Dr Alan Howard

i am sometimes asked how I first met and got to know Don McLean. Having been a fan of his music since I was three and given my interest in the fast emerging World Wide Web I started a simple website about Don in 1995. In May 1997 Don returned to England for his first concert tour since 1993 and his Australian friend, Bob Gregg, alerted him to the fact that the English web page owner would like to meet him. I was assured by Bob that Don was happy to meet me and I wasted no time in arriving at the stage door prior to his opening show in Woking, Surrey.

Don had already appeared on Richard and Judy on ITV earlier in the day alongside his musicians Tony Migliore and Ralph Childs. Ralph had been in contact and unlike Don was already a big Internet user.

Don arrived shortly after my arrival at 5pm and after an awkward introduction I found myself in the elevator with Don, Ralph, Tony and their road manager alighting directly onto the stage where Don kicked off straight into his sound check. He broke off to talk to me about the web page and insisted I should enjoy the concert from the stage wings. His road manager was summoned to find an appropriate chair, which I subsequently hung on to, come what may. This included the female members of his support act, Night Games, changing costume alongside me several times during their set. I add this only because 11 years later the same group made the semi-final of Simon Cowell’s “Britain’s Got Talent”, as “Diva Las Vegas”. Some fans complained this wasn’t an appropriate support act for Don McLean but I thought they were great.

During his show Don, as he often does, requested some water. Finding myself the only person available I rushed to his dressing room, returning to deliver the required beverage direct to Don on stage, receiving an ovation in the process.

Any big fan of any star will easily imagine what an extraordinary day this had been.

Three years later Madonna propelled “American Pie” to number 1 on our charts and Don’s UK agent, Jef Hanlon, booked Don for three hastily arranged dates, including the Hammersmith Apollo on June 28th. Through the web site we had been able to arrange a “fan event” whereby 20 other fans could enjoy the sound check as I’d enjoyed it in Woking and be allocated “after show” passes for a meet and greet with Don. After the show Don talked to me about how we could enhance our website arrangement and I suggested, first, serialising a previously unpublished biography and then, second, that I could write a new more comprehensive book about his professional life story. 12 months later the contract was signed and nearly 6 years later our book was published.

In 2003 Don elevated my English web page to become his official web site and over the years since 2000 Don has been a frequent caller and a kind friend to myself and my family. My wife still jumps when answering the phone to hear “Hi, it’s Don McLean”.

The book was based on extensive telephone interviews with Don, each lasting between 90 and 130 minutes. The transcripts of these interviews would make for a blockbuster but the legal recriminations would bankrupt all involved.

Anyhow, Don is back in the UK for a major concert tour including the Royal Albert Hall on October 26th. Today I caught up with him in London and was happy to do him a favour and drive him from his Kensington hotel to the Australian embassy to complete some formalities ahead of his tour down under next March.

As I drove through Picadilly circus down Haymarket(?) and into Trafalgar Square I thought back to the last time I made this car journey in November 1993. Back then circumstances were very different. 6 months before I’d been a happy PhD student living it up in Leeds with a $%!^girlfriend. That night in November I was miserable, single and living and working in Reading; I was on my way to see Don in concert at the Royal Festival Hall ‘kill me softly with his songs’.

Today, 14 years later, I found myself with Don alongside me in the car and my wife at home expecting our second child at any moment.