! After a media frenzy of flashbulbs and Heather comments the queue very slowly began to move towards Paul's signing desk. 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 new classical album - no cameras, no video equipment, no mobile phones, no hand grenades... the list of "don'ts" was endless too!!

When I got to the signing desk 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 including the "aaaahs" question but instead I asked if he could possibly make the signatures out to "Alan" ("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 "To Alan" on it! I said thank you very much, shook his hand again and winked for some strange reason, he said "you're welcome" and smiled back at me!!! I was then ushered downstairs 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 this morning!

It was worth it!