Meeting Paul and Linda for the first time

A wonderful fan, Graeme found his photos on this blog and contacted me about them.   He then sent me the colored version of the photos plus his story.   Thanks you SO MUCH Graeme!  You are awesome!

Rick Wright (from Pink Floyd) with Graeme July 1975

Graeme with Linda and Paul outside Cavendish August 1975

Lind and Paul outside Cavendish August 1975 (photo: Graeme Leonard.  Photos posted with permission)

MEETING PAUL & LINDA McCARTNEY... THE FIRST TIME

In 1964, at the tender and impressionable age of seven, I was dragged by my elder sister into the Odeon cinema in Newcastle to see ‘A Hard Day’s Night’... kicking and screaming, as my mother had promised that she was taking me for an afternoon of cartoons.  From that moment I was hooked... a Beatles fan, a McCartney fan.  I had to wait until 10th July 1973 to see Paul live, the Wings gig at Newcastle City Hall.  What a night!!!  Probably not the greatest gig ever... but certainly the most memorable.  Just over two years later I was fortunate enough to meet him for the first time.

I’d only recently left school and had very little money but managed to get enough cash together for a trip to London in early July 1975.  I travelled with a friend, Garry... we had three objectives... to see Pink Floyd at the Knebworth Park festival, to meet the Floyd guys and to, somehow, meet Paul McCartney.  It was an adventurous plan, which partially succeeded.  We teamed up with two London-based friends, Nicky Pope and Pat O’Brien, for the Knebworth event and had a wonderful time.  A couple of days afterwards Garry & me went to Abbey Road studios as we’d heard that Pink Floyd were putting the final touches together on their ‘Wish You Were Here’ album.  We met David Gilmour and the late, great Rick Wright that day.  Unfortunately, David refused to have his photo taken with us.  Thankfully, Rick was more pleasant and posed for the camera.  So, the final objective was to see Macca.  We walked the short distance from Abbey Road to his house and it was immediately apparent that he & Linda weren’t at home... window shutters closed, no sign of life.  So disappointed...

A few weeks after that, I heard that Paul & Wings were rehearsing for their forthcoming UK tour at the Elstree Studios and we decided to do another trip to London.  In mid-August we took an overnight bus from Newcastle, arriving at Victoria Coach Station at about 6am.  We headed straight for St John’s Wood tube station and onwards to Cavendish Avenue.  The house looked occupied... we realised that we could be lucky this time.  From what I remember, we sat around on the pavement for about 5 hours.  It didn’t matter to us... the weather was pleasant.  At around noon, or early afternoon, we heard a door open and then voices.  So excited!!!!  A few seconds later the green gates opened and there was Paul McCartney standing right in front of us.  It’s a moment I’ll never forget.  He and Linda were incredibly nice.  They weren’t hurrying to leave... quite happy to have photos taken with them... Paul asked us where we were from... Linda did a brilliant mimic of our Newcastle accents... Paul looked through my autograph book and made comments about the previous entries.

My idol became even more of an idol that day!!!!!

After waiting so long for this special moment, it was repeated the following month... with my friend Nicky and a guy from Belfast, who became a lifelong friend...

The Beatle Worshippers

I recently obtained an article from the November 28, 1970 issue of the Disc and Music Echo.   While I know I have posted these photos from the article before, I have scanned these personally from the article, so this will be the best quality of the photos. 

I am not too sure what the point of this article is.  To let everyone know how much Paul has changed?  To inform readers that girls do not hang around Paul's house in London anymore?   To give a couple of girls a place to moan and complain about Linda?   Not too sure.

I do not think the two girls in this story were ever official Apple Scruffs.   Although I could totally be wrong.  I think they were in that "other" group of girls that hung mostly around Paul's house.   Even though I dont really "get" the article, I still find it very fascinating.

The Beatles Worshippers

Disc and Music Echo

November 28, 1970

By Roy Shipston

When you are a fan, a REAL fan, you don’t go about proving your admiration for your particular favourite in half measures.  It’s a full-time occupation, whether the subject of your energies and attentions be Elvis, George Best, Rupert Bear, Noddy or Edward Heath.

Fans, in the Sixties’ sense of the word, are a dying breed.  It’s just not “cool” anymore, is it, except in the case of Tom Jones.  The millions who screamed at the mere mention of the word “Beatles” are still around, a little older now, but the steps of the Apple offices are no longer cluttered with girls hopeful for a glimpse of whoever they wanted to catch a glimpse of.

But there are still some girls who would spend a day on a draughty pavement in all seasons just in case one of the fabulous four should appear.  They would do it, if it was worth their while.  But it isn’t anymore.

Two of the few are Christine Stevens and Michelle Bernel, both 18, from Coydon, who, until about nine months ago, used to spend every day at the gate of Paul McCartney’s St. John’s wood home.  They were there faithfully in all weathers for the best part of two years.  In fact, they went every day for a year and sometimes stayed as long as 12 hours at a time.

But not anymore.  And that’s not just because Paul is hardly ever there now.  It’s because he changed.  He’s not the old Beatle Paul they used to love.  Well, he isn’t even a Beatle any more is he?

Why would two teenage girls want to devote so much time to their idol?  Well, the answer isn’t simple.

“I suppose we just wanted to see him.  He was always friendly.  He often used to chat to us.  But Paul changed when he got married.”  That’s the view of Christine Stevens, who with her friend, Michelle Bernel took these pictures of Paul during the time they knew him well.

“It was before he got married that he started to change; as soon as Linda came along, that’s when it happened.  We spent most of our time there for nearly two years.  But we haven’t been for nine months now –since they went to Scotland.”

Christine feels that there might even be truth in the “Paul is dead” rumours – she says he’s changed that much! “I think it might even be true about him dying because he’s not the same person.  There always used to be girls down the street.  Some would come just on his birthday, but there was a hard core of us always there.  Nobody goes anymore.”

Christine, an attractive brunette, said that Paul used to be the perfect star.  If there weren’t too many fans around he would come out and chat to them, sometimes for five minutes, sometimes for 20.

“We just used to chat about things in general.  We used to go inside the gate if there were a lot of girls about, but not very often.”

She insists that Paul never invited her or her friend inside.  “The nearest we got was inside the gate.” She says.

In the early days when Paul went out, he would always tell fans what time he was coming back, so that they didn’t have to hang around pointlessly.  And he even used to pose for them to take photos like the ones on this page.  

“Before he was married he didn’t mind us taking photographs.  Then he used to tell us that we had to ask him first.  And later he didn’t like us taking them at all.  It must be something to do with Linda, that’s what most people seem to think.  She must have got something across him.  You could tell he was changing.  It was when she came along that he started dressing differently, wearing Levis and bovver boots.” 

“Just before he announced that he didn’t want to be a Beatle anymore he told us that he was sick of it.  He said he didn’t think he’d ever be able to live it down.”

Christine says that none of the other Beatles had visited Paul “for years.”  Ringo was the last one to go round there and that was ages ago.  John hasn’t been since he got married to Yoko.  And George told us once at Apple that “Paul thinks he’s it, he always has.”  Even his own brother won’t go round now.

“We stopped going to his house about nine months ago when he went to Scotland.  He told us he didn’t want fans around because he didn’t want to be reminded of what he was.  If he hadn’t changed so much we’d probably still be there!”

Now the McCartneys have abandoned Scotland and have gone even further afield, presumably in their efforts to get away from it all, to America.  And Christine and her friend admit that if Paul wants keep himself to himself, he has the right to a bit of peace and quiet.

“He must have had enough of it for five years.”

Paul again

Yer Blues

I have posted this photo in the past in a very small size.   Now I have it HUGE (just click and see what I mean!).   And I still think this girl looks extremely unhappy.   Why so glum when you are around Paul?

Ace of Bass

Macca Daddy

Wow...sometimes I just am at a loss for words.   What year was this?

Paul made in the shades

Another Paul from 1977

I am pretty sure that this photo is another one that goes along with THIS story from 1977.   Pretty neat to see the photo in color.

The man with the scarf

Cool in the car

Totally 70s!

Peeking over the gates of Cavendish

My wonderful partner at work, Michele is a first generation Beatles fan.  She sometimes even looks at this blog.  She was fortunate enough to see the Beatles at Busch Stadium in 1966 and has been nice enough to let me look at her newspaper clippings from the 1960's and scan them.   So the other day I walk into work and she says that she has a present for me, a Beatles magazine!   It was a magazine called "The Beatles 50th Anniversary Tribute."   It actually is a nice magazine.  It goes through each Beatles album and tells the stories behind all of the songs.   Not any new information, but nice to have all in one place.   It reminds me of the book "A Hard Day's Wright" only more up-to date with interviews.    There are also a lot of photos in the magazine.

I spotted this one of two fans peering out over the front gates of Paul's London home on Cavendish Avenue and knew I had to scan it for the blog!  Anyone able to recognize the girls?   I love the fact that they managed to get themselves up on that little ledge thing and look over.   Is that what John used when he climbed the fence?  

Fans at Cavendish 1967

I found this photo of two fans (one is a fan named Sheryl) standing along outside the gates of Cavendish on the official Paul McCartney web page.   Apparently the photo was taken May 29, 1967.

Oooh Paul

John and his coat of many colors

This entire post and all comments connected to it have been removed due to the threat of being sued by Weiss & Weiss LLC

Get back

Another fan meets Paul at Cavendish in 1977

Here is another fan story from the November 197 7 issue of "The Write Thing." This one is written by Carol Sikkema of Minneapolis, MN who met Paul at his London home on June 28, 1977.

Fan “celebrated” Paul’s June birthday by chalking their greetings, sentiments, and messages (and some of the usual anti-Linda slander) all over Paul’s front gates. Member John Awarski (Cleveland) was with him a few days afterwards and Paul casually pointed out the “decorations”, ruefully remarking “I should have waited til after my birthday to paint the gates.”

A few days later my friend and local member Carol Sikkema was visiting London and gave this report: (editor, Barb Fenick)

..We went in and out of London a few times on our trip, but we didn’t get the chance to really relax and look around until June 28^th. I took off for Paul’s house armed with my camera and naturally wearing my Wings T-shirt. I didn’t feel very hopeful about getting a glimpse of Paul tho, especially after meeting the man who runs the tobacco-cosmetics etc. stand at the Underground Station nearest their house. He informed me that Linda bought all her cosmetics there and he hadn’t seen either Paul or Linda for quite some time. He was glad to direct me to the house, anyway (Probably does it several times a week!)

There were two guys with cameras and autograph books waiting across the street from the house. I joined them for a minute to take my picture. They were Philip and Ian from Portsmouth, England – members of the Wings fan club there. Every now and then one of us would catch a glimpse of Rose in the window, and we could hear the kids playing in the yard, so we know Paul was probably home, but we were sure he would be staying inside. The idea of going up to the gate and ringing the buzzer was too nervy to even consider. Standing by the wall I could see “Happy birthday, Paul” chalked all over.

Suddenly Philip said, “The door’s open and I can see Joe English and Paul coming out!” Sure enough, they came out and all of a sudden there was Pauli opening the tall gate for Joe’s car to leave. He gave us a friendly smile as we rushed up and agreed to come out in a minute for some pictures. We couldn’t believe our good luck!

After Joe drove off Paul came out and we started taking pictures like mad. He threw himself back into a cute pose for me as I stuck my camera practically into his face. I found myself thanking him repeatedly for being so nice to let us have a minute. He smiled politely at me and asked us where we were from. The guys said “Portsmouth,” and when he looked at me I threw open my sweater like some sort of Burlesque queen and yelled, “Minneapolis,” modeling my T-shirt for him . (It’s hard to believe later the things you do at times like that!)

Paul was wearing black pants and a dark green hooded sweatshirt. He looked really fantastic, handsome, slender and healthy and seemed to be in a good mood, happy to stand around and talk to us.

Linda was meanwhile slowly backing out of the gate in their dark green Rolls. She was smiling at us and gave us a friendly wave as Paul went to the gate to tell Mary to stay inside with her bicycle. Linda was wearing a loose brown patterned maternity dress.

Then a girl walking from down the street arrived at our little group and just breezed right though as though we weren’t even there. Paul looked after her and pointed, saying “you can’t have her autograph!”

With that he got into the passenger seat of the car after reminding us (but nicely) that we maybe we shouldn’t “hang around” after they left. I’m sure his neighbors do get a little tired of constant groups in the neighborhood. They drove away, both waving and tooted the horn.

Well, we bounced all the way down the street, laughing and trying to recall all that we’d said. After a brief stop at Emi studios where Philip kindly took some pictures for me, we went back to the Underground. I practically knocked the tobacconist down with my “Guess what?!”

I’ll never forget how nice Paul and Linda were and how sweet they were to take a little time for us. They are both the greatest!

Cavendish stare

Bid Daddy's photos

Back in April 2011, these photos were for sale on ebay by a seller named "Big Daddy." I emailed him and asked if I could post the photos on the blog. He said that I could and that he would send me better copies. But I never heard back from him. I was reminded of these photos when I read Guus' comment the other day. He was wondering what years was Cavendish painted with the yellow around the door (as seen here). Great question! Here is the listing from the original auction.

These pictures were taken on April 24, 1978 (that's 33 years ago!!) I was fortunate as a teenage Beatle fan to experience a trip to England and my parents allowed me to pay homage to Abbey Road studios. As I walked the streets in my t-shirt with the "Beatlemania" logo from the (then) Broadway show, a kind gentleman pointed out that Paul lived nearby and I was able to find his house. A braver fan then I rang the gate bell and Paul's maid actually told him that Paul would be coming home in a few hours. I rushed back to our hotel, picked up a record and pen and made it back in time to watch Paul and Linda pull up to the gate. Paul got out of the car to open the gate. I was lucky to get this picture of Paul looking right into the camera just as he handed back my pen and autograph. The pictures were taken with a Kodak 110 camera.

Taking the red car out for a spin