May 26, 1986
An online Beatles fan club for and about Beatle fans
Tuesday, May 26, 2026
55 Years since Claudio's visit
If you aren't familiar with the truth behind Claudio's visit to Tittenhurst Park on May 26, 1971, please follow the tags and read the story. We were misled to believe that he was a Vietnam Vet, which isn't true at all.
Still -- John saw a man in need and welcomed him in for some food, which was the kindness that touched us the first time we saw Claudio in the Imagine film all those years back.
So Long New York City
May 26, 1976
Paul and Linda pack up and leave New York City -- ready to tackle the rest of the Wings Over America Tour
John and Yoko Are a Hit (1971)
John and Yoko are a Hit
From Women's Wear Daily
The Houston Post
May 31, 1971
There was a private party in Cannes for French director Louis Malle, but John Lennon and Yoko Ono showed up and stole most of the spotlight. Malle's new film, Le Souffle au Coeur, was the big flick of the day at the festival.
But when John and Yoko walked in, he was nearly lost in the rush of photographers. John's 16-minute short feature, Apotheosis, and Yoko's The Fly were shown later in the evening, and the couple was promoting them.
John, not one to be shy about finances, wore a big placard around his neck advertising their book, Grapefruit. Yoko looked a bit plump in a very tight black hot pants with a black turtleneck and boots. She hid behind her huge brown shades, and John peered out with his best bored expression from behind his yellow granny glasses. He was regally attired in faded blue jeans and jacket.
He, Yoko, and Malle talked while the cameras clicked. About half the crowd were young students and journalists dressed in scruffy hippie garb, while the establishment crowd showed up in dinner clothes. Buck Henry, promoting the official American entry in which he stars, Taking Off, was in his navy blazer with a red lining and his new reddish beard. The ubiquitous Rex Reed wore little blue sneakers, a red-and-white bandanna shirt, and his shoulder bag.
Some little French urchin girls sneaked past the guard and wandered through the crowd, selling plastic dolls for a franc. They crushed barefoot over broken wine glasses without a change of tired expression.
Jenne Moreau was nearly mobbed when she arrived in a red Citroen to call for her old friend Malle. She stepped out on the boulevard in a long, brightly flowered dress, and the delighted crowd rushed toward her. The police got her and Malle safely into the car and away, along with Yoko and John, while the crowd finished off the free wine and food.
Monday, May 25, 2026
On the Wings of a Storm! (Detroit 1976)
On the Wings of a Storm!
By Pauline McLeod
Daily Mirror
May 23, 1976
The lead guitarist, Jimmy McCulloch, was slumped against a wall, exhausted, staring into space. Drummer Joe English was chatting with well-wishers. Denny Laine, rhythm guitarist and keyboard man, was playing darts with a couple from the horn section, and in the middle of the chaos, Paul and Linda McCartney were perched on a tabletop, enthusing about America.
Wings were coming back to earth in a barely furnished room backstage at the Detroit Olympia. The success of the evening showing on their faces. The 17,000-strong audience had gone wild when the band appeared on stage. They rushed into the aisles, climbed on each other's shoulders, and a stood on the seats. They reached fever pitch and were still screaming for more 20 minutes after the show was over.
Detroit was the third stop on the band's 31-date tour of the United States and Canada. This tour is McCartney's return to the American stage after 10 years. The last time he was in San Francisco in 1966 as a Beatle.
"Tonight was incredible," he said. "The kids gave us such a feedback that we did not want to finish the show. We are achieving what we hoped for."
"I think a lot of people came to see Paul the Beatle, even though he's dead and gone, but I feel sure they left the place tonight with Wings on their brains." Linda, his 33-year-old wife, broke off from explaining to an earnest young man that she and Paul are not tax exiles to flash a bundle of snaps of the latest addition to the McCartney household, Lucky Star, an 18-month-old stallion bought in Texas.
"We'll be shipping him over to our home in Scotland, and I'll start breajubg him in when we get back," she said. "But that won't be much before the end of June. "
The whole American trip is rife with rumors that the other ex-Beatles will be joining Paul to do a quick turn. Paul's reaction is to laugh lightly and ask, "What will they think of next?"
And he said, "I'm not sentimental about it, and thinking, 'oh Christ, but it's not like the 60s.' I've moved on to other things. That period of my life is over, but I don't feel sad about it.
" I've seen John in New York, and of course I'd love him to come to a concert, but he's not really into that sort of thing now. He wants to stay at home with his family. I don't really think he would feel very comfortable if he was to come to one of the shows, but I understand that entirely and respect him for it. I haven't heard from the other two. I don't know where they are at present."
On May 24 and 25th Wings play New York's 20,000 seater Madison Square Garden. "What a night that will be with all the Daily Mirror Pop Fan Club there," said Paul. "We'll flood the place with the British."
John and Yoko seen the next day
May 25, 1976
Paul is still in New York and the fans are still on the look out for both Paul and John -- fans once again saw John and Yoko outside of the Dakota.
Linda Hits a Sour Note (1976)
Linda Hits a Sour Note
By Peter Senn
Daily Mirror
May 31, 1976
Jealousy has reared its ugly head in that most harmonious of relationships, the marriage between ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and his lovely wife Linda.
Linda, who believes avidly that everyone needs love to keep going, was decidedly unromantic when Paul left her table at a party in New York to chat to Jackie Onassis, who was sitting at a table next to theirs. The party was at Madison Square Garden after the mammoth concert that marked McCartney's return to the New York stage.
Jackie, 46-year-old widow of President Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis, was there with merchant banker Skip Stein when Paul joined them. Linda, in a great show of feminine fury, rose from the table too, and stalked off to talk to friends elsewhere.
Unfortunately, they asked her the wrong question. What was it like sitting that close to Jackie? Snapped back, Linda. "Jackie? All she's ever done was marry a brilliant man, and I mean Kennedy." Concurred, another woman, even more bitchily, "Come, come, you must admit, she throws spectacular funerals."
Jackie was oblivious to all the chatter. She spoke briefly to Paul, and then concentrated all her attention back to Stein, knees closed and eyes locked. The new romance is going down big in the United States, and so are the ex-Beatles. Ringo Starr is there, and so is John Lennon. The only one missing is George Harrison.
For Your Ears Only (1966)
For Your Ears Only
By Biff Bennett
Calgary Herald
May 24, 1966
You might like to hear the details, although it happened a year ago, of what is generally regarded as the most successful radio April Fool's prank in Canadian radio. It happened on April 1, 1965. It was all the brainchild of Dennis Corrie (the Irish product who handles the 1-4 show each afternoon). So successful was it that the publication Canadian Broadcaster was moved to make special mention.
To set the stage for the story, Dennis had just arrived here at CKW in Winnipeg, and he arrived with about six hours of tape of interviews with the Beatles that he had collected over the years. In a burst of inspiration (even now he can't recall what prompted it), he decided that the tapes were the basis for an immense practical joke. What he would do was edit the tapes, prepare his own questions which would be geared to the vocal answers of the Beatles, and presto! Announced to the April 1 audience that the Beatles were in Calgary.
It took two weeks to edit the tapes, splice in the proper questions, dub in background noise, and duplicate them. To show you how meticulous the program was, they recorded music at the McFall Field terminal. Only a few people on the staff were let in on the secret, and to get the radio audience into the proper frame of mind, it was cited to make no advance mention of April Fool's Day. Normally, about that time of year, interesting little bits of April Fool's nonsense make news, but we used none of that, just to keep the listeners off guard.
It wasn't until 7:25 in the morning of April 1, 1965, that we broke the story. Clarence Mack, then handling the morning show, tossed out the information that it was rumored that the Beatles had made a surprise visit to Calgary. That kicked off a response that even we hadn't anticipated. During the day, we ran six interviews with the Beatles, the same interviews that had been so laboriously put together in our studios weeks before, and they were put together well. You'd have sworn that our men in the street were actually interviewing the Beatles at McCall Field.
Mobs of students raced to the airport to see the Beatles, so much so extra police had to be detailed at the airport. They finally had to take the phone off the hook, and our own switchboard here at CFAC almost had a nervous breakdown trying to handle all the calls. We felt we'd really done a realistic job when another radio station in the city (I can't remember the name at the moment) sent one of its cruisers out to the airport to interview the Beatles. I might as well be honest and say that gave us a fair amount of satisfaction.
Anyway, it was good fun, especially when something like that can be done on a day everyone is prepared for. And we didn't press our luck on April Fool's Day past. We played it straight all the way. The next year, who knows?
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