An online Beatles fan club for and about Beatle fans
Friday, June 29, 2012
John on the street
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Smoking on the Bus
This photo was taken by a fan on May 11, 1973. Who is the lady in the background? A girlfriend/ wife of one of the Wings guys?
Lyceum
Some of the comments posted recently mentioned this show, which inspired me to locate this photo. I love seeing the audience in the photo.
Pattie Emerson's close-ups
These are photos from the article and photos by Pattie Emerson. I had always had them extremely too small to even share, but I have scanned them from the original article (instead of trying to get them from a scan of a picture of the article) and tried to fix them a bit.
Giving the Beatles the keys of the city of San Diego
Here is yet another Datebook magazine story about how a 14 year old girl, Susan, attended a Beatles press conference and then gave the key to the city to John. She even ate a piece of chicken with Ringo. Although when I read this story, I felt sort of bad for the one guy fan. He wasn't in the photo and wasn't mentioned again.
Susan Herd (age 14) O’Farrell Junior High School San Diego,
CA
I had written to our mayor, Frank Curron to ask if I would
present the Beatles with the Key to the City of San Diego. In about three days I received a reply
asking me to come to the mayor’s office to make further arrangements. When I arrived at his office I found another
girl, Claudia Nesbit, and in a short time two other girls arrived, Marlene
Shelton and Susan Clark. And a boy,
Randy Doller, also came. We were seated in the mayor’s office. He gave each of us a key. They were small and gold.
We decided Marlene was to give the key to Paul, Susan to
George, Claudia to John, and I to Ringo.
Randy was our chairman. He was
there to keep us together.
As the next ten days went by, arrangements were made for s
to meet at the open end of Balboa Stadium, where the Beatles were going to
perform. And on August 28 that where I
was, right on the nose at 4:30 pm. The concert
was to start at 8:00pm.
After a while reporters started coming for the press
conference and someone turned to us said, “Now when we go in girls, let’s not
scream.”
Then it started, and when I saw the Beatles so close I
thought I would scream, but I didn’t.
The one thing I remember most from the conference was
this: There was a woman reporter sitting
in a chair near the table where the Beatles were seated. She had her skirt pulled up quite high. Paul looked down at her legs and said, ‘Madam,
you had better pull your skirt down.”
Soon after the Beatles had left the room, we were standing
all alone just waiting to find out what to do next. Then we were told to go into the Beatles’ dressing
room to leave anything like our purses, cameras and papers outside. They only thing we could take were the keys.
Paul was the first to greet us. He walked up to us and shook hands; then George
who was lying down as we walked in shook our hands; then John and Ringo. After Ringo greeted us, he walked to the
corner and sat down and started eating some chicken.
I went over to the corner to see Ringo and he asked me if I
would like a piece and, of course I said, “Yes.” So he gave me a small piece because he was
very hungry, he said.
Marlene kissed Paul and believe it or not he jumped back and
blushed. Then she asked him for a button
and he asked her what button, and she said that button, and he said what
button, and she said that button, and after 10 minutes of that she gave up.
That night I had my hair done up rather high and as we posed
for our pictures, John put his hand in my hair and said, “Is it alive?”
Each of us was going to give her key to a certain Beatle,
but somehow it just didn’t work out that way.
I gave my key to John, and Claudia to George, and Susan to Ringo. But Marlene gave hers to Paul.
They all said that they were glad we came and happy to get
the keys. John pinned his key to a
police badge given to him by one of his guards. George asked us where we got them and we
told him from the mayor.
It was about 9:00 o’clock when we left. They had to get ready for the show. We were given front row seats and saw only
ten minutes of the group ahead of the Beatles and of course the Beatles and they
were wonderful, fab, and gear and anything else great.
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Wearing that shirt...
Here is a photo of Paul wearing that red shirt that I posted of him wearing outside of Cavendish. People were saying that he wore it in the late 1970's. Well here he is in a photo with his brother and the Scaffold wearing it in 1974.
Everyone thinks I have taken this Beatles obsession a little too far but.....
you don't see me sleeping with a bust of Paul McCartney every night. I'm just sayin'.....
Beatles in Toronto
This story is from a 1964 issue of Datebook magazine. It was written by Heidi Hoffman and Suzanne Crane who were both 15 years old at the time. I have to wonder if this story really happened, or if these two girl wrote what they wish would have happened. It sounds strangely a lot like this story I wrote for my Creative Writing class in high school about sneaking around and meeting the Beatles. But nevertheless, here is their story.
Toronto
Heidi Hoffman and Suzanne Crane
Age 15, East Ridge high School, Rochester, New York
When everyone found out that the Beatles were going to tour
the U.S., they naturally went out and tried to buy tickets to see the wonderful
boys in person. We were no exception.
For the entire month of March we made it our job to find out
where the Beatles were going to tour. It
was the middle of April when we found out that the closest the Beatles were
coming to our town was Toronto, Canada.
We immediately wrote to them asking for tickets. They wrote back full of apologies saying they
were all sold out. We weren’t going to
give up that easily and wrote them right back.
They gave us the same reply.
After five more letters we decided to accept their excuse for not
letting us in, but agreed that we were going to Toronto anyway in the hope that
perhaps we would catch a glimpse of them outside of their hotel.
We spent the first week of September trying to get someone
to take us the 200 miles to Toronto. My
sister finally agreed to take us. We
left at 8:00 a.m. At 1:00 we were in Toronto and by 2:00 we found ourselves in
front of Maple Leaf Gardens where the Beatles were going to perform. At 3:00 the police started to let the lucky
kids with tickets into the building.
In all the confusion, we ran into two girls at the door with
a letter saying they had lost their tickets.
They gave their letter to a policeman who pushed both them and us into
the building. We were so thankful for
this stroke of luck that we decided to follow the two girls, which led us right
to the special ticket office. One of the
managers there gave them a pass to get seats and then turned to us. Somehow he thought we had lost our tickets
too, and asked us where we wanted to sit.
We told him in the front seats.
He led us into the rail and box seat entrance and another man gave us
two seats three rows from the front on Paul’s side of the stage.
At 4:00 the performance began. After four long acts the Beatles came on
stage. It was wonderful! John’s hair is really light brown. Paul had the biggest brown eyes and George is
too beautiful for words. Ringo was, for
some reason, mad, for he sat behind his drums looking at no one and drumming
with all his might.
They sang ten gear songs and each of the Beatles did a vocal
including Ringo who sang, “Boys.” They
were all great.
After their 27-minute performance everyone was very quiet
mainly because they were too hoarse to say anything. Some of the kids started to leave. We weren’t going to give up now. We had come this far and we were going to
try our best to meet them.
We got up and started to move to the back of the auditorium because
of one of the policemen told us the dressing rooms were in the back. No one was really watching us, so casually we
went up the stairs past rows and rows of seats until we came to small balcony
overlooking the front entrance. On the
side were stairs which we decided to take figuring we had nothing too loose. We found ourselves in a long hall with six
doors on either side. We didn’t know
what to do next and just stood there for minute.
We heard someone coming around the corner and figured it was
the police. All they could do was throw
us out so we stayed where we were.
Suddenly we were face to face with the Beatles! All we were able to do
was stand there and stare.
“What have we hare,” said John in his Liverpool accent.
“It’s two girls,” said Paul smoothly.
“So they are,” added Ringo with a smile.
They were still a bit sweaty and quite out of breath. They stopped for minute to catch their breath
before George asked us who we were. We
managed, quite surprisingly, to tell them our names, “Well, this is no way to
meet anyone,” said Paul extending his hand.
Before we knew what we were doing, we were shaking hands with the
Beatles.
All too soon John told us they were very sorry but they had
to get cleaned up for their next performance and a press conference. Sadly we said goodbye and watched tearfully
as they ran into their dressing room. We
went up the stairs past the rows of seats and out of the auditorium to the
lobby. There we sat down on two chairs
and just stared at each other with tears streaming down our faces. A policeman came up to us and asked if we
were all right. We said “yes” and slowly
started to walk out of the building.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Help reunite Beatle friends from the 1960's!
The one thing that I love about this blog is that it has reunited about half a dozen Beatle people who were either old pen-pals or went on a trip to England together or something along those lines. But as they got older, they lost contact with each other. They see their story on this blog and contact me and somehow get in touch with one another after all of these years. Friendships are one of the most wonderful things that have came out of Beatle fandom.
Anyhow, Lizzie brought this article to my attention about fan named Margaret who is looking for her Beatle pal, Susan.
If you know Susan or you know someone who might know Susan, please contact the Daily Mail newspaper.
Another one from October 1980
This photo must have been taken right before or right after the photo I posted the day of John with a man in a "Hit Factory" t-shirt. John is wearing the exact same clothes and hold what appears to be the exact same mug. But this time we know who the other man in the photo is. It is James, who was John's bodyguard while at the Hit Factory. I would guess that his responsibility was to make sure people didn't sneak into the studio, especially while they were recording.
*edit: I realize that I meant to include James' facebook page (where I found this photo in the first place). Sorry this originally was left off. James' facebook page
Friday, June 22, 2012
The Zen Ravens Interface
I have a special treat because it is on one of my favorite group of people to write about on this blog, The Apple Scruffs! In the October 1996 issue of Mojo magazine, there is a large story about the Scruffs, included in that story is a second story, which is actually an interview about the Scruffs with Derek Taylor. Derek passed away in 1997, and while he did have some interviews in the Anthology, he was supposed to have more to say that was going to be in the Anthology book, which ended up being post-pond due to his death. And since I could never afford his book, it was great to read his words. This was written by Cliff Jones.
 |
| Derek and Neil discuss thing inside of Apple |
Derek Taylor acted as the Beatles’ press officer and advisor
throughout the Apple period and still oversees their press. He was made an honorary Apple Scruff in 1969
and still treasures his membership card
“The Scruffs were almost as extraordinary as The Beatles
were. I used to imagine that if I could
only discover why the Scruffs were out there I might understand why I was here
on the inside. With the benefit of
hindsight the answer was simple we were all just Beatle fans. I was a fan of everything I was involved
with, from the Byrds to the Beach Boys, but the Scruffs were a different class
altogether. Totally different from fans
of, say, the Bay City Rollers or Take That.
“It is like the ravens at the Tower of London. You couldn’t really imagine them not being
there. Apple was an insane place
then. I saw the Scruffs as just another
lovable but crazy part of all that mayhem.
I recall the Sunday Times ran a huge piece on Apple and actually
included the Scruffs on a map that depicted them on the steps at Savile Row!”
In many ways, the Scruffs saw more than us insiders because
they weren’t’ caught up in details.
Their magazine was hilarious too and often let those of us on the inside
have a good laugh about what we thought was the serious shit going down. They could be quite cruel at times if they
didn’t like you, and they were particularly mean about Linda who they depicted
as a rather big-chested dominatrix. John
used to disappear in his office when each issue came out and you’d hear him
roaring with laughter, especially the stuff about him and Yoko.
“Looking back, the Scruffs were very Zen. I’d seen groupies with the Byrds but these
girls were different. They didn’t want
to sleep with the boys or attempt to get their psychic tentacles into them or
invade their space. I found that aspect bewildering but fascinating and the
Beatles did too. After all, they were
used to extraordinary scenes of groupiedom in America, where they were
literally queuing up for a favour.
George, in particular, always had a problem with the fans, being
naturally shy and a bit diffident, but he grew very fond of them because he got
to know them and they were there when he was going through some bad times. That’s why he wrote the Apple Scruffs
song. Paul sometimes had a hard time,
especially when they ridiculed Linda, but he was always very polite to them and
got to know a few of them. Ringo was
Ringo and always had time for a joke or a quip, but John was sometimes
difficult.”
“I used to get pangs of conscience as I sat there in my warm
room with a nice hot cup of tea knowing it was freezing cold outside on those
steps. But the strange thing is they
were happy out there. They didn’t want to
be on the inside. Margo eventually
became an Apple tea girl. Gill worked at
Abbey Road and Lucy I think became George’s assistant, but the rest were happy
out there. They seemed to know
instinctively that there were boundaries to their world and they stuck to them.
What fascinated me most, however, was how they got their
information. Often they knew more about
where the boys were they we did. It was
often a process of abstraction and deduction with them Sherlock Scruffs they were. They’d use some infallible female intuition to
work out whether the boys were recording at Olympic or at Trident, AIR or Abbey
Road. Very clever.
“There’s a kind of
innocence I find in all people I really get along with. The Scruffs had that naivety too. That’s why the Beatles liked them. Despite how it may have appeared at the time,
we were all very innocent. It was all
new and there was no blueprint for what happened. John went to New York, a place that lost its
sense of naivety, and look what happened.
John often found it difficult to deal with fans and would poke fun at
them, but that was just his way of dealing with the pressure of knowing he was
being watched and waited for by people he didn’t know. He was a very sensitive man underneath and
fame can be quite paranoia-inducing.
Fame is not awfully good for people, but in some strange way the Scruffs
helped The Beatles by becoming a sort of daily interface between them and the
world.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
My Date with Paul
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| Patty Michaels in the middle next to Murrary the K. Can't you see why Paul was attracted to her after seeing her on TV? |
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| Paul backstage right before the Shea Stadium show. Patty was back there somewhere too! |
When the Beatles in New York City for the Shea Stadium show, Paul was watching It's What's Happening Baby on the telly in his hotel room. Patty caught his eye and he contacted Murray the K to invite her backstage. This is the teen magazine story. We all know that these teen magazines are pretty tame and often exaggerated accounts of what really happened.
My Date with Paul
By Patty Michaels
I was sitting at home watching TV when the phone rang on Saturday,
August 14, at about 10 p.m. It was
deejay Murray the K calling to tell me that the Beatles had just seen me on his
TV special and Paul had asked if I would like to be his guest at the concert
the following evening. Being a normal,
red-blooded young girl, I said I certainly would. Murray said, “There’ll be special tickets
waiting for you at the press gate.” Now,
as a dancer and actress, I have had occasion to meet many stars and quite a few
groups, but I must admit – my heart was beating quite a bit faster that night
as I went to bed.
The next evening, Sunday, August 15 at 7:30p.m., my sister
Dale and I arrived at the press gate of Shea Stadium to find two box seat
tickets waiting for us. We were escorted
to our seats by a guard and already the screams were deafening. About five minutes later, a guard came over
to me and said, “Are you Patty Michaels?”
When I nodded he said, “Come with me please.” With absolutely no idea where I was going, I
followed the guard down the steps into the dug-out, and then down a narrow
plank and through a long stretch of corridor until we reached a door marked –
private – keep out – Beatles dressing room.
There were perhaps two dozen photographers and fifty policemen stationed
outside. The guard knocked twice and
very pleasant looking fellow with ruddy cheeks and blonde hair opened the
door. I learned later that this was Tony
Barrow, the Beatles’ press agent. He
ushered us in, and as I entered my only prayer was that the whole room couldn’t
hear my heart pounding.
The Beatles were getting ready to go onstage and the first
thing I noticed was that they were wearing their bronze medals saying M.B.E. on
their jackets. They all looked so
handsome in their beige suede jackets and black pants. The first one to speak was George, who told
me how much he had enjoyed watching me dance on TV. Soon John and Ringo came up and they seemed
to be looking me over very critically. I
smiled and tried to act as calmly as I could, and in a minute it was over. I guess I passed their “test” because John patted
my shoulder and smiled and Ringo offered me a can of “Veep” soda. Paul, who had been combing his hair when I
arrived, came over to me and simply said, “Hi.” His eyes and smile held so much
warmth that I was immediately attracted to this sincere, direct manner of
his. We spoke of many things – the crowd
of 59,600 outside, the songs they would sing, and Ringo gave me another can of “Veep.” Then it was time for them to go on.
In the dug-out, the screams were almost totally deafening. Brian Epstein, Tony Barrow, and scores of
press agents and photographers ran about shouting last minute orders, but the
Beatles stood by calmly. Paul held my
hand during these few minutes and just before they ran on to the field, he
whispered, “you’re beautiful Patty.” I
didn’t see Paul again until much later, after the concert. A man escorted us to a limousine and drove us
to the Warwick Hotel where the boys were throwing a party. When we entered the room, everything was
bedlam. The TV, tape recorder, radio and
record player were all going at full blast.
People were shouting and screaming to be heard. I felt like leaving. But then Paul came bouncing over and took my
arm. “Glad to see you,” he said. He steered me over to the sofa and we sat
there all night, talking and holding hands.
John, George and Ringo were sitting on the floor opening
presents from Malcolm Evans, their road manager. You see, every night Mal must go out and buy
each boy a present. It’s a sort of
tradition with them. They played with
things like a magic slate and wind-up toys when they got tired of them, they’d
just toss them away. John was taking
pictures all night. Ringo kept laughing
all night, although I don’t know why.
Paul and I spoke of many things for those four hours. He told me about life in England, running
from the fans and his loneliness when he can’t see his Dad or family. His father remarried recently and Paul is
crazy about his little six year old step-sister. Among other things, he expressed his
annoyance at being hounded by the press on the subject of his relationship with
Jane Asher. “I’m getting sick and tired
of it.”
When I said goodbye that night, I knew I had acquired a
lasting and deep friendship, and when Paul gently kissed me and told me he’d
miss me, I wasn’t sad because I know we will meet again next time and it will
be the same with us. Absence does not
kill the bonds of friendship.
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