The Prince Trust Concert

 The Price’s Trust Concerts

June 5-6 1987

By Petra Zeitz

My friends and I had ordered our tickets for the two Prince’s Trust concerts way back in March because of rumors that Paul McCartney would appear again.  My tickets arrived and I was in the 1^st and 4^th row!  When the line-up was published in advertisements some weeks later, we were totally disappointed.  By late March I was pretty sure I had wasted $50 on tickets, especially since Paul personally told us more than once when we saw him that he wouldn’t do the concerts this time.

Everything changed for me six days before the first show.  I was walking to the train station catching a newspaper headline: “The Beatles to play for Di!”  I immediately bought the paper and couldn’t believe what I was reading.  George and Ringo had agreed to do the Prince’s Trust Concert!  No way, I thought.  But somehow, I did believe it, as they were supposed to play with Eric Clapton and Elton John.  The four of them are playing on George’s new album and hanging out together quite a lot.  I remember I was crying on the train after reading the article, imagining how wonderful it would be if it was true.

The next day the papers didn’t even mention the concerts and my hopes began to fade.  Then on the day of the Sgt. Pepper anniversary, I got a phone call from someone having good contacts with Eric Clapton and he told me that George and Eric had been rehearsing all week at Friar Park.  That was it!  From then on, I knew something was going to happen.

During the week we went to Henley but missed George driving out by 30 minutes, but we did get the confirmation that he would be playing Friday and Saturday night.  We were thinking about what songs he would play.  We thought there was just no way he and Eric would play “While My Guitar” and so we were thinking maybe they’d do some old rock n roll stuff like “Johnny B. Goode,” something like that.

The day of the first concert arrived.  My friend Emily and I met early in the morning.  Our plan was to go to Friar Park and see George leaving there instead of seeing him at Wembley where there would be crowds of people.  In Henley, we soon found out that George wasn’t there anymore.  He must have stayed the night in London or at a friend’s place.  We took the next train back into town, and went by HandMade Films’ office and Ringo’s office, but nobody was there.

We decided to go to Wembley and arrive at the Arena at about 1:30pm.  Our pal Mick was there and told us Ringo and Eric had already gone in, but George was still expected.

Emily and I walked around the building to find out what the place was like.  One of the side doors was open a bit and we could hear Ringo and Eric jamming on stage.  It was the first soundcheck, but they weren’t playing any actual songs.  We stood at the door and listened, as this big blue Mercedes drove by.  Emily shouted at me, “Petra, is that George?”  I hadn’t really seen much so I said, “No. That guy’s got a beard.”  We ran to the gate anyway, just in case, and Mick told us that it was George and Jeff Lynne.  We could see George through the fence.  He was walking from the car to the stage door.  Jeff followed him.  We ran back to the half-open door to hear if they’d play together.  We could hear George saying something to Eric.  General rehearsal went on; we heard Level 42 and went back to the carpark gate.

More and more people were showing up.  We listened to Eric’s final soundcheck at the door.  He did two songs and we were wondering if either George or Ringo would be playing with him.

Nothing happened for about an hour.  I was getting excited.  I still couldn’t believe I was finally going to see George and live on stage from the front row!  Too much!  I was always hoping I would meet him one day, but it just never came to my mind that I could see him playing live on stage.

Emily and Craig wanted to go get some food.  They passed the spot where we had been listening to the rehearsals earlier on.  I just heard them screaming when they came by the door, so I ran up there as fast as I could – then I heard it loud and clearly – the soundcheck of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”  I was freaking out!  It was just unbelievable. George’s voice sounded so wonderful.  I was in tears before the song had finished.  I can’t remember being as happy and excited in all my life.  He also did “Here Comes the Sun” which was even more unbelievable.   We all banged at the door to “applaud” when he had finished, and he did it again!  Afterward, it was quiet for a while and we were trying to calm down a little when Ringo started singing “With a Little Help from My Friends” and he, too, sounded great!  We knew that song would be the finale of the show.  When they had finished with it we walked back to the carpark gate.  Through some vans, we spotted George getting into Eric’s Mercedes.  We waited at the gate and that Mercedes came up.  I saw Eric sitting in the front and it drove past there were George, Ringo and Jeff squeezed in the back seat.  We waved at them, and George smiled and waved back, then they were gone.  I had been wrong before. George had actually grown a beard!  It all reminded me so much of the Bangla Desh Concert – those songs, and those people plus the fact that George looked a bit like he used to look in ’71 with the beard and rather long hair.  Emily and I were spacing out.  We were saying totally stupid things, just not behaving like ourselves anymore.  It was madness.

At around 6pm, Emily, Craig, and I decided to go back to the carpark gate in case George and Co were coming back.  By then, it was raining heavily and there were just the three of us waiting.  We hadn’t been there for five minutes when a big green car pulled up (They had left in a white Mercedes).  It had to stop for the guards to open the gate and there were George and Eric in the back of the car. We waved and did “thumbs up” and George did the same.  Craig shouted, “Good luck for tonight” and George said “Thank you” then they were ready to drive in.  We were so happy that they had paid attention to us and responded to our signs.  It was a great feeling.  It was the first time I actually saw George from that close up.  We always stood a few feet away from their car because we didn’t want to do any silly things like banging on their window as people di the next night.  We missed Ringo getting back as we got to our seats as soon as the doors opened.

The concert started on time and it started off very boringly with some teen-stars.  I was just too nervous and excited to enjoy any of the music.  Then the all-star band came on; it was good to see Eric Clapton.  Elton John did two songs, then a roadie gave Eric a different guitar which I knew he needed to play “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”  I jumped up from my seat.  Eric went up to the microphone and said, “I’d like to bring on a dear old friend of mine, in fact several!  A big surprise for all of us, really – please welcome George Harrison and Ringo Starr…and Jeff Lynne!”

George came on stage with his guitar, and he looked so nervous!  The audience went wild when he started playing.  He looked a bit scruffy with the beard, but he was dressed very smartly.  Oh, I was just gone staring at him during the whole set.  It was wonderful!  I can’t describe what was going on inside me.  There – just for a few feet in front of me was the man I had been waiting to see for so many years.  And there were so many things I could see that the TV cameras didn’t get.  It was so funny when during “With a Little Help From My Friends” George, Elton, and Eric were sort of hitting each other to get closer to the microphone they were sharing.  I saw Eric pointing out his girlfriend to George.  She was sitting in the stalls and George and Eric both looked up to her.  Then there was a surprising second encore which was “Stand by Me” by Ben E. King and the All-Stars!  It was great to see George for yet another song.  Needless to say, I kept watching him instead of whoever was singing.  Then it was over.  Emily and I hugged each other.  We were stunned.  What a night!  We went back to the carpark, but now it was dark and there were hundreds of people waiting.  We saw Ringo leave, but not George.

Emily and I had found out about a party being held at Le Palais in Hammersmith.  We took the tube to Hammersmith, but it took us ages to get there, and it was still raining.  We arrived outside the club just in time to see Eric going in, but George and Ringo were already inside.  Alan Crowder came out – it was funny because we know him from waiting outside MPL.

At around 1:30AM Ringo and Barbara left.  All the people were cheering when they came out.  Ringo was really nice when I thanked him for the show.   There was this crazy New Yorker waiting whom we had seen outside Paul’s before.  As soon as we saw him jumping about and unrolling a poster, we knew George was going to come out.  As soon as George and Olivia appeared at the door, the New York Geek was right there jumping at George, “Sign this, George, sign this…”

There were many photographers crowding about George and Olivia and George looked straight into one of the cameras, pointed at the Geek, and said, “Spot the looney!  Where’s the car?”  That was just too funny!  Emily and I burst out laughing.  George and Liv made their way to the car very quickly and off they went.  It was almost 2:30 AM by now.  We were too excited to go home and so we spent the rest of the night at an all-night café in Soho.  It was pretty weird!

The next morning, we tried to find out if George was staying at a hotel in London but had no luck.  We then went to Wembley early, only to be told the rehearsals wouldn’t start before 4pm.  We spent the day hanging around. Emily fell asleep in front of the car park.

By 5pm everybody but George and Ringo came in.  The guards told us they didn’t know for sure if they would show up.  Zak Starkey and his wife arrived and so did Mary and Stella McCartney.  We were getting really worried that George would not come again, but finally, at around 7pm, his car pulled up.  We couldn’t see much of him as there were too many people jumping at the car screaming his name.  Needless to say, he didn’t stop!

As on the previous day, we could see him walking through the carpark towards the stage door.  He also had a look into one of the TV equipment vans.

I enjoyed the show in general much more this time.  I was much calmer and just looking forward to seeing the finale.  This time Elton John did the announcement. “This is something special, not just for you but for us, and tonight I think for everybody on this stage it’s a special night because to play with these next two special people is like a dream come true –without them, there wouldn’t us ‘us.’  So will you please give a wonderful reception – raise the roof!  Mr. George Harrison and Mr. Ringo Starr!”

This time George seemed much more confident, and the show was even better.  The guitar solo he played with Eric was just incredible.  The audience did raise the roof!  I was so happy seeing George getting all their attention.  He played “Here Comes the Sun” absolutely beautifully.   Unfortunately, “Stand By Me” was replaced by a Phil Collins–Paul Young duet without George and Ringo being on stage.  A super long version of “With a Little Help” ended the show.  Just before walking off stage, George stopped to wave at somebody in the stalls and as I looked up I could see Olivia.

So the concerts were over and seeing George and Co playing together topped everything I had seen before.

And yet little did I know that the night wasn’t over for me.  Emily and I and our other friends met outside.  We went along the fence around the carpark and spotted a hole in the fence.  It was quite high up, but nothing seemed impossible at that moment.  Tracy, Safia, John, Jennifer, and I climbed through the hole.  Unfortunately, the others weren’t able to follow us because of a guard.  At first, we hid behind the cars.  We could see a big hall in the backstage area, quite a lot of people were in there.  We decided the best thing would be to just be cool and walk in.  It worked!

We found ourselves standing in the backstage area.  We saw Denis O’Brien and many of the musicians.  We met Ringo and Barbara as they were leaving.  Then George and Olivia appeared.  Some people ran up to George to get autographs.  He stopped to sign, but then the guy he had borrowed the pen off left and there was nobody with another biro.  George was standing there with all these papers to sign asking if anybody had a biro.

We followed him outside.  He was talking to us but I can’t remember much of what he said.  I remember he shook my hand and he looked at all of us and said, “You’re all so young!”  I didn’t have my camera on me.  Safia had her little camera and when George was already walking to the car, she tried to stop him.  “George will you please have your picture taken with Petra?  She’s loved you for years!”  Suddenly George stopped, turned around, and said, “Sure.  Who is Petra?”  I couldn’t believe what was happening.  George looked at me and I had the feeling he was looking through me.  He put his arm around me for the picture.  I was so close to him.  It was a dream come true!  I thanked him and when he got into the car he turned towards me and Tracy and smiled.  Olivia waved.  A TV reporter briefly interviewed him about the concert. She said, “Will you do it again?”  and George answered, “Oh, I don’t’ know…”  Tracy said, “George, you have to!  It was brilliant.”  And he smiled “Thank you.”  Then he drove off and we kept waving until he couldn’t see us anymore.  I later heard our friends saw his car getting stuck in traffic and they talked to him for a few minutes through the car window.  HE said he had done it for Eric and because he likes the Prince. 

Now it’s over, but I will never ever forget those two days. 

Paul in London in 1984

A story about meeting Paul by Petra Zeitz.  I always enjoy reading her stories.  I think her style of writing is just really cute.   This is from the October 1985 issue of "With a Little Help From my Friends."  Photo were taken by Petra Zeitz

London 1984

By Petra Zeitz

It’s been over a year ago now that I met Paul and Linda for the first time in London, but I will try to remember most of the details.

28 June, 1984—It was our first day in London.  We had hoped Paul would be recording at Air Studios, but there were no other fans waiting and his car wasn’t in sight.  We decided to go to his house in Cavendish Avenue, but the chance to see him there seemed even smaller as he spends most of the year at his farm in Sussex.

We arrived at his Cavendish house.  The gate was closed as usual.  We saw that one of the windows in the basement was open.  Still, it looked very much like nobody was in.  We went down the street to see the street sign with all the messages written on it.  When we were on the way back to the gate, two guys who were working in another house in Cavendish Avenue called us.  “Do you wanna meet Paul McCartney?” one of them asked.  We said, “We don’t think he ever comes here.”  “He’s not in now but if you come tomorrow early in the morning, at about 7 a.m., you can see him.  He goes jogging in the morning.  He talks to you…”   Honestly we didn’t believe this guy, but we did come back the next morning.

It must have been 10 to 7 and we were standing near Paul’s gate.  Suddenly a police car came up and stopped.  “What are you doing here?” we were asked.  We were really shocked.  Did Paul call the police because we were waiting for him?  The officer was really nice and as we told him we were just waiting for Paul McCartney, he laughed.  He didn’t even know Paul was living there.  He had thought maybe we would help burglars or something like that because we stood in front of the gate watching the house!

Nothing happened.  The one window was still open.  About a half hour later the gate was opened and two men pointed as us asking, “Are you waiting for somebody?”  We said, “No, not really.”  Then we were asked to move away and not to stand in front of the gate.  The men went in again.

We met our two friends, the workers, again.  And they kept telling up Paul might come out soon.  At 20 to 8, the gate was opened again.  First we saw one of the men coming out, then a little boy with blond hair followed, and then there he was:  Paul!!!  First he looked around and asked the man, “Are they fans?” pointing in our direction.  I couldn’t stand still any longer.  I ran up to him.  My friend and the two workers followed me.  Paul’s bodyguard drove off and I knew I had to say something to Paul, otherwise he’d leave too.  I just felt like I couldn’t speak!  I managed to say a “Good morning.  How are you?”  Paul smiled.  “Good morning girls.  I am fine.  Are you on holiday?”  We said, “We are from Germany.”    Paul was a bit surprised.  He started speaking to us in German.  He knows quite a lot of German words.  It was so funny to listen to him.  We told him we wanted to go to Liverpool a few days later.  He was happy about that.  He still loves Liverpool so much.   He asked us if we were going to see the Garden Festival around there.  After about 10 minutes, we had taken a few photos and Paul had given us each a personal autograph, he said he would have to leave now.  His son was waiting for him.  He jogged up the street.  We watched him until he turned around the corner.  We were so happy; we just couldn’t believe it all!

We waited about 20 minutes and then we saw Paul and James again.  Paul greeted all the people he knew like the postman and an old lady.   Then he said, “hi girls!”  And stopped by us.  He told us how much he enjoys jogging and we asked him about his new album.  He said he was working on the soundtrack for the film, “Broad Street.”  We asked if we could take another photo but he said, “Sorry, I have to hurry now.  The kids are waiting and you know…” We thanked him and he went in.

The next day we tried to see him at Air Studios, but we didn’t see anybody there.  We didn’t want to go to Cavendish again, as we thought Paul wouldn’t like us to do so.  It was his private life and we had to respect that.  We decided to go there again over the weekend.

On Saturday and Sunday the house was empty.  The McCartney’s had gone back to their farm for the weekend I supposed.  On Monday morning it was still quiet.  Then we were a bit worried that we wouldn’t meet him again at all.  We had bought a little present for him.  It was a card saying, “Sorry we’re late for our birthday…” and a book called “Physical Fitness—jogging for men and women.”  He hoped Paul wouldn’t take that wrong as it was just a joke.

It was around 11 a.m. on Monday morning when we decided to go to Piccadilly Circus.  When we came around Oxford Circus, we saw some girls hanging around Air Studios.  I recognized Debbie who is one of the so called “MPL Scruffs.”  That meant that Paul might be coming!  We changed our plans immediately and placed ourselves on the corner of the building complex where the studios are located.   We didn’t have a long wait!  After 10 minutes, I saw Paul Linda arm in arm walking down the street.  They were in a crowd of people but no one recognizes them!  When they arrived at Air, Paul waved at us saying, “Are you the ones on vacation?”  We gave him our little present and he thanked us.  There were many fans around and we couldn’t speak with Paul and Linda as everybody was asking or autographs and photos.  Paul looked around, said, “Alight?” and then he and Linda went in.  “See ya girls!”

Paul is so sweet when he meets fans.  Linda didn’t say much, but she was too busy signing autographs.  

We said that we wouldn’t leave this place again as long as Paul was in.  We did leave in the end, but we were back at 3:00.  We met two very nice Swedish girls.  The English fans couldn’t stand us at all.  They said we’d make Paul angry and he didn’t want to see us.  (Did he want to see them every day?)

In the evening, Paul and Linda came out again.  They were greeting us and as soon as they were standing on Oxford Street they were surrounded by people asking for autographs.  We took photos and I went up to Paul with a really stupid picture of him from the “Linda’s Pix for ‘76” calendar book.  I said, “Paul, would you mind signing this picture?”  I showed it to him.  He laughed.  “Oh, that’s a wonderful picture.”  He did sign it!

Paul and Linda tried to get to their car.  Paul said, “Bye girls!  See ya!” and got in the car.  Then he rolled the window down again.    I took a photo of him in the car and he said, “Oh, very good!” and Linda smiled.  Then he said in German, “Auf Wiedersehen!” which means “goodbye,” and they drove off.the back entrance of Air.  He doesn’t like the crowds too much and Oxford Street is one of the busiest places in London.  Nobody saw him that day.

On Wednesday he had another surprise for us.  First we couldn’t believe that he goes jogging unrecognized every morning, then he was walking down Oxford street, but on Wednesday morning their driver had dropped Paul and Linda off somewhere and came to Air alone.  Later, Paul and Linda walked to the studio.  There were only the “MPL Scruffs” and us.  Paul and Linda had been to Carnaby Street and they both were having an ice cream. Paul had chocolate and Linda had something with raisins.  They said “Good morning” and Paul ask us, “alright? Gut?” (good in German).  They then went in.

We saw them coming out in the late afternoon and on Friday, we met Paul on his own again.  There were people we hadn’t seen before waiting for him.  Paul seemed to know them and he only spoke with them, like they were old friends of his.  He was wearing sunglasses and jeans and a red shit.  He looked really great.  It was our last day in London and we heard that it was his last day in the studio.  We didn’t see him again that year.

London July 1986 - Part 3

Here is the last of the installment of Petra's trip to England in July of 1986.  In this part, Petra meets Paul during a very neat and special time and goes to Friar Park to try to meet George.  

George at Abbey road Studios May 28, 1986.  Photo by Craig Beaumont

 

 

 

At Abbey Road Studios July 30, 1986.  Photo by Petra

The “Regulars” decided to go to the Wogan theatre in Shepard’s Bush.  As nobody knew where the “Rolling Stone” offices were, Katja and I went with them. At the theatre nobody knew about Paul doing a film there.  We tried the BBC main studios.  Tanya works for the BBC so she got in a tried to find out where Paul was filming.  But nobody could tell her.  It was 5:30 now and we couldn’t do anything but give up.  There are hundreds of studios in London and it got so late that Paul would have finished anyway.  Katja and I said be to the others and went to the tube station.  On the way I was thinking of studios with “Beatle connections” and the only one still in use was Abbey Road.  I told Katja, “Let’s go to Abbey Road.”  She wasn’t very enthusiastic about the idea but as it was probably the last time we could see Paul’s house in St. John’s Wood, she agreed to come with me.

We arrived at the St. John’s Wood Tube Station at 6 p.m.  Just when we got out to the street we saw a blue Mercedes waiting at the traffic light.  As it got nearer we saw the number plate:  900 MPL!  We couldn’t believe it!  John Hammel was in the car and waving at us!  We knew Paul was around.  Neither Katja or I had ever seen him at Abbey Road Studio and we were very excited.  Abbey Road is just THE PLACE – the studio where the Beatles recorded most of their wonderful songs!

Katja and I hurried to Abbey Road.  There were BBC vans in the carpark.  Another good sign.  We asked the man at the reception if Paul was in but he said no.  We didn’t believe him and sat down on the stairs.  Then Alan of MPL came out with another man and Trevor followed him.  My heart was beating like wild.  Paul was definitely there!   Trevor smiled at us wondering how we found out about Abbey Road.  I said it was just a feeling I had.   He told us Paul would be out by 8 p.m. 

John came back and parked the Mercedes in front of the studio door. I took a photo of Paul‘s car with the MPL plate standing in front of the door sign “Abbey Road Studios.”  What a wonderful day!  Later four boys arrived who found out by accident that Paul was in.  They had come just to take a photo of the famous studio and a guard asked them if they were waiting for Paul McCartney.

Around 8:00 John brought out a bass guitar and suddenly there was action on the stairs.  Then Paul came out.  He was very soaked with sweat and enjoyed the cold evening breeze.  He seemed a bit surprised to see Katja and me again, but he said, “Hi.”  Then he looked and me, asking, “How are you?”  I said I was fine and he said, “Oh…I’m hot!”  Katja wanted to know what he had been doing in the studio and he replied, “Just a kind of video thing.”  The boy next o to me wanted an autograph, but the pen wasn’t writing on the record cover.  Paul said, “I’m sorry, it doesn’t write very well.  But I’ve signed one for you anyway. “Compared to MPL that morning, it was a very quiet meeting with Paul.  That day at least 40 fans had waited outside MPL and now there were only six of us.  It was such a wonderful moment!  We asked Paul if he would pose for photos with Katja and me.  Although I had met him so many times before, I didn’t have any posed pictures.  I just happened to be in them.  This time I was standing next to Paul.  He said, “Just a quick one, please.”  Then he put his arm around my shoulder and I put my arm around his hip and we looked into Katja’s camera.  I was so close to him that I could feel his heartbeat.  He was still sweating and his skin was very warm.  This was one of the greatest, if not THE greatest moments of my life so far!  I didn’t want to let Paul go, but of course this moment lasted only a few seconds, maybe a half a minute, as we had problems with the camera flash.  When I think back now, I can close my eyes and feel it all again.  I let go to Paul and swapped places with Katja.  When one of the boys wanted to take a picture too, the camera wasn’t working.  Paul noticed it and told me, “Take one of him with your camera and swap addresses, ok?”  Again, we had problems with the flash (why does it have to get dark so early?).  Paul said, “It’s not working…it’s kaput!”  He was so cute.  He said goodbye to everyone and got into the car. He said it had gotten late and that he had to go home.  We left too.  We were both on cloud 9!  Of all the times we had seen Paul this was definitely the best!  Paul knows how to make his fans happy.  In the tube we met our other friends by accident.  Of course they went mad when they heard what they had missed.  They had gone back to MPL but there had been no action at all.

The next day Paul wasn’t going to come to London so we had time to wait for George in Henley.  We had seen Olivia the day before when she went shopping in a very exclusive boutique from 8 p.m. till after 9 p.m. We arrived at Friar Park at around half past 10 in the morning.  We talked to a gardener and to Olivia’s father.  He’s a lovely grandfather.  He said how tall Dhani had grown and that he has just one other grandson who’s a little bit older than Dhani.  Later we saw the two boys leaving Friar Park in a car.  Dhani had very short hair and his front teeth are still missing.  He looks very much like Olivia.

At about 10:30 we saw Harold’s red Audi car coming down the drive.  We didn’t take much notice, but then we realized who was sitting next to Harry on the front seat…none other than George!  I looked at the car and watched it moving.  My knees were shaking.  I just couldn’t move.  I wanted to get near to the car and try to say hello to George, but I just couldn’t do anything but stare at him.  Unfortunately we were on the wrong side of the car.  George noticed us and turned around toward us.  He seemed quite surprised, but as we didn’t do anything but stare, the car didn’t stop.  We must have looked like two fools!

When George was gone, I started to realize what had happened.  I was totally confused.  It was the first time I had seen George from such a short distance, but on the other hand I had missed my chance to really meet him.  Katja felt the same, but when we saw George sitting in the car we forgot all our intentions.  It came too unexpectedly!  George was wearing a white jacket and “Lennon” sunglasses.   His hair was pretty long again.  I only wish I’d taken a photo!  Although we waited the whole day we didn’t see him again.  Olivia came out and waved.  When she got back in her black Mercedes, we said hi to her.  She stopped and we asked her if George was back already.  She said no.  She didn’t seem very talkative.  We asked her if we could give her some cards and a present for Dhani (It was the day before his 8^th birthday).  She said, “Sure” and “Oh, that’s very sweet of you.”  She told us that George had finished at Abbey Road (he had recorded there in June) and that it had been the first time in years that he’d been there.  She was very nice and kind now.  We asked her if she knew when George was supposed to be back.  She said, “I shouldn’t tell you…” but then…”at 4, or half past 4.  You can go for a cup of tea and come back at 4, but don’t tell him I told you!”  She was so sweet!  The electric gates had closed twice on her but she answered all our questions.  It was the first time I’d talked to her and I was surprised to find out how nice she actually is!  She was very pretty too with her long black hair and tanned skin.  We said bye and thanked her again.  Then she drove in.  It got later and later.  I was just a bag of nerves.  5:00- No George.  6:00—nothing.  Then Olivia came back.  She said, “I’m sorry, he must be late!”  Another hour passed.  We met Guy Tannahill who works for George.  He was very nice and told us that George was in London and had been delayed.  He’d come back sometime in the night.  We still wanted to wait but by 11 p.m. it was dark, freezing cold and we’d waited 13 hours in a row.  We had to leave.  We were quite disappointed but at least we’d seen him!  We thought George wouldn’t be too happy about fans waiting for him at nighttime.  Also, we didn’t have any warm clothes with us and were freezing terribly.  

Still, when I was lying in my bed that night I felt happy.  It had been a great day and George is so hard to meet these days that we were lucky to have seen him at all.  Also I was happy that Olivia had been so nice.

Friday, August 1^st was our last day in England.  We didn’t know what to do.  Paul was coming to MPL and doing the “Wogan” show in the evening, but it was also Dhani’s birthday and maybe our last chance to meet George.  We decided to go to Friar Park first.  A gardener told us they had put George’s car back in the garage and that there was a big tent for the birthday party in the garden.  Then Guy came out and said George wouldn’t come out today.  He felt kind of sorry for us and offered to get us autographs.  We made arrangements to meet him at 6 p.m. and got on the next train to London.  We arrived at MPL after 1:00 and luck was on our side:  Paul and Linda walked in about 15 minutes later.

While waiting we had noticed an American Beatle lookalike.  He was dressed in a Beatle sit and also had a “moptop” haircut.  His girlfriend was with him.  When Paul and Linda arrived, they were surrounded by a crowd of fans.  Suddenly the friend of the “Beatle lookalike” pushed her way through to Paul.  She grabbed his shirt and shouted at him, “My friend is your son!”  Paul looked absolutely horrified.  He said, “What…what are you talking about?”  Some people pulled the girl off him, and he went in without saying anything.  The two Americans went away but Safia ran after them.  We couldn’t believe our ears when the girl said that Paul.  The look on his face had been so terrified.  Safia asked the girl why she had said what she said.  She didn’t want to reply, but her friend said that he was indeed Paul’s son.  He told us a story about being adopted and finding out who his mother was.  She was supposed to have been in London in 1965 when the Beatles were in the studio.  She was “elected” by Mal and Neil and asked to join the Beatles after the session.  We weren’t sure whether to believe him or not, but he really looked a lot like Paul.  He had the same nose and mouth and even teeth like Paul’s.  Still, we told him that had definitely not been the right way to attract Paul’s attention.  The two Americans left soon.  We really didn’t know what to think of them except that we were angry that they had scared Paul and Linda. 

I had to go back to Henley to meet Guy at 6:00.  Katja stayed in London.  She told me that “wogan” was a mess.  “Every Beatle fan and their aunties” had been there and Paul got in through a back door.  When he came out, John drove the car directly in front of the entrance door so when Paul came, he had to walk just one step to get into the car.  He didn’t even let Linda go first.  John told Safia that this was partly because of this crazy man this morning.  Paul and his family went on holiday “somewhere very hot” that weekend.  He had given them a card signed by all of us and wished them a happy time.

Guy actually managed to get us personalized autographs of George and we spent our last evening in Henley.  Saturday we went back to Germany.  What a fantastic month ---July 1986.  With special thanks to Katja, the “Regulars”, Guy, Trevor, and of course Paul and Linda, George and Olivia and everybody who made our visit in England and unforgettable experience.

London July 1986 (part 2)

Here is the second part of Petra and her friends time in London in July of 1986.  This part focuses on waiting outside of the MPL offices during a time when Paul was there on almost a daily basis.  

Paul, Linda and Stella leaving MPL on July 21, 1986.  Photo by Petra

July 28, 1986 Paul at MPL.  Photo by Petra

We were standing in the park chatting to our friends as a blonde lady went into MPL.  Katja said that she’d looked like Linda.  We saw her standing at the reception desk and going to the first floor.  She really looked like Linda, but somehow during Craig and Tanya’s arrival on the Square we forgot about her.  Suddenly Andy pointed at the MPL door.  “There’s Linda!  Too late.  We’ve missed her!”   We just saw Linda getting into a general MPL car with Alan and driving off.  Of course from then on we didn’t let the entrance out of our sight.  At 1:00 Tanya’s lunch hour was over and she had to go back to work again.  She turned around the corner and we couldn’t believe our eyes when a few minutes later she came back walking next to Paul and chatting with him!  Paul was chewing gum, hands in his pockets. When he saw us standing on the other side of the street he stopped and waved at us.  We ran over to him.  He was in a great mood that morning!  There were just a few of us around and nobody was pushing him.  Tanya asked him to sign her guitar and he did it, asking her “do you want me to ruin your guitar?”  We congratulated him on “Press” and he looked happy that we liked the single.  I said that the B-side is wonderful too and he smiled and me, saying “Thank you.”  Katja asked him if he had drawn the cover himself and he said, “Yeah! I did that!” We all had been wondering what he meant in the song by singing “Oklahoma was never like this…” so I said to him, “Paul, what happened in Oklahoma?”  He looked surprised at first, but grinned and said, “Oh, I ‘m not telling you that one!”  Then he excused himself saying he was late again and went in.

We got back to our watch-point on the other side of the street.  The MPL staff didn’t like people sitting in front of the offices and we respected that.  Some tourists didn’t know this and hung around the door.  They were Italians.  More and more fans showed up.  Since the Mercedes was in front of the entrance everybody knew Paul was in.  Later, Linda came back.  She signed our “Seaside woman”   singles (just released in England) and was very nice.  She said that she liked the new remix of her song much more than the original version and that she liked the 12” single too.  Safia asked her for some “Seaside Woman” badges and she said, “I don’t have any but I’ll get you some!”  Then Alan, who was still with her, gave all of us some badges.  We watched Linda going in and closing the windows on the first floor.  She took some copies of her photo books out of a cupboard and gave them to a man.  It looked like she was being interviewed on her own, as Paul wasn’t in the room.

Much to our surprise, Stella and her friend (a girl about the same age as her) arrived too.  They came in a taxi.  Also, Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders came to MPL.  She was very arrogant.  When somebody asked her what she was doing at MPL, she replied, ‘What am I doing here?  Buying the company!”

Paul, Linda and Stella came out quite late after everybody else at MPL had already left. Paul told Stella to get right into the car.  The crowd was very big that evening.  Paul put his arm around Linda and posed for photos, saying that he couldn’t sign anything.  Unfortunately when we wanted to take some photos, the pushy tourists screamed and shoved so Paul went straight to the car.  He looked inside and saw that Linda wasn’t there. He looked around the crowd.  “Where’s Lin?  Where’s Linda?”  Then he spotted her behind the fans.  “Linda, come on!”  When she got into the car, he got in after her, and off they went.  We were happy that we had seen him again, but after the great morning, the evening was a bit disappointing.  We’d waited eight hours and those tourists spoilt it for us.

Our third week was over soon.  We went to Henley and Liverpool for a few days and saw the Royal wedding.  Paul was at MPL the next Friday but we stayed in Liverpool and missed him.

Then on Monday the 28^th there was a big crowd outside MPL even early in the morning.  Most people were sitting in front of the entrance again.  Anton, Jennifer, Katja and I were standing on the other side of the street.  At 5 to 12, Anton noticed a man walking around Soho Square towards MPL. “Who’s that over there…it’s Paul!”  He said.  We all recognized Paul and ran over to him.  At the same time, John Hammel turned around the corner in the blue Mercedes.  Everybody in front of MPL watched the car and wondered where Paul was and no on, believe it or now, saw him talking to us just 20 meters away!  It was great!  Paul was in a good mood.  Anton, who was the first to reach him, told him what a thrill it was to meet him and Paul shook his hand.  Then he posed for photos with Jennifer.  She works in a record shop and so he told Anton, “Anton, do one for the record shop!”  Pau greeted the four of us.  Katja tried to have her picture taken with him and when she stood next to him, he looked at her and said, “How are you?  All right?”  he also said the record company was delaying his album again.  Then he said, “I must go to work now.  I must see  the NBC people today!”  He seemed very proud that they were waiting for him as he told us at least three times that he was going to see “The NBC people”  A few of the old Apple Scruffs had come to MPL too that day.  Paul said goodbye to us and went on towards his office.  By then the tourists began to realize he had arrived.  Paul said hello to the Apple Scruffs, “Oh – the old crowd again!  I’ve been seeing you for 20 years now!  How are you?”  Suddenly he was surrounded by about 30 people and he went in – not without telling everybody one more time about NBC.

After Paul had gone in, even more people arrived. Chrissie Hynde showed up again.  She wasn’t any nice this time either.  Katja and I decide to leave.  We had booked a room in Henley for the night and as the morning was our best meeting with Pau so far, we wanted to avoid another disappointment like the previous Monday. 

The next day, Tuesday July 30, we bumped into Trevor Jones and John Hammel at the music fair in London.  There were rumours that Paul was going to be there, but he didn’t show up.  Still, we didn’t waste our time.  Trevor told us that Paul would be at MPL on Wednesday and Friday that week and also would be doing the “Wogan” show on Friday!  Originally Katja and I wanted to stay in Henley the whole week and wait for George but as we were sure to see Paul twice we decided to get to London on Wednesday.  Trevor had said Paul would arrive at 12:30 and when we arrived at 11, there was already a crowd of fans.  Paul was almost an hour late and when he finally arrived he was in a hurry again.  He just waved and said, “I’m very late today. Sorry, there are just too many of you.  Leave everything at the desk…”  He rushed in and John Hammel collected books, photos and sleeves from anybody who wanted an autograph.  Although we hadn’t seen much of Paul we were very happy.  Paul looked very cute that morning.  He wore a blue t-shit, a blue and yellow striped long shirt over it, and wide white trousers.  Simon Bates interviewed Paul for BBC radio that morning and Paul left MPL at half past 3.  When he came out, our friends were playing guitar and were singing “Help.”  Paul shouted, “Wonderful!  Sorry, I can’t stop!”  The people didn’t even let him pass.  They pushed him away from his car and when he asked them to let him go a tourist said, “no!”  Katja, Jennifer and I stood a safe distance away from the other side of the car.  This was we could see Paul without pushing him around.  When he got into the Mercedes he noticed us standing there, turned towards us and gave us a sign which meant something like “good idea girls.”  We were so happy!  When Trevor came out he told Safia and Tracy that Paul was doing a cover photo for “Rolling Stone” and a video for “Wogan” but he wouldn’t say where.