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| George at Abbey road Studios May 28, 1986. Photo by Craig Beaumont |
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| At Abbey Road Studios July 30, 1986. Photo by Petra |
The “Regulars” decided to go to the Wogan theatre in
Shepard’s Bush. As nobody knew where the
“Rolling Stone” offices were, Katja and I went with them. At the theatre nobody
knew about Paul doing a film there. We
tried the BBC main studios. Tanya works
for the BBC so she got in a tried to find out where Paul was filming. But nobody could tell her. It was 5:30 now and we couldn’t do anything
but give up. There are hundreds of
studios in London and it got so late that Paul would have finished anyway. Katja and I said be to the others and went to
the tube station. On the way I was
thinking of studios with “Beatle connections” and the only one still in use was
Abbey Road. I told Katja, “Let’s go to
Abbey Road.” She wasn’t very
enthusiastic about the idea but as it was probably the last time we could see
Paul’s house in St. John’s Wood, she agreed to come with me.
We arrived at the St. John’s Wood Tube Station at 6
p.m. Just when we got out to the street
we saw a blue Mercedes waiting at the traffic light. As it got nearer we saw the number
plate: 900 MPL! We couldn’t believe it! John Hammel was in the car and waving at
us! We knew Paul was around. Neither Katja or I had ever seen him at Abbey
Road Studio and we were very excited.
Abbey Road is just THE PLACE – the studio where the Beatles recorded
most of their wonderful songs!
Katja and I hurried to Abbey Road. There were BBC vans in the carpark. Another good sign. We asked the man at the reception if Paul was
in but he said no. We didn’t believe him
and sat down on the stairs. Then Alan of
MPL came out with another man and Trevor followed him. My heart was beating like wild. Paul was definitely there! Trevor smiled at us wondering how we found
out about Abbey Road. I said it was just
a feeling I had. He told us Paul would
be out by 8 p.m.
John came back and parked the Mercedes in front of the
studio door. I took a photo of Paul‘s car with the MPL plate standing in front
of the door sign “Abbey Road Studios.”
What a wonderful day! Later four
boys arrived who found out by accident that Paul was in. They had come just to take a photo of the
famous studio and a guard asked them if they were waiting for Paul McCartney.
Around 8:00 John brought out a bass guitar and suddenly
there was action on the stairs. Then
Paul came out. He was very soaked with sweat
and enjoyed the cold evening breeze. He
seemed a bit surprised to see Katja and me again, but he said, “Hi.” Then he looked and me, asking, “How are you?” I said I was fine and he said, “Oh…I’m
hot!” Katja wanted to know what he had
been doing in the studio and he replied, “Just a kind of video thing.” The boy next o to me wanted an autograph, but
the pen wasn’t writing on the record cover.
Paul said, “I’m sorry, it doesn’t write very well. But I’ve signed one for you anyway. “Compared
to MPL that morning, it was a very quiet meeting with Paul. That day at least 40 fans had waited outside
MPL and now there were only six of us.
It was such a wonderful moment!
We asked Paul if he would pose for photos with Katja and me. Although I had met him so many times before,
I didn’t have any posed pictures. I just
happened to be in them. This time I was
standing next to Paul. He said, “Just a
quick one, please.” Then he put his arm
around my shoulder and I put my arm around his hip and we looked into Katja’s
camera. I was so close to him that I
could feel his heartbeat. He was still
sweating and his skin was very warm.
This was one of the greatest, if not THE greatest moments of my life so
far! I didn’t want to let Paul go, but
of course this moment lasted only a few seconds, maybe a half a minute, as we
had problems with the camera flash. When
I think back now, I can close my eyes and feel it all again. I let go to Paul and swapped places with
Katja. When one of the boys wanted to
take a picture too, the camera wasn’t working.
Paul noticed it and told me, “Take one of him with your camera and swap
addresses, ok?” Again, we had problems
with the flash (why does it have to get dark so early?). Paul said, “It’s not working…it’s
kaput!” He was so cute. He said goodbye to everyone and got into the
car. He said it had gotten late and that he had to go home. We left too.
We were both on cloud 9! Of all
the times we had seen Paul this was definitely the best! Paul knows how to make his fans happy. In the tube we met our other friends by
accident. Of course they went mad when
they heard what they had missed. They
had gone back to MPL but there had been no action at all.
The next day Paul wasn’t going to come to London so we had
time to wait for George in Henley. We
had seen Olivia the day before when she went shopping in a very exclusive
boutique from 8 p.m. till after 9 p.m. We arrived at Friar Park at around half
past 10 in the morning. We talked to a
gardener and to Olivia’s father. He’s a
lovely grandfather. He said how tall
Dhani had grown and that he has just one other grandson who’s a little bit
older than Dhani. Later we saw the two
boys leaving Friar Park in a car. Dhani
had very short hair and his front teeth are still missing. He looks very much like Olivia.
At about 10:30 we saw Harold’s red Audi car coming down the
drive. We didn’t take much notice, but
then we realized who was sitting next to Harry on the front seat…none other
than George! I looked at the car and
watched it moving. My knees were
shaking. I just couldn’t move. I wanted to get near to the car and try to
say hello to George, but I just couldn’t do anything but stare at him. Unfortunately we were on the wrong side of
the car. George noticed us and turned around
toward us. He seemed quite surprised,
but as we didn’t do anything but stare, the car didn’t stop. We must have looked like two fools!
When George was gone, I started to realize what had
happened. I was totally confused. It was the first time I had seen George from
such a short distance, but on the other hand I had missed my chance to really
meet him. Katja felt the same, but when
we saw George sitting in the car we forgot all our intentions. It came too unexpectedly! George was wearing a white jacket and
“Lennon” sunglasses. His hair was
pretty long again. I only wish I’d taken
a photo! Although we waited the whole
day we didn’t see him again. Olivia came
out and waved. When she got back in her
black Mercedes, we said hi to her. She
stopped and we asked her if George was back already. She said no.
She didn’t seem very talkative.
We asked her if we could give her some cards and a present for Dhani (It
was the day before his 8th birthday). She said, “Sure” and “Oh, that’s very sweet
of you.” She told us that George had
finished at Abbey Road (he had recorded there in June) and that it had been the
first time in years that he’d been there. She was very nice and kind now. We asked her if she knew when George was
supposed to be back. She said, “I
shouldn’t tell you…” but then…”at 4, or half past 4. You can go for a cup of tea and come back at
4, but don’t tell him I told you!” She
was so sweet! The electric gates had
closed twice on her but she answered all our questions. It was the first time I’d talked to her and I
was surprised to find out how nice she actually is! She was very pretty too with her long black
hair and tanned skin. We said bye and
thanked her again. Then she drove
in. It got later and later. I was just a bag of nerves. 5:00- No George. 6:00—nothing.
Then Olivia came back. She said, “I’m
sorry, he must be late!” Another hour passed. We met Guy Tannahill who works for
George. He was very nice and told us
that George was in London and had been delayed.
He’d come back sometime in the night.
We still wanted to wait but by 11 p.m. it was dark, freezing cold and we’d
waited 13 hours in a row. We had to leave. We were quite disappointed but at least we’d
seen him! We thought George wouldn’t be
too happy about fans waiting for him at nighttime. Also, we didn’t have any warm clothes with us
and were freezing terribly.
Still, when I was lying in my bed that night I felt
happy. It had been a great day and
George is so hard to meet these days that we were lucky to have seen him at
all. Also I was happy that Olivia had
been so nice.
Friday, August 1st was our last day in
England. We didn’t know what to do. Paul was coming to MPL and doing the “Wogan”
show in the evening, but it was also Dhani’s birthday and maybe our last chance
to meet George. We decided to go to
Friar Park first. A gardener told us
they had put George’s car back in the garage and that there was a big tent for
the birthday party in the garden. Then
Guy came out and said George wouldn’t come out today. He felt kind of sorry for us and offered to
get us autographs. We made arrangements
to meet him at 6 p.m. and got on the next train to London. We arrived at MPL after 1:00 and luck was on
our side: Paul and Linda walked in about
15 minutes later.
While waiting we had noticed an American Beatle lookalike. He was dressed in a Beatle sit and also had a
“moptop” haircut. His girlfriend was
with him. When Paul and Linda arrived,
they were surrounded by a crowd of fans.
Suddenly the friend of the “Beatle lookalike” pushed her way through to
Paul. She grabbed his shirt and shouted
at him, “My friend is your son!” Paul
looked absolutely horrified. He said, “What…what
are you talking about?” Some people pulled
the girl off him, and he went in without saying anything. The two Americans went away but Safia ran
after them. We couldn’t believe our ears
when the girl said that Paul. The look
on his face had been so terrified. Safia
asked the girl why she had said what she said.
She didn’t want to reply, but her friend said that he was indeed Paul’s
son. He told us a story about being
adopted and finding out who his mother was.
She was supposed to have been in London in 1965 when the Beatles were in
the studio. She was “elected” by Mal and
Neil and asked to join the Beatles after the session. We weren’t sure whether to believe him or
not, but he really looked a lot like Paul.
He had the same nose and mouth and even teeth like Paul’s. Still, we told him that had definitely not
been the right way to attract Paul’s attention.
The two Americans left soon. We
really didn’t know what to think of them except that we were angry that they
had scared Paul and Linda.
I had to go back to Henley to meet Guy at 6:00. Katja stayed in London. She told me that “wogan” was a mess. “Every Beatle fan and their aunties” had been
there and Paul got in through a back door.
When he came out, John drove the car directly in front of the entrance
door so when Paul came, he had to walk just one step to get into the car. He didn’t even let Linda go first. John told Safia that this was partly because
of this crazy man this morning. Paul and
his family went on holiday “somewhere very hot” that weekend. He had given them a card signed by all of us
and wished them a happy time.
Guy actually managed to get us personalized autographs of
George and we spent our last evening in Henley.
Saturday we went back to Germany.
What a fantastic month ---July 1986.
With special thanks to Katja, the “Regulars”, Guy, Trevor, and of course
Paul and Linda, George and Olivia and everybody who made our visit in England
and unforgettable experience.
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