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Photos by Tommy Lampo |
Here is the same story that she wrote for Beatlefan.
What a high
By Linda Lampo
On September 23rd, I went over to Air
Studio. I told my husband I wanted to
ask the guard if Paul was expected today.
After mentioning to him that this was my first trip over here, he told
me that Paul was upstairs already and he’d been there all week, coming and
going. He told me to come back around 6
in the evening.
So back I came about 5:00.
I met some very nice English girls, one named Cathy, and a few American
girls were there. One of the girls told
me Paul had signed a couple autographs around 10 in the morning and was very
happy. She also saw him and Linda the
day before at Abbey Road studios. As we
were waiting, people coming out of the building kept saying, “Are you waiting
for Mr. McCartney?”
Cathy told me Linda was excepted back anytime from dinner,
so we waiting in the front of the building.
I’d heard Paul sometimes comes around the back.
About 5:30, in the rain, someone yells, “Here comes
Linda!” She was nice, believe it or not,
signed a couple of things and went in. I
couldn’t get near her, but took a photo from the side. She had on a red outfit.
After 6:30 p.m. someone says to me, “Here he comes!” I looked inside toward the elevators and Paul
was walking toward me arm in arm with Linda, fixing his tie, looking right at
me. The other girls were on the other
side of the door, really giving me a chance to see him. One thing I noticed was Paul being so thin
and having such big eyes. He was wearing
a green suit and the same tie he wore to Mike’s wedding. I went up to him and asked if he could sign my
picture and if my husband could take his photo, but as I said that, my husband
already had taken it. Paul said, “He’s
already taking the picture!” and laughed!
Then as he was about to sign, John Hammel said they were in a hurry, and
to “come back tomorrow, we’ll be here!”
Paul looked at me and also said something like “I’ll be here
tomorrow.” As they went to their car
around the corner, I took a photo of Paul and Linda in the crowd. Everyone had gifts for them but it made no
difference as John hurriedly rushed them off.
The next day, the 24th, started off nice
weather-wise and then the rain came. But
it didn’t seem to matter as I saw Paul again.
This time he came alone, around 2:00, and on Linda’s birthday too. He had on his famous Army jacket, and when I
saw him coming around the corner, I quickly ran up to him. He signed a few photos for others, and then I
gave him one to sign. As he signed, I
gave him a gift I’d made, a guitar out of ceramic clay. I said to him that I’d made it and he said,
“Oh, I like that.” Just then my husband
took a photo of him, and he said to me, “Is he with you?” And I said, “That’s my husband, the
photographer.” Paul said, “Oh, your
hubby!” The Paul shook my husband’s hand,
which was a nice gesture, and said to me, “You’re got the autograph, he took
the snap, and I got the guitar!” We all
laughed at that.
We said thanks and he went along to sign one more photo for
another fan, and we took a photo of that.
He told us he had to get to work.
We waited for some time for him to come back out, but eventually learned
he’d gone around the back.
The last time we saw him was on the 28th, when we
got to the corner about 1 or 1:30. I
waited on the other side of the street in order to see Paul’s silver Volvo
coming (MPL 100 is his license number).
All of a sudden, I saw girls moving around, and spotted Paul’s car. I ran across the street telling the girls,
“Here he comes!” There were only 3 girls waiting this time,
what a break.
One girl had her baby with her. Paul stopped and said to her, “Is that your
baby?” He started saying “goo-goo,
ga-ga” and we all started laughing. One
of the other girls wanted something signed, but he said, “Maybe later” and
started walking away. Suddenly he turned
around, his eyebrows raised, and he said hello to me! He’s so charming, and I’ll never forget when
I met him. We were lucky because the 3
days we saw him were the only days he came to the studio, we discovered
later. He had on his famous Army jacket
the last day again, and also he came alone.
I noticed his hair being so gray now, but he’s still very handsome. Another thing was, it stopped raining each
time we saw him. Very strange!
Thanks, Sara! Now I've got something to read on the subway home!!
ReplyDeleteHave a great weekend!