Not much to tell. I took the wife to a Ringo concert for her birthday and we had front row center seats. I threw my hat onstage and Ringo wore it while singing 'With A Little Help From My Friends' and then discarded it. I was pissed I didnt get it back. it was a nice hat.

I met Paul in December 2005 at a book signing he did in london for High In the Clouds.

This is the original post I made to the forum I was posting on at the time when I returned




Well I'm back and this is how it happened.

When i arrived at 11.30am we were told to join a queue of other blue writband holders. They had also handed out some yellow wristbands and we were told that the blues would definately meet Paul but the yellows would get a signed book but would only meet him if there was time.

Security was really tough. There were police outside the store. We we not allowed to take anything into the signing and had leave coats,cameras,mobiles etc on a seperate floor. After leaving this stuff we then had to turn out our pockets to check we didnt have anything that might harm paul in them. I was a bit disappointed about the camera thing. I understood that it would be very time consuming for everyone to have a picture posing with Paul but i didnt see the problem of taking photos of him. Never mind.

We were then ushered to another floor and held there after buying our books. they were limited to one per person. At around 12:45 fans were sent in to meet Paul in groups of 20.

After the first few Paul decided that he wanted to sign all the books first so he could talk to people without having his head in a book signing it. The watersones staff then collected everybodys books up and took them into Paul for signing. There was then another huge delay while he did this. At around 1.30 it was my turn to be sent into the room Paul was in. We were then told that this was a timed event and they wanted everyone to get to meet him so they said "its not  In conversation with Paul McCartney so dont tell him you've been a Beatles fan since 1964,he knows youre all fans,just shake his hand say hi and move along"

As we approached his table another security person told us not to approach paul with our hands in our pockets (guns i guess).Anyone that goes to get anything out of their pocket will be removed from the store immediately.At this point I got my "Chaos" cd booklet that i was hoping he would sign out of my pocket and held it in my hand (so i didnt have to get it out of my pocket in front of him).This was then spotted my one of the security people and this was taken off me and i had to collect it afterwards.

I was now 3 from the front and I could see Paul closer than I had ever been before.Paul was sitting at a table with the books and he had a plate of toast and jam (jelly to you lot).The person in front of me (who was American) had a small child with him and Paul asked him if he wanted some "jammy toast" (the child not the bloke).He spoke to them with toast in his mouth which i though was quite funny.Finally I reached the front.After 30 years of being a fan, I was actually about to have a one to one with Paul McCartney.

PM: Hello (offers hand and we shake...OMFG)

ML: Hi Paul, it's really nice to meet you

PM: It's nice to meet you too

ML: How was the U.S ?

PM:Really great, we had a fantastic time.

ML: Are you bringing the tour here next year?

PM: We dunno yet. We've just got back so we're having a bit of a break but hopefully.

At this point a security bloke is starting to usher me away

ML: Thanks very much and have a great christmas

PM:You have a good one too and thanks for coming.

And with that I was gone.

Very brief but this afternoon I have achieved one of my lifes ambitions and I guess not many people get to do that on a Wednesday. The event was being filmed (probably for the news) so he had make up on and consequently looked great.Its a real shame that I couldnt get any photos and i am truely gutted about that but the 14th December 2005 will always be etched in my memory as the day I met Paul McCartney.

I would once again like to thank Beatlebangs1964 for alerting me to this event.Without that I wouldnt have got to do this.Mention in dispatches to LennonLover2005 and everyone else on here that kept their fingers crossed tighter than a virgins legs that i would get the wristband.

As I caught the tube back to work afterwards, I wondered if an opportunity like this would ever present itself again. Probably not?

Very cool story maccalennon!

Thanks for sharing it here Tony.

wow did you really meet paul? thats so cool maccalennon! you're so lucky! I wish I met Paul but I'd be speechles, i'm positive and my jaw would drop to the ground and stay there haha so good on ya. wow!

Great one, Maccalennon!

Did they give you your book at the end? Which book was it?

Quoted from tkitna

Not much to tell. I took the wife to a Ringo concert for her birthday and we had front row center seats. I threw my hat onstage and Ringo wore it while singing 'With A Little Help From My Friends' and then discarded it. I was pissed I didnt get it back. it was a nice hat.

Now that's a story.
But I have to ask: did Ringo ask for a hat? Or did you throw it on stage in a moment of wild abandon (you crazy kid you)? Or were you trying to land it on the cymbals or something?
Also, a brief description of the hat will finish the picture nicely.
Thank you.

As I've described on another thread (Raxo can probably find it!), I met Paul and Linda in the Virgin Megastore, Marble Arch in '74 I think. They were going around with a shopping trolly full of vinyl. They were very nice, and patient, as a lot of people wanted autographs. I then met both of them again at The Royal Photographic Society in Bath. Linda was having an exhibition and as I'm a member I got an invite to the opening night. Paul signed my copy of A Hard Days Night. He was very keen that people focus on Linda and not him. This was around 1992/3. That's it really. Seen Ringo once but he was accross a busy street, so never met him.

Quoted from alexis

Great one, Maccalennon!

Did they give you your book at the end? Which book was it?

Yeah Paul signed all the books while we waited and then just handed us the book as we got to the desk where he was sitting. I think he did this so that he could briefly talk to people as they came up rather than have his head in book whilst they talked to the back of his head. The was called High In The Clouds which is a childrens book.

I nearly repeated the feat last year when he did another signing, this time at virgin megastore where he was signing copies of The Space DVD. They didnt do a wristband thing for that it was just first come first served. I was 7 people from the front when we were told that he had left .

Lucky

My friend's dad claims he hung around them in Hamburg when he wasa guard at the prison where Rudolf Hess was kept. Spandau?

Quoted from Revolution

My friend's dad claims he hung around them in Hamburg when he wasa guard at the prison where Rudolf Hess was kept. Spandau?

He must have gone for a weekend then. Spandau Prison is in Berlin, quite a distance from Hamburg.

Hm. The closest I've ever come (apart from a Paul McCartney concert) was a guy I had dinner with a few weeks ago. He was at the Beatles' not so acclaimed 1965 Minnesota concert. It didn't sell out. No one made a big deal about it. Somehow they irked the local radio stations and they vowed never to return to Minnesota.

He summed up the concert this way: "I saw them but didn't hear them."

I unfortunately haven't met any of them- or even anyone closely linked to them!  

But a couple of anicdotes from people I know...

- My Mum's friend saw George Harrison sitting in a park near Haight Ashbury strumming a guitar. She kind of walked past him, then realised it was him and stopped and walked back a few paces and just looked at him. Apparently he was giving off a strong 'don't bother me' vibe so she respected that and moved on. Cool though hm?

- My best friend's Dad met all the Beatles. He was in Weston-Super-Mare for a Beatles concert, waiting for his secretary who was car-hitching down to meet him there. Tragically, she was abused and violently attacked by a man who had taken her into his car so she arrived in a really bad state. The Beatles had just come out of the venue from performing (guess my friend's Dad must have missed it whilst waiting for his secretary) and my friend's Dad was yelling for help because his secretary was in a bad way and needed an ambulance so the Beatles came rushing over and got them help. The Beatles later went to the hospital and John bought her flowers because they felt bad for what had happened and the fact that it was due to the secretary trying to get to see them in concert that the whole thing had happened. Apparently they were really lovely guys who were genuine, down to earth and sensitive. I love this story  

No... I didn't know if that counted as a "beatle".....