London July 1986 (part 2)

Here is the second part of Petra and her friends time in London in July of 1986.  This part focuses on waiting outside of the MPL offices during a time when Paul was there on almost a daily basis.  

Paul, Linda and Stella leaving MPL on July 21, 1986.  Photo by Petra

July 28, 1986 Paul at MPL.  Photo by Petra

We were standing in the park chatting to our friends as a blonde lady went into MPL.  Katja said that she’d looked like Linda.  We saw her standing at the reception desk and going to the first floor.  She really looked like Linda, but somehow during Craig and Tanya’s arrival on the Square we forgot about her.  Suddenly Andy pointed at the MPL door.  “There’s Linda!  Too late.  We’ve missed her!”   We just saw Linda getting into a general MPL car with Alan and driving off.  Of course from then on we didn’t let the entrance out of our sight.  At 1:00 Tanya’s lunch hour was over and she had to go back to work again.  She turned around the corner and we couldn’t believe our eyes when a few minutes later she came back walking next to Paul and chatting with him!  Paul was chewing gum, hands in his pockets. When he saw us standing on the other side of the street he stopped and waved at us.  We ran over to him.  He was in a great mood that morning!  There were just a few of us around and nobody was pushing him.  Tanya asked him to sign her guitar and he did it, asking her “do you want me to ruin your guitar?”  We congratulated him on “Press” and he looked happy that we liked the single.  I said that the B-side is wonderful too and he smiled and me, saying “Thank you.”  Katja asked him if he had drawn the cover himself and he said, “Yeah! I did that!” We all had been wondering what he meant in the song by singing “Oklahoma was never like this…” so I said to him, “Paul, what happened in Oklahoma?”  He looked surprised at first, but grinned and said, “Oh, I ‘m not telling you that one!”  Then he excused himself saying he was late again and went in.

We got back to our watch-point on the other side of the street.  The MPL staff didn’t like people sitting in front of the offices and we respected that.  Some tourists didn’t know this and hung around the door.  They were Italians.  More and more fans showed up.  Since the Mercedes was in front of the entrance everybody knew Paul was in.  Later, Linda came back.  She signed our “Seaside woman”   singles (just released in England) and was very nice.  She said that she liked the new remix of her song much more than the original version and that she liked the 12” single too.  Safia asked her for some “Seaside Woman” badges and she said, “I don’t have any but I’ll get you some!”  Then Alan, who was still with her, gave all of us some badges.  We watched Linda going in and closing the windows on the first floor.  She took some copies of her photo books out of a cupboard and gave them to a man.  It looked like she was being interviewed on her own, as Paul wasn’t in the room.

Much to our surprise, Stella and her friend (a girl about the same age as her) arrived too.  They came in a taxi.  Also, Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders came to MPL.  She was very arrogant.  When somebody asked her what she was doing at MPL, she replied, ‘What am I doing here?  Buying the company!”

Paul, Linda and Stella came out quite late after everybody else at MPL had already left. Paul told Stella to get right into the car.  The crowd was very big that evening.  Paul put his arm around Linda and posed for photos, saying that he couldn’t sign anything.  Unfortunately when we wanted to take some photos, the pushy tourists screamed and shoved so Paul went straight to the car.  He looked inside and saw that Linda wasn’t there. He looked around the crowd.  “Where’s Lin?  Where’s Linda?”  Then he spotted her behind the fans.  “Linda, come on!”  When she got into the car, he got in after her, and off they went.  We were happy that we had seen him again, but after the great morning, the evening was a bit disappointing.  We’d waited eight hours and those tourists spoilt it for us.

Our third week was over soon.  We went to Henley and Liverpool for a few days and saw the Royal wedding.  Paul was at MPL the next Friday but we stayed in Liverpool and missed him.

Then on Monday the 28^th there was a big crowd outside MPL even early in the morning.  Most people were sitting in front of the entrance again.  Anton, Jennifer, Katja and I were standing on the other side of the street.  At 5 to 12, Anton noticed a man walking around Soho Square towards MPL. “Who’s that over there…it’s Paul!”  He said.  We all recognized Paul and ran over to him.  At the same time, John Hammel turned around the corner in the blue Mercedes.  Everybody in front of MPL watched the car and wondered where Paul was and no on, believe it or now, saw him talking to us just 20 meters away!  It was great!  Paul was in a good mood.  Anton, who was the first to reach him, told him what a thrill it was to meet him and Paul shook his hand.  Then he posed for photos with Jennifer.  She works in a record shop and so he told Anton, “Anton, do one for the record shop!”  Pau greeted the four of us.  Katja tried to have her picture taken with him and when she stood next to him, he looked at her and said, “How are you?  All right?”  he also said the record company was delaying his album again.  Then he said, “I must go to work now.  I must see  the NBC people today!”  He seemed very proud that they were waiting for him as he told us at least three times that he was going to see “The NBC people”  A few of the old Apple Scruffs had come to MPL too that day.  Paul said goodbye to us and went on towards his office.  By then the tourists began to realize he had arrived.  Paul said hello to the Apple Scruffs, “Oh – the old crowd again!  I’ve been seeing you for 20 years now!  How are you?”  Suddenly he was surrounded by about 30 people and he went in – not without telling everybody one more time about NBC.

After Paul had gone in, even more people arrived. Chrissie Hynde showed up again.  She wasn’t any nice this time either.  Katja and I decide to leave.  We had booked a room in Henley for the night and as the morning was our best meeting with Pau so far, we wanted to avoid another disappointment like the previous Monday. 

The next day, Tuesday July 30, we bumped into Trevor Jones and John Hammel at the music fair in London.  There were rumours that Paul was going to be there, but he didn’t show up.  Still, we didn’t waste our time.  Trevor told us that Paul would be at MPL on Wednesday and Friday that week and also would be doing the “Wogan” show on Friday!  Originally Katja and I wanted to stay in Henley the whole week and wait for George but as we were sure to see Paul twice we decided to get to London on Wednesday.  Trevor had said Paul would arrive at 12:30 and when we arrived at 11, there was already a crowd of fans.  Paul was almost an hour late and when he finally arrived he was in a hurry again.  He just waved and said, “I’m very late today. Sorry, there are just too many of you.  Leave everything at the desk…”  He rushed in and John Hammel collected books, photos and sleeves from anybody who wanted an autograph.  Although we hadn’t seen much of Paul we were very happy.  Paul looked very cute that morning.  He wore a blue t-shit, a blue and yellow striped long shirt over it, and wide white trousers.  Simon Bates interviewed Paul for BBC radio that morning and Paul left MPL at half past 3.  When he came out, our friends were playing guitar and were singing “Help.”  Paul shouted, “Wonderful!  Sorry, I can’t stop!”  The people didn’t even let him pass.  They pushed him away from his car and when he asked them to let him go a tourist said, “no!”  Katja, Jennifer and I stood a safe distance away from the other side of the car.  This was we could see Paul without pushing him around.  When he got into the Mercedes he noticed us standing there, turned towards us and gave us a sign which meant something like “good idea girls.”  We were so happy!  When Trevor came out he told Safia and Tracy that Paul was doing a cover photo for “Rolling Stone” and a video for “Wogan” but he wouldn’t say where.