My Love Does it Good Part 2 (1975)

My Love Does It Good

By Cindy Rosenthal

The Write Thing

Jan/Feb 1976

    My other big day was in Manchester. We were at a hotel checking on prices. It was just down the street from the theater. Prices were too high for us, and we wondered if Paul would stay there. Then we saw a sign that said the Mel Bush organization would be in a certain room at 3:30.  Mel Bush was the promoter of Paul's tour. We went and checked out the room mentioned on the sign and found it set up for a press conference. We were waiting to see when they'd get there. Ken and Madeline were also waiting, so we were talking to them.

     Suddenly, the bus drove up. I hadn't really expected them to show up. MaryAnn and I ran into the foyer area, and off stepped Linda. She smiled at me, and I took her photo. Then Paul stepped off, looking ever so good. Stella was right behind him, and as she got off, she started to cry a little. Paul picked her up, and she got a kiss from both her parents. Paul was holding a Wing sign about the size of a card that was usually passed out at concerts. Stella had obviously drawn all over it. They stood and posed for a real photographer, so we had a chance to take photos too.

     As Paul came near me, I said "The concerts were great!"  I said it with a lot of feeling. He asked, "Did you like that?"  And I said "Yes!"  We almost touched hands, but he had Stella in his arms. I felt we touched mentally, though.  Good vibes. Then he let me take a close-up of him. Linda thanked me for the badges we had given them the night before. That surprised me too. 

    Inside, Paul put Stella on the receptionist's desk, and he was standing with his hands in his pockets and yawning. He looked like he had been sleeping on the bus. Mary was running around. I noticed she has freckles on her nose. She kept going outside, and Stella yelled, "McCartney!" Linda yelled, "Mary!" And she came back in. I just stood watching them because I didn't know what to do. I'd run out of film. 

    They had all went upstairs. We were standing there deciding what to do next when suddenly Brian, Paul's manager, yelled, "Are you going to the sound check now?" to someone behind us, I turned around and there was Paul and Linda, arm in arm, walking toward the front door. Paul said, "No, we're going to get something for Stella (it was her birthday that day, September 13.) He was bopping at a fast pace. Outside, some fans stopped them to get a photo, so we took the opportunity. Also, when Paul saw a crowd beginning, he said, "Hurry up, John!" to the guy taking their picture. Then they waved across the street. Well, they walked across the street, and when they stopped at the corner, he turned around and bowed and waved. I have a blurry shot of that one. What a ham! They went down to a bookstore and then bopped out of view. He looked so good. No one on the street even recognized him,

Photo taken by Cindy Rosenthal in Manchester
Copyright held by Sara Schmidt 

     At the concert that night, the Macca kids were sitting two rows in front of us. Mary was directly in front of me. Mary was posing toothlessly for me. She got the same expression as her dad and  the same wide-eyed look. Mary was waving at her parents most of the concert, but only Stella got a hello from Mum. They were clapping to the music and having a great time.

     It would take me 1000s of words to go through every concert and every day. I can only mention special moments, special rare moments. In my mind, the concerts are all one blur. Too much happened too fast. I remember the hours of waiting for tickets and riding on trains, and then the fleeting moments that made all those hours worth it. In Bristol, I was standing by the stage door in the falling rain. Suddenly, the maroon Rolls drove up, and I saw Paul point at me. I'll never really know why he pointed at me, but I had on a Venus and Mars shirt, so I imagine he was pointing at that.

     Then there were the frustrations of knowing he was staying six miles outside the city, so I couldn't go see him at all. But the concert meant more to me for some reason. I got very frustrated when I did see him at hotels because I wanted to be more than just a fan among the crowd greeting the star. I had those two days to say something to him, and as usual, I couldn't remember all the things I wanted to ask him. I was usually in awe when I saw him, and if he said something to me, I would be dumbfounded.

      Whenever I did see him, he looked great, always dressed so nicely in a suit, and in Liverpool, he had on the red and white T-shirt that he had worn 10 years before. I never got the feeling that the kids were bothered by the chaos around them; the only time there was a hint of that was in the hotel, after the Manchester concert. I was in the lobby with camera ready, and Stella came walking and yelling, "Pictures, pictures, pictures."

     The concerts were always the best, and forgetting all the hours of waiting and hunger, my eyes would be glued on all five feet 11 inches of him on the stage. He has the same facial expressions as he did 10 years ago. The cute smiles, the look sideways or upwards to the balcony. He usually got into the music more than you could imagine. Some nights he seemed very loose, and others a little uptight. When mistakes happened, he handled them with poise and charm. There weren't that many, but concerts would be boring if they were all perfect. The music was so good that I can hardly bear to listen to his album now, because the songs just don't have the power that came from the stage. 

    He was always aware of the fans; unless he was being filmed, then you could see him put everything into his performance, forgetting that we were out there being trampled on. In Newcastle, I was right up front, almost in front of him, and the crowd was just too rowdy for me. I'd already had a hard day's night. I could barely take photos, and the sweaty bodies next to me were making me go crazy. I was seriously thinking about getting out of the crowd. I had had enough of crowds by then. I was making strange faces as I got pushed, pulled, and stepped on. Just as I was contemplating how I was going to get out, Paul winked at me. It was almost as if he knew how frustrated I was getting. It wasn't just a wink in my general direction. It was for me. Believe me, If you've ever been winked at by Paul, you would know it.

     And at the last concert, he was acting awfully sexy, if you can describe it like that. During "Jet", he looked at MariAnn and me with this look, and my mouth fell open, but Paul does that to you if you let him. It's just fleeting moments like these that I wish would last forever. I could go on and on. I only wish it had never ended. I really miss those concerts. They were the best 13 nights of my life

    . I'm sure I could go on talking about the little things that happened at concerts and stage doors, but words can never describe the feeling. I just know that Paul still has that something that makes him a star. Fans are still going crazy over him. In the Manchester Hotel, a small crowd waited for Wings to arrive from the concert. Despite a van full of coppers and warnings to get lost, the minute Paul arrived, he was swarmed. All I saw was Paul and Linda trying to get in the door with fans pulling on them, and Paul laughing the whole time. The fans were all left on the outside as Wings disappeared. I turned and saw a girl crying her eyes out on her friend's shoulder while she sobbed. "I can't believe I saw Paul". It could have been 1964 all over again.

Ringo and Elton

 

Litherland Town Hall

 July 24, 1961

I know it isn't Beatlemania years but still -- it seems a bit crazy that girls were allowed to sit on the stage while the Beatles were performing.  Best seat in the house! 

Paulie the Kidd

 Paul with Johnny Kidd and Mick Green of The Pirates. Most likely taken September 3, 1963 because that is when Johnny Kidd and the Pirates were also on Pop Goes the Beatles on the BBC.

Hard Night's Wait (1971)

 Hard Night's Wait

Newsday

July 23, 1971

Hundreds of young people, like Linda Gavaeff, waited and waited through the night at Roosevelt Field for tickets to Madison Square Garden for the return concert on August 1 by former Beatles George Harrison and Ringo Starr. And when the night was over, and all the tickets had been sold, there were still hundreds waiting. Only 70 tickets were allocated for sale at the shopping center. Sharon Durkin and Richie Walka were lucky. They waited 12 hours and walked away early yesterday with four tickets.

People Flood Ticket Office

Wire Reports

July 23, 1971

Madison Square Garden had to open its windows 10 hours early to accommodate 5,000 persons waiting to get tickets to the George Harrison benefit concert; many of them had been waiting in line since last Thursday. The box office opened at midnight Thursday, and by 8:44 a.m. 17,000 tickets were sold. The management decided to add a matinee performance for the August 1st benefit for 6 million East Pakistani refugees. A commercial ticket agency zipped through its 10,000-seat allotment in 83 minutes, starting at noon.

Night Vigil Net Youth Rock Tickets

The Herald-News

July 23, 1971

    With the determination echoed in a George Harrison hit, a group of youths camped out at Willowbrook Wednesday night so they might get tickets to see  The Sweet Lord of the Rock World.

     Tickets for former Beatle George Harrison's one-day concert at Madison Square Garden were to go on sale at 10 a.m. at Bambergers and Sears, and the kids had heard they were in short supply. Equipped with sleeping bags, blankets, and lanterns, they started arriving at the mall about 1 a.m. 

    "They were all very nice and polite to us," reported Willowbrook's security chief Justin Calatarci. "We felt sorry for them and decided that as long as they were orderly, we'd let them stay." 

     Calatarci said a total of 60 youths were scattered around the center's lot by sunrise. Some huddled on the grass, others curled up in cars. "Their only concern," he said, "was getting their tickets and going home."

     By the time the stores opened, the number of Harrison fans had swelled, and long lines at both stores' Ticketron counters kept the operators constantly moving. Within two hours, tickets priced from $4.50 to $7.50 were sold out. Bambergers reported 116 sales, and Sears, which experienced computer problems, sold 29.

     Was it worth the all-night vigil? One weary but happy young ticket holder was asked. "Hallelujah!" was her only reply.

Teatime

 June 21, 1971 

Yoko Is Beautiful (Says John) - (1971)

 Yoko is Beautiful (Says John)

By Chris Pritchard

The Sydney Morning Herald

July 24, 1971

    John Lennon and Yoko Ono are in London this week to launch the paperback edition of Grapefruit, Yoko's book. They granted their first long interviews for nearly a year. Here is the report of a one-hour private conversation. 

    Yoko Ono is beautiful, well, not really, but John Lennon more or less made me promise to say she is, and, in a funny sort of way, she is rather attractive. "It's peculiar, you know, the way people say she's ugly," John reflected this week. "I mean, the papers say the most hideous women are attractive, but with Yoko, they say she's ugly. They've never done that about anybody else." Through all this, Yoko smiled a big, toothy smile at me, and said she agreed. 

    "We're still a very loving couple, the two of us," she interrupted. "I used to dread the future and think that all the passion was a passing thing. I would think forward and predict to myself that marriage to one person would become a bore after three years, but it hasn't. We're closer and busier than ever."

     The ex-Beatle and his wife were relaxing at Apple, the Savile Row headquarters of the Beatles' organization. Despite the group's demise, the four individuals are still hot properties. Down the road are London's most conservative men's tailors, but outside the white-painted Apple building, more than 100 groupies, half of them young summer trippers from other countries, wait expectantly for a glimpse of even one of the four. 

    Inside, the luckier groupies, those on the Apple payroll, are opening fan mail or making coffee for the stripe-suited city gents, who, following the much-publicized Beatles court battle, keep Apple's finances on the straight and narrow. John and Yoko receive their guests in a big front room. They sit at a white-and-purple desk, with Yoko eating boiled sweets from a brown paper bag and John scurrying about like a messenger on a never-ending search for "this press handout we've got somewhere that gives a bit of background on your last question."

     He's beginning to get a bit of an establishment manner. 30-year-old John is. He talks about his seven-year-old son by his former marriage as "the lad, my boy Julian", who is in the habit of coming down for the weekends. 

    John's face is clean-shaven, his hair shortish, and his wife is very much the adoring companion, slightly in the background, despite the fact that it is the launching of her paperback, Grapefruit, that the two of them are promoting. The book was published in hardback last year (although limited extracts were circulated a decade ago). But at the time, the twosome were undergoing therapy at a hideout in the United States. So, according to John, "The only publicity the book received was a statement by the publisher that he was annoyed we were not around to promote it." Grapefruit is a collection of Yoko Ono's thoughts and observations. "A code for living," she calls it.

 Sample:  "Have a dance party. Let people dance with chairs."  And again, "Draw a line with yourself. Go on drawing until you disappear."

     Yoko says reactions to her work are good in the United States, but shocking in Britain. "They don't understand it in England. They say it's rubbish, but in the United States, we are treated as serious artists."

     John interposed, "I think the trouble, Yoko, is this: in my own country, I'm regarded as the lad who won the pools and went off to marry his Japanese princess. You're the Japanese princess, not to be taken too seriously."

     Despite their preference for the United States as a working base, they prefer living in England, where they have an impressive house at Ascot. "It's a wonderful place to return to, the gardens and the lake," John told me. "I like my house."

     They both believe their lives are more hectic now than they were while the Beatles, as an entity, were still alive. "Yoko has the American paperback edition of her book coming out in a few months," John said, "As well as an off-Broadway show; she's got an exhibition of her art lined up for the Guggenheim Museum in New York early next year, and right now we're finishing the mixing of her record Fly, which should be released soon. 

    "I've got the possibility of an off-Broadway show too. Then there's my album Imagine, that we're busy on. It's almost finished. We've never been busier, or I feel, as popular. Our stuff still sells, and that proves people like us."

     Discussion of the other ex-Beatles is minimal. In fact, it's confined to a few dropped remarks about arch enemy Paul McCartney, who John believes tried to make the group his personal vehicle. "The trouble in Britain," John told me, "is that some people treat us as more friends of Paul's rather than as artists in our own right."

     But one of John's chief interests now is politics. "I suppose you could call me rather left-wing." He admitted.

     That he was seriously interested in self-stylized revolutionary politics first became apparent about five months ago when he allowed himself to be interviewed by Red Mole, a British Trotskyist journal with a tiny circulation. Red Mole is run by Tariq Ali, one-time Trafalgar Square firebrand, and Robin Blackburn, a long-haired economist who lost his lecturing job following rowdy demonstrations in the London School for Economics in 1969. The pair interviewed Lennon and his wife for an issue which sold many times the usual print order.

     Everyone wanted to see what John Lennon was saying. He was declaring himself to be a working-class lad, praising Mao and people's war and offering strong verbal support to the ultra left; had he done any harm to his reputation? "No, I don't think so," he told me. "People who don't like it, I'm better off without. It's not as if I'm a communist or anything. The leftists hadn't really asked for my views before, so when they did, I just told them how I felt. That's all. I believe it is in the Australians to keep the British underground spirit alive. Richard Neville and Jermaine Greer are Aussies, right?" he asks, turning to Yoko, who nods.

     John and Yoko have just finished composing "God Save Oz", a song which hit the record shops this week, performed by an impromptu Oz Elastic Band (not featuring John and Yoko). Proceeds from the record will go toward paying the lawyers in the Oz magazine obscenity trial, now on at the Old Bailey.

     I mentioned that last year he had been scheduled to visit Australia several times, and each time the plans were shelved. "Yeah, I know, but when we were in the Beatles, we got our best reception in Australia. I've always wanted to go back there and take Yoko along." Yoko was standing at the window and looking down at the street, where by now about 300 groupies were gathered. "You'd think it was some kind of occasion." She observed, dipping her hand back into the bag of sweets.

My Love Does It Good Part 1 (1975)

 

Photo by George Tebbins

My Love Does It Good

By Cindy Rosenthal

The Write Thing

Jan/Feb 1976

    When I found myself in Southampton, I had the excitement of 11 years of waiting inside me. I had seen Paul a couple times and been to England once before, but I had never been to a concert, be it Beatles or Wings. Seeing Paul in concert had been my only dream since the Beatles broke up, and so it came to be. 

    MaryAnn Dolphin went along for the thrill of it all. I had also met George Tebbins by phone two days before I heard about the tour, and since I liked the lad, I offered to write for tickets for him too. We were all determined to see Macca in concert, even if it meant giving up our jobs. 

    We were to meet George in Southampton. When we went to the theater to get our tickets, the ticket lady told me George had already been there looking for us, and that he was by the stage door. I had a sneaky suspicion he was inside when we didn't find him. I was right, but we didn't have the nerve to go in and look for him. We went and searched hotels and guest homes for him. We did find out which hotel Paul was going to stay at by accident. Off to a good start.

     After a change of clothes, we went back to the hotel Paul would arrive at. George was already waiting there, and I was glad we finally found him. We decided to get flowers for the Maccas at a flower shop a few blocks away. I was afraid we'd miss their arrival while we were gone. 

    On the way back, we ran across a busy street in front of a bus. George yelled, "That's Paul in that bus!" I looked up and saw Mary Mac in the bus, which was being followed by two Rolls-Royces. We ran to the hotel and got there as the band appeared. Paul looked so damn good. He was in a gray suit with a matching vest and a black shirt. Linda was in a maroon dress. I was in shock. I told MaryAnn to give them the flowers while I started taking photos. I was shaking so badly. I'm surprised any of them came out. 

    When MaryAnn gave Paul the flowers, he handed them to Linda, but he kept our card and read the names. Suddenly he asked, "Who's Cindy?" I almost fell over, but instead I raised my hand. He looked at me and said, "We get letters from you from America." What could I say? I think I shook my head yes and smiled. I couldn't believe he remembered my name!  Then I started trying to take photos. If wasn't shaking before; I was shaking now. 

    Mary and Stella were running around and playing with the revolving door. Darling kids. MaryAnn went to get his autograph, and I said, "Let me take a picture of you two together." He looked up after I took the photo. Blimey! Linda smiled at me and seemed nice enough. A bellhop was trying to ask me questions while all this was going on. Couldn't he see I was going crazy?

     Finally, they went inside after Paul looked at some of George's photos. As Paul was going in, Mary ran back outside. He said, "Come this way, Mary." She answered, "I don't want to come your way." He pointed a finger at her and said, "Trouble!" in the cutest way. Mary ran back inside. 

    Needless to say, I was shaking very badly, and we went back to our guest house to see Crossroads. The now famous theme came on at the end and sounded great.

Photo by George Tebbins - taken at the Southampton concert 

     Off to the theater for the first concert. We missed the band arriving, but we got to listen to their sound check. All that was between us was the door. This was the first time I'd heard Paul live, and I was loving it. Got inside, and they told us we couldn't take photos during the concert. I was so upset. I had to check my camera. The management told us it was Paul's orders, but that was a lie. George snuck his in, though. 

    When the curtain rose, I felt a lot of emotions. There was Paul on stage with guitar in hand, just like in so many pictures and films I'd seen. It took a while for me to grasp that I was seeing him for real. Finally, a bit later, when he started singing, Maybe I'm Amazed," the tears came to my eyes. He sounded so damn good. I wanted to cry, and all my emotions were hitting me hard. This first old song was "Long and Winding Road." Well, that song really made the tears flow. I was in heaven. I was watching Paul now, and I could see him in Let It Be as well. I could remember all the good years I've had with him. It was a beautiful feeling. 

    I was quite mad at this British audience for acting so bored. I wanted to get up and bop when he did the rockers. The whole band was so tight and sounded so good. The sound system was perfect, and the show never got boring. I loved seeing them sitting in chairs with acoustic guitars and singing songs like "Blue Bird" and "I've Just Seen a Face."

     When Paul started "Junior's Farm", I couldn't take it anymore. I was standing up with MaryAnn, dancing and clapping to the music. We were the only two standing, but Paul couldn't see us. I don't know how anyone can sit calmly through songs like this one. They didn't even clap their hands. Anyway, when the end came, and fast numbers started, the fans finally ran down front. This was the most fun because you could bop to the music, or just stare at his perfect face or his body, or watch the sweat fly off his face. He seemed to love having the fans come down, digging his music. He always looked happiest then.

     At the end, the band came and threw flowers to the crowd. Then they were gone. You would be left in a daze, hot and exhausted. 

McGear Interivew (1974)

 McGear Interview

The Write Thing

January/February 1975

    You shouldn't buy Mike McGear's new album McGear because it was done by Paul's brother, or produced by Paul, or half-written by Paul, or even played on by Paul. You should get it because it's a damn good album, maybe one of three bests of the year. 

    Mike's voice is very deep, very British, and very, very good. The production is tight with beautiful background instrumentation and the kind of songs that stay in your mind. It was supposed to be promoted heavily by Warner Brothers, but I haven't seen any publicity on it around here, where most stores have only one copy hidden under M in the rock section, not exactly overexposing him.

     Mike was on a coast-to-coast American promotional stint to plug the album. John Awarski from Cleveland, Ohio, took photographs of him there and sent us this interview by Janet Macoska.

 Q:  The "Liverpool Lou" record was that Scaffold or was that you?

 Mike:  That was Scaffold. Yes, I did the lead on it, just the lead singing.

 Q: On the other side, "Ten Years After on Strawberry Jam" (written by Paul and Linda), it's sorta like the Beatles... 

Mike:  It's not. That comes from my heritage, you see. It comes from all our heritage.

 Q Is that you doing the voices?

 Mike:  We were all doing it, but it may be that I had the strongest influence on it because we were talking about the old days. We had had a few drinks. I must admit, I'm sorry about that, and we were feeling a bit relaxed, and we started to talk, talking about this character, a very old, amazing man named Tommy Houston, who came out of Liverpool. He was back before the big pop evolution and the Beatles and all those groups. He was well before that. That "Strawberry Jam" was just talking about his experience in life and how he started it all. One of the bits was back to Hamburg. 

Q: A lot of people did think that was about the Beatles.

 Mike:  Sure. But what I could do in that context with a few drinks down me... I know all of that backwards, you see, because I had a brother that went there. So I could say all these things, and they could all be based on facts. That's why it was a bit more interesting. 

Q: Okay, I want to talk about your album too. Could you tell us a little bit about what we should expect?

 Mike:  Well, what to expect is insanity-complete insanity for a start. It's sort of straight pop, and my first sort of straight pop album. There's one track on it called "Norton", which I've allowed my heritage to creep through. It's sort of a comedy one. It's got a little sketch in the middle. That's the only one on it, though. The rest is straight pop. (Corrects himself.) Sorry. In that very statement, it's wrong because straight pop would have one song done in different ways. That's all groups do. It's the same feeling on every track. And I, because I like variety, this is exactly what life is about now. We'll go out of this posh hotel and we'll fall over a dustbin because that's down there too. That's what life's about. You can walk through a door and there can be somebody who hits you in the face. I like life to change, so my album has a lot of changes on it. Suddenly, you go from a very Andy Williams ballad, as it were, into a heavy Lou Reed rocker.

 Q: Did you have this idea in your head before you went into the studio to do it? I mean, you must have talked it over.

 Mike:  Yes, we did, but I mean, no, that evolved. We originally were going to do a lot of songs. The only one that's been captured of another person's is Bryan Ferry's one, "Sea Breezes", and that in concept is completely different from Bryan's version. His one was on a Roxy Music album. It was quite mad. 

Q:  He probably would enjoy that too, because he has a knack for taking other people's things and doing them in his own style.

 Mike:  Oh yes, well, when he heard mine, the first thing he said when I met him was, "Let us shake hands, and I love your version of my song." He's a friend now.

 Q. How did you and Paul work together? Was this the first time that you ever wrote songs together?

 Mike:  No, we wrote other things together before, but not seriously. We've always done things sort of lightheartedly with no structure, just like fooling around, mockin' around. So we haven't worked seriously together. 

Q: Were you happy with the finished product?

Mike:  Very. Amazingly, I haven't even heard it in a while, cause I've been talking too much about it on the radio and to people. I'm very proud of it. It goes on. That's my only criteria in life of a record, is if it goes on a turntable, then that'll do. There are only a few records that go on my turntable, and that, (McGear), thank God, is one of them. 

Q:  Do you have plans to come back and do some kind of tour, either with Scaffold or by yourself?

 Mike: Now I am. When I came to this country, I was just going to do a promo tour and go home, thank you. I've been listening and being drawn into America, and you sort of, (in an Irish brogue) get in me heart. You shock me. It's quite amazing. And so with that reaction, I can come back. Anybody who talks to me, I'll talk to them. Now, people have come in saying, "How do you do?" and talking instead of the things they were doing last time. They certainly weren't talking to me. They were talking at me.

 Q:  Is your children's book that you wrote and illustrated, Roger Bear available over here?

 Mike:  It's not been released over here. They were thinking of releasing it in my album, but they suddenly thought, "Oh God, it's going to confuse and take away from the album". It's going to be an awkward thing to relate to both of them at the same time, whereas the lovely thing about it is that I'm relating to both of them anyway. The only problem is the people can't get the product over here. (He pulls out a copy of Roger Bear to show us) Spike Milligan, John Lennon, and Bowie-three different people who have read that thing and got off on it. It takes a lot of time to color it in. Look at those colorings there.

 Q:  Did you do that?

 Mike: Yes, I did. 

Q: you stayed in the lines and everything. 

Mike:  Oh God. Well, you wait till you start doing it. It's very hard, but it's great fun. 

The single "Leave It, written by Paul, is one of the album's best too, was supposed to receive a lot of airplay, but I haven't heard it on the radio here, and it hasn't made any of the charts yet. But it deserves to be a big hit. Be sure to look for it or the album.

Ringo Starr: Mojo Icon Award Winner

 July 21, 2011 -  Mojo Awards in London