Tourist Attraction

Still working my way through the July 1982 issue of "With a Little Help from my Friends" I have this nice story for you to read about some girls who met Paul once again outside Air Studios in May of 1982.   

Photo by Mary Kara

Photo take by Beth Sander

Photo take by Jan Bendrick

Photo taken by Jan Bendrick

Photo by Debbie Rodney

Tourist Attraction, day one – May 18, 1982

By Beth Sanders

We had stood across the street from MPL for four days hoping to see Paul.  Having no luck there, and out of curiosity as to what floor Air Studios was on, we finally went over to 214 Oxford Street.  As we peered through the glass doors of the building, a girl walked past, hesitated when she saw us, and asked me, “Who are you waiting for?”  Challenging her, I asked “Who are YOU waiting for?”  Acting nonchalant, she replied, “Anybody connected with anybody.”  Possibly my American accent caught her off-guard because she did not hesitate to tell me that Paul was inside and Linda had just gone in a few minutes before we got there.  Skeptical of this information, I looked at Mary, Deb and Jan.  Without saying a word to each other, but knowing we’d best not leave, just in case, we silently agreed to wait.  In a matter of about 10 minutes, John Hammil, Paul’s driver, came out and walked past us and up to the street around the corner.  Mary and I realized that he had gone to get the car, which we late found out was parked right around the corner.  We riveted our eyes to the inside of the building’s lobby.  In a few seconds, Paul, Linda and Trevor were standing there just a few feet in front of us saying goodnight to the security guards!

We all stepped back as he came out the door.  At the instant he saw the girl who had told us about him being in the studio, his eyes got big and he said, “You!!!” We realized that she must have been out there every night that he was in the studio.  After a bit he realized that there were more girls standing off to his left.  He turned slightly and looked at me, Mary, Jan and Deb.  Mary and Deb walked up closer to him and Mary said, “We have some gifts for you.  Will you take them?”  He smiled at Mary and said, “Oh yeah, I like gifts!”  Mary and Deb handed him the gifts and Deb asked if we could take some photos.  He said yeah, and noticing that Deb’s lens cap was on he said, “But you better take your lens cap off first!”

As we were all clicking away, he glanced towards Linda and said, “I feel like a tourist attraction!”  Mary asked about Heather and Paul raised his eyebrows and answered, “She’s doing better.”  Paul and Linda started to walk away in the direction of the car.  As they passed us, Mary wasn’t going to let them get away yet, so she said, “I love the album!”  He stopped, turned around and winked saying, “thank you!”  When he had stopped and turned we walked back up to them and Deb asked him if he would sign something for her.  He answered, “sure” so Jan and Deb started digging for the 45 picture sleeves of “Ebony and Ivory” that they had been carrying around for days now, just in case!  He signed Deb’s then Jan’s, and I had brought one along for a friend, so I asked him to sign that too.  Prior to this, Jan had given a pin in the shape of a horse that her dad had made for Linda, and Linda and Mary were talking about it.  Linda told Mary and me that they had Appaloosas and asked if we knew what they were.  After signing the picture sleeve for me, he handed it back to me and said teasingly, “Haven’t you got enough autographs?”  I smiled very big and said, “No.”  While he had been signing the picture sleeve for me, Mary had told him that Deb was a musician.  He asked her what she played.  Paul asked where we were from and Mary said, “Indiana.”  He looked at Linda and said, “Oh, the Indiana group!”  Someone added “Illinois, too!” sine Jan and Deb are from there.

They started to walk away from us and as they neared the corner where the car was waiting, Paul turned and asked us how long we were staying.  Unable to think clearly at all by this time, Mary stuttered out, “May 31^st” which wasn’t right anyway.  He said, “Have a good time!”  As they were walking toward the car, Mary said, “Give our best wishes to Michael,” referring to his approaching wedding.  Paul looked puzzled and asked, “Which Michael?”  Mary said “Your brother Michael.”  Paul said, “Oh yeah!” We thanked them and said good night.  Paul and Linda got in the back seat of the station wagon and they drove off. 

Tourist Attraction, day two – May 19, 1982by Jan Bendrick

The next day, because of other plans, we hadn’t really considered a return visit to Air.  In fact our original schedule didn’t allow for a return to London until very late in the evening.  However, after seeing Paul the night before, we found that walking on “air” was much quicker than walking on solid ground, and miraculously, we found ourselves back in London at 3:45pm.   Knowing for certain that Paul would be at the studio again that night, we just couldn’t let the opportunity to see him pass us by.  We made a quick stop at MPL, just for old time’s sake, one good look, just to check things out, and then hurried over to Oxford Street.  We all chipped in a “fair amount of pences” for a dozen red roses, remembering Paul’s remark from the night before; we thought a present would be appreciated.

Finally reaching the studio, we were surprised to see that nobody was waiting outside the building.  We stood there a few minutes not knowing for sure what to do.  Mary finally stepped just inside the door, walked up to the security desk and asked, “Is Paul here?”  The security man hesitated, but only for a second, and then said, “Yes, it will be about 3 hours before he comes out.”  The thought of buying a second bouquet entered our minds instantly, we were so grateful.  We made a hurried trip to a car shop, and by the time we returned to Air (5pm) a few people had gathered around.

It wasn’t until 7pm that we had our first “jolt.”  John Hamill came out and walked down the street.  Our intuition was right – he’d moved the car, same as last night, the silver Volvo station wagon.  Back inside he went.   A short time later, Trevor Jones made his appearance, walking past us, all the way down Great Portland Street.  Returning some 20 minutes later, he grinned as he walked by us and uttered one word, “chips.”  We all smiled back at him knowingly.  Oh to be a chip!  Haha!

Naturally, it started to rain, as if on command, just before Paul came out (8:30), the rain stopped.  Paul was alone.  Alone?!!?!   Since the okay had obviously been given for picture-taking, we started clicking away.  Paul was wearing a white shirt (wrinkled), dark blue baggy pants with pin-stripes down the legs, and army green jacket (with a red pen sticking out of his pocket) and again then HUGE white tennis shoes.  As he was siging something for someone, we heard him say, “Oh NO you won’t!!”  Which made us all immediately regret having missed the question that had prompted that remark.   When he finally turned toward us, Mary handed him the flowers and the card.  He peeked down at the flowers from the top of the rolled paper, and as he looked back up, and saw Deb, he said, “Oh, there she is, Rockin’ Annie!”  At this point, the roses became a guitar as he mocked “guitar sounds.”  We all laughed.  Next, Jan gave him 6 Paul McCartney cardboard face masks which had been distributed by a Chicago radio station last Halloween.  We were hoping he would unroll them, anxious to see his reaction, and were disappointed when he said, “Thank, I’ll read them in the car.”  (Darn!) 

  All of a sudden a round of handshakes began with a group of other fans who were standing there.  Not to be outdone, we waited for “our turn”  He took Mary’s hand first, then Beth reached over to take his hand and he said, “I’ve already shook your hand.”  “No you haven’t.”  I spoke up next, “I haven’t shuck your hand either.”  Without a moment’s hesitation, Paul came back with, “Oh, I haven’t shuck your hand, have I?”  Obviously tickled.  Deb managed a meager, “me next.”  Then one of the other fans asked if she could shake his hand.  Teasingly, he pulled his arm back and said, “No you can’t.  That’s my private hand.”  A few more pictures and he said, “Well, are you all through now?  Okay, well, then I’m on my way home.”  And he started walking towards the car.  Everyone kind of followed him but from a distance.  As he almost reached the corner, he came to a complete stop, half-turned around, and with typical McCartney charm, he grinned and said, “Good night girls!”  We took a few more pictures as he got into the front seat of the car next to John Hamill, who was driving.  Just as they were about to drive away, he rolled down the window, and said something but not one of us heard him.  Which, no doubt, we’ll regret forever.  As we watched the little silver Volvo drive away, we couldn’t help but feel sad, thinking this was the last time we’d see him.  BUT…. (to be continued)