After one hot concert

 June 30, 1966 -- Tokyo 

That Sweater in France

 

Beatle family photos

This has to be one of my all time favorite photos of Ringo and Paul 

June 20, 2006

Twenty years ago the Love Show premiered and there was a huge Beatles family reunion.  Of course as far as I am concerned the Beatles family is a very large one that includes many amazing people -- some of them are pictured here.  
 

George Harrison is Felled By Mystery Illness (1976)

 George Harrison is Felled By Mystery Illness

No Writer Listed

San Antonio Express News

June 27, 1976

    Former Beatle George Harrison may have to be hospitalized following a mystery illness in which his weight plunged dramatically.

     At first, doctors thought 33-year-old Harrison was suffering from food poisoning, but treatment failed to clear up the complaint. Now they've warned him that if he doesn't recover soon, he will have to check into the hospital for further tests. 

    At present, Harrison is resting at his luxurious Riverside home in Henley-on-Thames, England. Friends and business acquaintances are claiming there is nothing seriously wrong with him. They admitted his illness was bad enough to stop him working in Los Angeles and fly back to Britain, but they said Harrison has returned to England to begin work on a new record album. But sources at the studio said so far, no recording has been done. 

    The head of Harrison's record company, Jonathan Clyde, dismissed the rumors by saying, "It was a very small stomach bug. As a result, he has lost weight."

     Part of Harrison's trouble is suspected of being caused by his diet. He is a vegetarian and refuses to eat meat. 

    In Los Angeles, doctors were apparently concerned with Harrison's weight loss and put him on various vitamins. The spokesman for Dark Horse Rutgers, which Harrison owns in Los Angeles, said, "At first it was thought the trouble had been caused by food poisoning. The doctors thought it necessary to drain poisonous fluid from his body." The spokesman said George was put on various vitamin pills, but they did not appear to be helping. "He has been working very hard, and the doctor has warned him he will have to go into hospital if this continues."

One to One Concert Review (1972)

 

No Name Article

Written by Barbara Clark

With a Little Help From My Friends

December 1972

Note from Char: Here is a story written by Barbara Clark about us seeing John's concert at Madison Square Garden this past August. As stated before, the concerts were done as a benefit for Willowbrook Children's Hospital in New York. We all had a terrific time at the show, and since John is Barb's favorite, you can imagine what she was going through. Here's the story:

     On August 30, Marie, Ann, and I met Char and Casey at Madison Square Garden in NYC, looking forward very nervously to seeing John in his two concerts at the Garden. To say we were excited would be an understatement. It was still early, and the first concert was to start at 2 o'clock, so we stopped at a deli, bought some nuts, got something to eat, and rode off to John's to maybe get a glimpse of John leaving. Nothing was going on at the house, so we left at 1 o'clock. There was already a crowd there, and people were selling John T-shirts and pictures of John and Yoko, saying "One to One" and "Willowbrook."

     We split up at 1L30 and Marie, Ann, and I found our seats. When the lights went out, we moved down to other seats, much better than ours, to the side of the stage. Everyone was moving down. After we got our new seats, to which Geraldo Rivera said, "That's all right, it's a democratic society, you can move down. I love you all." He was the emcee of the concerts. He's a newsman for ABC TV, who started the One to One concerts going soon after Marie suggested it to him in April.

     Well, after a long delay (almost an hour and a half) Sha Na Na came on. They're really a great group. They do old '50s songs, including "Get a Job", "Whole Lot of Shaking", "Tell Laura I Love Her", etc. Well, then after another very long delay came Stevie Wonder, dressed in a long brown robe, playing piano and drums. He was great too. Only I think it would have been better if he did some of his more popular songs instead of the long instrumental ones. Then, after the longest delay, Geraldo came on and said, "And here's one of our favorite groups from the streets of New York, because I would be with them if I could sing--- the Elephant's Memory Band!" Everyone cheered and screamed, expecting to see John up there, but when the lights went on, all that was up there was the band, but no John. Then we saw May Pang  (John's secretary) go down the steps, then John kneeling down by the steps. The lights went out, then Geraldo said "John and Yoko!" The lights were still out when the record "Power to the People" started playing. Everyone stood up and yelled, then the lights went on, and we saw John in the same state on the stage singing "New York City."

     John looked fantastic as usual. He wore black-and-white cowboy boots, his green jacket (the one with the stripes on his arms), round blue sunglasses, and green trousers. He looked great, but a bit nervous. In singing "New York City", he said the words instead of singing them, but toward the end he was starting to sing it and bouncing on the stage, really having fun.

     He had three guitars on stage, and he kept changing them. Once when he put on his black and white guitar, he jumped up, and the guitar strap fell off, the guitar dropped, but John caught it as it was falling, but not acting like the old John, he just fixed it. He didn't joke around like I expected him to do. 

    He really was nervous at the day show. The other songs he did were "Instant Karma", "Mother", "Imagine", "It's So Hard " among others. During Yoko's song, "Open Your Box" (which is a naughty, suggestive song), he kept spreading his legs apart, and once even pulled down his zipper, laughing and all. The last song he did was "Hound Dog", the audience went wild as John started imitating Elvis. It was very heavy. John drank about two cans of Miller beer during the show. After "Hound Dog", he ran off the stage, leaving the Elephant's Memory Band up there. Everyone was clapping and yelling "more" when Geraldo came back, saying they weren't coming back, but still everyone yelled for more.  He said the electricity was costing more every second, and it was all coming out of the Willowbrook Fund. So everyone calmed down at this, and eventually people started leaving. 

    There were just as many delays at the night show, but I think John was even better.  Roberta Flack was at the night show, and John didn't come on until 12 midnight. When he did, everyone stood up and yelled. Me, Marie, Ann, and Char were in the orchestra now, close to the stage, but with all the people standing up, it was hard to see. So, Marie and I stood on our chairs, very desperate for a chance to see John. We were the only ones on chairs, and he looked in our direction, but I don't know if he could recognize us from before. He was too stoned, anyway, maybe. 

    He was more relaxed now, really having a great time. During "Come Together", he laid on this big act, waving his hands, pointing his finger, acting and talking like a homo, the whole bit. During "Mother", he got really emotional and said, "A lot of people think the song is about my parents, but it's not. It's about 99% of the parents alive or half dead." When he got to "Father", he sang, "I needed you so bad." It sounded as if he was crying. It was very emotional. 

    In "Sisters, oh Sisters", Yoko said, "Now's our chance to change the world," in a typical Yoko accent.  Most of her songs, she tried to sing, but when she found it wasn't working too well, she resorted to just screaming. Sometimes during the concert, people passed around tambourines, which advertised restaurants in New York. At the end, they did "Hound Dog" again, and then "Give Peace a Chance", which all the performers joined in on stage, including Melanie, David Peel, Stevie Wonder, and Geraldo.

     After the show, John showed up at the party around 3 am (Barbara took off for the party quickly after John left the stage.)  Bob Dylan, David Peel, the whole John crowd was there. John went into a private section of the bar (the Tavern on the Green at 67th and Central Park West in the city). Vidal Sassoon also showed up (with dirty hair), and of course, all the acts in the show. The crowd inside the bar, which served lasagna, rice, Coke, and wine, finally thinned out, and John left the scene around 4:30am.

 What a day and night!

Up in the Air

 June 29, 1966 -- on their way to Tokyo

Flowers for Ringo

 June 29, 2011 -  Praug 

The Family Way

 June 29, 1996

The Girl Who Pesters Me (191)

Paul and Heather on the farm in June 1971 

 I am posting another story about the incident between Paul and Carolyn Mitchell.  And again, I am going to remind you all to be kind about what you say because Carolyn has been known to visit this site.   Reminder: This occurred 55 years ago—this didn't just happen.  Carolyn was a 24-year-old girl and was finding her way in the world.   She did a reckless and stupid thing by going to Paul's farm in Scotland.  She deserved to be treated poorly by Paul.  Whatever Paul said to her was justified.  

However, many fans at that time came to the UK from America and other countries to see the Beatles and ended up staying for an extended period.  No one would ever have told Lizzie Bravo she was a crazed stalker, and she did the same thing -- she came to the UK from Brazil and lived there for many years to see John Lennon.  As an adult, Carolyn has admitted that she was in the wrong.  She regretted all her actions.  And yet I know that many of you will say in the comments how she was a crazy stalker.  You will insult her and lump her in with John's murderer because she made a very bad decision 55 years ago.  

At the end of the day, Paul and his family were not hurt, Carolyn came to regret the entire ordeal, and it is part of the history of the time.   

I recommend anyone who wants to read about Carolyn's time in the UK as a Beatles fan to locate her book, All My Lovin' 

The Girl Who Pesters Me

By Alisdar Buchan

Daily Record

July 2, 1971

    Former Beatle Paul McCartney spoke bitterly yesterday of the girl fans who still make his life misery.

     In particular, he spoke of a 24-year-old American girl called Carolyn Mitchell. Carolyn is a tall blonde Mormon from Salt Lake City, Utah. She is also a Beatles fanatic who has shadowed the group's ex-members for two years, and she also happens to be accusing Paul McCartney of breaking her finger and making her nose bleed. 

    Carolyn claims that her former idol assaulted her as she sat on a hill overlooking his farm at Campbellton, Argyle.  But Paul, 29 denies the attack. He says that Carolyn left unharmed after he had told her bluntly to go at the farm yesterday. 

    He said, "For years now, I've been asking her politely, pleading with her to leave me and my family alone. She refuses to recognize that I am married with a family, and when I saw her sitting looking down on us, that was the end. This time, I told her to go away, and not politely.

     "I admit it, I was rude. You've got to understand, when you tell girls like her to push off, it's as though you had jilted them. Maybe she would have liked me to assault her. Obviously, when I told her to push off, something snapped.

     "The words I used were very rough, but there was no rough stuff. Whatever happened must have happened after she left here."

     When he spoke to me outside his farm high in the hills above Campbelltown, Paul denied that he did not want to speak to any of his fans.  He said, "I don't mind fans, but I object when they become fanatics, you know, the movie scene where you look out the window and see the spy in a trench coat under the lamppost? Then the next night, then the next night after, until you start to go psycho? Well, that's what it's been like for the past two years.

     "There are one or two girls like this. I have one who writes all the time from America, like she's my wife. She calls herself 'Paula McCartney'. She writes and says, 'I got the money', and 'Thanks for the new record', and 'I will be over when I can'.

     "Look, I don't mind talking to genuine fans. There were a couple of American girls here recently, and they were okay. We had a very nice, friendly talk together."

     The millionaire idol of millions explained how he had changed the direction of his pop career and his attitude toward young girl fans. "It's all right for Tom Jones doing that bit at the end of his act, where he goes and shakes hands and kisses the girls in the front row, but I have made it clear that that's not what I want to do.

     "I haven't been part of that for over three years. Even if I wanted to go around making love to other girls, which I don't, I couldn't. I am married with a family, and I'm very happy."

     Yesterday, Carolyn, who says she came to Scotland for a holiday, described her two years as the Beatles' number one fan. She said, "I know and have spoken to all the Beatles. At first, Paul was very friendly, but now he just won't speak to me.

     "I came over to England two years ago to be near the Beatles. I've seen them at Apple HQ and at their homes. I was never invited in, but spoke to them at the door," she said.

     She added, "Since Paul got married, he has changed completely. She (Paul's wife, Linda) has changed him. She's very possessive."

     Then Carolyn, who was writing a book on the Beatles from a fan's point of view, told of the walk which ended her liking for the Liverpool pop star. She said she had not gone to Campbelltown with the intention of speaking to Paul. She added, "I had gone up to the farm next to Paul's and sat on the hillside watching him farm from a distance. Paul came out of the house and drove up in his Land Rover. He jumped out and began shouting and swearing. I don't remember much about what happened, but my nose was bleeding, and my hand began to swell."

     A Campbelltown police spokesman confirmed that a complaint had been made and that a report would be sent to the prosecutor's office in due course,

Photographer

 June 29, 1971