Meeting Paul at MPL
By Tore Skaar and Anne Kristin (Norway)
After a lot of struggling we managed to meet Paul and Wings
on June 15, 1979 – the very last day of our visit to London. It was merely an hour before our bus left for
the airport! Wings were being
interviewed live on Capital Radio when “Back to the Egg” had just been
released. Ray Brown had hinted that the
group was to be interviewed live about 3pm.
It was our last chance to see them, and we had to hurry. Naturally we were somewhat depressed this
last day in London, after all the searching that had given no results. Well, Wings arrived, all of them in good
spirits, and the dream of seeing Paul had come true. He was very n ice, joked and smiled, the end
of the story is rather sad. Somehow the
film disappeared when it was sent for developing and we’ve never seen anything of
it since then.
So therefore we set out with bigger hopes when we made our
trip the 2nd time around this year.
Having arrived n London Saturday July 5, we went up to St. John’s Wood
on Sunday. Paul did not live there this
time either, so we walked to Abbey Road / EMI afterwards. We didn’t really expect Paul to be there, and
we were right. Someone there said, when
we asked where Paul was, “I think he’s in Scotland.” Now that made us a little depressed again. After all, it was July, the LP “McC II” was
out quite a while ago, and it wouldn’t really be strange if Paul was on
holiday. But we were determined not to
give up. Having gained quite a lot of experience
form the first trip we learned one thing – trust no one! They all tell you different things! Whether it’s Tony Brainsby, Sue at MPL or
someone at EMI – well, it’s a shame, but you can’t really trust any of
them. One of them says Paul’s out of the
country on holiday; the other says he’s rehearsing in a secret place (far away
from London of course) or that he’s in Scotland, etc etc. So once again – here’s
the advice that you all ought to go by – trust no one! They all tell you different things!
Soon, the next day, this statement proved to be true. On our way to Oxford Street we came from Mystique
Boutique, we decided we might as well drop by MPL in Soho Square. It was just after 4:00 in the afternoon, and
the door was locked. However, a girl
came out and was actually very friendly.
Answering the question where he was, she said, “He’s upstairs.” We couldn’t believe it, and we got so
excited. Of course we couldn’t’ leave
the place now, and we started to wait for him to come down. A Mexican boy called Enrique was also
there. And whom did we see when we had
just crossed the street and looked toward the first floor but Paul! It made us so happy and we waved at him with
a lot of gestures. He smiled and waved
back. It looked as if he was happy to see
us. He was sitting in a chair so we
could only see his head. He had a conversation
going on with an unidentified person. Apparently
it was a day of business meetings for Paul and we were pretty lucky to be here
this day, as he’s very seldom at MPL. Later
on we also saw Linda and James on the 3rd or 4th
floor. We waved at them; too, and they
waved back. Linda helped ever-smiling James with his
waving. They all seemed happy that
day. Well, Paul finally went out of the
room and apparently took the elevator to another floor, so we had to wait
longer. And would be believe it, who
came walking toward MPL just after we arrived there – George Martin! We didn’t get to speak with him when he
arrived but after an hour or so, he came out again, so we ran to him and said “hello”
and “thank you for all the great records that you’ve produced.” He was very nice, wrote autographs and posed
for us.
And we waited for Paul…
After two hours of waiting he finally came down, with James
in his arms. Linda also came. As we started for the front door, Paul
suddenly opened the door and waved us towards him! “What the hell, is he going to invite us in?”
we thought. He didn’t do that, but he
asked us if we were going to take photos, and we said yes, and he just said, “OK,
well, just wait a few minutes, and we’ll come out.” We could hardly believe it. It was so nice of him!
Paul started posing at once and then Linda too. We clicked away with our camera and we managed
to get some good photos of the event.
Pau then said that they had to leave and they got into their Rolls. We ran out into the street to take as many photos
as possible. Paul rolled down his window
and James sat on Linda’s knee. Linda
smiled – so did Paul – and we all said goodbye to each other. Then they drove
away.
It was Monday, July 7, 1980, at 6pm, and a day we’ll never
forget.
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