A Groupie's Account [Caution - Extremely Lenghty Post]

The following qouted text is copied from my diary, with nary a word changed. This is the long awaited post that I promised Charlie Steele back in April, 2006. And yes, I finally got the photos scanned.

Malaysia - Tuesday - 27th November, 1990
Let me say something about Linear, first of all. They are three cute and handsome American hunks comprising Charlie 'Steele' Pennachio (lead vocals), Wyatt 'Riot' Pauley (guitarist) and Joey 'Bang' Restivo (percussionist).

Wow! Who would miss the chance to meet them in town? Once a girl sent a pix of them to Galaxie magazine. I thought ... urgh ... are they Malays or what? I soon found out that they are "or what" as Charlie and Joey are both Italians while Wyatt is a Hispanic.

Their names and their song, "Sending All My Love" (hit single in September, 1990) were constantly mentioned on Radio 4. During their 120 Special phone-in interview with Munira Murad on 24th November, I soon found out about their birthdates, likes and dislikes and lots of things. I also got to know that they are simply friendly, cute and gorgeous.

Oh! What? Did I hear correctly? Linear is coming to (my town) too? That's great because some artiste just couldn't be bothered to come to (my town) at all, but not Linear. They were in (my town) (according to Wyatt, it's "hiccups" in Spanish) as promised. Well, that was how I heard of them.

Just the day before they reached Kuala Lumpur, newspapers and magazines were full of their news and pictures. Oh! No! How weird did they looked. Guys with long hair! Imagine that, if you can't have a look at their pix!! But on the other hand, they seemed so cute with their natural tan, they're irrisistable.

They finally reached Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, 24th November, 1990, at noon. They did interviews on Radio 4 and made an appearance on "Sekapur Sirih". They also visited discotheques in Kuala Lumpur.

Meanwhile, we hunted around town for the Galaxie magazine as we have to obtain free passes for Linear's meet-the-fans session in Palm Grove Discotheque on Tuesday, 27th November, according to The Star papers and we didn't want to take a chance.

We failed to buy the magazine because there was no more magazine on sale! Oh, what are we going to do? Wait outside Palm Grove while other fans of Linear dance to the beat? Well, of course we were depressed and desperate too.

So, mother telephoned The Star office and found out that the magazines are still on sale in the office. We then rushed over to the office and purchased two copies of Galaxie at $1.20 each and got ourselves two passes. Oh! I was so happy, I couldn't even sleep last night.

On that day which Linear was scheduled to arrive in (my town), today, we got out of bed at 6.30am and were ready to go to the airport by 7am.

When we reached the airport, the first morning flight from Kuala Lumpur had already arrived. The passengers were coming down from the plane. Oh! Did we miss them? We asked the security guard in front of the arrival gate. He said, "Mereka belum datang lagi. Tak tau lah kalau mereka sudah sampai semalam. Saya tak on duty semalam." (Translation: They are not here yet. I don't know if they arrived last night. I was not on duty.)

After thanking him, we went to have breakfast. Later, we returned to the airport. After some time, the second flight arrived and it was from K.L. too. It was about 8am. Still no sign of them .... yet. We waited and waited, walked around and also visted the loo.

At 8.30am, mom spotted the Minister of National Unity and Community Development, Dato' Napsiah Omar. We ran to her and asked for her autograph. She obliged in spite of her tight schedule. After signing sister's autograph book, she signed mine. She asked for my name; I told her and even spelt it out for her.

After that, she asked where we are going, mother said to Kuala Lumpur. That was the joke of the year! Actually, the flight to K.L. had already departed! Ha Ha!!

Then at around 8.40am, we made friends with two girls, Normi Fahmi and Angela Kee, who came from a small town, and arrived to (my town) this morning just to meet Linear at the airport.

Angela had earlier met Linear in Kuala Lumpur.

We went up to the gallery to wait for the next flight while our parents stayed at the lobby chatting with a chemical engineer who came back from Australia, where he works. He is about thirty-something and his hometown is Klang. He also told father he is a bachelor. Earlier, sister and I borrowed his Star papers because we wanted to see if there was any latest news of Linear. Unfortunately, there wasn't any.

Sister and I chatted with Normi and Angela, who are both the same age as sister, until the 9am flight arrived, which was from K.L. too. That was the last morning flight from K.L. Oh, oh! Where's Linear? We were looking through a glass window from the gallery with excitement. I saw a lady carrying a guitar, coming down the flight of stairs from the plane.

"AAAAAAAAAAhhh.........!" I screamed, pointing at the guitar. All the people were staring at me. Oh no! That's not Wyatt's guitar! And now I've made a fool out of myself. How embarrasing!

After the flight departed to Johor Bahru, Normi phoned The Star office. A man said that they had cancelled their flight bookings but no plans were cancelled. How disappointing!!

Normi and Angela went straight to the Casuarina Hotel while we went home, where we had a quick shower and left for Palm Grove Discotheque with our camera, autograph books and posters. It was about 10.30am.

Linear was to be at Palm Grove at 11am, then at Friendly Records at 2.30pm.

When we reached the hotel, we met Normi and Angela again. Normi said, "You've changed (clothes)!!" She sounded surprised. Then we quickly headed for Palm Grove after a short tour of the hotel. There were only a few people in there. We chose a nice place about two feet above the dance floor. After a while, Palm Grove was full of about 150 people, mostly teenage girls!

It was past 11am but there was still no sign of Linear. All of us were restless and became noisy but there was music from Linear's debut self-titled album, to entertain us.

Suddenly, at the entrance of the discotheque, boys made wolf-whistles while girls screamed at the top of their voices. I got ready my camera and SNAP! SNAP! SNAP!

They are here... LINEAR ....

More screams of "Linear" or "Joey", "Charlie", "Wyatt" and even "I love you" could be heard. Wow!! How crazy of them. But to tell you frankly, I screamed loudly too. Who could control their voices, anyway? I couldn't. Phew! The guys behind us were so crazy because they didn't realise what an impact they put on the front row (us). We could feel the squeezing and crushing now and then we had to shout .... my backbone!! Ouch!! Damn!!

Charlie, Joey and Wyatt were waving at their ear-deafening fans. Oh, no! I mean, YES!! Charlie was actually heading towards us and oh! he took sister's out-stretched hand. My sister, who had the "Linear bite" held his hand for some time and then passed it to me. WOW! I couldn't believe it. Charlie and I! How wonderful! I held on to his strong hand for so long that girls, especially those standing behind and beside me had gone so very wild. But Charlie just took his other hand and shook wth them. Unfortunately, I had to let go eventually. How sad!

Then came weird Wyatt. He came and shook sister's hands first, then mine. It was unbelievable - at first it was Chalie and now it's Wyatt!! I held on to Wyatt's hand for so long and so hard. I pulled because he wanted to pull away as the other fans were going crazy. His ring came off half way down his finger. I thought I could get hold of it and keep is as a souvenir, but unfortunately, he bent his finger a little bit, just a little bit. But it was enough to hold the ring in place. It wouldn't come out. Then he left, smiling.

Lastly, came Joey. He was too smart for us, however, maybe because he saw what we did to his two pals, pulling and all! Joey just barely let us touch his hands. Luckily, sister and I did touch it!!

There were questions session and then they danced for a little while. A girl was so daring, she asked who has the hairiest chest and the three of them obligingly pulled up their shirt fronts! Wow - of course Joey won. That bear!

At that time, I have just finished my roll of film, so I just screamed and cheered along with the other fans, and I couldn't capture the "chest hair" part - what a waste!

A few people volunteered to dance and one of them was Normi!!

I also managed to pass my letter to Charlie. He stared at it for such a long time that I kept wondering whether he was short-sighted. Furhtermore, the disco lightings were dim.

At about 12.30pm, there was an autograph signing session in the glass room in Palm Grove. Fans piled up outside the room. Before we queued up, I knocked on the glass wall a few times from the outside. Charlie, Wyatt and Joey responded with a smile and even waved. Oh, so heart-melting. I knocked the glass wall a few times again but I could see that Charlie, Wyatt and Joey pretended they didn't hear!

When we went to the long line, we had only to wait for a short while because we cut queue as my friends were up front. To our surprise, we saw mother standing near the line and not far away was father! I was totally shocked!!

When it was our turn to go into the room, I quickly borrowed Lee Cindy's camera because we saw Mr. Cheah Mun Kit helping fans to take individual snap shots with Linear. We went in and thanked Mr. Cheah for Tommy Page's autograph. You know what he said? "I remember you!" pointing both his forefingers towards us.

We smiled at him and handed him the camera. When I went behind Linear, sister was already standing between Charlie and Wyatt. I had no place to stand, so I ushered her to go inside and I stood between Charlie and Wyatt myself, while sister stood between Wyatt and Joey. I said "Hi" to Charlie and he smiled. Oh! Who could ask for more? But when I said "Hi" to Wyatt, he did not even respond. So I said, "Wyatt!" with my right hand on his baseball cap meddling with it. I think he got irritated because when we played with his yellowish hair, he looked up then behind, then said, "Hi."

When I was satisfied, I said "Hi" to a smiling Joey. Sister was busy talking to Joey at that moment! Well, he is known as the friendliest, sexiest and cutest among the three members. A thought suddenly came to my mind of putting Wyatt's cap on my head but then after I looked down at his hair, I quickly changed my mind!!

After Mr. Cheah took the first shot of us, he exclaimed, "Why no flash?" Again, again." I whispered, in Cantonese, to sister that we were to take another photo. So we posed again but Joey, who was still busy talking to sister, didn't know what was happening and he looked puzzled for a while. Then only did he realise that we were posing for a photograph. It was so funny!

The second shot did not have flash too. That was why we did not get our snaps as they did not turn out. How disappointing!

Then out of a sudden, I heard Joey asking sister to kiss his cheek, pointing at his left cheek. Want to know what the reply was? It was... No! No? Did I see sister shaking her head with a red face? She then said she wanted to shake his hands instead, looking down at his hairy hand. When Joey asked for a kiss again, sister's face was redder than blood and she took a rolled up poster of Linear to cover her face, which didn't do any good at all!

I just stood there staring at both of them feeling nervous. Of course no one knew about my nervousness as I had a smile glued on my face, exactly like Charlie.

Joey asked sister if it would make her feel embarrased kissing him. Yes, came the instant answer. So, knowing that she would feel embarrased, Joey asked for her name and age instead. Sister replied, " (name), (spelling of name), I am (age)." I took a look at Joey to see his reaction. He was looking at me too, with one of his oh, ever-gorgeous smiles and asked me the same questions. I replied, "(name), (age)." Is that it? So short and abrupt? Can't blame my brain. It just wouldn't work!

Then he smiled again and asked, "Are you sisters?" We answered "Yes" together. After a while, we had to go out as we were inside for too long and other people were waiting impatiently to come in. Then only did I notice that we were on video!!

Fortunately, we had our posters and autograph books signed. How lucky for us. We took back the camera from the table where Mr. Cheah had left it and left the room feeling heavenly. At least I felt that way. Taking our bags, we finally made out way to the hotel lobby to our waiting parents. It was about 1pm by then.

On our way back, we couldn't help but talk about the event that had just passed and I vowed that I will never forget the terrific and precious moments in Palm Grove Discotheque that could not be bought by money.

Looking back, I would say that I had been a nerd for not being daring enough and for my stupidity as I was too nervous and my mind just could not function. It just went blank and I could neither talk nor think at that time. That was why I did not get to ask any questions that I intended to during the Q & A session. And now I really, really regret it. What a nerd!!

Special thanks to Galaxie magazine, Casuarina Hotel and Warner Music Malaysia for bringing Linear here. And last but not least, to Linear themselves.