I’ve never described that historic day, except verbally.
Never really written about it.
Fifty years ago today England beat West Germany 4-2 AET and the ref blew his whistle and a stranger grabbed me.
A man in his fifties, dressed in a belted mac.
The guy hugged me and shouted, “We done it!”
I don’t think he’d been to grammar school.
I remember thinking, “Maybe I’m the first complete stranger he’s embraced since VE Day.”
VE Day was in 1945.
We don’t normally do things like this in Britain because we’re so reserved, so inhibited.
That big moment started me thinking about my other unforgettable moments.
Watching Van Morrison rehearse at the Rainbow was astounding because his voice sounded volcanic coming through the PA.
Watching Stevie Wonder rehearse there a year later was staggering because he made his band work so hard for two hours and screamed at drummer Ollie Brown for not playing exactly what Stevie had scatted.
Football highlights?
Interviewing George Best on a train for Radio Times because of something he said.
Arsenal beating Spurs 2-1 at White Hart Lane when George was their manager. What a performance!!! And what an atmosphere.
Going to the USA for the first time in 1972 to write about Alice Cooper.
Arriving at the Munich Hilton to interview Elton John for a Radio Times cover story in 1985 and being told, “Elton’s not expecting you.”
Slow dancing with Jan in a jazz club in Barbados on our honeymoon and noticing that the barman and the pianist had swapped jobs.
Coming home with baby Michael in 1982 from St Mary’s Praed Street and not knowing how we would exit the hospital, not knowing the protocol.
There’s Jan and me and a young maternity nurse and there’s baby Michael and I’m thinking, “What’s the form here? Which one of us carries the baby?”
I went downstairs and out into Praed Street and stopped a taxi, Jan came down the front steps onto the pavement and got into the black cab, then the nurse got in and put Michael on Jan’s lap, then she got out. Then I kissed the nurse and thanked her and got into the cab and we went home as parents.
It was quite straightforward. But they won’t let you carry a baby in your arms nowadays.
THAT WAS A HUGE MOMENT.
We had a few Caroline moments from 1985 onwards.
Caroline and her friends Abi and Mel did a gap year, got jobs, saved up, bought round-the-world tickets, jetted off to Bangkok late one Saturday night for 16 weeks in Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and San Francisco.
I never worried about them.
But, two years later, after the tsunami, they went back to Thailand and were staying with guys they knew on the beach that they’d met on the previous visit.
Guys who had lost a lot of property, including all their DJ equipment, in the tsunami.
One night Jan and I were watching the BBC News and saw a news item about Thailand that scared us.
One of the local guys there was called O and I had his mobile number, so I called him and got through immediately.
“This is Caroline’s father in London.”
“Do you want to talk to her?”
I could hear O’s steps on the path as he walked to their hut.
It was about 1am there and C was sitting up in bed reading a paperback.
“Did you know that the Thai government has just issued a tsunami warning?”
She didn’t.
Moments like that are the ones you remember.