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johnfowles · 11-24-2005, 11:08 PM

Well All Right
I am going to fess up to two fantasies
both of which really come under the category of wishful thinking (or dreaming)
after seeing Gord perform 5 times in 1967-69 whilst redsiding in Montreal. then twice (1972 and 1981) after returning home
As a resident of the UK from 1969 to 2000 I had since 1981 became inured to the realisation that Gord was not coming over to perform there again.Fast forward to 1997 when I took my first tentative steps onto the information superhighway (now how "Carefree" is that?) and started an email correspondence with arch-fan Wayne Francis who confirmed that in his opinion Gord would never play Europe again. To which I memorably retorted that in that case I would have to come over to North America to see Gord one more time "before he and I get too old",which were almost prophetic words considering that I nearly kicked the bucket in 2000 and Gord in 2002.Then early in 1999 I found Rik's original Chat Room and met both Susan and Jenney. Jenney was then busy organising the first Lighthead convention around Gord's November 1999 Massey Hall season
So I came over met and confirmed that I had fallen in love with Susan then after a lengthy "holiday of a lifetime" North American tour (Denver-Lubbock (Texas)-Clovis (NM)-Grand Canyon-Phoenix-San Francisco-Vancouver) returned home to plan my future (imagine cleaning up a house after nearly 20 years residence then packing the residue to emigrate which nearly did not happen when I had a stroke in JanuAry and the following evening in the chat room whilst having resultant typing difficulties Susan saved my life by insisting that I call a doctor "what at 3 am on the morning??"
So fantasy 1. I ended up in the local hospital and mindful of a backstage conversation I had had with Gordon in November when I had discussed with him, his manager and band members the possibility of a concert tour of The U.K (the first since 1981...during my discussion with him Gord told me as he also told BBC inteviewer Spencer Leigh at about the same time "We gotta get back to Britain) I started thinking that my story of how due to my meeting a fellow fan in the chat room had quite possibly saved my life when Susan had correctly diagnosed the effects of the stroke then made me call a doctor.I realised that this story could be used to gain some much needed publicity for Gordon especially if (as my intention was to ask Susan to marry me) we could persuade Gordon to be my best man at our wedding in June 2000.
I furthermore fantasised of getting together with Gord on one of the UK television chat shows and indeed two of them did make contact and offers after seing my story in print but the problem would have been doing so during one of Susan's visits and missing much needed therapy.
The whole plan was not to be because I failed to contact Gord and in any case it was the aftermath of April's recorded Reno concert and his touring throughout April and May.Nevertheless I got a local newspaper friend to write up an account of our story which became my "15 minutes of fame" after it was published in three local newspapers then got picked up by two major UK Dailies (the Telegraph and Express) and was eventually spread fom London to Canada by somebody who had a newspaper contact in Toronto hence mentions in both The Toronto Star and The Montreal Gazette plus a Turkish newspaper and a Natal (South Africa) radio station website, several Chinese sites and finally a great two page article in a UK senior citizens magazine (Saga).
In hospital I regularly received phone calls from Susan but one day returning from a therapy session I was surprised to be told to expect a call from Canada. No not Gord (!) but Betsy Powell then the entertainment correspondent for The Toronto Star I know that she tried to contact Gord but he was away in New England in March 2000 but I know he knew she had called.To this day three of the online reports are still viewable:-
The Daily Telegraph one is at:-
http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/htmlCo...Fnemail18.html
the Montreal Gazette (very similar to what appeared in the Toronto Star but no picture of us at:-
http://www.exn.ca/Stories/2000/03/22/05.asp
And if you are fluent in Mandarin or some other sort of orange try one of the three Chinese sites still archived/viewable:-
http://tech.sina.com.cn/news/interne...21/20575.shtml
Since then I have been delighted to see Gord over here a further 28 times (17 this year alone we were making up for lost opportunities in 2002/2003/2004!!
Moving on to fantasy number 2 this was indeed a dream a few months back.
I think the plot was that somewhere Gord invited a group of us to a private recital during which he played a large number of new unrecorded songs then asked us to help him decide which to include on his next album!!
John Fowles
Thank you for reading these treasured memories of one almost as old as Gord
No rudery please from that young whippersnapper from Sydney

[ November 30, 2005, 10:17: Message edited by: johnfowles ]

11-24-2005, 11:08 PM	#10
johnfowles Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: New Jersey U.S.A. ex UK and Canada Posts: 4,846	Well All Right I am going to fess up to two fantasies both of which really come under the category of wishful thinking (or dreaming) after seeing Gord perform 5 times in 1967-69 whilst redsiding in Montreal. then twice (1972 and 1981) after returning home As a resident of the UK from 1969 to 2000 I had since 1981 became inured to the realisation that Gord was not coming over to perform there again.Fast forward to 1997 when I took my first tentative steps onto the information superhighway (now how "Carefree" is that?) and started an email correspondence with arch-fan Wayne Francis who confirmed that in his opinion Gord would never play Europe again. To which I memorably retorted that in that case I would have to come over to North America to see Gord one more time "before he and I get too old",which were almost prophetic words considering that I nearly kicked the bucket in 2000 and Gord in 2002.Then early in 1999 I found Rik's original Chat Room and met both Susan and Jenney. Jenney was then busy organising the first Lighthead convention around Gord's November 1999 Massey Hall season So I came over met and confirmed that I had fallen in love with Susan then after a lengthy "holiday of a lifetime" North American tour (Denver-Lubbock (Texas)-Clovis (NM)-Grand Canyon-Phoenix-San Francisco-Vancouver) returned home to plan my future (imagine cleaning up a house after nearly 20 years residence then packing the residue to emigrate which nearly did not happen when I had a stroke in JanuAry and the following evening in the chat room whilst having resultant typing difficulties Susan saved my life by insisting that I call a doctor "what at 3 am on the morning??" So fantasy 1. I ended up in the local hospital and mindful of a backstage conversation I had had with Gordon in November when I had discussed with him, his manager and band members the possibility of a concert tour of The U.K (the first since 1981...during my discussion with him Gord told me as he also told BBC inteviewer Spencer Leigh at about the same time "We gotta get back to Britain) I started thinking that my story of how due to my meeting a fellow fan in the chat room had quite possibly saved my life when Susan had correctly diagnosed the effects of the stroke then made me call a doctor.I realised that this story could be used to gain some much needed publicity for Gordon especially if (as my intention was to ask Susan to marry me) we could persuade Gordon to be my best man at our wedding in June 2000. I furthermore fantasised of getting together with Gord on one of the UK television chat shows and indeed two of them did make contact and offers after seing my story in print but the problem would have been doing so during one of Susan's visits and missing much needed therapy. The whole plan was not to be because I failed to contact Gord and in any case it was the aftermath of April's recorded Reno concert and his touring throughout April and May.Nevertheless I got a local newspaper friend to write up an account of our story which became my "15 minutes of fame" after it was published in three local newspapers then got picked up by two major UK Dailies (the Telegraph and Express) and was eventually spread fom London to Canada by somebody who had a newspaper contact in Toronto hence mentions in both The Toronto Star and The Montreal Gazette plus a Turkish newspaper and a Natal (South Africa) radio station website, several Chinese sites and finally a great two page article in a UK senior citizens magazine (Saga). In hospital I regularly received phone calls from Susan but one day returning from a therapy session I was surprised to be told to expect a call from Canada. No not Gord (!) but Betsy Powell then the entertainment correspondent for The Toronto Star I know that she tried to contact Gord but he was away in New England in March 2000 but I know he knew she had called.To this day three of the online reports are still viewable:- The Daily Telegraph one is at:- http://portal.telegraph.co.uk/htmlCo...Fnemail18.html the Montreal Gazette (very similar to what appeared in the Toronto Star but no picture of us at:- http://www.exn.ca/Stories/2000/03/22/05.asp And if you are fluent in Mandarin or some other sort of orange try one of the three Chinese sites still archived/viewable:- http://tech.sina.com.cn/news/interne...21/20575.shtml Since then I have been delighted to see Gord over here a further 28 times (17 this year alone we were making up for lost opportunities in 2002/2003/2004!! Moving on to fantasy number 2 this was indeed a dream a few months back. I think the plot was that somewhere Gord invited a group of us to a private recital during which he played a large number of new unrecorded songs then asked us to help him decide which to include on his next album!! John Fowles Thank you for reading these treasured memories of one almost as old as Gord No rudery please from that young whippersnapper from Sydney [ November 30, 2005, 10:17: Message edited by: johnfowles ]