Trafalgar Sqaure June 1986
A small paragraph appeared in the publication “City Limits”
announcing that Paul, Linda and Jane Asher (!) would all appear at the same
anti-nuclear rally in London. After a
few phone calls, I was able to track down the press representative for the Nuclear
Freeze Campaign, and she said that she would send me a press invite, needed to
gain admittance to this event (however, she wouldn’t confirm or deny any of the
names mentioned of the celebrities who would appear). Needless to say, after receiving an
invitation with Paul and Linda and Jane’s names on it, I felt sure they would be
in attendance.
On the day of the event, my friend Nancy Allen (who was
given a tape recorded to thrust into famous Beatle faces) and myself arrived at
Trafalgar Square much too early We had a
nice cuppa tea to waste time and then went back to hang out and see what would
happen. Mind you, London was having one
of their rare heat waves (about 86 or 87 degrees that day) so the heat was
making everyone a little uncomfortable as well.
Every time a “celebrity” (mostly British TV stars, music stars and comedians)
walked into the enclosure, they were surrounded by very aggressive British
journalists and camera men. They take
this stuff very seriously, and you’ve got to fight tooth and nail to get a
decent point of view for your pictures.
Anyway, it was all getting very annoying and tempers were definitely
starting to flare, and it had just been announced that Paul and Linda wouldn’t’
be coming after all. AHHHH!! Also we had no sightings of Jane either. So, although the official reason why Paul and
Linda didn’t attend was the illness of Linda’s father in New York and the fact
they had to visit him there, there are two major questions here. How come Paul was back the very next day to
appear at the Prince’s Trust concert, apparently allowing for some rehearsal
time because all bands had rehearsed and had portraits taken. If Paul did go to New York it was a very,
very short trip. Also it was interesting
that neither Paul nor Jane showed after the public announcement was made that
they would be in the same spot at the same time. I think that when they lent their names to
the event, neither were aware that the other was involved, and they avoided an
unpleasant scene by staying away from the event altogether.
Luckily for us, not all was lost. As I was standing around with heavy camera equipment
hanging off me, cursing this silly idea, Nancy Allen tugged me on the sleeve and
said, “Look, it’s George!” “George who?”
I replied. What a silly question. As I spun around, sure enough, dressed in
pink with sunglasses from the sixties, was our George, tanned and healthy and
happy (he was smiling!) He went straight
to the board hanging on the double-decker bus that all the celebrities were
supposed to sign, and there was a mad
rush by the press for a prime location.
You’d think the British press would be blasé about Beatles after all
these years, but they went bonkers when they saw George. I was not about to take a back seat on this
one, and with great physical strength and pushiness, ended up twelve inches
from George’s face. George stayed at the
board for about two minutes. After
signing his name “George Harrison M.B.E.” several of the TV and radio types
tried to engage him in interviews. He
answered questions quickly and with short replies. He was looking for a way out. One of the reps
from the Nuclear Freeze grabbed him and asked him to look into their video
camera and make a short statement why he was here and supporting Nuclear
Freeze. While he was doing that, I
started shooting some pictures in color and then like the wind, he was off
again. No escorts, no security guards,
he just left the enclosure and walked away from Trafalgar Square at a brisk
pace and no one followed him!
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