Meeting Paul---What a high

Here is another story from the glory days of meeting Paul McCartney outside of Air Studios in the 1980's.    This one was written by Linda Lampo.   It was taken from the October 1982 issue of "With a little help from my friends."

Photos by Tommy Lampo

Here is the same story that she wrote for Beatlefan.   

What a high

By Linda Lampo

On September 23^rd, 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 24^th, 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 28^th, 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!