It happened on August 26, 1983 at 1:15 and again at 1:30pm. Pam and I had been in front of MPL when we
ran into Barb and Bonnie, two girls form Chicago that we had met previously at
Cavendish Avenue. They told us they had
seen Paul earlier as he was going in to AIR Studios So, bright girls that we are, we deducted, “What
goes in, must come out,” so we planted ourselves at a sidewalk table at the café
next door to AIR, prepared for an all-day wait. After only an hour or so, as we were sitting,
talking to a woman from Kenya, we caught just a quick glimpse of him as he very
quickly came out the door and walked down Oxford Street. With that, Pam said, “Is that him?” Catching sight of that familiar bounce from
behind, I realized it WAS him and took off down the street. Pam caught up to me and we caught up to him on
one of those little islands halfway across Oxford Street. Paul was with someone, but don’t even ask
what the guy looked like as I haven’t the slightest idea. Pam said, “Paul, may we have a picture?” He turned around and said, “Not now—could you
hang out a bit longer? We’ll be right
back,” and with that, he touched my arm.
I nearly fell over! He started to
cross the rest of Oxford, turned and said, “About ten minutes.” What a decent guy! He certainly didn’t have to give us a time
span. We returned casually, to our
table, and the woman from Kenya, and sat down as if nothing had happened (she
probably was wondering about us), but we babbled on like fools. Pam started having trouble with her camera
and was getting into a small panic trying to prepare it for his return. We wondered if he would return as he
certainly didn’t have to, and he sure could have gone home or entered another
doorway.
But just as she got the camera functioning again, from
behind us, we heard this familiar voice saying, “all right girls, let’s make it
a quick one.” I still am not over the
fact that he returned from a different direction. We didn’t see him since we were watching down
the street and he approached us! He was
so nice, standing there so patiently while I fumbled with the focus. He started to laugh and said something like, “Here
we are posing on Oxford Street!” I can’t
begin to describe how it felt looking through the lens and seeing THAT face
looking back at me.
Pam then asked for an autograph and he said ok, but to hurry
as he didn’t want a crowd to gather. We
each had postcards handy that the girl at MPL had given us earlier. As he signed, Pam asked about the Rupert
project. Pam: “Is your Rupert project
still forthcoming?” Paul: “Yes” Pam:
“when?” Paul (laughing) “That is
a good question!” We should’ve said “do
you have a good answer?” But he then
added, “When it’s done.”
I didn’t know the title of the new album yet, so I asked him
and he told us “Pipes of Peace.” That
when some of his friends arrived, and he went back inside. Pam and I had retained our composure
remarkably well for the circumstances, but after he left, we found ourselves
wandering around London mumbling like a couple of mad fools.
We also ran into some girls from Italy who said that had
briefly seen George. They were not able
to speak to him or take photos because they only saw him drive out of his gate,
but they said he was all smiles and waved to them. They think he went to pick up a dinner guest
because it was that time of day, and he returned shortly with another man. Again, he waved and smiled.
From Pam:
The man is certainly handsome, thin, and has quite a bit of
gray. His hair is gorgeous and cut in a
nice fluffy, layer “do.” He couldn’t have
been nicer; he was all I expected and more.
I still am touched at how he came up from behind and called us. He didn’t have to do that and he did return
in 10 minutes like he said he would.
What decent, honest, kind man!
Another thought was that he must be very observant of people in order to
be able to recognize us as we’d only spoke briefly on the street (in the center
traffic island). There are so many
people he meets and we saw him so briefly in that initial time that he must be
very keen on his surroundings to be able to pick us out after such a brief first
encounter. We weren’t standing out in
front of the studio, either; we were seated at our table at the café. This is comforting to know – the fact that he
is alert and on the watch for and cares about us fans.
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