The Chase

Here is the rest of the story of Beth, Mary and Jan's British adventures during May of 1982 that was to be continued last night.    The girls leave London for a trip to Liverpool just in time for Michael McCartney's wedding.   They are in the middle of the craziness that went on outside of the church where Paul was the best man.   This was written by Beth Sanders and was again from the July 1982 issue of "With a Little Help From my Friends."

Photo:  Barry Farrel

The Chase (May 29, 1982)

By Beth Sanders

We had heard about Michael McCartney’s wedding from some friends, and we had been planning to leave Liverpool early Saturday, as we had some things to do in London before flying home Sunday.  When we were told about the wedding and also finding out where it was going to be, we altered our plans and stayed in Liverpool until Saturday evening.

That morning we walked around Liverpool once again.  We walked up near the Anglican Cathedral, by the Art College and the Institute, over to the Blue Angel, now the Razmataz Club, and over to the Jacaranda, now the Maxi Sun Suzi.  About 11:30 we hailed a taxi and the driver dropped us off by St. Barnabas Church in Penny Lane.  A small crowd had already gathered and some girls were sitting on the sidewalk singing Beatles songs.   We found a place across the street from the church where we could keep an eye on comings and goings.  Everyone once in a while someone would walk by and ask us when the wedding was.  There was some confusion to this as some of the girls who had been hanging around were saying one time, but the paper had said another time.  A few older women came up and asked about the wedding and one mentioned that she knew the McCartney boys when they were children.  Another woman told us that she was a friend of the family of the bride.

Around 2:00 pm the crowd thickened and we decided that we’d better go across the street near the entrance of the church, which we had been told was always the entrance used for weddings.  In a while a bobby came up and made the crowd clear a path to the door, and everyone began to think that someone was going to be going in.  After a while we realized that wasn’t the case, and Mary decided to walk around the church and see what was going on elsewhere.  At every entrance around the church the crowds were even thicker than where we were and if anyone had gone in, there was no way of knowing because you wouldn’t’ have been able to see anyone.   In a few minutes Mary rejoined Deb and me and we waited.  About 2:30, Mary again went around to the other side of the church to check things out, and as she neared the nucleus of the crowd, she knew someone was going in, but she couldn’t’ tell who.  She decided to step out into the street some to try to see around the people, and as she did so, she was almost knocked over by a silver Volvo station wagon!

Knowing that that was Paul’s car she looked inside to see Paul and Linda and some of the children.  The car went around the church and Mary was right behind it, running all the way.  The Volvo stopped in  back of the church and as Mary finally got there, Linda was getting out of the car, Stella had already gotten out, and Mary McCartney was trying to get James off of her lap and out the front car door.  Paul was still sitting in the car and got out after Mary, and they paused for a moment at the door to the parsonage as Paul signed something for someone!  They went on in almost immediately and Mary went back around the church to find Deb and me.  Meanwhile we had gone around to the same side of the church where Mary had been when she first spotted the Volvo and John Hammil was driving it back around the church.  We had taken off after it when we found Mary and she had informed us that Paul was already inside.  The Volvo was parked near where we had been standing and we stayed by the car knowing that Paul would get in it sooner or later.  John Hammil was now sitting on the roof of the car with a video camera to video the wedding party as they came out of the door.  

About 3:30pm the side entrance opened and we could barely see Michael and his new bride in the doorway.  A roar went up from the crowd as Paul and Linda stepped into view.  We started waving, but knew that through the hundreds of people that we there, he wouldn’t see our hands.  Trevor and some other man escorted the children to the car first and they could hardly get through the crowd.  It looked like James was scared and about to cry.  As they were sitting in the car, Stella mentioned to Mary that she was worried about Dad and Mom making it to the car.  Paul and Linda started to make their way there but people would just not move out of the way and everybody just kept reaching for Paul’s hand to shake it.  Finally, they made it to the car with the help of some Bobbies.  When they were safe inside the car, John took off hurriedly and Michael and Rowena were right behind them. 

We caught taxi back to Lime Street Station to catch our train back to London.  All the way back to London, we laughed at the image of Mary chasing that silver Volvo station wagon all the way around the church.