Peaches (part 3)

If you have been reading this blog since the beginning, then you might recall two stories that have been posted about when the members of Wings put their prints and autographs in cement for Peaches records in Atlanta, Georgia during the 1976 tour. Well...here is a neat photo I purchased (hey...it was only a buck...) that a fan took of the cement block. Since the whole thing was sadly and stupidly distroyed when the Peaches stores closed down, I thought it was worth posting.

Oh and if you missed those two stories, you can find them here and here.

Peaches

If you dig through this blog's archives, you will find a story about when Wings performed in Atlanta, GA in 1976 and how a fan who worked at the record store, Peaches, got to meet the McCartney's and get their handprints in cement for the store. Well...here is another article written by another former Peaches employee about the same event. It included photos!

Peaches management began plotting ways to add Paul McCartney and the other members of Wings to the Atlanta store’s collection of concrete prints. Besides ABB, Roger Daltrey, Willie Nelson, Dr. John, Billy Preston, The Isley Brothers and others had put their hands, feet and signatures in the Peaches cement. Those were all big names, yet working through the various labels and management groups to arrange the in-store appearances wasn’t that difficult. But Paul McCartney? He used to be a Beatle, after all. The communication process would be more challenging.

Having McCartney in the same town made for a good start. On May 18 & 19, 1976, Wings would be appearing in concert at the Omni. Still, even though Peaches was only 15 minutes north up Peachtree from the hotel (The Peachtree Plaza) where the band was staying, getting McCartney and company to the store would be problematic at best. Gregg Biggs, a buyer for Peaches and the one who handled the physical aspects of the concrete prints, said, “Having McCartney at the store would have shut down Peachtree.” Concerns about crowd control and security made the Peaches people think outside the box. They would have to deliver the cement to McCartney in a private setting for the prints to be made. And of course, they would have to get through to McCartney’s people to see if he and the band would like to do the prints.

Biggs said they “contacted the promoter to see what could be done.” After a few calls back and forth, it was finally declared, “Paul McCartney would not be interested in doing this.” Biggs remembers thinking he would bet his car “that McCartney was never told about the prints and that the decision was made by someone else.”

By chance, on the day of the second concert, a McCartney roadie came by Peaches to buy some blank cassettes. Before the roadie could make his purchase, Biggs and other employees surrounded him. They took the roadie to the back room and showed him the mold they had produced (complete with accurate Wings logo in the center made from dyed concrete by store artist John Campbell).

The roadie was impressed. Biggs gave him a tour of the prints on display outside the store. He was particularly impressed that Peaches had acquired Roger Daltrey’s prints. “We told him,” Biggs recalled, “about being shot down by McCartney’s promoters and he said he’d see what could be done.”

The guy kept his word. It was time to get busy. Fast. “Within the next hour,” Biggs said, “I got a call from Brian Lane, McCartney’s tour manager, and he asked me to state all the details for doing the prints. He was impressed with our concerns about security and that we had planned to bring the prints to McCartney in a large rental truck. He then told me I could bring three others with me and to drive to the back door of the Omni at 10 PM. They would pull us into the building and we would do the prints there. So we got the concrete into the mold, after moving it into the truck, and did our best to keep it moist.” Then it was off to the Omni.

Things went smoothly from there. Wings finished its set, came offstage, walked in front of the truck and then went back for encores. Afterward, the band members rested in their dressing rooms for a few minutes and were then led to the truck. Introductions were made all around. Then Biggs explained how Peaches was creating its own version of the Grauman’s Chinese Theatre print collection, but with stars from the world of music. Paul McCartney told them how “honored” he was to do the prints. Then he and the other members of Wings, including his wife, Linda McCartney, put their hands in the concrete.

Paul was impressed with the colored concrete Wings logo and the determination of the Peaches crew. There was spirited conversation with the other members of Wings as well. Biggs remembers a discussion with Wings guitarist Jimmy McCulloch about his former band, Thunderclap Newman. A splendid time was had by all.

There was still much work to be done before the prints could be unveiled to the public. To begin with, according to Biggs, “the prints weighed a ton.” Back at the store, they lifted the prints and prepared them for a big party on Peachtree.

The Atlanta Peaches store went on to add prints by other big acts such as The Beach Boys, James Brown, The Kinks and at least two dozen more, but the McCartney/Wings prints always left the greatest impression. McCartney himself made quite an impression as well.

“Every story I ever heard about Paul being a gentleman to people was more than evident to me that night,” said Biggs, still amazed that McCartney said he was “honored” to do the prints.

33 years later, Gregg Biggs remembers how touching it was “the way McCartney acted toward us that night.” Although he had been a Beatle and was one of the most famous musicians of all time, Biggs says, “he didn’t forget his roots.”

Peaches

This story was from Ric Burnett and was first published in Beatlefan magazine in the October/November 1981 issue. The photo I included with this photo is when Wings played Atlanta in 1976.

May 19, 1976 will be a day that will be forever embedded in my memory.

I was working at Peaches Records and Tapes in Atlanta at a time when this record chain was still fresh, exciting and healthy. Paul McCartney and Wings were in town to perform two shows in two days at the Omni.

One of the first things a visitor to Atlanta's Peaches will notice nowadays is the display of food and hand prints left by visiting recording artists. On occasion, an artist would stick their hands and/or feet into wet cement in conjunction with an in-store appearance to meet the public and sign autographs. It was not unusual, for security reasons, to handle the making of the prints in the back room of the store and later move them to their permanent position outside the front of the store.

As you can imagine, it did not take long to decide that we wanted to immortalize McCartney's hand prints in cement. This was no easy task and it took day-long negotiation that Wednesday with both Capitol Records and McCartney's management company. I was not a part of any of the phone calls. My job, which I learned form a three-year stint in the construction business, was to prepare and supervise the pouring of the cement into a wooden form.

Those in charge of protecting the members of Wings would not allow them to come to the store for security reasons. The second idea proposed was to haul the cement by truck to the Peachtree Plaza Hotel where the group was staying. This did not prove to be very popular with the bigwigs either. In fact, we were being told all along that McCartney wasn't crazy about this whole idea anyway.

We soon learned that negotiating would have to take the form of begging. We also had to be ready in a moment's notice in case we were lucky enough to get the go-ahead. A truck was rented, the cement mixed and a crew from Peaches lined up to take the truck wherever we had to go.

Finally, someone gave in. We would be allowed to take the wet cement to the Omni, where the group was to perform that night. Five or six of us made the trip and I had the pleasure of driving the truck. Everything was loaded and we departed form the store that night after Wings had already started their concert.

Once we arrived at the Omni, orders were to back the truck up to the big door around back where equipment trucks and limousines arrive and depart. A man came outside to speak to us and I have no idea who he was. He said that he could back the truck inside after the concert and then the group would meet us about a half-hour later.

This man soon became very unhappy. The sliding door on the back of the truck was open so that a couple of guys could smooth over the concrete which had shifted during the trip through town. It was sternly stated to us that only three of us could bring the truck inside when the time came.

The guys in the truck climbed out and the man went back inside. The guys then jumped back in the truck and we slid the door down.

The time came. The big door of the complex slowly opened and I backed the truck inside. There were two other people sitting in the cab with me. The people in charge of looking out for Wings wanted to see the cement-turning-concrete right away. worry set in. I raised the back door and there were the other three guys smoothing over the concrete the best they could with light form matches. Those in authority did not seem too pleased and they walked away to have a talk.

They had told us only three and we had six people inside now. nobody in their right mind would volunteer to stay outside. Everyone figured we'd blown it and that all of us would be told to leave.

It didn't happen. Ten minutes later, here came Paul and Linda, Denny Laine, Joe English and Jimmy McCulloch. They looked happy but also tired from the show. They climbed into the truck and they put their hands into the cement. McCartney, wearing a leather jacket, also left a shoe print and then they signed autographs. Both Paul and Linda signed my copy of the "Speed of Sound" album.

McCartney was very cooperative and extremely nice. I only spoke to him a moment after shaking his hand and don't remember a thing said, I probably said or asked something stupid. But I did not figure on meeting Paul McCartney in the back of a truck.

The group was only in the truck for about five minutes and then they left. We were not allowed to take pictures and only ones taken were by people form MPL communications. It was later learned that McCartney had only heard of the idea after the concert and was all for it. The people running the tour were just being very protective and hesitant.

After McCartney and company left the truck, I climbed into the cab to drive out. The big door opened and I saw about 50 other fans standing outside to get a glimpse of McCartney as he left. All they saw was us. The Peaches people in the crowd, who had just seen the show, cheered loudly because they knew we had succeeded.

We parked the truck outside to give the cement about an hour to set and dry. During this wait, two limousines pulled out and we all waved. It was dark and we could not see inside the cars. The cars sped off.

However, then a smaller door of the building opened up and Jimmy McCulloch walked out. He came to the truck and climbed in to see the results. They had turned out just fine. He chatted for awhile with us and then left. It was over.

What a day it had been! I knew I had really met McCartney and talked to him. It was hard to believe and it took a long time to soak in. I was in heaven that night. It really dind't matter that I had met the members of Wings. What mattered was that I had met one of the Beatles. Nothing else was important.

Unfortunately, Beatlefan online had a very sad footnote to this story:

The first of the now-defunct Peaches chain's superstores, located on famed Peachtree Street, had a display of hand prints and autographs in cement left by visiting performers, and McCartney and Wings did the honors (though the cement was taken to them; they didn't come to the store) on May 19, 1976. The Wings prints occupied the prime place of honor outside the front entrance to the store, which closed six years later. Unfortunately, a dispute between the owners of the property and the last owners of the store resulted in the decision to destroy the collection of stars' prints, which were sledgehammered into little pieces, some of which were carried away by fans.