Location
Location: Royal Garden Hotel, London, UK
Timeline
Session Feb 04, 1968 • Recording "Across The Universe"
Article Feb 05, 1968 • Paul McCartney at the Playboy Club
Article Feb 06, 1968 • Paul McCartney joins a press conference for the Leicester Arts Festival
Session Feb 06, 1968 • Recording and mixing "The Inner Light", "Lady Madonna"
Related articles
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Paul McCartney meets Stevie Wonder
Feb 03, 1966
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Paul McCartney attends a lecture by Luciano Berio
February 23 or 24, 1966
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The Beatles attend the world premiere of “Alfie”
Mar 24, 1966
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The Beatles attend Bob Dylan’s concert in London
May 27, 1966
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May 28, 1966
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The Beatles meet The Mamas & The Papas
Jun 12, 1966
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Paul and Jane watch “Midsummer Night’s Dream”
Jun 18, 1966
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October 1966
On this day, Paul McCartney participated in a press conference to promote the Leicester Arts Festival. He was convinced to do so by John Eades, a student at Leicester University and the festival’s organizer. Eades met Paul at his Cavendish home and explained that the Leicester Council had refused to provide financial assistance for the festival. He believed that McCartney’s presence would help raise funds for the event.
Through a contact, I managed to find Paul’s address and then we sent telegrams, which we thought might help our cause. Unfortunately, as we had introduced the Yellow Submarine terminology into the telegrams, he did not understand them. This morning, I went down to his house, and the maid let me in because I said that I was his personal friend. He came down, and I think he was going to throw me out, so I did a bit of sharp talking, and over a cup of tea, we spoke most civilly about Leicester Corporation and their stinginess. Eventually, after a long chat, he said that he was willing to help us, although he did specify that we should not think of using him as the easy way out,
John Eades – From Leicester Mercury, February 6, 1968
I did not know that I was coming along until this morning, when a chap [student John Eades] from the university was sitting downstairs in my house, using the phone. I thought of throwing him out, but he was quite persuasive, so I listened. He said he wanted me to come along to a Press conference, and after half-an-hour of solid straight talking, I decided that his was a cause worth supporting. He told me that the Corporation in Leicester had only donated £100, and that they would get most of it back in hall bookings. Now I think that is pretty mean and tight-fisted, and that the students need support. However, I do not think that I will be able to make it to the festival. I can’t even get along to the ones in London. I am not going to donate anything to the festival, either, because I don’t really want to get involved. It’s not my problem, and I have told the students that my participation ends here. Attending a Press conference to get the Press along for some free publicity is as far as I go.
Paul McCartney – From Leicester Mercury, February 6, 1968
Leicester Arts Festival was an annual event of huge ambition, running for two weeks in February. I am not sure how long it had been in existence when I became involved in my first undergraduate year 1967-68, nor when it ended. It was a town-gown affair overseen by a committee of arts sector people from the town, City Council and all the colleges. The Festival Director was elected (without sabbatical) by the University Students’ Union and funds were raised annually by applications for grants from the Arts Council (majority funder), Students’ Union, University, colleges and City Council. The festival was supported administratively by the Students’ Union who provided an office in the Charles Wilson Building and a part-time secretary, a patient woman of great experience without whom nothing would have happened.
It’s probably worth saying that I came across the University website by chance when I was researching Roland Joffé’s time in Leicester. He was an Assistant Stage Manager at the Phoenix Theatre, as it was then, and ran extra-curricular classes at the University, which I attended. I was recruited to act in a production of Under Milk Wood at the Phoenix during the 1968 Arts Festival and became loosely connected to the managing group of that year. They were a testosterone-fuelled fraternity of great ability, charm and charisma, who may well have gone on to have amazing careers.
They arranged to launch the festival in London in order to attract the attention of the national press. I understand that one of them persuaded Paul McCartney to support the press conference by saying they had attended the same school (true or not) and camping out on his doorstep until he agreed. The photo – cut from a collage on the wall of my student house on Clarendon Park Road – was taken at the launch at the Royal Garden Hotel. It shows a bemused McCartney with smiling journalists and anxious members of the festival committee, with Alan Gold from the Leicester Mercury standing to the left, behind. That was the extent of McCartney’s involvement. […]
Lesley Hale – Leicester alumnus – From Paul McCartney and the 1968 Leicester Arts Festival — University of Leicester, February 6, 2012
City Council Tight-fisted Over Arts Festival Says Beatle Paul
BEATLE Paul McCartney last night threw his prestige and name behind the students who are Organising this year’s Leicester Arts Festival, and deplored the fact that the “tight-fisted” City Council had donated only £100 towards the festival.
“I thought that giving £100 was completely stupid, but when I was told that the council will get a lot of it back through bookings, then I felt that was a little bit too much to bear”, he told a Press conference in London, organised by the students.
“That’s why I decided to turn up here. If a big public relations firm had asked me to take part in a publicity stunt, I would have told them what they could do, but I really think these students need some help,” he said.
“I did not know that I was coming along until this morning, when a chap from the university was sitting downstairs in my house, using the phone,” he went on. “I thought of throwing him out, but he was quite persuasive, so I listened. He said he wanted me to come along to a Press conference, and after half-an-hour of solid straight talking, I decided that his was a cause worth supporting. He told me that the Corporation in Leicester had only donated £100, and that they would get most of it back in hall bookings. Now I think that is pretty mean and tight-fisted, and that the students need support. However, I do not think that I will be able to make it to the festival. I can’t even get along to the ones in London. I am not going to donate anything to the festival, either, because I don’t really want to get involved. It’s not my problem, and I have told the students that my participation ends here. Attending a Press conference to get the Press along for some free publicity is as far as I go,” he commented.
Peter Hopkins (22), the press officer of the festival, explained the financial side. “The students have guaranteed £3,000, the Arts Council £1,000, and the total cost of the festival will run to about £7,000. It has grown so big recently that very soon we will need a professional director,” he said.
A Little Sharp Persuasive Talking
JOHN EADES, a 20-year-old student at Leicester University explained last night how he managed to persuade Paul McCartney to attend the Press conference.
“Through a contact, I managed to find Paul’s address and then we sent telegrams, which we thought might help our cause. Unfortunately, as we had introduced the Yellow Submarine terminology into the telegrams, he did not understand them. This morning, I went down to his house, and the maid let me in because I said that I was his personal friend. He came down, and I think he was going to throw me out, so I did a bit of sharp talking, and over a cup of tea, we spoke most civilly about Leicester Corporation and their stinginess. Eventually, after a long chat, he said that he was willing to help us, although he did specify that we should not think of using him as the easy way out,” said John.
From Leicester Mercury, February 6, 1968
Beatle Paul helps in ‘stand for culture’
Mr Paul McCartney, the noblest Beatle of them all, was woken from his slumbers yesterday by the sound of clamouring coming from downstairs at his home in the fairest part of St John’s Wood, London.
Clamouring would perhaps be too strong a word to put on it, but Mr McCartney was determined to discover who was causing the trouble. He swung into a dressing gown and came down to find that his normally uncooperative housekeeper had admitted a Mr John Eades, a Leicester University student.
Over a cup of tea. Mr Eades explained: The students at Leicester had worked very hard organising this year’s Leicester Arts Festival, which has a budget of £7,000. They had collected £3.500 of their own money, and been promised another £1,500 from the Arts Council Leicester Corporation, however, was being rather mean. Its entire contribution totalled £100, some of which would be returned in hall bookings. Would Mr McCartney be prepared to come along to a press conference yesterday afternoon and say publicly that the members of the city council were a stingy lot?
Mr McCartney said he would, and Mr Eades raced off to the Royal Garden Hotel, Kensington, to reserve a room. At 4 o’clock, the noble Beatle duly appeared, minus his moustache — “I got fed up with that” — and wearing a purple tie, a commodious pair of Oxford bags, and a tight-fitting jacket.
His early caller declared that the students were making a “last-ditch stand for culture in the Midlands.” They had booked Edith Evans, Cyril Smith, and Phyllis Sellick — ”that celebrated comedy team,” interrupted Mr McCartney — and the Early English Consort for the 14-day festival, which begins on Thursday. “We believe we are providing an essential service for the people of Leicester. The city council cannot ignore that.” explained the aggrieved Mr Eades.
There is a tenuous link between the festival and the Beatles. Somehow or other the organisers have managed to borrow some original graphic work being used in the Beatles’ first full length cartoon, “The Yellow Submarine.” The film revolves round a battle between the “Meanies” and the “ Pepperpeople,” whom the Beatles strive to help. The “Pepperpeople” come out best because they are the good ones.
Mr McCartney thought he had been “conned” into coming along but he didn’t mind that. “It’s nothing to me and it was only half-an-hour of my time.”
Back with the Leicester Festival, he was quite adamant that he would not be giving the students any financial assistance. “I don’t really want to get involved. It’s not my problem.”
From The Guardian – February 6, 1968
