Tim Abbott

George Lazenby Bond ExperienceIt was early September when I saw an article in Empire magazine for the ‘Licence to Thrill’ event in Sydney. I live in Melbourne but I was so eager to go, as my goal (as I am quite young) is to meet all the actors. So here I was Googling and researching plane tickets, costs for accommodations and the event itself, which was $45 for me and $99 for dad (which isn’t fair because I’m the Bond fan). But anyways I asked dad but my mother didn’t approve of flying to Sydney to meet an actor. I eventually had to drop the idea.

UNTIL…

It was the week before the ‘Licence to thrill’ event in Sydney and on the radio came GEORGE! As I left the car for school, I heard the key words ‘Dr. Who’ and when I entered the school grounds my mates were all talking about this thing called Armageddon Expo. My mates are into events like comic-con and that, and so I put two and two together and asked if ‘Dr. Who’ stuff would be there. I Googled and found that it was on this weekend and it was Friday AND GEORGE LAZENBY was going to be there! I was so thrilled! I managed to get some last minute arrangements and dad and I were off.

It was Sunday, the 14th of October, Armageddon Expo (Comic-con like) had been on for one day. My heart was pumping as I held onto my copy of ‘OHMSS’ as tight as I could. We entered the event, with the door lady exchanging a brief compliment on my choice of movie. We were in!

After much searching, we found him BUT he was GONE! It turned out we had rocked up on his break and the line was ginormous! We soon found out the long line was for Karl Urban ‘Dredd’ next to him…thank God! Lazenby had returned and I was set with tickets in hand. I exchanged an excited smile as he signed my DVD and then later on got a photo with him in the photo booth where he exclaimed ‘You again!’, shook my hand and I left.

It was the end which is the most exciting part though! I claim Melbourne to be the most boring Bond city in the world. They don’t sell 007 fragrance, Coke AU don’t do the Skyfall bottles, Sony Mobile AU don’t release the Xperia T; it’s outragous! All they do is sell ‘Bond 50’. It was here my thoughts changed on Melbourne.

It turns out that a Melbournian bought the ‘Aston Martin DBS’ used in ‘OHMSS’ back in 1978 and it has lived here since! The owner brought the muh -loved vehicle to the event where many fans eyes peered over it. I took many photographs and the red felt weapons tray was even in the glovebox! Complete with scope and all! Anyways the even more special part was that George Lazenby was going to reunite with this car for the first time since the movie 43 YEARS AGO! At $60 a photo, I approached him once again and this time I said ‘ Yes, me again!’

We got the photo and afterwards had a chat. I asked him some questions personally such as the release date for his autobiography in which he replied “No clue!”. It was sure enough someone had told him to make an autobiography but it wasn’t in his full intentions.

I recount on this day as the greatest day in my life so far! It was so good that I wish it would happen again. I looked out to perhaps see the other Bond fans I looked up to such as Remmert, David and Head of Section but saw no sign of them

Instead I met some people, much older than myself who had a passion in James Bond and told my father I was the most knowledgeable James Bond fan for my age! They all thought my dad was the fan and then they looked at me with shock, as some guy tried to tell my dad he climbed Mt. Schilthorn (My dad had no clue what he was even on about. Dad hadn’t even seen OHMSS.)

Anyways he continued his story, telling me how he was out of food and it was the hardest thing ever because he had decided to walk up it for fun, and with my cheeky personality I said “and what, did you ski down it?” which many other Bond fanatics laughed at. I had an amazing day and couldn’t thank my dad more. He has put so much effort into helping me build my Bond collection and I’m sure he regrets buying me Goldeneye N64 when I was a boy.

I have many more photos of the DBS itself. Message me on my Bondlifestyle forum account(Luckorfate95) if you would like to see more!

If anyone reading this lives or will be visiting Australia, contact me. I would love to meet any Bond fan!

Tim.