THEY SAY IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY!

Happy Birthday to the one and only Sir Paul McCartney

Back in the mid-nineteen seventies, I spent many days each week in St John’s Wood, North London, at the home of Paul and Linda McCartney. I was a young photographer and had a great friend, Matthew Taylor, with whom I would photograph most music gigs. He was a great photographer and had a younger brother called Barny. Barny was going out with Heather McCartney, Linda’s oldest child. So, Matthew and I were part of the inner circle at ‘Chez McCartney’, a five-minute walk from Abbey Road Studios.

I remember clearly the first time we went to their house. I was quietly excited and ensured I didn't show it when Heather and Barny introduced me to Paul and Linda. I mean, as if I didn't know who they were. Well, they didn't have a clue who I was, and an introduction was the done thing. When Barny told Linda, “This is my brother Matthew, and his best mate Danny, and they are both music photographers”. Linda stopped and suddenly was even more interested in us. She was one of the loveliest people on the planet but now had something in common with Matthew and me. Let’s not forget she was a fantastic photographer. It wasn't long before we had the kettle on, and we were all sitting around talking about photography, life and music. Neither Matthew nor I mentioned The Beatles; that would not have been the thing to do. We went back many times, and Paul Linda, Heather Matthew, Barny, and I would sit around in the garden, and we would all chat and chat. Paul would sometimes pick up a guitar and play a song or two, which would blow my tiny teenage mind, but I had learned by then and by hanging around with Pink Floyd, The Who, and other artists to stay cool. It wasn't long after this that Wings would soon be gigging and playing around. So, being invited to shoot the shows was very exciting for Matthew and me.

Paul McCartney & Wings

Paul McCartney & Wings

Weirdly, this wasn’t the first time I had met Sir Paul McCartney. I met him many moons ago when I was about five. We lived in the East End of London and moved out of the area to Redbridge, near Ilford in Essex. I had just started my first school, and life was exciting.

My dad had a new job working for a company based in the East End of London. He had left a job where he had been working for the notorious East End villains Ronnie & Reggie Kray. Now, he had a more respectable job. He was a sales manager at a company that sold textile machinery. This job involved a lot of travelling, and he had to travel to Switzerland on business. I clearly remember a hot summer day at Redbridge Infants School, and I was lying on the grass during the lunch break with a classmate. I was looking up at the blue sky and saw a plane in the sky. This was the day my dad went on the trip. I told my friend, I think my dad is on that plane. Obviously, that wouldn’t have been his plane. But I didn't know. I was just five years old. I just laid back on the grass and started to daydream. I had never been on a plane or anywhere near one. I lay there with my school friend, and we talked about how exciting it would be to fly in a plane. About two days later, my dad’s brother, my uncle Malcolm, came to our house. He picked up my mum, older sister, and baby brother and me, and drove us across London to Heathrow airport. I seem to remember us calling it London Airport then.

We would meet our dad as he returned from his two or three-day business trip. This was very exciting. Actually, going to the airport was thrilling. We got to the arrivals at Terminal 2 and found some seats. We had a while waiting for our dad’s plane to arrive. So, my sister and I decided to wander away from the seats. It was not like things today. My mum and uncle weren't remotely bothered that we were wandering off alone. As we walked, my sister said, “Look, that’s Paul McCartney “. I knew who he was and who all of The Beatles were. This was the middle of the 1960s, and I had already been to the cinema to see the films Help & A Hard Days Night. I was a Beatles fan at a very young age. So, to see one in real life was a dream come true. There he was, walking along wearing a great trench coat, holding hands with a young lady. I assume it was Jane Asher. I ran to catch him up as he was speeding away from us. As I got alongside him, I said,” Are you Paul McCartney?” I was now also pulling his coat, and I must have repeated it three or four times. He suddenly stopped and said, “Yes, I am. How are you?”. I let go, and he walked off. He was nice to me, considering I was about five years old and, by all accounts, very annoying; kudos to him for not kicking me right up my gungapooch (as my grandpa calls it) and volleying me across the terminal. So, he was very nice and totally wonderful. I was stunned and so excited. You probably would never have guessed it, would you? The fact that I am mentioning it now confirms how much of an effect it had on me.

Back on camera one and up to date. I speak at public events and some of my own shows about my life as a music photographer. My wife and I were up in Sweden, Stockholm, or maybe it was Gothenburg, and I had finished my event with a Question & Answer section. Suddenly, one of the questions came from an audience member towards the back of the theatre. He had been handed a radio microphone, and he asked me, in a Liverpudlian accent, “Do you ever get star-struck?'“ I looked into the crowd but couldn't see who it was as the stage lights were bright. I just said, where are you from? The guy said, Liverpool. I said well, it’s funny you should ask me that. The answer is always no, except when I am with someone from your hometown, Paul McCartney. To this day, I always stand to attention and have been known to salute. I guess Sir Paul thinks I am a bit stupid for doing that. But, I have toured with Bob Dylan, Queen with Freddie Mercury, The Who, Amy Winehouse, Oasis, Rory Gallagher, Status Quo and many, many others, and yet, Paul McCartney is the one who makes me stand up as I think to myself, bloody hell, I am with Paul McCartney.

I had the privilege of being around him many times over the years.

This photo shows Sir Paul performing with George Michael at Live 8—July 2nd 2005.

I have also worked with his uber-talented son, James. I did a mini tour with James around 2011/12. On a few occasions, Paul would turn up at the gigs whenever he could to support James.

The photo below shows James coming off stage after a fantastic performance. The silhouette on the left is his dad, Sir Paul McCartney, and the Silhouette to the right is Ronnie Wood (The Rolling Stones). Not bad to have those two cheering you on from the side of the stage.

One night, we were standing in a dressing room in London, and I was talking to Paul and asked him where he had just come from, and he said he had just played at the Olympijskiy Stadium. I guess that was Russia or Ukraine. I asked how the gig was, and he said it was wonderful. They love that little song I wrote, ' Back in the USSR’. So, I said, how does that song go? He started to sing it, stopped, and gave me an old-fashioned look. I had hoped to get him to serenade us in the dressing room with the song. Needless to say, he didn't. At that moment, to my left, I saw a guy I knew enter the dressing room. I also knew he shouldn’t be there with us, and I am unsure how he managed to get in that far. He is in the music business, but not at this end and level of the business. For me, he is a really undesirable one. I leant over to my mate Adrian, who looks after James, and just mentioned it to him. Half a second later, that person was ejected and undoubtedly propelled by Paul's exceptionally fabulous security guys to the other side of London with a rocket up his proverbial. You can never be too careful in this world. I gathered Sir Paul, Stella, Mary & James and took a quick family photo. Incidentally, a print of this hangs on his wall at home. Which I am immensely proud of.

The McCartney Family

Sir Paul McCartney's 82nd birthday is today, and I wish him a wonderful day. In fact, I hope he has a lovely day every day. This man and his three friends changed my world and music forever. Beatles music is played all over this wonderful planet of ours, every minute of every day, and he helped shape my world for me. He continues to write incredible songs and is a wonderful man and father.

They say, don’t meet your heroes. Well, he is the only one of mine, and I have met him many, many times, and he is absolutely lovely.

Happy Birthday, Sir Paul, you absolute genius! xxx