I don't know why anyone would think I was trying to deceive RAWK with my story. I just thought people might be interested in my own personal memory of Phil. And before anyone gets aggravated by my calling him that and not HRH or Prince or Duke etc let me tell you that it the chap himself who told me to call him Phil. Like i said before he hated all the rigmarole around the monarchy. He was always complaining about the medals they made him wear, not least because he had to take them off each time he dry cleaned his jacket.
I bumped into him once in an amusement arcade in Blackpool. He was playing that game where you used to roll those old twopenny bits down a slot and time it so that the moving roller sent a whole cliff of other twopenny bits into a cascade and into your pocket. I thought "Is it him?" because you don't expect to see royals working the slots off Blackpool prom. But he saw me and waved and shouted "Ey up Mark" and I joined him at the table. I even gave him a few of my own coins after he'd run out. He told me he loved coming to Blackpool on his own because no one ever recognised him and he could just get on doing what he loved doing. Hiding in plain sight he said. Only once had someone said "You look like the Queen's husband" and Phil replied, "What, the Greek bloke? Cheers." The bloke then had got a bit defensive. "Didn't mean to insult you by calling you a Greek", he said. And then Phil said "Well, depends what you mean by Greek. Are we talking race, nationality, ethnicity or ancestry?" That ended the conversation of course. Always does. In actual fact he was descended from Agamemnon, but he never publicised the fact. "It'd sound like I were boasting", he said. Typical Phil, that.
I heard today, by the way, that he left me 14 pence in his will. He hadn't forgotten. Class.
I shall be giving my own 14 minutes of silence some time today. I hope Liverpool do the right thing and rename the Kop the Phil Stand.
Miss you Phil.
