ROCK & ROLL FAN STORIES

 

I was born in West Virginia a long time ago. One of the first things they taught you in school was reading, writing and Route #23 which was the major highway to get you to the big city of Columbus, Ohio (we’ll come back to this later).
On a summer visit back to see my Grandparents about my 14th year we took a day trip to Huntington to visit my cousins.  When we got there my younger Cousin Rex told me he wanted to make a trip to the record store to which he really didn’t have to twist my arm!
Now we were young but it was hot (like 90 degrees) and as I found out it was a heck of a long walk there. But we got that prized record that Rex wanted then walked back in the heat again.
Once back to the house we grabbed a Pepsi and found a good place to sit, in front of the speakers to listen. We lowered the needle onto side 1 and played it loud flipped it over and played side 2. We decided to do it all again, meaning playing both sides of the album. But also, another trip walking back to the record store in the heat so I could get myself a copy of this amazing record on 8-track tape.
Now we’ll jump ahead 25 years and the story gets a little weird.  At this time, I now have a retail soccer store in Columbus, Ohio and it was just a normal day at work. I was sitting in the office doing paperwork (or just sitting there) and the doorbell goes off signaling that someone had entered the store. No worries, I have a helper up front named Emil. Emil is from Romania and has long curly hair and a heavy accent. The female customers loved Emil. After a few minutes Emil sticks his head in the office and asks me to come out and help him with a customer. I told Emil, “Dude, I’m Busy” even though I wasn’t, and he went back to the sales floor.  
A few minutes later Emil comes back and again asks for help with the customer. Again, I asked him nicely to please take care of it. I guess Emil figured that third time would be a charm as he returned again asking for help except this time he explained that he “could not understand what the customer was saying and I think he’s “g _ _”!
I went out to the floor and I see a skinny guy with long hair and wearing very tight black stretch pants. As we’re talking this guy keeps talking about his “band” so I said “I’ll bite, what’s your band’s name?” He quickly responds “UFO.”  I was in disbelief, I told him “no way.”  I asked him what his name was and he stated very proudly “I am Pete.”
Again, I was at a loss for words. He started reaching for his pockets (looking for an ID) but there were no pockets. My final question to him was “What YOU are doing HERE?” He responded that he lived here. I began to attempt to gather my thoughts, I was in shock and stunned. 
Soon after this Pete’s friend and guitar technician, Chris LaMarca enters the store an confirms that this guy standing in my store was indeed Mr. Pete Way, bassist for the British band UFO. Even stranger than this, two nights later Emil and I are sitting in Pete’s kitchen while he’s cooking a frozen pizza for us. This was the beginning of our relationship (Pete and I) working together and as friends on top of that.
Now back to the beginning.  That record store trip I took 25 years earlier was to buy that same record on 8 Track tape “Force It” by UFO.
Rock ‘n Roll stories — these are a reason that the “We Love Rock Fan Hall” is important to us.
FP