Polythene Pat Remembers

 

Polythene Pat Remembers

By Mike Evans

Written in 1974

 

The longest-standing Beatles fans in the world are an elite of Liverpool girls who followed them on their first gigs around the local jive hall circuit.  They sent them letters (and got replies!) during their long stays in Hamburg and wept as success snatched “the boys” away forever.  Most of these original fans are now in their late twenties and early thirties, but they’ve remained loyal to the group who once chatted to them between sets, leaning against the Cavern coffee counter.  One such devotee is Pat Dawson, now a working mum but then schoolgirl Pat Hodgetts.  She recalls clearly the first time she saw The Beatles.

“A girl friend dragged me down to a lunchtime session at the Cavern to have a look at this funny group.  We went basically to have a laugh – and there they were, all black leather and greasy.  They still had their hair like Teds, that was before John and Paul went on holiday to Paris and had theirs cut flat.  George’s was still greasy for some time after that.”

As their local following on Merseyside mushroomed – a year or more before their first single – a sort of class structure emerged between the original fans like Pat who were on first-name terms with the group and the newcomers who swelled the ranks at gigs but tended to gawk rather than talk to The Beatles.

“They (The Beatles) would come into the Cavern, go down the bandroom, then come back to the coffee bar and chat to us all.  I think the main thing was there was a hierarchy of people who’d been watching them a lot time, and they were quite matey with us.  They used to pull birds from this group, but when the newer fans arrived they were already beginning to get “distanced”.  The older fans tended to like them for their music, and as fellas in the personal sense, whereas the newer ones liked them because they were Beatles.  This was long before they made records or anything, but they were already a big bult thing in Liverpool.  It wasn’t like seeing people who were stars, you still saw them as a bunch of lads you might get off with.”

Pat accumulated a vast collection of early Beatles’ memorabilia much of it consisting of family snaps “bootlegged” by the fans.   “There was a fantastic trade in snapshots – as opposed to publicity photos of the group – that the girls themselves gook, or make got off a friend of a friend of George’s cousin or something like that.  I’ve still got one of George sitting on the dustbin in his backyard.  I used to plague the life out of Mike McCartney for photos.

What a lot of us would do, if we couldn’t afford to travel to a gig AND pay admission, would be to go anyway just to watch them arriving and leaving, and listen through a window or stage door.  When they arrived we’d act as if we just happened to be there, nothing to do with The Beatles being on.”

 

The all-night queuing outside the Cavern, and the week-long queue for one of The Beatles’ welcome home from Hamburg gigs, have become legendary.

“There was a night when five or six of us huddled in the Cavern doorway to get a good seat for the show the next night.  IT was really dark in Mathew Street, and the police used to check every hour or so to make sure we were okay.   Anyway, this car was creeping up the street, we couldn’t see it wasn’t police, and when it got alongside a voice said “What the hell are you all doing here?”  It was Ringo and Paul!  We told them we were waiting to see them and with a “Y’must be bloody mad,” they were off into the night.  Half an hour later they were back with hot pies and tea for us all from the all-night stall at the Pierhead.”

Such was the premium on a seat in the front row – although gradually the “old” fans like Polythene Pat as she was then known (Polythene Pam?  Who knows?) had to compete with a growing following of new faces.

“The lads used to play the Death March when people fainted in the front row.  Mind you, that was when they got a bit famous and there were new people in the front row they didn’t recognize.   I remember before their final Hamburg trip there was a feeling at the lunchtime session that it was one of the last times we’d see them like this.  ‘Love me do’ had been a minor hit, and there was a certainty in the air that they were about to happen and John sang ‘To Know Him is to Love Him.’  And when he finished the group could feel sadness in the audience.  Instead of fooling around into the next number like usual, they were fumbling and looking at each other.  Everyone was just numbed.”

“The night Bob Wooler announced as they were going onstage that ‘Please Please Me’ had reached number one, it was awful because the reaction was the opposite to what they expected.  Everyone was stunned.  That was the end of it as far as we were concerned. 

Just Five Great Guys

 

Umbrella Man

 June 29, 2022 

Glasses off

 June 29, 1987 - London

Standing around Yarmouth

June 30, 1963
 

Ringo Starr in Holland

 Ringo Starr in Holland

By Fenno Wekman

With a Little Help From My Friends

October 1977

 

One day Erik Bakker of Beatles Unlimited magazine phoned me and told me that Ringo Starr was coming on October 1, 1976, to Holland to promote his last record.   Erik asked me if I would like to come along with B.U. and to take some photos of Ringo at Schiphol airport.  I said yes and he knew that Ringo would arrive at 17.30 PM.  From Polydor, I heard that Ringo was going to promote his new long-play record, Rotogravure.

On October 1^st Erik and I went to Schiphol at 17.00 PM.  I went into the tax-free shop of Schiphol and found Ringo with two girlfriends while he was waiting for his luggage.   I went towards Ringo and told him that I was a fan of The Beatles and asked him for his autograph.  He gave me his autograph on a promotional paper which I carried with me.  I had more promotional papers with me and I gave them all to Nancy, who is Ringo’s girlfriend at the moment. 

I talked with Ringo for some moments and after that, Ringo stood up and went into the arrival-hall where Erik was waiting.  HE offered Nancy a bunch of flowers and Ringo a bottle of Dutch gin, and also gave him the B.U. magazines.   Ringo thanked Erik and went to his car and drove to the Okura Hotel in Amsterdam.  We followed him.

When we arrived at the Okura Hotel some people were waiting for Ringo:  Henk of B.U., Jan and Raymond of The Beatles Work Group.  They all asked Ringo for his autograph and some other things. Then Ringo went into the hotel and we followed, meanwhile taking pictures of Ringo and Nancy.  They went upstairs. B.U. offered Ringo’s driver a drink and we asked him what Ringo was planning to do during his stay in Holland, but the driver knew nothing about his plans.  B.U. informed the others and me about Ringo’s plan though.  I went home but the B.U. staff stayed behind in the Okura hotel.  Erik asked if B.U. could get an interview with Ringo.  The answer was yes – but not now!  One of the reasons for this answer was that the name of the magazine was wrong.  The word “Beatles” was not allowed as part of the name of the mag.

On Sunday evening Ringo went to The Hague to visit the Hollie’s concert.  I knew that, and phoned a friend of mine named Jos of The Beatles Work Group and asked him if he wanted to go with me to the Congrewgebouw where the Hollies’ concert was held that evening.  We went there, to the artists’ rooms.  When we arrived there, a guard was standing in front of the door and told us we were not allowed to go in.  But after 15 minutes of talking to him we persuaded him to let us in.  We had to wait for about 15 minutes for Ringo, then he arrived with Nancy.  Jos asked for an autograph and gave Ringo a huge colour picture of Paul McCartney which I took at the Wings concert in Rotterdam.    Ringo liked the picture but he couldn’t take it with him, so he asked us to bring it to his hotel.  I asked Nancy about an interview and she said it would be all right.  To take this interview, we needed a tape recorder, but the only one we knew who had one was Erik in Amsterdam in the Okura Hotel.  I phoned Erik to ask him if we could borrow the tape recorder, but he wasn’t there.  That was a great disappointment for me, but there was nothing I could do about it.  We sat for about two hours with Ringo and he was singing old Beatles songs (like Octopus’ Garden) and had a lot of drinks.   After that Ringo went into the hall where the Hollies would sing.  When he saw the Hollies, he shouted a lot of funny things to them like “we want the air that you breathe!”

During the concert, Jos and I sat right behind Ringo and when the concert was over, we went back to the artists’ room and went to the bar where we had another drink.  I was sitting there for about 10 minutes when Ringo’s friend Hillery Gerrard came towards me and asked what my opinion was about the Dutch record company.  He talked with the manager of Polydor-International and told him that he wanted him to help us with the promotion of Ringo’s records, so this man gave his word that he would do so.  Hillery gave us a sort of sheriff’s star, the same Ringo was wearing.

 

In the meantime, Jos went home because he had to work in the morning.  I stayed behind.  When Ringo went to the Bel Air Hotel in The Hague, I went with him.  I the hotel I talked with Nancy, Hillery and Ringo for about 15 minutes.  Ringo gave me a drink and said to me that he would like to see me the next day and that I could go home to sleep and develop the film I made that evening and that’s just what a did.

The next morning, I took the train to Hilversum where Ringo was going to give an interview for the Dutch Radio between 12.00 and 12.30 pm.  I had to wait for about 20 minutes and then Ringo arrived.  So did Erik.  I was wearing a star so all the people who worked for the radio station thought that I had come there together with Ringo.  I said nothing about it because everyone would let me follow him.  The radio programme was live and the disc jockey was Joost den Draaier.  He welcomed Ringo and friends and started the interview, and I started filming and taking pictures.

After the radio programme Ringo went to a press conference in Bussum.  Erik gave me a lift to the Okura hotel.  We went to the lounge waiting for Ringo.  I was writing a letter to Paul McCartney because Ringo had promised me he’d give it to Paul with the colour photo from Rotterdam.  After 30 minutes Erik said to me that he would phone Henk, fellow editor of B.U.  As he went to the phone booth, Ringo suddenly came back into the lounge.   I went to him and reminded him that he had promised to give an interview to Beatles Unlimited mag.  Ringo asked if the name had already been changed.  I told him yes and he agreed to give the interview to Unlimited.  Nancy told me their room number, so Erik and I followed.  We went into the room where Ringo was waiting for us.  While Erik started the interview, I continued my letter to Paul.  Erik was very angry with me because he couldn’t understand that I was writing a little to Paul in the same room where Ringo was.  My task was to take pictures and he couldn’t understand why I wasn’t doing so. 

 After the interview, I went home, and the next day Ringo did a TV program which was his last in Holland.  Unlimited was there of course.  After the interview, I went home.  The promotion activities of Ringo for his new album had almost ended.  He only visited on Tuesday evening the only Dutch talk show and had his talk again.  When the talk show started with the opening tune, Ringo played the drums in the orchestra.  Besides the promotion talk, a promo film of one of the songs (made for Germany) was shown.  Unlimited was also present and took many pictures and films.  But their activities also stopped because Ringo went holidaying. 

Ringo stayed another week in Holland to rest from the very tiring weeks he had promoting his album all over Europe.  His children visited him one day.  After this week, Ringo went away very silently and nobody noticed him again.

 

Slumber Party

Photo from Noelle Nichold (post with permission)

 

These girls are playing with an Ouija board.   I wonder if they are asking if they will marry one of the Beatles. 

Boating with George and Paul

 

June 29, 1965

Thank Goodness it's Fridays!

 June 27, 1997 - At the time, the interview on "Fridays" was one of my favorites.  

John's Beatle Book Monthly photoshoot

 June 29, 1967

Paul interview with Photoplay

 

This interview was conduced with Paul McCartney and Photoplay magazine.   I am not convinced that it is a REAL interview.   Some of the answers just seem off to me.   The interview took place in Austria while filming Help! in 1965.   Paul was waiting at a phone booth to receive a phone call from Jane Asher in London.   As always -- I am presenting what I have found and you can determine for yourself if Paul really gave these answers or not. 

Photoplay Interview 1965

Conducted by Z. Hirschler

 

PP:  Do you swear:

Paul:  Do journalists swear?  Why shouldn’t Beatles swear?  Why should we be better than anybody else?  Not long ago a chap form a London paper wrote a whole page solely about our swearing I remember him coming and asking for an interview. Well, we had no time to give him an interview so he sat a few yards from our table and sulked, boiling with rage.  That article was the result.  Isn’t that ridiculous?  I could just as well listen to what that chap says to him newspaper friends and then do a “scandal report” on “Journalists Swear Like Madmen!”

PP: The Beatles are no angels, then?

Paul:  We never tried to give this impression.  Of course, we aren’t saints.  We curse when we are angry, play poker when we are on the long train journey and want to kill time, and we love to drink when we feel like it.  The fact that we are popular does not make us inhuman – or does it?  We don’t hide anything.

PP:  Some people say you are rude.

Paul:  I know that, too.  There are times when a girl comes to us and wants an autograph.  When we say “no” the girl begins to cry and reporters write “Beatles Offend Little Girls,” “Beatles Are Rude,” and things like that.  Well everyone knows that we are under constant danger of being mobbed.  When we are working, our director sometimes asks us not to give autographs.  It can be dangers – like lighting a match in a gasoline station.  You can give one autograph and then you are mobbed.  Your clothes are torn, you get beaten up and end up in a hospital.  We want to stay outside hospitals so we have to be careful.  Sometimes that is interpreted as rude.  We can’t help it.  It is a pity.

PP:  How do you react to the photographers and press people?

Paul:  They are chasers, too.  We hate to be photographed while we eat and drink or while we are trying to lead some kind of private life.  Of course, there are some who take pictures even against our wishes We fight them.  Isn’t that normal?

PP: Do you love your fans?

Paul:  Of course we love them.  But sometimes we want to be left alone.  Recently I spent a wonderful vacation in Tunisia.  Nobody recognized me.  Days went by while I enjoyed the sea and the company of my girlfriend.  Then a little boy, about nine years old, came up to me and said firmly, “You are a Beatle!”  I was startled but I replied in German, “No, me Deutsche student! No Beatle!”   He looked at me for a few seconds and then turned around and vanished.  After a while, he came back to me with a record under his arm.  It was one of our records with our photographs on the cover.  The boy, who was almost smaller than the record, said, “No ‘Deutsche student.’  Beatle are you!  You admit now?”   Of course, I then had to admit it and gave him an autograph.

PP:  When in London can you meet your friends without being mobbed?

Paul:  Sometimes, at a club called the Adlib, we can spend an evening without being disturbed by the press or fans.  It’s a great place.  You can get drunk there without having your picture turn up in the newspapers the following day.

PP:  Some people are saying that The Beatles are too busy now to enjoy life.

Paul: This is nonsense.  We used to play for a few pounds a day.  Now we get fat checks.  Before, we lived in small, uncomfortable rooms, hadn’t even enough dough to buy a cup of tea.  Now we live life and we enjoy it.  We have a great time.  It is great to have money.  Of course we are happy!  And not only because of the money. There are other advantages.

PP:  Is it true that you were put in jail in Germany in 1960 and that you were thrown out of the country?

Paul:  Yes.  It happened at the beginning of our career.  We were replaying at the Keiserkeller, a little club in Hamburg, and we were paid lousy wages.  So we looked around to find another spot and decided to try a club called the Top Ten.  The owner of the Keiserkeller went to the police and said we tried to burn down the rotten place!  One morning, the police came with a van and collected us all.  I was very sleepy and slept on our way to jail.  When we were locked up I remember saying to the policeman, “Please get me cushions.  That is a damned hard bed you have here.”     Tony Sheridan, the only one of us who spoke German, told me to shut up.  Tony was our vocalists.   He asked the chief about the charges.  We had no idea.   We lived an exciting life in Hamburg in spite of the lousy room, dirty clothes, gloomy places.  We used to sing at nights and dance in the streets dressed up in strange clothes.  So we thought the charge would be that.

 A few days before we had gone to a small restaurant, Manfred’s and broken a lamp.  A guy blocked the way out, saying, “Nobody leaves until you pay for the lamp.”  We knew that guy was series and we began to collect money.  It wasn’t nearly enough but Astrid Kirchner, a German girl friend, bailed us out!  But since we had paid for the lamp, we knew it had to be something else.  Maybe because we marked through the streets in German uniforms, or because John walked around with a toilet seat around his neck, or because somebody spat through windows…

It was not.  We were charged with setting fire to the club.  We were amazed.  We remembered sometimes stubbing out our cigarettes on the wall in the club but that all.  The charge was completely fabricated.  

Luckily, the German police were understanding.  They investigated the matter and after a few hours we were told to go home to Liverpool.  George had no work permit and was too young to get one, so we had to leave Tony Sheridan behind us to clear things up with the authorities.  We were able to return after a while and work there again.  The Keiserkeller was closed down soon afterwards.  That was the truth about our jail episode.

 

PP:  It is alleged that you have illegitimate children.  Two girls have accused you of being the father of their children.  One is 18 year old Anita Cohran, who claims that your manager, Brian Epstein, gave her money to keep her mouth shut.  The other is a girl from Hamburg, Erika Wehlers, who has a 2 year old child, Bettina.  Erika has told her story to a news agency and they have sent he to London.  She claims she got a letter from you at Christmas asking about the child.  When I met her in Hamburg a few months ago, she said she could not prove her case because, “My boyfriend destroyed the letter in an outburst of jealousy.”

Paul:  Well, I have never met her nor have I any children.  Look, some of our fans sometimes have certain fantasies about us.  Let me give you an example.  While we were staying in the USA, a girl came into my room and said, “Hello, my name is Jill.”   I asked her, “Do we know each other?”  She replied, “Yes we do.  I love you and you love me.  We shall have to marry.”  I was certain I had never seen her before.  I asked, “Who introduced us and when?” 

“It was God Himself who did it,” she replied and added, “If you don’t love me now, can’t you at least try to learn to love me?  I know you can if you try.”

PP:  Is it true you don’t want to get married?

Paul:  Wrong!  Why do you think I sit here and wait to talk to Jane in London?  I want to marry.  I really do.  It is just a matter of time.  At the moment I am busy working on the film but as soon as it is finished, I shall get married.

PP:  When will it be finished?

Paul:  In a few weeks’ time.  We have to do a few scenes in London.

PP:  Is making a movie fun for you?

Paul:  Sometimes it is fun, sometimes it is just hard work.  In the Bahamas it was fun at first but then we almost died of terror.  We were standing in the sea up to our necks in water. It mad a nice picture for the newspapers.  Later we heard that at the same time we were posing a shark had entered the bay.  Fortunately, he wasn’t interested in us and went away, but we have been shaking ever since.  The Beatles are no heroes. 

PP:  What else happened there?

Paul:  Well the Governor gave a reception and we met his wife, Lady Gray.  She looked straight at me and said, “You are Ringo, aren’t you?”  Well, I could understand if the good lady had mistaken me for John or perhaps George, but how on earth she could have thought I was Ringo, with his rings, hair and big nose, beats me.

PP:  What did you do?

Paul:  We all dropped on the floor, as if we were dead  Then we got up and left the reception screaming.  But later on we came back and apologized.  I wonder if she would recognize me now.

PP:  What is this movie about?

Paul:  I can’t tell you.  We want to keep it a secret until the picture is finished. 

At that moment the telephone call came through and Jane Asher was on the other end of the line.  Paul jumped up and vanished into the telephone booth.

 

Peter and Paul

 Peter Blake and Paul on June 25, 2022

Another fan meets Paul at Cavendish

 

June 28, 1977 -  Why is Paul wearing a hoodie in June?  Either the date is wrong or it was a cold day in June.   

Sightseeing in Hong Kong

 

June 1977 -  John and Sean enjoy seeing the sights in Hong Kong.   I think some people may have recognized him.  

Photo taken by Lizzie Bravo 

 June 26, 1967 at EMI 

Seeing the Rolling Stones

 June 25, 1982 

Love in Las Vegas

 

June 26, 2007

All You Need Is Love - 55 years later

 June 25, 1967 

Full House & Letting Go

 

Paul McCartney and Wings – Full House & Letting Go

Hammersmith Odeon, 18^th September 1975 – 8pm

By Margaret Drayton

With a Little Help From My Friends

October 1975

 

The house lights go down.  The opening strains of “Venus and Mars” come across the expectant audience – slightly off there, Linda, but it doesn’t matter, the curtain’s rising and we’ll be seeing Macca any second.  Suddenly there he is!  He looks really incredible dressed in black trousers kimono style jacket and red t-shirt.  I sit with eyes glued on his face – and from five rows from the back that’s no mean feat!  From “Venus and Mars” the band breaks into “Rock Show” followed by “Jet”- the audience is really rocking with them.   Someone calls out “What about John Lennon?” and one of the band (I couldn’t make out which one, unfortunately) replies “What about him?”  Paul introduces Denny as singing the next number and then realizes that it’s “Let Me Roll It” and Denny’s not singing lead until the next one, “Spirits of Ancient Egypt.”  Those two songs over in the right order and sung by the right people.  Paul switches to piano and plays the introduction to “Little Woman Love.”  Denny does something wrong and Paul stops playing and says, “No, no, I’m not having that” rather crossly.   My heart is in my mouth as I think they’re going to have a row – the tension mounts.  Paul plays the intro again and the bad patch passes as they swing into “Little Woman Love / C Moon” medley with no further hitches.  I’ve no idea what Denny did wrong but it must have been something drastic for Paul to react the way he did.  Then it’s that lovely song “Maybe I’m Amazed” which he sings beautifully followed by “Lady Madonna” – the applause gets really loud for this one.  Unfortunately, Linda spoils it by singing flat but who cares – it’s so great to see Paul performing a Beatle song.  As if to confirm that he’s proud of his past he then does “The Long and Winding Road” – swoon!  Jimmy is introduced as singing the next number “Medicine Jar” which he does really well proving what a good voice he’s got and how well he can play that guitar.  With Paul out of the spotlight, I noticed for the first time that Joe is a really good drummer.

 

Next, there’s a lot of moving around the stage as they line up the chairs for the acoustic session -
Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me)”, “Richard Cory” sung by Denny almost as well as the version by Simon and Garfunkel.  “Bluebird” where Paul asks if we know what a rhythm box is and says “Bine of you do!”  The fourth song is “I’ve Just Seen a Face” which Paul describes as being “skiffley.”   As if that song wasn’t enough, Paul is left alone on stage to sing “Blackbird” and “Yesterday.”  It’s too much.  You barely notice what a fantastic guitarist he is, he looks so lovely just sitting there singing.

The band comes back and Paul dedicates “You Gave Me the Answer” to Jack Buchanan as he sits and the piano ready to sing.  Linda yells “What about Fred?” referring to the previous concert where it was dedicated to Fred Astaire.  (Paul changed it because the audience in the concert before that hadn’t heard of Jack Buchanan).  This time he obviously expects us to know of Jack as he asks us if we’ve all heard of him and on receiving the reply “yes” breaks into the song.  Denny introduces “Magneto and Titanium Man” as friends of his and they sing the song against a back-projection showing the three characters which is very effective.  Denny then does that old standby, “Go Now” and the band performs “Live and Let Die” with flashing lights.  “Call Me Back Again” and “My Love” followed.  Somewhere in this sequence Paul gets mixed up with which instrument he’s meant to be playing.  There are so many instrument changes it’s a wonder they remember them at all – this time he straps on his guitar, takes it off, and heads for the piano.  Denny yells “I knew he’d do that.”  Another time Linda got up from the piano as Paul headed for it and they bumped into each other.  HE just moved her out of the way without appearing to say anything to her – in fact, he ignored her for most of the concert, the only other time they were together being when they provided the backing vocals for “Go Now.”  “Listen To What The Man Said” starts and we go down to the front to get a closer look.  Linda, who had been relatively unobtrusive until now (in fact she’s been so bored with the whole thing that she’s been forgetting to come in with the backing vocals several times), starts showing off.  She dances around and points at the audience (well, she only plays one-handed keyboards!) and generally looks ugh.  I turn my attention to Paul and stand transfixed as he announces the new song “Letting Go.”  He follows this with “Band on the Run” which is accompanied by a film showing the cover of the LP being photographed.  Then comes “Junior’s Farm” – my eyes never leave his face.  He looks so gorgeous that I’m now really taking in the music or the audience going wild around me.  I’m just standing there staring at him.  Suddenly my friend Kathy nudges me in the ribs and points at Denny and Linda who are over to the left of the stage right in front of us.  He pulls away from kissing her and runs his hands all up and down her back – ahem!  I’m shocked at how blatant they were – right in front of the audience where everyone can see and probably did, and there’s Paul singing his heart out on her right unaware of what’s going on.

The band leaves the stage and after minutes of applause and cheering, etc returns and do “Hi Hi Hi.”  Again they leave but the audience isn’t having it so back they come to do “Soilie” – how about releasing that one as a single, Paul?   The audience screams for more but that’s the end.  I’ve never known two hours to go so quickly.

I wish the same could be said for the next two hours.  We stood outside the stage door waiting and waiting and finally after two and a half hours he comes.  His sports car was parked right by the door and Kathy and I were standing on the nearside by the boot.  Paul came around to see Linda into the car when another car came past nearly knocking Kathy down.  Paul saw what was happening and raised his left arm shouting “Hold on a minute!”  The car safely passed, he saw Linda into the car and started to head for the boot to walk around to go to the driver’s seat.  Kathy grabbed him and kissed him on the neck and when she let go, I grabbed him and hugged him.  He didn’t seem to mind this treatment (fortunately!) and continued around the car.  I asked him for his autograph and he said, “Yes, love, come round to the other side.”  As I went to follow him, Kathy said, “Great show Paul!” and he turned and said “Thanks, love.”  A security guard tried to stop me from going round the other side of the car but I told him that Paul had said that I could and backed my words by shoving him out of the way!  By now I was right behind Paul and he had his back to me.  I got hold of his left shoulder and gently turn him round, holding out my autograph book.  I tried to put my pen into his right hand and when he finally held the pen in his left hand, he couldn’t get it to write.  There followed a ridiculous conversation about my pen Paul: “; this pen doesn’t work.  Does this pen work?”  Me: “you haven’t got it out,” repeated several times and I was talking about the pen nib!  He was a bit drunk; after the party but when he cottoned on to what I was saying he pressed the pen and I got his autograph at last!  He got into the car after I thanked him and he must have said something to Linda because she turned and smiled out the back window which of course I was peering in.  We ran down to the gates and waved as he drove off at high speed and then it was all over.  We were so high we left completely forgetting that Ringo was still at the party and if we’d waited, we might have met him too.  Still, I’d waited 12 years to meet Paul and I’d finally touched him, and all I could think of was that he couldn’t have been nicer. 

Cooking with the Lennons

 

Seeing Stars

 

There is a big rumor floating around that Paul and Elton will be performing together this weekend.  Will it really happen?   We will just have to wait and see....

Some important impresario has a message for the band

 June 23, 1982 -  Take it Away Video shoot

Take It Away is one of those songs that I didn't like when I originally heard it, but over the years it has really grown on me and has become a song that I really enjoy.    

The video is really good.   You have Paul, Linda, Ringo, and George Martin, and a guy that I always thought was John Ritter when I was young (I know, it isn't NOT John Ritter and it is Eric Stewart).       I also think it is great that the 700 extras in the concert scene were actually Paul fans that were members of the Fun Club that lives in the London area and received special invites to participate in this video shoot.  What an amazing opportunity for those fans.  They could have gotten 700 random people, but to actually get Paul's hard-core fan base, was really great. 

Here is a story from one of those fans

http://www.meetthebeatlesforreal.com/2013/03/filming-take-it-away.html

There is also a great video on Youtube about the making of the video

Love is All You Need

 

June 23, 1967 

The Beatles Archive - a Book Review

 

This photo is on the cover of the book 

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about the book  The Beatles Archive by Ray Connolly is full of short Beatles articles and interviews written and conducted by journalist Ray Connolly beginning in 1967 up until modern day.  Connolly was on good terms with three of the Beatles (George didn't trust him), especially John.   The stories are in chronological order, so the things at the beginning of the book are the most interesting.  I especially enjoyed the interviews because they were word-for-word transcripts of the interviews because it isn't too often that you get to read new interviews with John Lennon. 

Parts of the book I just didn't like.   No surprise, but I had to skip over the articles about John's murder and his killer.  There are some days when I can read about that stuff, but right now is not that time, and I just couldn't handle reading it.   Other more modern-day articles I honestly found to be boring.    I know that I am not really into a book when it goes several days in a row and I haven't read the book.   

There is a nice article about Mal Evans in this book that was written based on an interview Connolly did with Mal's widow, Lil.   I don't recall anyone speaking to her about her thoughts or memories before.   There are also articles based on interviews with Cyn and Pete.   As time goes on, and we lose more and more key figures in the Beatles' story, these stories will become very valuable in telling the history correctly. 

I can't necessarily recommend this book but at the same time, I can't say that it was a bad book.   I guess it just wasn't a good fit for me.  Perhaps you will pick it up and enjoy it.   

https://amzn.to/3wIMKZx