Sara Finally Meets a Beatle for Real

Sara meets a Beatle …for real!  (well sort of)

Written for Meet the Beatles for Real

May 2013

I have been to three Paul McCartney concerts in my life, which isn’t very many by anyone’s standard, but still I have been to three concerts.     Each concert was very different and yet very much the same.  The emotions a fan has at the concert doesn’t change.   You get this shocked thought of “that’s really him” over and over during the first song.   It takes a while to soak in that you are not looking at some Paul McCartney impersonator or a tribute to Paul, but the real, living breathing Paul McCartney.  The guy that you spend hours of your time researching and blogging about (well I do at least).   And there he is right in front of you singing a song that you have heard basically your whole life. 

When I am at a Paul (or Ringo) concert, I pretty much block out everyone else around me.   As far as I know, he is singing just for me.  Other concerts I have attended, I enjoy watching the reaction of the audience as much as I enjoy watching the performer, but Paul (and Ringo) are very different.  

The Memphis concert was the first time I was up close to Paul.  I was in the center of the 4^th row.   I could see him and he could see me.    There was a tall guy in front of me for part of the show which got annoying, but luckily he sat down for a big portion of the concert.   

I am not going to go through the whole set list because you can look that up on other websites.    And  while there were  a few song surprises (Mr. Kite, Lovely Rita, You’re mother should know, Hi Hi Hi), the majority of the songs he performed were the same ones he did in St. Louis this past November.   I was glad that he dropped that Day in the Life/Give Peace a chance song, although hearing Paul’s voice sing “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite” was strange.   I am a John girl all the way and I guess I just want to hear John’s voice singing John’s songs.    Having Paul sing “Something” has never bothered me.     He sang a lot of Wings songs, and I really enjoyed them.    I would enjoy hearing a bit more from his solo years catalog (something from Flaming Pie would be cool or Run Devil Run), but I know the truth of the matter is that most of the concert goers come to see Beatle Paul or Wings Paul and they aren’t as familiar with the regular solo material as I am.     But he always does most of the big “hits” and he never seems to disappoint.

Being in the 4^th row center was a different experience.    There were many, many times when I thought he was looking right at me.   I thought he might have pointed at me or waved at me.   I wasn’t for sure.   A group of people said that during “My Valentine” everyone was going to make the heart sign with your hands towards the end.   When he got to the last “What if it rained” section I did the heart as planned, but very few others seemed to be doing it.   At the end Paul looked in my direction and made the heart sign right back with his hands.   Did he do this because he saw me doing it?   I don’t know for sure.  Maybe it was someone behind me.   But in my Beatle girl mind, it was because of me.  

Between the songs “We can work it out” and “Another day” Paul stood there with his guitar and I could tell that he was going to go into his sign reading bit and so I held up the sign I made. 

   

I was hoping that one of three things would happen at this concert.  Either   1)  Paul would call me up on stage and I would get to shake his hand or hug him.   2) Paul would see a sign a made and would read it.   3).  Paul would see me in the crowd and either point to me or wave at me.     In reality I knew that number 3 was the most likely to happen and number 1 was most likely not to happen at all.   History shows that Paul typically called people up in Europe and South America, but rarely has done so in the United States.    So I decided to work on making a sign.   You might recall that I asked for suggestions about my sign because I am terrible at coming up with ideas for stuff like that.    I thought to myself, what do I want to happen and what do I expect to happen?   I didn’t expect for him to call me up on stage, so I wasn’t going to make a sign that asks for an autograph or a hug or something like that because I knew he most likely would just skip over the ones that ask for requests.    My first idea was to make a sign that said something like “We miss you Linda,” but then I figured that was just too sad and he wouldn’t want to read a sad sign.   I felt like “I love you Paul” was overdone and he would ignore that.  So I decided to put exactly what I wanted to happen on the sign.  I used the die cut machine from work and cut out all capital letters on bright yellow cardstock.   My sign read, “PAUL PLEASE READ MY SIGN.”  When I was cutting out the letters, I saw that there were a few scraps of read paper lying by the machine, so I cut out two hearts to add to the sign.     I knew it was a bit goofy and a bit cheesy.    I also knew that Paul just might find it funny and it wouldn’t take him long to read.    It was worth a try.   My game plan was to only hold my sign up during the times when I knew Paul was reading the signs from the audience.    I think it is rude to hold a sign up for a long time during a song.  It is rude to the people behind you and it is rude to the person singing because it could mess them up on their song.    

So Paul goes through his whole bit about reading signs in the audience and then he says, 

“Here you go, ‘Paul Please read my sign.’  I did it!  I read your sign!  (When he is saying this he was looking directly at me).    That was easy!”

I then yelled out “Thank you Paul!”

I am totally sure that he heard me.   He goes woo…alright and my memory was that he gave me a thumbs up, but when I look at the video I do not see that happen at all.    But he was smiling right at me for sure.   

While this was happening, I was thinking, “Paul is talking to me!”    It was just so surreal.   

 Afterward everyone around me was patting me on the back and saying how lucky I was.    

So there you have it friends.   Your webmaster here at “Meet the Beatles for Real” has finally had her very own story to add to the files.   It wasn’t as exciting as many of you who met one of the Beatles in person and had your photo taken with him or sang with them, or hung around their house.  I didn’t really “meet” him, but in 2013 I think that moment was as close as I am ever going to get.    Plus it is MY story.   It is one of those memories (along with when Ringo pointed at me during the No No Song at the St. Louis concert in 2000) that I will cherish for the rest of my life.     And to think that I was planning on throwing away that sign after the concert, and now I am finding a place to hang it up in my Beatles room.   

It was also neat to see myself on the big screen behind Paul several times during the show.   I am trying to find decent video footage of “Obladi Oblada” because I know for certain that they zoomed in on me during the sing along for that one.     And the last part that I liked was having the confetti fall on me at the very end.  I have watched that happen and it was neat to be in the middle of it.   I even kept some of the confetti for my scrapbook.    The only negative about being that close was that Live and Let Die scared me half to death!    And I knew what was going to happen, and I still jumped.     

I took a TON of photos.   I will share some of my favorites here and post the rest on flickr if anyone is interested.    Please know that all photos were taken by me and are copyright Sara Schmidt.   You are free to use these photos if you want.  That is why I took them, so people can enjoy them, but if you post them online please link back to this blog.

Thanks for reading this.    I hope no one thinks I am trying to brag or gloat about all of this.  I am just super excited and wanted to share my excitement with other people who understand.

Eight Days a Week

My favorite photo that I took

I like this one because he is looking at me.  don't you think?

Your Mother Should Know with Beatles in the background. Very cute!

What's the use of any thing?  (Mrs. Vanderbuilt...love that song!)

Something

Live and Let Die

Waving the Tennessee Flag