[quote="Tim in St. Louis"][quote="Tony Papard"] I joined the fan club after seeing him 'live' for the first time at Golders Green Hippodrome in December of that year
Hey Tony... What do you remember from that first show? Was he wild or tamed a little? Just interested in your stamped memories of that first encounter.quote]
Not much I'm afraid, except being mesmerized by his whole demeanor and stage act. My brother and I only attended the first show that nite, which was probably less wild than the second show. His hair all stayed in place, though it was not cut short till the next year I believe. So I never witnessed it falling round his head like on the Granada TV special, etc.
I do remember how he'd look at the audience and up at the ceiling when playing, hardly ever at the piano as he does nowadays. And he joked with the audience, picking out one woman in particular and flirting with her. When she let out a squeal of delight he said: 'I don't think you and me could get along after all honey, you sound a little peculiar to me!'
I loved his show so much I wanted to go in for the second house, but it was sold out, and we lived 20 miles away in Welwyn Garden City at the time so had to catch the last Greenline long-distance bus home from outside the theater.
The really wild show I remember was two years later at the Wimbledon Theater, South London in 1966, when loads of fans invaded the stage during the second show, and the manager who came on stage to plead with them to go back to their seats, was pulled across the orchestra pit and used as a bridge for more fans to climb on stage. Jerry just climbed on top of the piano and rocked on! Magic!