David Ketels has been a John Waite fan for 20 years, but in all that time had never had the opportunity to meet him. Until January 22, 1998, that is. David was on holiday in New York City and happened to be at the right place at the right time. Here's David's story as posted to Ignition...
First and foremost, a special thank you to Elizabeth and Margaret for mentioning me and the ratings etc. to John last year, so at least he vaguely knew who I was.
Here's the scene.... I got word from JD last year (so long JD and thanks) that when I was in New York that he would personally introduce me to John. That made me pretty excited, however JD thought I would be in New York in December (not January) and I got word that John would be in England and the west coast when I was in town. So dejectedly I resigned myself to not having this long awaited opportunity of meeting with him and John when in New York.
So I get to New York and I tried to ring JD to see if John may be in town only to find that JD had left Gold Mountain, so I hang up the phone and curse my bad luck.
I then rang Gold Mountain a day or two later (when I found out John was in NYC) and spoke with a nice girl. I explained that "JD was going to introduce me to John Waite and seeing as JD was not with you anymore, would you mind getting a message to John that David from Ignition was in town from Australia and is there a chance of having a drink with him 'cos I'm only in town for one more day?" She said, "Sure, I'll get a message to him."
Kind of excited, I went back to my hotel room that afternoon in the hope that I should get a call from the man himself...no luck. I then proceed to sleep until about 10:00 p.m. Well, I woke up and suggested to my wife that we should go downtown and get a bite to eat. We set off in the direction of Kennedy's bar. I then informed Johanna that I will just take a look in this bar "because that's where John Waite sometimes has a drink at." (I don't mind telling ya, I was pretty dejected at this point in time as I knew he wouldn't be there.)
It's 10:10pm Thursday 22nd January. I walk into Kennedy's on 57th Street - and see him at the bar!! (Am I dreaming this??) (pinch...no) I run back to Johanna..."He's here!" "Well go up and say hi"...I say,"No, I've just woken up and probably have death breath - I'm going out to buy a pack of chewies" (gum for you statesiders). My mind is racing, what to I say? I get back to Kennedy's and he's not at the bar, but in a private room with some music function going on. With bravado, I enter this private function with some god-awful solo guy playing... John looks at me coming in through the door, I can't just wave to him or grin stupidly at him as he doesn't know me from a bar of soap. I fight my way through the throng and go up to him. I remember saying "John, I'm David Ketels from Ignition and I'm over from Australia." He enthusiastically greets me as I asked him whether he got my message I was in town. He said he got a message but in so far as messages go, it was probably garbled and didn't make any sense but finds it unbelievable that I have found him out of all the places in New York.
I said, "I knew you sometimes had a drink here." That night, though, he was not there for a drink per se, but to attend a music function. It's amazing that I found him there. He said he only comes to Kennedy's three or four times a year!!
(BTW, Andrew McNeice's interview with John mentioned the fact that he liked to have a drink at Kennedy's so that's why I ventured there)
John kept on saying it was amazing that I found him there and couldn't get over it!! (hahaha) I reminded him of my previous correspondence with him years back and the pirated songsheet that I enclosed as well as CD cover of On The Edge that he cartooned/signed and he remembered it well. I made a special point of informing John that pirated lyrics were indeed to be found on Elizabeth's web site. (As well as Siberia Bar, Danbury pics, etc.) Then this girl who was running the music function interrupted us in my state of mental shock and asked whether I had one of these and proceeded to show me a small playing card of all things. I thought it was an entry ticket of some description and I quickly apologized and said I'm not meant to be here, then stupidly realized she was trying to give me the thing which was a raffle ticket of some description!!! When I left John about 15 minutes later I gave my card to him and wished him good luck with my raffle card. John then mentioned how tragic it was about Michael Hutchence to me.
It was then that my wife came in from the main bar (I really should have got her, but you know how it goes). "John, this is my wife, Johanna." We talked about a lot of things, Australia (and my insistence that he should get there when he suggested it was unlikely the record company would entertain anything at all). He then mentioned the Bad English experience (oddly enough) when they sent them over to do the Price Of Love video. The band thought that video was crap and they then shot the clip you all know so well with the Jesus jacket.
We didn't really talk about his music much at all other than his confirming that the album sales were disappointing but that he was moving to L.A. and that "Imaginary Girl" was the next single. I asked him about a video but he said it had to chart before a video could be done. We agreed it was a real Catch 22 situation. Johanna suggested he should get some arts students to do one for him which he thought was a great idea.
We talked about England and Cypress and a lot about how wonderful the Internet is as a communication tool. It was at this point that I really hit home what a wonderful job Elizabeth does with Ignition and her web site. I asked him about the site and had he seen it personally - he had but was totally computer illiterate. I then explained that after me coining the name it had changed to "Net Waite." He had a laugh. I then asked him about the interview (with Andrew McNeice from AOR Hotspot) when mistook me by talking about the AOL chat night. I said I speak with Andrew and he's a really cool guy.
John noticed a Queens Park Rangers (my English Football Club) enameled metal pin on my coat and said, "What's this....God, Queens Park Rangers?!" whereby I pointed out something on his shirt and he fell for the oldest trick as I suddenly shot my finger up his shirt to flick him on the nose!!! He had a great old laugh at that then we mimicked giving each other head butts with obligatory Scottish commentary - "You'll get yers, Jimmy!!"
I was conscious of not taking up too much more of his time and I politely excused ourselves - with that he gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek - yep...believe it - he did. He then gave Johanna a hug and a kiss and we left.
Now... my brain was ticking... as I didn't think we would meet up with John of course I didn't bring my camera with me. So with a photo opportunity in mind, I bolted back to the hotel room to get it and then bolted back to Kennedy's. When I arrive back, John was now in the front bar and obviously wanting to go. He was posing for a photograph of two with some of the Kennedy's staff and then made his way back towards where we were having a drink. John spotted me and then I motioned him over with camera in hand and said I went back to fetch my camera. When I asked was he going home, he said he was getting tired really early and still on English time and waking up at 5.00am each morning. I said I was too and in fact I gave Johanna a 5:00 a.m. wake up call of my own this morning (hahaha). (This didn't go down too well with her, I can tell you.) So a few more laughs with him and I offered to buy him a drink with which he asked for a Coke. Then after so long a time it wasn't funny the barman comes over with our drinks and says that if we're with John that the drinks are on the house.
Johanna asked whether there was a good pool hall around hoping he might fall for an invitation but he said maybe down in Times Square so he was obviously not in the mood for any more partying.
We then had only one photo with John and that was that. More handshakes and kisses (but not with me this time) and an insistence that I write to him soon.
How's that? Pretty f@#$ing cool, hey!!
I'm sure there was a whole lot more that I missed out on seeing as we were with him for about a half an hour, but by my recollection of this pretty unreal happening, I have tried to remember most of what happened.
John's looking pretty good, his hair obviously grows quite fast as it's not too short at all. He was all that I expected, a really great guy. While I've never seen him play, I have been the southern hemisphere's most dedicated fan (no question) and now I've met him, I'm almost complete.
Now...for a tour of Australia!!
Thanks for staying with me for this long.
--David Ketels
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