Restless wind inside a letter box....

I have posted this awesome photo before, but it was a scan from a magazine and it had some writing on it.  This clean copy has been on tumblr this week.    When I posted this photo previously we learned that these two girls are standing on Paul's letterbox on Paul and Linda's wedding day trying to sneak a peek at the newlyweds.   

This bus is not ten miles north on the Duesberry Road

The Beatles take a bus to their last concert at Candlestick Park and one fan broke through and got to touch Ringo's window. 

A batch of photos from "Helping Hand" telethon

Just one more....

guitar practice

Photo by Marilyn Doerflers

Dinner conversation

Does anyone know anything about this photo?   There are photos of John wearing this shirt outside of Kenwood in 1967.   From the length of Ringo's hair, I am guessing the photo is from 1966, but I am not sure when it was taken...maybe when the boys had to go to Alaska?   I am really not sure....  I also do not know who the girl in the photo is, but she sure is all smiles. 

George and a man in a bow tie

Three Beatles in Paris

Piped in

He's getting better all the time

It is nice to see Paul and Nancy out walking in St. John's Wood.   These photos were taken yesterday, May 27, 2014 and they are the first photos we have seen of Paul since he got sick while in Japan.  I think he is looking pretty good for someone who was sick and I honestly think he will be back to his usual self by the time his tour hits the U.S. in a few weeks.

Richard Porter the Beatles Coffee Shop at the St. John's Wood tube station reported this little story of a fan meeting Paul while he and Nancy were out yesterday

a fan in St John's Wood went up to someone to ask them where Abbey Road was. The fan then nearly had a heart attack when he realised the person he was asking was Paul McCartney!! Paul, of course, knew the way :>)

The fan came into Richard's  Shop right after her encounter with Paul, still in shock!   Isn't that hilarious?   Of all of the people to ask directions from!

Denim John in 1976

Stories about meeting John outside of the Dakota just fill me with happiness.  I hope this one makes you happy as well.

Photo by Vinnie Zuffante

Photo by Vinnie Zuffante

John Lennon

By Barb Clark

With a Little Help from my friends issue #17 (January 1977)

November 7, 1976 --NYC

Outside of John’s apartment building early that morning, we (Tempy S., Kay P, and I) met up with George Tebbens, Sharon U., and Carol and Nancy.  We all happened to be in NYC to see John and maybe George in court, for the settlement of “My Sweet Lord” vs. “He’s so Fine.”

Too cold outside to stand, we sat in our cars.  George’s car was parked in front of John’s.  We were parked across the street, wondering if he’d come out at all, it being Sunday and the weather looking down.  I kept an eye glued to the front of his house.  People came and went.  Then, there he was! I yelled, “There’s John!”  We ripped open the car doors, and not looking at the on-coming traffic, raced across the street, which explains the look on John’s face --- a bit worried that one of us would get run over.  The Chicago gang was then out of the car – John stood and signed autographs.  He looked as good as ever – dressed in jeans and a denim jacket with fur trim.  His hair was cut a bit like “Walls & Bridges” time and he was so nice.   He asked where we were all from.  I uttered “Cincinnati” under my breath.  As someone else said “Chicago,” he said “Why are you all here?”  No one answered.  Finally Kay said, “too see you.”  Yoko stood there quietly—looking a bit scared.   They posed for pictures.  John said, “Wait here, we’ll be back, you wait here, don’t follow us.”  He and Yoko turned and walked down 72^nd Street.  We watched them walk down the street.  A car had pulled out and left a parking spot almost behind George’s car, so we all spread out and stood in the space until Kay got her car.  The nanny brought Sean out for a stroll – cute as ever a getting big.  They weren’t out very long.  She took Sean back in.  We sat in our cars.  A cab pulled up alongside of us.  It was John and Yoko.  As John got out so did everyone else!  He signed autographs again.  As cameras went clicking and questions were asked, he laughed and said, “This is like a press conference!”  He wanted to know why we weren’t in school.  He was in a great mood.  A cop walked by and said, “Was that Paul McCartney?”

He came out later.  Yoko was dressed up.  They hurried and got into a cab.  We waited for them to come back.  A couple hours later they returned.  As he got out, he uttered, “You’re all crazy!”  He laughed a bit and looked up at us and repeated again, “You’re all crazy!”  As they started into the apartment he said something like, “You all go and get some rest.  We won’t be out any more tonight.”  I said “Okay John.  Goodnight.” And patted him on the shoulder.  After that we all went out and celebrated!  About 2 am we called it a night and went back to our hotel, the Holiday Inn.  About 4am this alarm went off.  I thought it was an alarm clock in the next room.  Then I woke Kay and Tempy up thinking maybe it’s a fire alarm.  I went to the door, being stopped by Tempy who wouldn’t let me open the door for anything, thinking it was a trick and someone wanted to ransack the rooms.  So we went out the patio doors.  No sign of fire.  Someone called on the phone finally and said, “get out, the place is on fire!”  A fireman came through the patio door helping us get out.  We grabbed camera first and then whatever else we could.  We went out in our pajamas and stood outside.  About 6am they sent us back to our rooms.  The fire happened to be 3 doors down from us!  We went to bed for about an hour, got up and got to the courthouse by 8a.m.  But we found out they didn’t have the trial until that afternoon.  And that George didn’t have to be there.  So we all went back to John’s.  The afternoon came.  The Chicago gang stayed at John’s while Kay, Tempy and I got a cab and went back to the courthouse only to find that George wasn’t going to show up.  The courtroom was the same one used in the promo film for “This Song.”  We got the subway back to John’s and about an hour later John arrived in a gray limo.  He signed a couple autographs and said he was tired and that he’d been at this all day.  And that was the last time we saw him.

Later we met up with Michael Stankowitz and talked a bit.  His friends and he left, and then we all went down and had pizza.  The Chicago gang then left for home.  We left the next morning.

The Beatles drop into Sweden

Living is easy with....

photo by Marilyn doerflers

Just a guy on the street

Autograph books backstage

Chicago promotion

George was a busy guy in the fall of 1976 and part of his busy schedule was to promote his new album at that time, 33 1/3.  With stops in Chicago and Boston, it was almost like a mini-tour to the fans during that time.   This story REALLY shows how managed to appear everywhere at once and stay one step ahead of one of the guys.     It sounds like a really fun time.

George 1976

Barb Clark

With a little help from my friends issue #17 (January 1977)

Knowing about the promotional party that Warner Brothers was having for George’s new album, 33 1/3 and knowing he’d show up, we—Tempy S., Kay P. and I packed our bags and drove to Chicago.  We went to O’Hare Airport thinking he’d get into town a few hours before the party.  There we met up with George Tebbens, Sharon U., and Carol or was it Nancy?  I got them mixed up.   They were sisters.  All of them were from Chicago.  We spent the day meeting all the flights coming from LA.  The flights came 15 to 25 minutes apart, which just gave us time to run to each one.  It started to get late.  The last flight we met, one guy got off with a Warner Brothers jacket on.  We thought, this is it!  The last person got off the plane.  No George.  Tebbens went home to get ready for the party.  We all went over to the hotel where George was staying and went into the lobby to wait.  Kept our eyes glued to the elevator door.  Tempy got up and moved closer.  We sat there a while.   A man came up to us and said we’d have to leave.  He asked who we were waiting for.  We didn’t answer.  He told us to go outside and stand – that he’d be coming out soon!  So we all went out front.  About 20 minutes later out George came; wearing a colored sweater, orange trousers which we later found out was a jumpsuit.   And he looked gorgeous!  Looked a bit like ’68 Yellow Sub. time.   He looked surprised to see all of us waiting for him.  He grinned that grin and said hello to everyone.  Signed some autographs, and then got into the limo and went off to the Ambassador.  We quickly got a cab.   The cab driver was cool—knew what was happening.  He said, “I think we can beat them!”  We got out, threw him some money, and stood in front of the Ambassador.  Three seconds later George arrived!  He rushed through the crowd while we stood around trying to come up with some way to get into the party.  Meantime the crowd started changing, “We want George, we want George!”  Some climbed up on the windows and looked in them – they were chased down.  Everyone still yelled, “We want George!”  And then the curtains opened and some man looked out.  Everyone yelled louder, “We want George!”  Meantime we’d met up with another friend of ours, Howard S. who had a room in there.  Everyone continued shouting “We want George!”  Finally the curtains opened and there stood George, grinning and waving to everyone.  After a b it he waved goodbye, and everyone yelled a bit louder.  It all felt like 1964 again, us yelling and him waving and grinning out the window at us all.  Finally he left the window.

Earlier a police car had arrived.  I thought they’d take us all away.  Overheard the cop saying he was there to arrest the doorman.  We did get into the hotel.  Howard having a room there, but that’s as far as we got.  They had a list of names and as you went into the party, they checked your name off.  So we didn’t get in.  Tebbens got in somehow of course.  Somehow we’d missed seeing George leave, but we all got together to celebrate what had happened, then called it a night and were to meet again the next morning in front of George’s hotel.

We met about 9am except for Howard and George.  Howard got there too late and George (as in Tebbens) had to work.  We stood around for an hour or so.  Char B. met up with us.  We all kept getting crazy remarks from the limo driver, “Why do you still do this?  “You stand out in the cold all this time?”  Someone said, “Yeah, all day if we’d have to.”  We told him where we were all from.  Tempy told him Boston, and he said “you should’ve stayed there, that’s where he’s going next.”  (You can imagine how she reacted to that.)  Kay went to put money into the meter while the limo driver watched her and said, “Is that your car?”  She said “yeah,” and the other guy with the limo driver wrote down her license plate number.  They brought out his luggage then and loaded it into the limo, and then out came George!  Looking surprised as ever, wearing a plaid tweed hat and an army jacket.  He grinned and said hello to us and got into the limo and signed some autographs.  And then the limo took off and so did we.  Tempy, Char, Kay and I ran to the car to follow him.  The limo was already 3 blocks away and almost lost in the traffic.  We had lost it earlier.  We’d found out he landed at Midway Airport in a private jet, so we took off for there.  Getting out of the traffic finally, and onto the Expressway doing about 80.  No sign of the limo.  Kay got it up to about 90.  Still no sign of the limo and then suddenly it came into sight.  We’d caught up with them!  We were all yelling and going mad.  We calmed down a bit, went off the exit with them, got a red light.  The driver looked into the rear view mirror and Kay waved at him.  George and the guy in the back seat then turned around and waved, and we slunk down into the seat.  They turned into the airport and went into a gate leading onto the field.  Tempy and Char jumped out of the car while Kay and I parked it in the middle of the road next to the gates.  WE all ran onto the field.  George was getting out of the limo and going up the stairs leading onto the plane.  He got to the top, stopped and turned around and waved to us.  We waved back and he disappeared into the plane.  Someone looked out the window, but the windows being dark, we couldn’t tell who it was.  The plane started up and we stood back watching it as it took off and disappeared from sight.  George was off for Boston and so was Tempy, as we took her to the airport.  By the way, remember the one who wrote our license number down?  He did that to clear it with the guards or whoever at the airport –otherwise, they would’ve stopped our car from following the limo up to where the plane was!

Bring your mates back!

Another notch on the bedpost

Gary Watson has made it is hobby to get photographs of himself taken with celebrities.  From actors and politicians to famous singers, Gary Watson has been photographed with 5,000 famous folks.   And how many of those were Beatles?  Well as far as I can tell, just one:  John Lennon.   Now Gary might not have listed a meeting with Paul, George or Ringo on his website as it says that more are added daily and it isn't a complete list.  But Gary did for sure meet John Lennon during the Helping Hands Marathon on May 16, 1975 in Philadelphia.  

We are all Chums here

Camera girls

The Inner Light meets George Harrison

I already posted how Rich from the fanzine "The Inner Light" met Paul McCartney but before he met Macca, Rich met George Harrison.    I still think Rich had a lot more guts than I ever would!  Also times were a lot different in 1974.   His story was first published in his fanzine "The Inner Light."  I found it in the special issue that is "the best of" the Inner Light called "All together now volume 1"  It was published in 1976.


No pictures to go with story, so I just pulled some photos of George Harrison at the Cow Palace in 1974 to go along with the story.  

How I met George!

By Rich Friedland

Having never seen a Beatle in person, it’s not hard to imagine how excited I was when I learned that one was going to do a tour of the U.S. of A.  As quick as I could, I told everybody I could think of.  Whether they were interested or not, everyone heard me swear I’d meet George no matter what lengths I’d have to go to.

One friend of mine told me he had connections, and could get me a uniform exactly like the ones the maintenance men at the Cow Palace in San Francisco wear.  By wearing this, I would have a great opportunity to go backstage and meet George.  But unfortunately, the day before the first concert in the Bay Area, the plans fell through. 

Other ideas, like the guy I met who worked at the Cow Palace, who was going to let me in early; and then trying to sneak in the Cow Palace by hopping on the back of the equipment trucks at 2:30 the night before the concert, also failed for one reason or another.  

After being interviewed on local television about my eighteen hour wait in line, before opening night, the gates finally opened which meant there were only two more hours of waiting to see the Beatle.

Trying to be clever, I made sure not to be too close to the front of the stage so that my vision would not be blocked by the edge of the floor being right above my head.  Before I knew it people were crowding in front and around us from all angels, and eventually pushed us far enough back that we no longer had any real hope of George really noticing us. 

The minutes melted into seconds, and the light dimmed to almost blackness.  There not too far in front of me I could clearly make out the silhouette of the side view of George’s face.  It was from that moment my constant applause started.  Before I knew it, the lights flashed on and there he was, in front of us.  This time it was not just a picture or an image from a reel of film, it was the real thing.  Looking more like a Beatle now than he has in the past four years!  As I watched him, my heart pounding, my skin perspiring, my balance becoming weak, I thought I was going to pass out.  I couldn’t quite convince myself that the only thing between George and I was thin air and nothing else.  It wasn’t until I thought I saw this god look right into my eyes that I realized we were in the same room at the same exact time.

The next night at the concert, I found myself more hoarse than George from yelling and screaming so much the night before.  This was the night that I had made up my mind to meet him.  During the ten minute intermission, when the band takes its break, Dave and I found a wooden wall which separated the lobby from backstage.  The poorly constructed mass boards left a small opening which allowed us to see what was going on back there.  We noticed only inches in front of us was the back of the long black limousine that George was going to ride in shortly. 

We also noticed that some of the people from Ravi Shankar’s band were fathered around the front of the car.  While I was looking around for the Beatle, I noticed there was a van parked in there with a lot of people walking around and inside it.  There were Indian-type rugs hanging from the walls, and a few policemen on guard.  Before I could take notice of anything else, I noticed Billy Preston walk right alongside of the wall we were standing behind.  I yelled to him, but he ignored us.  I may not have attracted his attention, but George’s accompanying guitarist, Robben Ford, was altered by my voice.  I then yelled to him and asked if he would give an envelope to George for me.  Without saying a word, he sort of signaled a man to come over and take the dinner invitation from me.  I am confident George saw it one time or another because the next hands the little white envelope entered were those of George’s new girlfriend, Olivia Arias. 

It was only seconds later, when I noticed standing right next to Robben was George!  I didn’t quite know what to do first.  I remember reading in “Apple to the Core” that George does not like the type of fans that are loud and wild.  Keeping this in mind, but unable to control myself, I went crazy and starting yelling his name through the fence.   I could barely detect that I had caught George’s attention, and that he was straining his eyes to see me through a small hole in the fence.  I was so excited; I dropped my ice cream cone and told Dave to boost me up.  Above his shoulders I stood with my neck barely clearing the top of the wall.

It didn’t take but a second before the police were warning me to get down.  I told them I wasn’t going to jump over and wasn’t going to get off until I talked to George.  I then looked down and felt a bit strange when I realized that Robben Ford, part of Ravi Shankar’s band, Billy Preston, Olivia, three angry cops and George were all eagerly waiting to see what foolish stunt I was going to pull next.  I guess I satisfied their curiosity when I gave George a short lecture about how he’s the greatest guy who ever lived, and how long I’d been waiting to tell him so.  I asked George to say something to me—anything.  He then looked up at me and smiled and said, “Hi man, how are ya?”  I was so excited after being talked to by a Beatle that I lost my balance, and fell to the floor.

The next night at the concert, George spotted me in the front row right away and smiled.  It was obvious to everyone around me that we had met before.  Not only did he smile at me a lot, but at one time, for some wonderful, unknown reason, he pointed at me, and told me to sing along with Ravi Shankar’s “I am Missing You.”  By the time the concert and “My Sweet Lord” ended, I found myself in front of the long wide crowd of excited Harrison freaks looking right up at George, and once again, he at me.

Until I meet john, Paul, and Ringo I will remember November sixth, seventh and eighth as the three best days “In my life.”