I cannot describe how shocked I was to hear of the premature death of my old friend Gene Pitney. I thought he would still be singing in his eighties. But at least he died doing what he loved most, singing, touring and meeting his fans. If you have never been to a Gene Pitney concert you have really missed something! Gene had a very strong band of fans who would hire a bus and attend as many of his UK dates as possible, and he seemed to know them all. They were warm, wonderful and informal evenings, with Gene sitting on a stool, singing requests and reading out letters that fans had written to him.

I became a fan of Gene’s as a teenager when I first heard ‘Town Without Pity’, and first met him in 1963, we were both 22 years old, he was a regular guest at the hotel in London’s Oxford Street where I worked as a telephonist. It was a large but insignificant hotel, the entrance hidden down a side street and I often wondered how the fans ever found it. But knowing Gene, this was just the sort of place where he felt comfortable, he didn’t court celebrity, he was the most down to earth ‘Star’ you were ever likely to meet. It is testament to Gene’s amiable nature that even the Head Porter (surely the grumpiest man on the planet!) respected him. If every room in every hotel in London was booked up, Gene could always be sure of a room at The Stratford Court.

Gene had the most wacky sense of humour, he was always telling me silly jokes and he loved to hear them - “How can you tell an elephants been in the fridge? - Because he left his footprints in the butter! “ was typical. He also loved to play tricks on me - he would ring into the hotel, disguising his voice and leave long, convoluted messages for himself - and that was only the half of it...........He was a great guy to have around, he had a warm, friendly and generous nature.

Gene had the utmost respect for his fans, and was always happy to speak to any of them who rang the hotel, or if they called at the hotel, he would come down from his room to speak to them, and happily give out photos and autographs. When he discovered that young fans had waited outside the hotel until the early hours of the morning for him to come back from a concert, he paid for them to stay in the hotel and saw to their every need, he even had me ‘chaperone’ them to one of his shows, just outside of London.

Apart from being a formidable talent - he could play several instruments and compose as well as sing - he was also a very astute businessman, it was due to his sound investments that he was a millionaire by the time he was 24 years old.

I met up with Gene a few years ago when he came to a local theatre, the only seats I could get were way up in the ‘gods’ - his shows were always a sell out - but he had me come down the two flights of stairs and walk to the front of the stage so that we could have a friendly hug and a chat about old times. He also sang my favourite song for me - ‘Half Heaven - Half Heartache’.

One thing I would never have wanted Gene to know, was that the song he is most associated with ‘Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa’ was, in fact, my least favourite. It was not the highest climber for Gene, it ‘only’ got to No. 5 in the UK Charts, whereas ‘I’m Gonna Be Strong’ got to No. 2 and of course he hit the No. 1 spot with ‘Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart’ duetting with Marc Almond, but it was the one most played and much as I always loved to hear Gene on the radio - I did so wish they would play any of his other songs instead!

On news of Gene’s death, his website crashed due to the volume of ‘hits’, but it is back up now at www.gene-pitney.com