July 1967: Paul McCartney’s London break

The Beatles had a very busy 1967 year so far. They recorded their “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album from January till April 20, before immediately moving on to their next projects. From April to June, they recorded some tracks for the “Yellow Submarine” film soundtrack and began recording new songs such as “Magical Mystery Tour” and “All You Need Is Love.“

The band kept busy until their live broadcast of “All You Need Is Love” on the “One World” TV Show on June 25, even if Paul McCartney did take a 10-day break in early April to visit his girlfriend Jane Asher in the US.

July and August were more relaxed for The Beatles. They had time to visit Greece together at the end of July, but also spent a lot of time individually.

Paul spent July in London, and fans who camped outside his house in Cavendish Avenue took many pictures and shared many stories about that month.

The Beatles reunited to record “Your Mother Should Know” on August 22, 1967.

July 1/2 or 8/9, 1967 ?

The following photographs show the Beatles and their entourage enjoying some leasure time at Brian Epstein’s place. In a letter dated July 25, Brian mentioned that “A few weeks ago they all (with wives, Neil and Mal) came to Sussex for a weekend. Mick and Marianne joined us on Sunday,” suggesting the weekend of July 1/2 or July 8/9.

[…] The boys have gone to Greece to buy an island. I think it’s a dotty idea but they’re no longer children and must have their own sweet way. A few weeks ago they all (with wives, Neil and Mal) came to Sussex for a weekend. Mick and Marianne joined us on Sunday. It was a divine time. Poor Mick (he looked beautiful). I hope he gets off when the appeal comes up at the end of the month. Of course the whole thing, from the beginning, was stupidly handled. I’ll tell you all when I see you. […]

Brian Epstein – Letter to Nat Weiss – Dated July 25, 1967 – From 1999 “The Brian Epstein Story” documentary

July 7, 1967

Paul kept saying that he wouldn’t sign for me anymore because he had signed so many times for me before. So I passed my paper to my friend for Paul to autograph but when she gave the paper to Paul he realised that he had already signed for her and so my friend told him that it was mine, whereupon Paul signed the paper but said that this would be the last time!

Carole – Beatles fan

July 10, 1967

July 11, 1967

In the pictures below, Paul was talking to a woman who was collecting donations for charity. She went to all the houses on the street.

July 12, 1967

On this day, Leslie Samuels and Donna Stark, two teenagers from New York City, participating in a summer school program in England, managed to be invited to spend some time with Paul in his Cavendish house.

On July 12, 1967, when Leslie Samuels and Donna Stark were invited into Paul McCartney’s backyard, they were in for such a treat! Paul showed them his 2 month old kittens (one was named Mary… isn’t that interesting?), they drank lemonade made by Jane Asher, Paul read from John’s book, he joked around with them and signed a ton of stuff.   They ask Paul if they can take pictures and he asks if there is a nice background. They fret over wondering if the pictures will turn out because Leslie had left her nicer camera at home. Paul assures them that the photos will turn out. 

From Meet the Beatles for Real: The Lost Girl in Paul McCartney’s back yard

At Home with Paul – By Leslie Samuels, 17, American University Washington D.C.

Number 7 Cavendish Avenue St. John’s Wood, England is a magical address – at least for me – because that’s where Paul McCartney lives. Well last summer I finally got to England, and almost immediately a friend and I started off for St. John’s Wood. Once there, we nervously rang the bell on Paul’s gate and waited. About a minute passed and then the gate was opened by Paul’s housekeeper, Mrs. Mills.

“Hello. My name is Leslie Samuels. I am from New York and I have a fan club at home, and I’d like to see Paul,” I said.

“Well he’s sleeping now. Got in late from a recording session.”

“What time will he be out?”

“About 4pm, I should imagine.”

We thanked her and told her we would wait (it was about 1pm then). Some girls who lived in the area came around and we started chatting with them. As we did so we noticed workmen going in and out of Paul’s house.

“Oh…he’s having the electricity redone,” said one of the girls.

My friend Donna and I looked at each other. How, we thought, could Paul possibly sleep with all that racket going on? So we decided to do something. We wrote a note telling Paul our story, and put it with the flowers we had brought for him, and waited for a nice workman to come along.

“Hey would you deliver thee to Paul, please?” Said in our best New Yorkese accent. “I’ll do me best, luv.” About 15 minutes later, the gates open. “He’ll see you now,” Mrs. Mills said. Four lovely words!

We followed Mrs. Mills through the garage where Paul keeps his black Aston Martin, to the garden. There was Paul sitting on a sort of couch-swing. He wore white and red striped pants and red socks. No shirt, no shoes. He twisted around curiously. I was almost overcome — I think I was shaking. “Oh you’re the hysterical one,” jested Paul. Martha, Paul’s large gray and white sheepdog began barking and Paul told her to be quiet. Donna and I sat down on some canvas which was spread out on the grass and just started to chat with Paul. After a few minutes it seemed like we all had been friends for a long time. Paul was very hospitable and offered us Cokes which were served by Jane Asher.

Donna and I were stroking Martha when Paul asked “Did you see the kittens?” Of course we hadn’t and in one hop Paul was up and into his house. He came out a moment later holding two small bundles of fur and handed them to us. We joked with him – could we borrow them for the summer because we missed our pets – but of course we couldn’t.

After about an hour of conversation, Mrs. Mills interrupted us, saying that Paul had a phone call. As all good things come to an end, so did our afternoon with Master McCartney. We thanked him for seeing us and then departed.

Leslie Samuels – From an article in Datebook Magazine – Transcript from Meet the Beatles for Real: Little Girl TapesPart1

July 13, 1967

A fan rang the doorbell and Paul briefly appeared to chat and sign a book.

July 15, 1967

The story below is about a fan who was invited to Paul’s home in July 1967, likely on July 15. The story mentions that Mick Jagger and Beat poet Allen Ginsberg were present, and it is known that the two of them visited Paul on July 15.

On June 29, 1967, Mick Jagger was sentenced to three months in prison for the possession of amphetamines. He was taken to Brixton Prison, handcuffed and jailed. However, he only spent one night at Brixton Prison, during which he purportedly wrote lyrics for the songs “We Love You” and “2000 Light Years From Home“. On the morning of June 30, he was released on £7000 bail while awaiting an appeal. A month later, on July 31, the Appeals Court quashed his sentence.

From The Daily Advertiser (theadvertiser.com), August 21, 2014:

When you’re young, the most unlikely things can happen. Just ask Ann Savoy about the time she hung out with Paul McCartney. Yes, that one — “Sir Paul” to most of us now, back then a Liverpool lad who rocked the planet with his band before Wings.

This week, Savoy, a Eunice-based musical performer, producer and historian, posted evidence of their meeting as the cover photo on her Facebook page. She put it there not knowing that this happens to be International Beatleweek, a festival unofficially launched last Thursday by McCartney’s concert at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, site of the Beatles’ final concert in the United States.

“When I was young, I was living with my mother and sister in Switzerland,” Savoy said in a phone interview. “We took a trip to London.” “I was,” she noted, “very interested in the Beatles.” So was almost every teen girl in the developed world as the band prepared to release its sitar-infused album “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” in mid-1967, three years into Beatlemania. Here’s how Savoy said she, at 15, got past the cordon of celebrity.

“I was with my friend Jonathan Bragdon” — then in his early 20s, now a world-renowned visual artist — “and I said, ‘Let’s go see Paul McCartney.’ ” Her idea was to pass by his home in London. Savoy’s friend wanted to push it further.

“We went up to St. John’s Wood where he was living. My friend said, ‘I really want to talk to Paul about the influence of Indian music on his work.’ It so happened that McCartney’s brother Mike was driving through the gate,” Savoy said. “So Jonathan wrote a note to Paul, handed him the note and Mike drove in. And the next thing we knew, (Paul) came out and said, ‘Come on in.’ We hung out for hours, talking about the influence of Indian music,” Savoy said, sounding surprised 47 years later that any of this had happened. “He said he was so happy we were there.“

But wait — there’s more. “There was a knock on the door and Mick Jagger came in.“

Turns out that the Rolling Stones’ frontman had just been released from jail after his first arrest. Somebody had tipped off the police about drug use at a party he had attended.

“He was shaken up so much,” Savoy recalled. Jagger and McCartney talked while their young guests were in the room.

After awhile, she remembered, “Paul said, ‘We’re having a party in a couple of nights. Wanna come?’

“Here I am, a total innocent,” Savoy said. Her friend Jonathan Bragdon said, “‘Sure!’” Because Bragdon was a trusted family friend, Savoy’s mother allowed him to chaperone. “My mother couldn’t believe it, either,” she recalled, “but she let me go.“

The guest list included Jagger, his muse at the time, Marianne Faithfull — wearing a Girl Guide Brownie uniform — Beat poet Alan Ginsberg and the big white dog McCartney name-checked in “Martha, My Dear.”

Savoy described the tone as mellow and congenial with good food and conversation. “The people were quite gentlemanly,” she said. “They weren’t acting like bad boys — they were holding out chairs for the ladies. I just couldn’t believe that. I was one of ’em. The thing was, it was very unbelievable.“

But she had proof that it had happened — the photo Mike McCartney took at her friend Jonathan’s suggestion. It ended up in her high school newspaper.

Since Savoy’s memento of what she calls her “once-in-a-lifetime weird little moment” surfaced on Facebook, “I’ve gotten so many comments on it,” she said.

During the years in between — when she moved to Louisiana, married accordion master Marc Savoy, reared four children including Grammy winners Joel and Wilson, and produced well-reviewed albums including “Evangeline Made” and “Creole Bred” — she’s taken some big lessons from that little moment.

“The whole thing inspired me on every level. When I produced those (recording) projects with rock stars, I wasn’t intimidated. At that extremely impressionable age, to be invited into such an incredible situation, made me realize that anything can happen,” Ann Savoy said, adding, “Be prepared for it.“

From The Daily Advertiser (theadvertiser.com), August 21, 2014

The below fan story also refers to July 15.

After being in London a few days, my friend Joyce Kulhawick and I went to Paul’s house. We expected a mob, but only one girl was there – Betts Logan, who lives in New York. She said Mrs. Mills (Paul’s housekeeper) said Paul would arrive back form Scotland that afternoon. A man drove by and said Paul was on the corner getting a haircut. Another said he was at the pub, and still another said he was at the beach. This guy gets around!

Betts and I came back the next day, July 15, 1967, and met Wendy Joyce, who lives in London, goes to Paul’s every day (except Thursdays), and has met Paul so many times that she sells his autographs! She’s really great.

We waited all day while such people as Mike McGear (really McCartney), Paul’s brother drove out. People just drive in and out of Paul’s like it was a hotel. When we took “Mike’s picture he said, “you have the wrong one.” It was kinda pathetic.

At about 5:30, Jane Asher, and Martha (Paul’s huge sheepdog) were driving to the park by Mr. Harris (Paul’s temporary employee) in Paul’s green Aston Martin. Shortly before 6:00 Jane and Martha walked back, and we talked to her. Jane looked like you’d expect Paul’s girl to look — very feminine, in a green flared skirt, flowery Victorian high collar blouse. Her half-way to the waist fiery hair was done in a braid on her head.

I told Jane I was from America and that I’d seen her in “Juliet” and asked her if she could please bring Paul out. She said she would, but I was doubtful. Certainly the great McCartney wouldn’t come out for a mere fan!

About five minutes after Jane went in, we heard a noise behind the gate. Hopefully I got my camera ready. Sure enough, it was Paul! He said, “Hello, girls.” and asked what part of America we were from. Someone said she liked his brother, Mike, and Paul said, “Ah, It’s the comedian again!” He has a real deep voice, and muscular arms (he wears two watches), and every time he blinked his eyes I thought he’d take off, his eyelashes were so long!

I was a lot more calm than I thought I could be. I told him I loved Sgt. Pepper, and he thanked me. He was very nice. One of the nicest people I’ve ever met.

A week later Betts and I were back at Paul’s. Mr. McC wasn’t in. He’d left for Athens that morning with John and his family. We met two girls who’d been with us meeting Paul, and we walked Martha to the park (Regents Park) with Paul’s cousin from Liverpool, John McCartney. He was staying at Paul’s with Paul’s father, step-mother, and step-sister Ruth. He was really nice and we had a of time to ask him questions about Paul.

When I met Ruth, (who is seven and isn’t all that thrilled about having a famous bother), she said “You know, he’s just a boy.” She was hobbling around on a broken leg at the time. P.S. Paul, John was wearing your jacket!

Pattie Emerson, 14, McKinley Junior H.S. Flint Michigan – From Meet the Beatles for Real: My Beatle Dream Came True

July 17, 1967

17th July. An entry from one of the girl’s diaries for this date reads: “Paul came out and he was staring at us for so long that we all turned away. Paul came out again after and while he was out someone came with some photos for him but went away again because Paul wasn’t home. When Paul returned he asked us if someone had called with some photos for him and then he left again“

From “Paul McCartney – London, NW8 – 1967” by Paul Wane

July 18, 1967

18th July: The epitome of Zen cool, Paul signs for an American fan, Cyndi. The order of events at Cavendish Avenue on this particular evening was that Paul arrived back from John’s house at 6.15pm. Later John and Ringo arrived at Paul’s and afterwards Ringo left alone. Sometime after Paul and John came out in the car and Paul wound down the window and said to the fans that they were gomng to be out all night and asked them would they leave, the girls replied, “Yes”.

From “Paul McCartney – London, NW8 – 1967” by Paul Wane

July 19, 1967

19th July: Paul at the height of the Summer Of Love, sporting an eastern-style necklace of plastic beads worn over the ‘Our World’ shirt, cement mixer in background. As Paul was closing the gates this evening the fans were taking pictures and he made a sharp comment to them about the number of photographs they had been taking.

From “Paul McCartney – London, NW8 – 1967” by Paul Wane

In the evening, Paul attended a recording session for the Rolling Stones, and he and John Lennon recorded backing vocals for the tracks “We Love You” and “Dandelion.”

On July 22, 1967, Paul McCartney and his girlfriend Jane Asher joined John Lennon, his wife Cynthia and son Julian, Pattie Harrison’s 16-year-old sister Paula Boyd, Mal Evans, and NEMS employee Alistair Taylor on a trip to Athens, Greece. They aimed to explore a group of Greek islands that The Beatles were interested in purchasing to live on. The remaining group members, George and Pattie Harrison, Ringo Starr and Neil Aspinall, had already travelled to Greece two days before.

Going further

• http://www.nickelinthemachine.com/2008/09/brixton-prison-and-mick-jagger/

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