My Love Does it Good Part 2 (1975)

My Love Does It Good

By Cindy Rosenthal

The Write Thing

Jan/Feb 1976

    My other big day was in Manchester. We were at a hotel checking on prices. It was just down the street from the theater. Prices were too high for us, and we wondered if Paul would stay there. Then we saw a sign that said the Mel Bush organization would be in a certain room at 3:30.  Mel Bush was the promoter of Paul's tour. We went and checked out the room mentioned on the sign and found it set up for a press conference. We were waiting to see when they'd get there. Ken and Madeline were also waiting, so we were talking to them.

     Suddenly, the bus drove up. I hadn't really expected them to show up. MaryAnn and I ran into the foyer area, and off stepped Linda. She smiled at me, and I took her photo. Then Paul stepped off, looking ever so good. Stella was right behind him, and as she got off, she started to cry a little. Paul picked her up, and she got a kiss from both her parents. Paul was holding a Wing sign about the size of a card that was usually passed out at concerts. Stella had obviously drawn all over it. They stood and posed for a real photographer, so we had a chance to take photos too.

     As Paul came near me, I said "The concerts were great!"  I said it with a lot of feeling. He asked, "Did you like that?"  And I said "Yes!"  We almost touched hands, but he had Stella in his arms. I felt we touched mentally, though.  Good vibes. Then he let me take a close-up of him. Linda thanked me for the badges we had given them the night before. That surprised me too. 

    Inside, Paul put Stella on the receptionist's desk, and he was standing with his hands in his pockets and yawning. He looked like he had been sleeping on the bus. Mary was running around. I noticed she has freckles on her nose. She kept going outside, and Stella yelled, "McCartney!" Linda yelled, "Mary!" And she came back in. I just stood watching them because I didn't know what to do. I'd run out of film. 

    They had all went upstairs. We were standing there deciding what to do next when suddenly Brian, Paul's manager, yelled, "Are you going to the sound check now?" to someone behind us, I turned around and there was Paul and Linda, arm in arm, walking toward the front door. Paul said, "No, we're going to get something for Stella (it was her birthday that day, September 13.) He was bopping at a fast pace. Outside, some fans stopped them to get a photo, so we took the opportunity. Also, when Paul saw a crowd beginning, he said, "Hurry up, John!" to the guy taking their picture. Then they waved across the street. Well, they walked across the street, and when they stopped at the corner, he turned around and bowed and waved. I have a blurry shot of that one. What a ham! They went down to a bookstore and then bopped out of view. He looked so good. No one on the street even recognized him,

Photo taken by Cindy Rosenthal in Manchester
Copyright held by Sara Schmidt 

     At the concert that night, the Macca kids were sitting two rows in front of us. Mary was directly in front of me. Mary was posing toothlessly for me. She got the same expression as her dad and  the same wide-eyed look. Mary was waving at her parents most of the concert, but only Stella got a hello from Mum. They were clapping to the music and having a great time.

     It would take me 1000s of words to go through every concert and every day. I can only mention special moments, special rare moments. In my mind, the concerts are all one blur. Too much happened too fast. I remember the hours of waiting for tickets and riding on trains, and then the fleeting moments that made all those hours worth it. In Bristol, I was standing by the stage door in the falling rain. Suddenly, the maroon Rolls drove up, and I saw Paul point at me. I'll never really know why he pointed at me, but I had on a Venus and Mars shirt, so I imagine he was pointing at that.

     Then there were the frustrations of knowing he was staying six miles outside the city, so I couldn't go see him at all. But the concert meant more to me for some reason. I got very frustrated when I did see him at hotels because I wanted to be more than just a fan among the crowd greeting the star. I had those two days to say something to him, and as usual, I couldn't remember all the things I wanted to ask him. I was usually in awe when I saw him, and if he said something to me, I would be dumbfounded.

      Whenever I did see him, he looked great, always dressed so nicely in a suit, and in Liverpool, he had on the red and white T-shirt that he had worn 10 years before. I never got the feeling that the kids were bothered by the chaos around them; the only time there was a hint of that was in the hotel, after the Manchester concert. I was in the lobby with camera ready, and Stella came walking and yelling, "Pictures, pictures, pictures."

     The concerts were always the best, and forgetting all the hours of waiting and hunger, my eyes would be glued on all five feet 11 inches of him on the stage. He has the same facial expressions as he did 10 years ago. The cute smiles, the look sideways or upwards to the balcony. He usually got into the music more than you could imagine. Some nights he seemed very loose, and others a little uptight. When mistakes happened, he handled them with poise and charm. There weren't that many, but concerts would be boring if they were all perfect. The music was so good that I can hardly bear to listen to his album now, because the songs just don't have the power that came from the stage. 

    He was always aware of the fans; unless he was being filmed, then you could see him put everything into his performance, forgetting that we were out there being trampled on. In Newcastle, I was right up front, almost in front of him, and the crowd was just too rowdy for me. I'd already had a hard day's night. I could barely take photos, and the sweaty bodies next to me were making me go crazy. I was seriously thinking about getting out of the crowd. I had had enough of crowds by then. I was making strange faces as I got pushed, pulled, and stepped on. Just as I was contemplating how I was going to get out, Paul winked at me. It was almost as if he knew how frustrated I was getting. It wasn't just a wink in my general direction. It was for me. Believe me, If you've ever been winked at by Paul, you would know it.

     And at the last concert, he was acting awfully sexy, if you can describe it like that. During "Jet", he looked at MariAnn and me with this look, and my mouth fell open, but Paul does that to you if you let him. It's just fleeting moments like these that I wish would last forever. I could go on and on. I only wish it had never ended. I really miss those concerts. They were the best 13 nights of my life

    . I'm sure I could go on talking about the little things that happened at concerts and stage doors, but words can never describe the feeling. I just know that Paul still has that something that makes him a star. Fans are still going crazy over him. In the Manchester Hotel, a small crowd waited for Wings to arrive from the concert. Despite a van full of coppers and warnings to get lost, the minute Paul arrived, he was swarmed. All I saw was Paul and Linda trying to get in the door with fans pulling on them, and Paul laughing the whole time. The fans were all left on the outside as Wings disappeared. I turned and saw a girl crying her eyes out on her friend's shoulder while she sobbed. "I can't believe I saw Paul". It could have been 1964 all over again.

Movie Role Bug Beatles (1965)

 Movie Role Bug Beatles

By Robert Musel (UPI)

Oakland Tribune

December 20, 1965

    The fog was so thick, the four young millionaires took an hour to drive two miles, and when they reached their hotel, they were able to slip swiftly inside, unseen, while girl fans groped blindly in the cotton wool mist outside, uttering despairing cries of, "Where are you, John? Or "Paul?" Or "Ringo?" or "George?"

     But there was sterner business on hand for the Beatles than their usual broken field run through teenage tacklers. Until dawn broke over Manchester with the sun like a hazy gray egg yolk, they talked about the most critical decision of their film career thus far. To wit, what kind of film do we do next?

     Although it is fashionable and has been for months to talk about the end of the Beatle era, the present concert tour of the hairy foursome is a hysterical sell out everywhere, and their latest single record, "Day Tripper", went right to the top of almost every British charts The advanced sale on their new album, Rubber Soul is over half a million. So it was not their image as musicians and songwriters that concerned them this vital night.

     After three years, the troubadour tycoons considered themselves firmly established. Not so in films, however, and their producer, Walter Shenson, called the session to order by asking the boys for ideas.

     This much quickly emerged according to Shenson's first-come, first-served principle. "The problem is that the boys quite rightly want to break away from making films about the Beatles, and it's a decision for which they deserve a lot of credit. A Hard Day's Night was a kind of documentary about the daily life of the Beatles, and a worldwide hit.

     "Help! was, you might say, a cartoon strip involving the Beatles. And it is also providing very successfully. But neither of these require a great deal of acting."  In Help!, they were moved around more or less like puppets by  American New Wave director Dick Lester; everything happened around them, not to them. 

    These films serve the purpose of providing the fantastic pulling power of the Beatles at the box office. Now they must move on. Shenson, a San Franciscan, has frank respect for the talent and mentality of the Beatles. "I try to guide them, but I don't force them," he says. "I know what they want and what they would like to do is what the Marx Brothers used to do. The films always starred the Marx Brothers, but they were always shown playing their roles inside a well-defined plot-- at an opera, for instance, or in a South American Revolution."

     Questions from the floor from John Lennon: "What about a cowboy movie?" This was kicked around for a while. "One advantage," Lennon said, "is that there were no Beatles 100 years or so ago, and that's a good reason for thinking about it."

     "Maybe a Three Musketeers idea?"

     "What about songs? From Shenson

    " Oh, we'll get the songs in, all right."

     Another suggestion has the boys acting as would-be burglars bungling a job. Paul McCartney is very partial to this one. 

    "I asked them," Shenson said later, "whether in the next film, we would be able to develop relationships. For example, they might have girlfriends, and would this affect their image? They said they didn't think their fans would worry about it for more than five seconds."

     As Shenson departed from London after A Hard Day's Night of conferring with the stars, he said, "We've gotten this far. We are looking for a good story. The background doesn't matter, nor does the location, but it must provide opportunities for the boys as actors.

     "The Beatles will not be the first to have become film stars before they establish a reputation as actors."

     Friends of the Beatles believe, incidentally, that the long romance of McCartney and pretty redhead actress Jane Asher may soon make him the third married Beatle. Both Lennon and Ringo Starr are fathers, but George Harrison steadily claims he is only good friends with everybody.

A Hard Day's Night in a Jam (Manchester 1965)

 

A Hard Day's Night in a Jam

By Elaine Crossley

The Bolton News

December 8, 1965

    I was two miles from the Beatles last night, but I might as well have been 200, for I was trapped in the middle of a traffic jam in Manchester. A fog came down. It was a traffic jam to beat all jams. No one moved; dim light shone in the gloom from shop windows and frantic, shrouded figures deserted buses, which had been crawling and stopping for hours.

     I wasn't frantic to get home, but I was frustrated at missing my date with The Beatles. A photographer and I had set out from Bolton at 4pm for a rendezvous with the Beatles at the ABC Ardwick at 5pm.

     I had met the Beatles once before at Wigan. The bally-hoo had been sickening, but the group themselves had charmed me. I wanted to see them again. Of course, Paul McCartney wouldn't remember me, but I would ask him if he would give me my pen back. I asked him for his autograph last time, and I was so fascinated that I left him with my precious Parker 51.

     At 6:30pm yesterday, we were still on the outskirts of the city centre. The fog and the traffic jam were among the worst in the city's history. The journey was hopeless. We hadn't a hope of meeting the Beatles. And the group were probably as hopelessly lost and stranded as we were. 

    Instead of a set of drinks and a chat with The Beatles, I got a dismal meal in some strange cafe in Manchester. The journey back home took us until midnight. It was one of the hardest days nights I'd ever done.

To the Beatles (Manchester 1965)

 

To the Beatles

By Margarot Willcock

Manchester Evening News

December 10, 1965

    I ran my daughter and her friend to the Beatles show in Manchester on Tuesday. The fog and black ice were so bad that it took me two hours to get there. I did not feel like going home and then running to pick them up after the show. So when the opportunity arose to purchase a ticket in the foyer, I snapped it up. 

    What an experience! I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The only song they sang I did not care for was "Yesterday." The tune was good, but the words-- why should the Beatles sing about yesterday with such a glorious future in front of them? Are they cheesed off with fame and success? 

    They certainly deserve the MBE, but that night's audience should get the OBE for getting there! 

Trying to hide from the fans

 

Mad for Plaid

 

Manchester Dressing Room

 November 28, 1979

Door peeking again

 May 30, 1963 

Meet Paul in Manchester

Photo and autograph by Sheryl Walmsley

 

Granada Television memory

 Janice Finch remembers as a nine year old trying to meet the Beatles at Granada

I forgot to mention that I had of course actually breached the walls of Granada television in 1963 as a nine year old when the Beatles were supposed to be appearing live on their Friday night show. It was a summer holiday so it must have been August 1963 and I’d gone with a girl in the street who was supposed to be looking after my six year old sister and me that day. We decided the three of us were going to go to Granada to see if we could see the Beatles.

Of course every other young girl in Manchester had got the same idea so by the time we got outside Granada it was packed with screaming girls, just packed. Every time anyone went in to the front door they got mobbed by people asking for their autograph or “Have you seen the Beatles? Are they in there?” We would look up and you’d see in the windows of the office block there were people peering out looking at this mass of young girls in the street outside. Finally there was this shout, “They’re in there at the car park!” We all ran, there was a stampede. We ran down Quay Street to the Car Park Lodge entrance and we all started climbing over the wall. People would help you up and you’d get over the top.

My sister was with me and my friend was with me, and there were the Beatles in the car park setting up to do this live transmission of ‘Twist and Shout’. They were there in their black polo neck sweaters and suddenly they looked up and saw this horde of women running after them and had to run for it. The performance outdoors was abandoned and they had to do it inside in the studio.

Years later I was working with Phil Taylor, who had those huge dark eyebrows, on a ‘Union World’ shoot somewhere in the middle of nowhere and we got talking about the Beatles and that particular day. He said, “Were you one of them? I was out there, we were trying to fix them up to do this performance and it was abandoned. All these bloody women!”

It was such a big deal, the Beatles being there. You did feel, you really did feel at the time that the North and the North West was on its way and Granada was all part of that.

*Much thank you to Farshad Arbabi and The Lennon Years Facebook Group for originally posting this story and photographs.

All Thanks to a Panda Bear

 You know I love that big stuffed panda bear that became one of Julian Lennon's toys.   Here is a story about the fans that gave it to the Beatles.   It was found in the newspaper website, Express, in March 2019. 

The Beatles AMAZING Story of how one fan met the Fab 4 thanks to a stuffed toy

By George Simpson

November 20th 1963. The Beatles superfan Jacquie Graham was sixteen years ago and couldn’t get a ticket to the Fab Four’s show in Manchester. Nevertheless, she’s revealed to Express.co.uk in an exclusive interview how she ended up meeting The Beatles thanks to her panda toy. Jacquie can’t quite recall why she had the plush animal with her, but she and her friends tried their luck at the concert venue. She said: “We got to the Apollo. Knocked on the stage door and this chap came out and took the Panda.”

Jacquie continued: “He just took it out of our hands and shut the door.

“We were absolutely furious. Very, very upset.”

As a result, the girls took a taxi to the Daily Mirror in Manchester and explained to the paper what had happened.

They ended up back at the Apollo with a photographer, who managed to get into the venue and retrieve the panda toy – but that’s far from the end of the story.

Jacquie revealed: “And the next thing we know, we’re invited into the foyer of the Apollo.

“We were interviewed and then led off to another room and they were there!

“Obviously I don’t remember it in fantastic detail as it was all a blur.

“It’s all just too wonderful, like a dream. We were all just lost for words. John and Ringo gave me a kiss on each cheek.

“I can remember them fooling around and throwing the panda about.”

And incredibly for Jacquie and her friends, they were allowed to watch the show from the side.

She said: “There were no tickets available but they took us into the theatre and we stood at the side of the stage, standing, and we watched the whole show from there.”

But having given The Beatles her panda, its whereabouts are now unknown.

In fact, Jacquie’s daughter has set up a Where Is Panda Now? Facebook page to find it.

The panda did appear in later photos, with the last being of John Lennon with his son Julian in the mid-1960s.

No one’s got back to Jacquie yet, but who knows, maybe it will eventually show up.

Jacquie’s photos were sent into The People Beatles Project, which aims to crowdsource an archive of Beatles fan pictures for a book in May.  (Note from Sara:  The People Beatles Project book only printed a few copies and then it was shut down for reasons unknown to me. ) 

Jacquie revealed: “And the next thing we know, we’re invited into the foyer of the Apollo.

“We were interviewed and then led off to another room and they were there!

“Obviously I don’t remember it in fantastic detail as it was all a blur.

“It’s all just too wonderful, like a dream. We were all just lost for words. John and Ringo gave me a kiss on each cheek.

“I can remember them fooling around and throwing the panda about

Cry for a Shadow

October 14, 1964 -  Manchester

A big Kiss for Paul

Manchester Piccadilly Hotel

By Susan Dilorenzo

McCartney Ltd. 

Fall/Winter 1979/1980

I’d brought a Hershey’s Chocolate kiss to give to Paul.  It was a large bit of chocolate in a pink box with large blue lettering that read “A Big Kiss for You.”  I’d tried getting close enough to give it to him before but unfortunately the opportunity never presented itself.  Tonight I was bound and determined for results!   I was contemplating just what I’d say as we sat in the lobby of the hotel.  He’d used the elevator yesterday and we expected him to do this again today.  He surprised everyone by using the stairs (to our right) and in less than a second, we flew over to the stairs.  It was myself, Doylene, Marie, Barb, Mary Ann, George, Shelia and Mar.  As if we alone weren’t the equivalent of a crowd, well, you know how it is when Paul enters onto the scene.  Everyone under the sun materializes.   He was on the escalator then in front of us, so we just hopped on too! 

  The award winning ham we all know and love was waving and posing for everyone at the bottom of the escalator.  Once he laid his head on the railing with his arms out and pretended to be sleeping.  Linda had gone on ahead, which she’d been doing the whole of the tour.  Doylene hopped off the escalator and her camera case dropped.  She spent the next few minutes chasing it down the pavement.   He started to walk down the tunnel to the coach and it was here I decided was the moment of truth.  Paul had been signing autographs so when I trembled up to him he smiled at me and stopped walking and poised his pen.  I held the chocolate kiss out to him and asked, “Paul, could I please give this to you?”  He smiled and looked me in the eyes and replied, “You sure can” and looked down to take it from me and then looked up at me again, continuing to look me dead in the eyes.  It was like this through the whole encounter and it was divine!  He has these magical light brown eyes.  Schmaltzy but so true!  I explained why the box was marked on one side.   It had been in my camera case at the show on the 28^th and forgetting, I stood on the case to see Paul better.  “I accidentally stepped on it at the concert trying to see you but I wanted you to have it.  I’m sorry.”  You’d expect him to burst out laughing, but on the contrary.  He was dearly charming and so very sincere.   He replied, “Well, don’t you worry about it.”   I took a step back and smiled and looked down and he walked away.   I couldn’t move.  I watched him walking away with my hands to my mouth, half laughing from blissful hysteria when I see Paul look down at the kiss, reading the print on the box.  He stopped walking and turned around and looked at me.  He smiled at me, that all knowing smile, and winked. 

  Then continued outside.  Further up ahead Marie had asked Paul to sign a mounted photograph of hers.  He signed it on the mount at the top and she said, “Oh Paul---I know beggars can’t be choosers, but I wanted you to sign it at the lights.”  He drew an arrow to the lights and smiled at her, “How’s that?”

I found my feet finally and charged outside, my chin dragging the pavement.  He’d already got on the coach and I heard Barb call out, “Susie, he’s looking at it!”  I ran next to her to get a  look and he was saying something, showing it to Laurence, who was sitting across from Paul and Linda.   Laurence looked at it and smiled and Paul set it on the table and leaned back.  He closed his eyes for a second and then popped back up in his seat, opened it, closed it and sat back.

Someone in all that confusion, Barb got his autograph too, which I had missed.  Mary Ann took a picture to capture that moment.  It is nice to have snaps of the memories. 

Prayers for Manchester

Beatles in Manchester in 1964 for a TV show 

Beatles concert Manchester 1965

Wings backstage in Manchester in 1975

Paul and Linda backstage in Manchester during the 1979 Wings UK tour 

Paul plays Manchester in 2011

Ringo in Manchester in 2011

Words escape me in regards to the terrible tragedy that unfolded tonight in Manchester, England at the Ariana Grande concert.      As music lovers, we go to concerts to have a fun time and have a temporary escape from the real world.     Some of the most fun I have had and some of the best memories of my life have been at concerts.     The fans that went to that show tonight should have had a good night and gone home.    But 19 people won't be going home and others are in hospitals.  

The scary thing is that it could have been any of us.     A terrorist (and to me anyone who intends on killing people is a terrorist) can go to any concert, even a Paul McCartney concert, and do the unthinkable.     Is this going to stop us from going?    I sure hope not.       While you can't prevent a terrible event from happening, you can make sure that when you are in a large crowd that you are aware of your surroundings.    Always locate your nearest exit and have a mental plan on how you will get out if need be before the show starts.    Have a "if we get separated" plan with family and friends that you are attending with.     And go with your gut feeling.   If someone or something doesn't seem right, it most likely isn't and you need to tell someone in authority about it.  


My tear-filled prayers go out to everyone that was at this concert.    I pray for those who are injured and that they heal quickly.   I pray for the family and friends of those who were murdered tonight and that they can find out the information quickly and have peace.  


We need peace and love now more than ever.

Smile for the policeman

Beatles on the outskirts of Manchester
photos taken by Andrew McPherson (a policeman who had the job of getting the Beatles out of the theatre safely)

I Should have known better

Beatle fans had two chances to see the Fabs on October 14, 1964 in Manchester.   First the Beatles "performed" on television where they were interviewed and mimed the song "I should've known better." 

While this was going on, the guitar George was going to play that night at the ABC theater in Manchester was getting some needed repairs.    Then the Beatles performed the 2 concerts.   Unfortunately, this particular Manchester show seems to have been somewhat forgotten, as I couldn't find any photographs from the concert or even a memory or two from a fan that was there. 

I do have some great shots from the Beatles television appearance that day for you to enjoy!

photo from Sara Schmidt's collection

photo from Sara Schmidt's collection

photo from Sara Schmidt's collection