When: Good question – must be 1986 sometime
Where: Miyako Hotel, San Francisco
And: My friend and I had been waiting in the hotel lobby for about an hour when we saw Paul King, the painted Doc Martens guy we’d been reading about in our imported British music magazines and had seen a few times singing “Love & Pride” on TV. (By process of elimination, I figure it must be late-night MTV, though may have pre-dated 120 Minutes.)
Mr King breezed right by us and was on his way out the door before I caught him — he seemed a little surprised to have been recognized… or maybe it was just the shock of being stalked. Either way, he was really sweet and after posing for a couple photos with us, he helped get the entire band together — along with Perry Haines, their manager, who my friend and I knew from his work helping to create the early Duran Duran style/image (and also the man who supposedly coined the term “New Romantic”).
Paul King has since hung up his boots (oh, watch the video, will ya?) and has gone on to work at MTV and VH1.
My friend and I with the band King (Perry Haines is fourth from the left)
And for more from this artist…
