"At Rehearsal With Paul- May 7, 1976"
The McCartney Observer #23 Winter 1983
Written by Pat Sudds
As a teenager, I worked as a volunteer at the Olympia Stadium in Detroit for the Red Wings hockey games. After doing this for 5 years, my friends (4 of us all together) and I got to know all the other staff...i.e., concession people, maintenance people and doormen, etc...quite well. By this time, I was 19, and we were getting ab it braver with our free entrance privileges. The bright idea occurred to us to try and get into rock concerts dawned on us slowly. we found that the doormen just let us walk in, thinking we were going to work that night. Of course, we had to show up at our usual time of 5:30-6:00 to make it work.
On May 7, 1976, I met my friend, Fran, in the parking lot as arranged. Our other friends, Barb and Sandy, wanted to wait until the Saturday show to go. From previous experiences, we knew that almost all the other bands didn't show up until just before showtime and stayed completely out of sight behind the stage (Alas, we had no backstage friends to risk their necks for us!)
Once inside the building, our usual habit was to go to the executive offices and talk to the girls that worked there (sometimes the stars came in and they had gossip to report). As we headed for the stairs, I told Fran that someone was tuning a piano. She says, "So?" I was quite excited becaues the equipment is usually all set up to go by the time we got there. She pushed onto the offices. The girl on the switchboard told us that they were late getting the equipment from New York and were still setting it up. Fran looked at me with an I-told-you-so look. I persisted in checking this out (could be cute roadies). She gave in (to shut me up), and we went into the arena at the end opposite the stage.
Immediately, we noticed people on the stage, and they did not look like roadies! As we walked closer (ran closer?), we realized it was Paul, Linda, and Wings. Paul was at the piano. By the time we got up to the stage, he had left the piano and walked over to a guitar, picked it up, and strapped it on (his bass, I think). He had on a blue Hawaiian-style print shirt and jeans. I must admit that I could not tell you what Linda and the others had on as I never took my eyes off Paul.
Then, if all this wasn't enough (I really expected to be chased out of there), he spoke to us! He asked us to sit down, and they would play us a tune as the equipment just came in from New York, and they wanted to check the sound out. I looked around with a "Who me?" expression, and he gestured to the seats, and I realized he meant us!!
As they started to play, I remembered I had brought my trusty Kodak Instamatic along, just in case. I got it out and held it up tentatively. I did not want to offend Paul by taking pictures without asking. I guess this was my lucky day. His answer was to WAVE at me. So, I snapped while he mugged for my camera.
They finished playing, and we clapped, and he said, "See you at the show," or words to that effect, and headed off the stage.
After reading other accounts in "The McCartney Observer," I can really identify with the other accounts of not knowing what to say. I could just kick myself now for not saying something. But I was in a fog. Actually, I do not remember all the details of the concert because I kept returning to events earlier in the evening.
Anyway, after he left, we rushed back to tell the switchboard girl about it and giggled, pinched ourselves, and giggled again until concert time.
The next day, after hearing of our good fortune, Barb and Sandy tried to get close to the stage before the concert (although no one was on it), and the lightman told them to get out; no one was allowed in. After discussing the light man with them, Fran and I ascertained that he was there on our night, too, but let us go by without a second glance. Perhaps we looked more business-like, or he thought we really were working there!
I have taken that as a sign of fate, that we were just supposed to be there on Friday and have a special, private concert with Paul.
Unfortunately, my pictures turned out to be as wobbly as my knees! Also, as I knew of no fanzines or that other shared in my Beatlemania after it was over, I never wrote everything down, and I cannot for the life of me remember what he sang to us (although I do remember that they ran the "Band on the Run" video on the big screen while he sang to test it out).
But, I know who it is in the photos, and I can remember how he looked at me and sang to me, and no one can take those few special moments away from me.
