It was quite obvious to us that he wanted to be alone while he was there, we learned from him later that he was writing a synopsis for a children’s ballet. He used to disappear at the start of the day and go somewhere to write while his partner, José, hung around the pool and looked after himself, nice bloke. So with that in mind we just said hello and all that stuff and waited for Wayne to make the move to talk, we know from him that this was very much appreciated.
He was good fun to have around and was nice to everyone. It was amusing to watch him keeping supple while drinking gin and tonics at the bar, and he had many, he swung his legs, one at a time obviously, up to his shoulder and, well, all sorts of contortion positions, and loved the “ooh’s and aah’s” from the hanger’s on. We had drinks and parts of evenings with him and Jose ….. other guests were bloody annoying, crashing in on our little group – no manners.
It was time to fly back home, and we were on the same flight to Stansted as the gay couple, as well as quite a few other people staying at the hotel. We got to the airport and learned that the flight was delayed by at least 2 hours, so we thought we would take our time going through the checking in procedure and joined at the end of the queue. Wayne and José had disappeared, we thought they had gone through already, then they appeared from hiding – they had been harassed by autograph hunters, and the hanger’s on from the hotel. Wayne said that he was pleased to see that it was us at the end of the queue and then said to me “Mike, I want you to be my bodyguard when we go through to the departure lounge” – which by now was packed with holiday makers all waiting for the same delayed flight as us along with other flights – “You need to be by my side until we get on the plane. OK?”. What could I say? It was such great fun. We went through and found ourselves a quiet spot in the corner and sat around on the floor, but by then people had begun to recognise Wayne, he was also wanting to have a few drinks before we set off because he didn’t like flying.
He said to me, more than once, to go to the bar with him and get some drinks. It became stupid because people were stopping him too often, but I suppose this is what fame does, he then asked me to get the growing crowd organised and he would do a signing session. I told everyone to form an orderly queue and that Wayne would be happy to sign autographs for them and then would they please let him wait for the take-off in a little peace. This went down quite well, I was standing beside him feeding him glasses of G&T as he wanted it – but he was getting more pissed by the minute, so much so, that when it was the turn of this little boy. Wayne was tottering a bit and asked the boy;