Paul, Me and the Aggro

 Paul, Me and the Aggro

By Alasdair Buchan

Sunday Mirror

May 16, 1976

    Paul McCartney opened the door of his London home in St John's Wood to find a young fan standing there with her mother. To his horror, he learned that Mum was there to meet her prospective son in law. Him!

     The girl, whom Paul hadn't seen before, had convinced her mother that she and Paul were getting married. At the time, Beatle McCartney was marrying no one, and simply had to tell the girl's mother, "Sorry, your daughter has got the wrong idea."

     But seven years ago, when he met and married Linda Eastman, the daughter of a New York lawyer, it was against the fraught background of this sort of persisttence by devoted girls. 

    Linda recalls, "The fans went to war when I married Paul."

     Another fan wrote to Paul from America every day at the beginning of his marriage, signing her letters "Mrs. Paula McCartney."  A third, who had complained to the police that she had been assaulted by Paul, kept saying it was her who made him like that. "He used to like me ." That fan's only connection with Paul was the permanent vigil she had kept outside his homes in London and Scotland. The police took no action on her accusation.

     Linda 33 told me, looking back, "I think I took on a battle when I should have said that I understood and tried to talk to them, but it was difficult. I had been a free woman in New York when I married Paul, and I suddenly felt fenced in.

     "We would go home at night and find about 20 girls outside who had been standing there for five years. They each felt as though they were Paul's wife."

     If Linda overreacted by giving fans the cold shoulder, she had certain justification. "They would say, 'I hate you. You're horrible.'  'Why didn't he marry Jane Asher? At least we know her. 'They painted nasty things all over our wall and played their radios really loud at night outside our house."

     Heather, Linda's 9-year-old daughter by her first marriage to an American geologist, was ambushed when she came home from school and told how awful her mother was. "It puts a lot of pressure on us."

     Paul said, at the time, "You look out the window late at night, and there's always a figure standing under the street lamp."

     Seven years in, a growing tolerance by the fans has healed that antagonism. Said Linda, "I'm quite friendly with the kids now; sometimes we see the same ones, but many are doing other things, like getting married themselves."

     Now Linda McCartney is a relaxed, assured woman combining a career as a pop star with her life as a housewife and mother. She's five foot six inches tall, with blue eyes and a shock of straight blonde hair. 

     Outsiders tend to regard her as cold and hard but face to face, she is a warm and attractive personality. She is soft-spoken, extremely feminine, and can talk politely without seeming patronizing. She and Paul have three daughters, Heather, 13, Mary, 6, and Stella, 4.

     When the Beatles broke up, Paul decided, after a period of hermit-like isolation in his Scottish farmhouse, to form his new band, Wings, including Linda as a piano and organ player. Now, she's playing in front of audiences of up to 80,000 people during Wing's current American tour. 

    "I wouldn't have been a musician if it had not been for Paul," said Linda, "but Paul didn't quite know what to do when the Beatles split up in 1971. So one day, Paul and I were sitting around feeling quite cheerful, and Paul said, 'Let's get a group together.' Stupid me said, 'Oh sure.' Never thinking about little things like being able to play and sing in tune."

     The group was formed, and suddenly, Linda found herself caught in the crossfire of criticism. "I wouldn't have stuck it if Paul hadn't encouraged me," she said. "I guess I deserve much of the backlash because I couldn't really play. I learned chords naturally, but that's not enough. You need a feel for it. I wasn't naturally rhythmic like Paul. I must admit that I can see why everybody was so bitter about me joining with Paul, who has such talent."

     Paul Linda and Denny Laine, singer of the Moody Blues smash song "Go Now," hit on an admirably bohemian idea. They simply hired a van, put all their equipment in it, and headed up the M1. "We stopped at university towns,"  recalled Linda.  "The roadie went into the student union and said, 'I've got Paul McCartney here. Can we play tonight?' At one place, they paid us some coins they had taken at the door."

     The inevitable comparisons with The Beatles were made. John Lennon made rude sounds about the first McCartney album. This is behind them now, and Paul and John are the best of friends again. 

    Now that Wings has established itself as one of the world's major rock groups, both Paul and Linda have come to terms with the Beatles breakup. Paul plays five Beatles hits during Wings stage act, and Linda talks openly about the Beatles. 

    "I'd love the Beatles to get back together again," she said, "but for music's sake, not for all those millions of dollars everyone talks about. In any case, I think Paul is very content to stay with Wings. I'm bored by being asked if the Beatles will get back together. John Lennon was saying the other day that everybody seems to be five years behind in their thinking. He and Paul are busy trying to create new music, thinking of the future, and everybody keeps asking about the situation of five years ago.

    I remember an awful interview George Harrison had to endure. He was already split from his wife, Pattie, and was talking about his tour, but all the interviewer could ask was whether Pattie had been a good cook or not. "

    Though Paul and Linda work hard to establish a break from the Beatles, the subject of the group and its members often crop up in Linda's conversation. "It's a pretty big thing to fight the Beatles, you know," confessed Linda during a break in rehearsals in Dallas. "In a funny way, I still can't believe the group has really broken up. People say I persuaded Paul to break away, but that was nonsense. It wasn't even Paul who decided that the group should stop working together. John was the first to leave."

     The McCartneys only occasionally bump into George Harrison and Ringo Starr, although there is no antagonism between them. They see John and his wife, Yoko, a lot. "They are the closest friends we have in New York," said Linda.  "Yoko and I have a lot in common. Both of us sing with our husbands and have children to look after. She understands why I go on stage with Paul.

    " All I wanted was for Paul and I to be happy and lovely together and to share that with other people. Yoko understands that. The other day, she said that was the reason she and John posed nude on the cover of the record album. They thought it was beautiful and expected everyone else to understand, but all they got was terrible criticism. It can make you so cynical."