The lazy train ride from Gatwick Airport to London's Victoria Station gave Klipsch COO Paul Jacobs a chance to look over his itinerary and prepare for a visit to the newly renovated Original Hard Rock Cafe, complete with its new high-performance Klipsch sound system. While looking over maps and schedules, he stirred his strong English coffee with the tiny spoon he was given and wondered what a 30th anniversary party would be like at the world's most famous rock-n-roll Mecca.

He knew that a private concert featuring Matchbox Twenty at the renowned Apollo Theatre followed by an exclusive invitation-only party at the Original Hard Rock Cafe would be interesting, to say the least. But as it turns out, meeting Mick Jagger, Cheap Trick's Rick Nielson and the boys from Matchbox Twenty, signing autographs on the red carpet, and haggling with Boy George over the price of a picture seemed beyond expectation.

Now, back in the States, Paul and I are sitting outside on the terrace level at Klipsch's worldwide headquarters in Indianapolis. This time, he sips his grande Starbucks cappuccino and thumbs through pictures from his journey.

"This one tells a big part of the story," says Paul, showing me a picture of Caroline Jones, the wife of Klipsch Senior Vice President Lance Jones. "The paparazzi begged her to pose on the Hard Rock Harley positioned at the end of the red carpet. If you look closely, you can see me in the background. I'm pretty sure everybody thought Lance and I were bodyguards and Caroline was this famous American actress. "

I ask if the red carpet treatment was a shock to the system or an old-hat experience. "Definitely not an old-hat experience," replies Paul, his inflection indicating I should know better. "The folks at the Hard Rock Cafe really know how to throw a party. Here I am, a speaker salesman from the U.S., and hundreds of people are snapping pictures of me and asking me for my autograph. I think it says a lot about the way people view the Hard Rock Cafe and anybody who has some connection with it."

After a tangent conversation about Harleys and a potential 10 country European ride, I ask Paul to back up and give me an account the 30th anniversary party from beginning to end and to tell me more about the new Klipsch sound system at the Original Hard Rock Cafe. Excitedly, Paul jumps ahead, again, and begins describing the new state-of-the-art A/V system and the music that was playing.

"We got to the party early and started scoping out the place," explains Paul. "This is a serious audio system we're talking about here. Everywhere you look there's rock-n-roll memorabilia and Klipsch loudspeakers. They designed the system to surround you with non-stop sights and sounds and stimulate all of your senses. They had some intense techno thumping and it gave the place this incredible vibe. Without the music it would have been totally different"

Turning his attention back to the pictures, Paul pulls out picture after picture of himself and Lance shaking hands in front of Klipsch loudspeakers. Whether recessed at chest level and surrounded by gold records or hanging from a "C" bracket over a giant Jimi Hendricks portrait, there's no mistaking that Klipsch is the official loudspeaker of the Hard Rock Cafe.

In total the new high-performance audio system and the Original Hard Rock Cafe in London includes 70 Klipsch KI-102 loudspeakers, six Klipsch KI-362 loudspeakers, two KI-262 loudspeakers and six Synergy Series SCW-2 in-wall speakers.

Promising me that he'll get to the famous people soon, (He's traveled with me enough times to know that all I ever talk about are movies and TV shows and music and theater, and that I want the encounter tales.) Paul finally starts at the beginning.

"First, we went to the Apollo Theatre to pick up our credentials," says Paul. "Along with these cool interactive mini CD-ROMs that said VIP ACCESS hanging from Hard Rock Cafe lanyards, we had stickers that indicated we also had access to Pete's private room. It was great because it meant that at the Matchbox Twenty concert, we were among about only 40 people from around the world that were invited to hang out in the president's suite."

After picking up their credentials, Paul, Lance and Caroline made their way to Pete's private room where they ate a bit, drank a bit, and spent time chatting and taking pictures with Hard Rock Cafe President Pete Beaudrault, Director of Marketing Chris Tomasso, and Rita Gilligan MBE, who has been with Hard Rock Café since it first opened in 1971. Rita received an honorary Medal of British Excellence from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for her outstanding services to tourism through her work at the Hard Rock Cafe.

"When Pete left to make his curtain speech before Matchbox Twenty took the stage, we decided to head toward our seats," recounted Paul. "As luck would have it, Mick Jagger was walking in as we were walking out, so Lance grabbed Mick by the hand and told him it was great to meet him and we all exchanged pleasantries. Mick looked good, young even. His seats at the concert were right next to ours, so we ended up hanging out next to Mick Jagger watching a private concert with Matchbox Twenty. Pretty cool, huh?"

Paul explained that Matchbox Twenty's Rob Thomas and Mick Jagger are working together on Mick's new solo album. Rob wrote two of the songs.

"What was it like talking to a rock-n-roll legend," I ask. "Did he have handlers and bodyguards? Was he cool about it or stand-offish?"

"He was great," replied Paul. "No bodyguards or anything. I think he came by himself, which really surprised me. I know it must be hard to deal with people wanting a piece of you all of the time, but he seemed to enjoy talking to us, a real class act."

When the concert ended, Paul, Lance, Caroline and the other VIPs climbed into special double-decker busses for the ride to the Hard Rock Cafe, where they went through the whole red carpet walk, again.

"This is where things really got interesting," says Paul. "There were hundreds of people lined up along the walkway. Flash bulbs were going off and people were begging us to take pictures with them and sign autographs. Fame is such a funny beast. The Mick Jaggers and Rob Thomases of the world are easily recognizable, but everybody else falls into the category of 'shoot first and identify later.' In fact, there were so many famous people at the party that I'm sure I said something stupid to more than one multi-platinum artist without even knowing who they were.

"They had lots of great food and drinks once we made it inside and off of the red carpet," says Paul. "We had full access to the entire place, even the private areas for the bands and Mick. We made appearances here and there, and this is when I met Rick Nielson, but when we realized Boy George was the DJ, we made it our mission to get our pictures taken with him. It just seemed like the total American tourist thing to do"

The mission, it seems was accomplished only by Caroline Jones, who, according to Paul, had an excellent come back to "The Boy's" request for money in order to pose for a picture.

"Well, I'll tell you what," mimics Paul, in what he admits is a lame female impersonation. "You give me your business card and if the pictures turn out, we'll send you a check for whatever we think it's worth." The impression now over, Paul describes how Boy agreed and went into this wild pose with Caroline leaning in. "I think it's just cool as hell that she got this picture with Boy George behind the mixing console at the Hard Rock Cafe 30th anniversary party.

"At this point," explains Paul, "the entire Hard Rock Cafe had become this one big rockin' out of control party and at two or three in the morning we made our way to the exit. On our way out we we're presented with this incredible leather bound commemorative book that is chock full of memorabilia photographs and its all signed by rock-n-roll legends. We also received framed collections of limited edition pins that tell the Hard Rock story, culminating with the 30th anniversary party pin. They really made us a part of the celebration and we walked away with very cool memories and a truckload of goodies, not to mention the pictures and famous people encounters. Yeah, the folks at the Hard Rock Cafe really know how to throw a party."