Southhampton
The show in Southampton was fabulous! They were just a bit of a slower type than
in Manchester but once they started, it was full speed ahead! Perhaps they were guarded at first due to the
ushers who literally threw them back into their seats! I don’t think their shinning flashlights in everyone’s
face endeared them to anyone’s heart either.
But alas, they would have needed more ushers than fans to keep everyone
in their seats for too long! They were
a friendly bunch. They seemed to be
roused to fighting for “Every Night.” “Thank
you very much, how ya doing?” Paul
shouted. Thunders of response. “Alright, alright, great! Good to be back in town anyway. The next song we’d like to do is off the
album ‘McCartney’” His pronunciation of
his surname effects people like one of his suggestive looks. “It’s called ‘Every night.” With the applause, you’d have thought money
was falling from the ceiling. ‘Every
night’ is a romantic song anyway, but with Paul signing it live, he adds elegance
to it as he croons the words.
Denny was in an extremely feisty mood tonight which was a
lot of laughs. He begins to introduce
the next tune and stops; “This one is from….excuse me while I pick my nose and
then I’ll get going.” Everyone burst out
laughing. “This is from Back to the Egg,
it’s called ‘Again and Again’” He
provoked a generous bout of applause for that.
I suspect a few were still clapping over the nose joke! “Thanks very much, you’re a nice quiet bunch
tonight just sitting there.” Paul
observed. They clapped and shouted
trying to prove him wrong. “Anyway, this
is off London Town and it’s called Oive and Enuff.” He stands back from the mic and hands held high
in the air he claps vigorously as the audience joins in, whistling and
shouting. The applause at the finish
continued longer than usual, Paul thanking them over all the noise.
After “Now words”
Linda introduced her number with a little ad libbing form Paul. “This next ones a bit of a rock and roll
number.” Paul steps in here “That’s my
missus there in case you didn’t know.”
Applause. “That’s right, yeah.” Linda continued. Out of nowhere Paul calls out “Fish n Chips
for me please” and Linda, ever the
vegetarian “Just chips for me. Now Cook
of the House.” She was warmly
accepted. Paul wiggled and really
performed during this, watching Linda time and again and making faces at her,
sticking his cute behind out and wiggling it like a duck out of water. To this concluding applause Linda answered, “That’s
to all you cooks out here.”
You know what is next…”Old Siam Sir!” Paul, ever the raconteur, “Thank you very
much ladies and gentlemen of Siam!” Everyone giggles. How cute he is! “I went somewhere, was it …” Denny helped him out pronouncing Southampton
in a new way. “Was it?” Paul asked.
“I met some people and some butler goes by. I said ‘Where are you from?’ and he says
(fast) Siam. I still haven’t working it
out. Anyway, enough of that.” He makes his guitar scream and got a quick
round of applause. “Thank you! Anyway this ones called Ol Thiam Thir.” However can I let you know just how
tantalizing Siam is. If you ever see
Siam offered in film, you know from one of those modest companies who charge
eighty dollars and any two members of your family for eight inches of overexposed
film? Get it. It’s still worth it. You’ll miss your family but this bit is
great. You can make a copy of the film
and then ask for a refund! Voila! You have Siam on film and your family back.
“Maybe I’m Amazed,” “Fool
on the Hill” and “Let it Be” were once again hypnotic, the audience finding it
hard to believe just what they were hearing!
It was indeed grand. Things were
kept bouncing and everyone were having a great “Knee’s up” as they say up there
in the north. The encore brought the
band out to toss Frisbees to the audience.
Denny’s song Laine hopped from the audience to help out too! He threw a few out and then ran to Denny to
hang on his leg! It was cute.
Denny started it again as he introduced “Hot as sun.” “Paul’s gonna play the guitar for you now,
and he does a lot on record. Nothing tricky
from him this time. He does a lot on
record.” He smiled at Paul, “We thought
we’d give him a chance to have a go.
Anyway, this ones called “Hot as Sun’.
For the Caribbean sunshine! “ No
unbiased opinions in this club allowed – Pau was fantastic! It’s one of the most popular songs in the
shows. At the finish Paul shrugs, “Well,
I don’t think Eric Clapton has too much to worry about.”
‘Spin it on’ went well as did “Twenty flight rock” bringing
us up to an introduction from Laurence.
“Thank you. Hi. I’m Laurence.
It’s nice to see you.” A friendly
welcoming applause for Laurence. He
looked around “Denny…now he’s gonna demonstrate one of his latest flying leap.” Denny walked offstage then. “He’s NOT going to demonstrate one of his
flying leaps! But he is!” and suddenly
Denny charges across stage, over the piano and right side up! Claps and whistles for Denny! “It
would have been better if we’d had guitar.”
He shrugged. Laurence “alright---he
is goingn to sing” There is a pause as
Denny fidgets. Paul “Alright he’s really
gonna sing now.” And Denny, “Will you
shut up!” and finally we hear “Go Now.” An original intro if ever!
They were all in joking form and it was a good time for
all. Once during the show, maybe it was
after “Yesterday”, a man jumped up onstage with a program for Paul to sign but
was roughly tossed back into the audience by guards. Paul reached out for the program and what
else he’d wanted signed and said he would sign them afterwards. He signed them after Mull and handed them
back to him. That’s some special man, I
say! After Wonderful Christmastime,
Linda and Denny started dancing. That
was a sight to see! Funny little bits
spiced the show here and there and it was great! Band on Run brought us to the rallying
close. Flowers were tossed onstage and
Paul was followed by chants and applause!
After the concert we sardined ourselves into George’s
car. All of us! That’s Barb, Mary Ann, Doylene with Marie on
her lap, Sheila with myself on her lap, Mar up front and George driving, as it
were. In a two door sports midge that’s
no mean feat. Half of the time all of us
were babbling at the same time about the concert, a tape of the show blaring on
the recorder and making our driver a nervous wreck. The other half we were screaming as George
kept turning corners and driving up the wrong side of the road toward on-coming
traffic and swerving just in time “I’m a lot of fun, huh?” George—it was a hair raising experience. You can imagine bystanders reactions as we
pull to a stop, a door flies open and one unfolds herself and squeezes out of
the car, then another and another and another…
We sat in the lounge of the hotel as Sheila treated us all
to a round of drinks, which was very nice indeed. As we talked George stepped out of the lounge
and returned a moment later and sat down.
He sipped his drink. “Now when he
gets here, just walk out by the entrance, ok?
Everybody stay calm.” We
will. We know. “Because they’re here.” Who???
“the band and Paul.” What????
We jumped up leaving everything but our cameras, touched down and bolted
for the lobby, calling over our shoulders “George!!!”
He just sits there and says Paul’s here. C’mon George!
A false alarm. The
band had arrived, but not Paul. The
lobby was filled with camera owners and autograph seekers of all ages, such as
the sweet group of children we’d talked with a little earlier on our
arrival. Steve waltzed in first and was
just as anxious to pose for pictures as everyone was to take them. He said hi to Barb and she asked him if he
knew when and if Paul would be coming. “No. I’m sorry.
I’ve got about as much idea as you. About that much.” He held up two fingers spaced to demonstrate
small and we watched closely. It wasn’t
much. Barb deadpanned, “Zippo, huh?” and Steve cracked up. He still seems to be in awe of his new found
fame and it’s very charming. Marie asked
if we could take a picture and he said alright.
He cautiously set his guitar in case down, and following his gaze he
looked to each of us to see just who was there.
Marie took my camera from me and suggested I get in the photo too. I asked Laurence and he said sure and stood
next to me with an arm around my shoulders.
He also posed with Barb after that.
He’s an amiable person, very obliging.
Not to mention quite handsome.
Something was mentioned about it being Doylene’s birthday
and Steve turned around “How do you say that?”
Marie repeated it for him. “Doughlene?” Doylene clarified it for him by spelling it
and he smiled and went back to the friend he’d been conversing with.
Roll the red carpet!
Denny came in next, his children trailing after, jumping ahead of him
and then lagging behind again. Denny’s
got a gentle look, until you look him in the eyes and you know he’s not
thinking very genteel things! Laine
stuck with Denny and Heidi wandered a bit.
She’s a little waif, and looked precious as she had on a pretty red
frock. She looks like Jojo. I took a photograph of Denny and I was about
to take just one more and a roadie said, “Here Denny, pose for her.” Denny stood straight and smiled and I got a
nice photo. I said thank you and smiled
as the roadie said something to Denny I didn’t quite catch and they both smiled
at me and Denny winked. (Right after
that George called me over to the side and told me what he said. It was “Hey, do I get a commission on this?”)
I suggested to the children to pose with Steve and Laurence
and I’d take their picture and send them prints when I got back home. They were all excited and rushed over by Laurence
to pose. Both Steve and Laurence posed
but I missed Steve looking as my flash was giving me trouble recharging Marie and Doylene also snapped at the same
time.
Paul still had not shown up and we were beginning to
worry. Alan was passing out Wings badges
and he gave Marie one. After she thanked
him she said, ‘Listen it’s that girl’s birthday over there with the blonde hair
so why don’t ou give her one too.” She
pointed out Doylene and he gave one to her, and turned to me. I must have looked pitiful because he gave
one to me. I think the others got one as
well.
We returned to the lounge to continue waiting, hopefully for
Paul. Our purses and coats were half on
the floor from our mad dash out of there.
The band came into the lounge a moment later. Steve and his wife sat at one table with
Thadeus behind them. Laurence stood at
the bar with friends. His reflection was
in the mirrored walls and as I took a picture he caught me and waved. Denny wandered in and up to the bar with the
roadie he’d been talking to earlier.
Alan and a few others stood in the middle of the room talking, probably
about us and pointing in our direction.
(That’s ok, you should hear what we say about him!) We talked for a while, realizing defeat. Earl Oakie came over to our table and talked
for a few minutes Beings there wasn’t much reason to stick around a few of us
decided we’d like to leave. Laurence
left the room for a moment and returned holding his jacket. George said we would leave after he finished
his drink so I left to freshen up in the ladies’ room. On the way back I ran into Laurence on his
way back to that special room again! I
said hello and started to walk back to the lounge when he called me back and
commented “Oh I like that” pointing to a pin on my shirt. I was wearing two and assumed he meant the
one from Alan. “Oh yeah, Alan gave that
to me.” He said, “No, that one there.” (a read heart with wings). “I got one something like it in New
York. It’s a little different though.” I just smiled and said yes it was nice, it’s
different. I suppose I didn’t really
think at the time I was only concerned with being disappointed Paul hadn’t
shown, but I guess he would have liked to have talked. I smiled and said goodbye and returned to the
lounge. Denny was the only one left in
the lounge with his friend. I didn’t
notice him right off and believe me, I said some pretty dumb things. I saw he was there as we got up to
leave. We sardined once more into George’s
car, screaming down the motorway as George drove down the wrong side of the road. We had a nice evening and it was great being
with friends.
