Session with Drew And Dy

Keith Drewett and Peter Dymond, the duo known as Drew And Dy, encountered Paul McCartney in May 1968. While in a taxi, they spotted him outside the Apple Boutique, promptly exited the cab, and approached him to listen to their music. Paul invited them into the empty boutique, where they played him six of their songs.

On August 12, 1968, at Trident Studios, Drew And Dy, along with Paul McCartney, recorded three of those songs. Paul produced the tracks, contributed piano, and added harmonies. These recordings were not released until their inclusion on the album “Good As Gold (Artefacts Of The Apple Era 1967-1975)” in 2021.

[…] We did the session next. We walked in at two in the afternoon. There was a big crowd outside the studio which got bigger through the night. Paul impressed me mainly by his energy. He was up and down those stairs, into the control room, we’d do a take, then back out onto the studio floor to harmonize with us. He played ‘Lady Madonna’ on the piano just for us, and he was terrific. 

The studio staff weren’t so nice, Malcolm Toft and others. I remember them saying, ‘We’ll have to clean the studio out when you’ve gone’, which I didn’t understand. We were clean and no more messy than most bands would be. The drummer was overwhelmed by the whole thing and was drinking constantly. I think the bass player was Hawaiian.

I remember Paul saying to the drummer, ‘That isn’t going to help’ (the drink). We worked hard and at the end of the session Paul said, ‘Well, I don’t think we have a record, but that’s not our fault, we’ll do it again.’

A drunk got into the lobby of the studio and Drew and I were quite alarmed (we were only kids, seventeen) and Paul said, ‘It’s okay, just a drunk,’ and the staff hustled him out.

Some record company executives came to the session. I don’t know who they were, middle-aged Americans. Paul said, ‘Those were really big fish’, so they must have been from Capitol or somewhere. They didn’t speak to us, just watched for a while from the control room. Mal Evans just said that he had come to the session because he liked our songs. Francie Schwartz was small and dark, American, she didn’t speak to us but at the end of the session Paul produced a bottle of champagne and she rounded up cups and mugs and we all had a sip of champagne.

While they were clearing away they put on ‘Hey Jude’. Paul said to the staff, ‘Slip on ‘Hey jude” and even though the staff had been hearing our three songs all afternoon and night (it was now about 2a.m.) they were whistling ‘Hey Jude’ after it had finished, and I don’t blame them! We worked so hard on the session that Drew’s fingers were all blistered and Paul said, ‘We’re making an album at the moment and we’ll put something on there, a message for you’ – and I suppose it was ‘I’ve got blisters on my fingers’ on ‘Helter Skelter’.

Paul sent us another letter (which I also don’t have anymore) and he promised to set up another session with musicians. But then the Beatles started to break up and we were impatient to get a record out, so we went up to Apple and met a lovely lady, I don’t know who she was, and she tried to talk us into staying with Apple (how I wish we had), but we were adamant, we wanted desperately to get a record out. Finally they called Paul on the phone and he said, ‘Don’t you want me?’ and I said, ‘It’s not that, but how many records have you had out in the last year, ’cause we’ve had none.’ Then he said ‘Put (I can’t remember the name) on the phone’ and they released us from the contract and gave us the songs back. A letter came about a week later. […]

Peter Dymond – From Mersey Beat (triumphpc.com)

From TracksAuctions.com (archive.org), 2016:

A Rosetti Airstream 3 electric guitar which has been used by Paul McCartney. The guitar was played by Paul during a recording session with Drew and Dy at Trident Studios, London in August 1968. Paul sang harmonies and played piano on three tracks for the duo, Dedicated To Love, Tales Of Frankie Rabbit and Taurus The Bull.

The guitar was made by Egmond, Holland, imported to the UK and marketed as Rosetti. There is no serial number. The solid body guitar has 3 pick-ups with individual switches, a tremolo arm, volume and tone knobs and a cream pearl scratchplate. It comes in a hard-bodied guitar case. A silver plaque has been attached to the body of the guitar, it is engraved with the statement “This guitar was played by Paul McCartney on 12^th August 1968 on Drew and Dy’s Apple recording session”.

The guitar comes with a letter of provenance from Peter Dymond of Drew & Dy. It reads, “This is to certify that the Rosetti Airstream 3 electric guitar accompanying this letter is the instrument that I used when the duo of which I was part, Drew and Dy, recorded three tracks in Trident Studios on August 12^th 1968 with Paul McCartney producing, playing piano and singing harmonies. In the course of the session Paul McCartney used this instrument to compose and teach a bass riff to the bass player on the session, and he (Paul McCartney) also jammed on the instrument for a few minutes. This is one of the guitars you hear on the copy of the three tracks we did, which accompanies this guitar. I also enclose copies of two letters from Apple to us, and a copy of the first page of our Apple recording contract. Mark Lewisohn is aware of the existence of Drew and Dy, which he turned up during his researches into Apple. Bonhams have seen his letter to me confirming that he was aware of our being signed to Apple”.

From TracksAuctions.com (archive.org), 2016

Session activities

1. Dedicated To Love

   Written by Keith Drewett, Peter Dymond

   Recording

   AlbumOfficially released on Good As Gold (Artefacts Of The Apple Era 1967-1975)

2. Tales Of Frankie Rabbit

   Written by Keith Drewett, Peter Dymond

   Recording

   AlbumOfficially released on Good As Gold (Artefacts Of The Apple Era 1967-1975)

3. Taurus The Bull

   Written by Keith Drewett, Peter Dymond

   Recording

   AlbumOfficially released on Good As Gold (Artefacts Of The Apple Era 1967-1975)

4. Lady Madonna

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording

Staff

Musicians

Production staff

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