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Rick Wright (from Pink Floyd) with Graeme July 1975 |
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Graeme with Linda and Paul outside Cavendish August 1975 |
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Lind and Paul outside Cavendish August 1975 (photo: Graeme Leonard. Photos posted with permission) |
MEETING PAUL & LINDA McCARTNEY... THE
FIRST TIME
In 1964, at the tender and impressionable age of
seven, I was dragged by my elder sister into the Odeon cinema in Newcastle to
see ‘A Hard Day’s Night’... kicking and screaming, as my mother had promised
that she was taking me for an afternoon of cartoons. From that moment I
was hooked... a Beatles fan, a McCartney fan. I had to wait until 10th
July 1973 to see Paul live, the Wings gig at Newcastle City Hall. What a
night!!! Probably not the greatest gig ever... but certainly the most
memorable. Just over two years later I was fortunate enough to meet him
for the first time.
I’d only recently left school and had very
little money but managed to get enough cash together for a trip to London in
early July 1975. I travelled with a friend, Garry... we had three
objectives... to see Pink Floyd at the Knebworth Park festival, to meet the
Floyd guys and to, somehow, meet Paul McCartney. It was an adventurous
plan, which partially succeeded. We teamed up with two London-based
friends, Nicky Pope and Pat O’Brien, for the Knebworth event and had a wonderful
time. A couple of days afterwards Garry & me went to Abbey Road
studios as we’d heard that Pink Floyd were putting the final touches together on
their ‘Wish You Were Here’ album. We met David Gilmour and the late, great
Rick Wright that day. Unfortunately, David refused to have his photo taken
with us. Thankfully, Rick was more pleasant and posed for the
camera. So, the final objective was to see Macca. We walked the
short distance from Abbey Road to his house and it was immediately apparent that
he & Linda weren’t at home... window shutters closed, no sign of life.
So disappointed...
A few weeks after that, I heard that Paul &
Wings were rehearsing for their forthcoming UK tour at the Elstree Studios and
we decided to do another trip to London. In mid-August we took an
overnight bus from Newcastle, arriving at Victoria Coach Station at about
6am. We headed straight for St John’s Wood tube station and onwards to
Cavendish Avenue. The house looked occupied... we realised that we could
be lucky this time. From what I remember, we sat around on the pavement
for about 5 hours. It didn’t matter to us... the weather was
pleasant. At around noon, or early afternoon, we heard a door open and
then voices. So excited!!!! A few seconds later the green gates
opened and there was Paul McCartney standing right in front of us. It’s a
moment I’ll never forget. He and Linda were incredibly nice. They
weren’t hurrying to leave... quite happy to have photos taken with them... Paul
asked us where we were from... Linda did a brilliant mimic of our Newcastle
accents... Paul looked through my autograph book and made comments about the
previous entries.
My idol became even more of an idol that
day!!!!!
After waiting so long for this special moment,
it was repeated the following month... with my friend Nicky and a guy from
Belfast, who became a lifelong
friend...
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