Paul McCartney meets Linda Eastman

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On May 15, 1967, Paul McCartney met, for the first time, American photographer Linda Eastman (who would become his wife in March 1969) at a Georgie Fame concert at The Bag O’Nails in London.

From Wikipedia:

The Bag O’Nails was a live music club and meeting place for musicians in the 1960s and situated at 9 Kingly Street, Soho, London, England.

Bands and other musicians who played and socialised there included Georgie Fame, Jimi Hendrix, Bobby Tench, The Gass and Eric Burdon. The venue also hosted an early gig by the Jimi Hendrix Experience and others frequented the venue including Tom Jones, The Who and The Animals.

After the Beatles’ recording sessions in London, their roadie Mal Evans, personal assistant Neil Aspinall and Paul McCartney would eat at The Bag O’Nails and it was one of their favourite venues. McCartney met his future wife Linda Eastman at the club on 15 May 1967. Another event is recorded in Mal Evans’ memoirs: “January 19 and 20: I ended up drunk in The Bag O’Nails with McCartney and Aspinall”.

In 1966, John Gunnell and Laurie Leslie re-opened the club under its old name, and it became a late night home to the growing Rock Fraternity and other celebrities.

Linda was in the UK on an assignment to take photographs of “swinging sixties” musicians in London.

The night I met Linda I was in the Bag O’Nails watching Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames play a great set. Speedy was banging away. She was there with the Animals, who she knew from photographing them in New York. They were sitting a couple of alcoves down, near the stage. The band had finished and they got up to either leave or go for a drink or a pee or something, and she passed our table. I was near the edge and stood up just as she was passing, blocking her exit. And so I said, ‘Oh, sorry. Hi. How are you? How’re you doing?’ I introduced myself, and said, ‘We’re going on to another club after this, would you like to join us?’

That was my big pulling line! Well, I’d never used it before, of course, but it worked this time! It was a fairly slim chance but it worked. She said, ‘Yes, okay, we’ll go on. How shall we do it?’ I forget how we did it. ‘You come in our car’ or whatever, and we all went on, the people I was with and the Animals, we went on to the Speakeasy.

Paul McCartney – From “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

[…] When I came to London in 1967, The Beatles and Stevie Winwood were the two acts I was determined to photograph. Having already taken the first pictures of Traffic in Berkshire, that left only The Beatles.

I took my portfolio over to Brian Epstein’s office and left it with his assistant, Peter Brown. While I was waiting for his response I happened to meet Paul at a club called the Bag O’Nails in Kingly Street, London where I had gone with Eric Burdon and some other friends to see Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames.

Paul walked in after we had arrived and came and sat at the table right next to us. It was one of those “our eyes met” situations. As I was about to leave Paul came over and invited me to go with him to The Speakeasy which was not too far away in Margaret Street. That was where we all heard “Whiter Shade Of Pale” for the first time and fell in love with it; we all thought it must be Stevie Winwood, but it turned out to be Procol Harum. […]

Linda McCartney – from “Linda McCartney’s Sixties“, 1992

We flirted a bit, and then it was time for me to go back with them and Paul said, ‘Well, we’re going to another club. You want to come?’ I remember everybody at the table heard A Whiter Shade Of Pale that night for the first time and we all thought, Who is that? Stevie Winwood? We all said Stevie. The minute that record came out, you just knew you loved it. That’s when we actually met. Then we went back to his house. We were in the Mini with I think Lulu and Dudley Edwards, who painted Paul’s piano; Paul was giving him a lift home. I was impressed to see his Magrittes.

Linda McCartney – From “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

One night Chas Chandler, the former bass player of the Animals, took Linda to a popular club called the Bag of Nails to hear Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames. Paul and I were at the “Bag” for a drink after he had finished a long mixing session, and I introduced Linda to him. Linda went on with Paul to a second club, the Speakeasy, but they got separated later in the evening as they were joined by Eric Clapton, Keith Moon, Peter Townshend, and Roger Daltrey. Linda went home alone. The next day Linda called me in the office. She said she had a new portfolio of Rolling Stones pictures, and since I was a fan, I asked her up to my office to have a look. I admired one of Brian Jones, whom we had coincidentally run into the night before, and Linda gave it to me as a gift. In return, I gave her an invitation to the Sergeant Pepper photo session.

Peter Brown – From “The Love You Make“, 2002

Paul and Linda would meet again four days later at the launch party for the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” album at Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein’s house in Belgravia.

Last updated on March 12, 2023