Paul McCartney marries Linda Eastman

PAUL MCCARTNEY TO WED ? A ‘FIVE-BEATLE’ SINGLE? STONES ‘BRAIN’ FOR APPLE

PAUL McCARTNEY to wed before the end of the month? Disc understands that the 26-year-old remaining bachelor Beatle plans to secretly marry American girlfriend Linda Eastman in London—on or around February 16.

U.S. friends of Linda, an attractive 27-year-old green-eyed blonde, who first met Paul in the States two years ago while working as a pop photographer, believe the couple decided to wed as long as seven months ago.

First news of the Beatle’s new romance (his long-standing engagement to Jane Asher was broken off last summer) was exclusively revealed in Disc last October. Later Paul — 27 in June — and Linda, who is divorced and has a six-year-old daughter, Heather, holidayed at his Highland farm.

The wedding, a simple civil ceremony, is expected to take place at a London register office. But from the Beatles’ Apple HQ this week came the comment: “We have no confirmation of this report. There were rumours about Paul and Jane. There will be stories about Paul and Linda.”

Linda, daughter of wealthy U.S. attorney Lee Eastman, has been staying at Paul’s St. John’s Wood home.

At the recent MIDEM pop festival Mr. Eastman told friends: “Linda hasn’t told me anything about getting married. I’ve met Paul when she brought him to the house.”

Linda’s brother, John. 29, also a successful lawyer — and in partnership with his father — is expected to accept a legal appointment with Apple within the next few days.

On Monday 17-year-old actress Olivia Hussey, star of “Romeo And Juliet,” denied reports that she was in love with Paul. She said: “Someone has made a big mistake. My steady boy friend is Paul Ryan — and I think the world of him. I have only met Paul McCartney once.” […]

From Disc & Music Echo – February 8, 1969

Portrait of Paul on his wedding eve – HE WILL MARRY LINDA TODAY

Beatles Paul McCartney, never the most conventional of characters, spent his last night as a bachelor —working. Not for him the traditional stag-night drinking session. He was beating it up on the drums — pictured above —at a recording session last night.

For two hours he worked with George Harrison in the basement studio of the Beatles’ Apple headquarters in Savile Row. The session turned into a wake for the Beatles’ last bachelor as the girls who work for Apple joined in.

There were more girls outside. Fans had been there since the news leaked out that 26-year-old Paul will marry American society photographer Linda Eastman at Marylebone register office this morning.

And when he finally left, to spend a quiet evening with Linda, Paul shrugged, smiled and said: “It had to happen sooner or later. Linda made it sooner.“

Linda, also twenty-six, whose family is part of the giant Eastman Kodak photographic firm, met Paul in New York eight months ago — after his long romance with actress Jane Asher had ended. Linda has a six-year-old daughter by a previous marriage and brought her to London last week when she came to stay with Paul.

Paul and Linda, who had hoped for a quiet wedding, would not say what time they will marry. Paul would only say: “You’ll have to be there early to catch us.“

From Daily Mirror – March 12, 1969

IT WASN’T THE BRIDE OF BRIDGEROOM WHO WERE LATE – IT WAS THE BEST MAN

I CAN see the headline tomorrow: It wasn’t the bride or bridegroom who were late, but the best man! This is what Beatle Paul McCartney said to me as we waited for his best man to arrive — 55 minutes late — yesterday.

As Paul and his blonde American bride Linda Eastman were determined to wait, rather than start without him, it was left to me to relieve the tension.

This proved a tricky task, as it would for anyone, as the minutes ticked by in the grey-and-green ante-chamber at Marylebone Register Office, London.

I soon ran through the best of the Beatle anecdotes. But Paul really couldn’t have been listening. He said: “We may be cool on the surface, but deep down … oh, man!“

Then a messenger brought the news that the best man — Paul’s brother Mike McGear — was on a train from Birmingham running forty-five minutes late. “Good old British Railways!” replied Paul, with a touch of the old Beatle irreverence.

He squeezed Linda’s hand and together they looked out at the hundreds of rain-soaked fans they had eluded earlier by coming in through a dustbin-cluttered side passage.

“We’ll see them later when we go out,” promised Paul. “That’s when we get out.”

The light relief, in the end, was provided by little Heather, Linda’s six-year-old daughter by her first marriage to American geologist Melville See, which was dissolved four years ago. Heather had the day off from school and she made the most of it by trying to conduct her own wedding. “Look, shall I marry you?” she said helpfully. “Do I have to say you are the husband… or do I just say you are married now?“

Linda and Paul rocked with laughter. Heather flopped on to a settee. Paul plucked a bloom from the spray of freesias she was carrying —and I provided a paper clip to fasten the flower in her hair. [UNREADABLE]

Linda, 27, once an art student, said: “I don’t know how the mistake came about, except through the name and the fact that I am a photographer — and have been one for four years.”

Paul’s expression changed. Once more he was joking: “I’ve been done. A Beatle has been done. She hasn’t got any bread.”

Paul, the last bachelor Beatle, began to sing the “Stars and Stripes,” using a registrar’s notice on the wall as the lyrics. Then the door burst open and there was Mike McGear — of The Scaffold pop group — crawling in on his hands and knees, muttering: “Forgive me, it wasn’t my fault. The train broke down.” Mike brought a bottle of champagne in a carrier bag, but it was left unopened on a desk as the registrar whisked the couple into the bridal room.

There were sighs of relief. The ceremony lasted only four minutes. Back in the ante-room, there was a quick sip of the champagne, and then it was out to face the weeping fans waiting outside. They were quickly driven to Paul’s £40.000 house in St. John’s Wood, where they opened the telegrams and sipped champagne.

Paul told me how he had had to knock up a jeweller after closing time yesterday to buy a ring.

Then, two hours after the wedding, Paul and the bride he met only eight months ago went to St. John’s Wood parish church for a blessing from the Vicar, the Rev. Noel Perry-Gore.

Pausing only to change his yellow kipper tie for a more subdued brown job, Paul quipped : “If there are any blessings going, I’m not missing out on them.”

After that, there was lunch at the Ritz and a quiet afternoon at home. The honeymoon, they explained, would be taken later.

Paul’s new daughter went off to a children’s party. And Paul himself left in the evening — to attend a recording session. He stopped to kiss three of the girls keeping vigil outside and then drove off explaining: “I still have to work.” Only a Beatle could think of a gag like that… working his wedding day.

From Daily Mirror – March 13, 1969

All you need is love and money

Beatle Mr John Paul McCartney, 26, and a millionaire, finally waved a wintry farewell to his bachelor freedom yesterday. He married Miss Linda Eastman, 27, who is apparently not, as was first suggested, the heiress to the Kodak photographic millions. It would have been appropriate if she had been, as there were enough flash bulbs used and television film reels exposed to convert the millions into billions.] Anyway it rained, and this was appropriate: the pavements outside Marylebone register office would have been wet in any case with the tears of fans thrown by the sudden reality of having failed to become Mrs McCartney.

What a sad day for these poor fans it was, not to mention the hundred or so reporters and photographers who stood outside Marylebone town hall for four hours in the rain. It began to get sad at seven in the morning. No announcement was ever made of the time or date of the wedding.

By the magic hour of ten, a sort of guard of honour had formed up on the steps of the town hall, consisting of rain-soaked journalists, old ladies trying to wield umbrellas and cameras at the same time, younger fans moaning and weeping and hanging on to each other’s arms and making catty comments about the bride, and a middle-aged man who kept shouting, “The Beatles are rubbish,” and then dodging hastily.

Paul, of course, wasn’t there to hear it. He had gone in by a back door, wearing a dark suit, a yellow kipper tie, and a floral shirt. Miss Eastman went in with him, wearing a yellow coat over a fawn dress. So did Heather – Miss Eastman’s daughter by a previous marriage, holding a posey of freesias.

This was at 9 50. An hour later the couple came to the window of a front room in the town hall to smile into camera lenses, but the most intense of the fans weren’t smiling. They had jammed themselves against the side of the big black Daimler in which the couple were to depart, and were rebelliously singing as many Beatle songs as they could remember, which mercifully wasn’t many. They also improvised one of their own, beginning, “Oh, Paul, we love you, yes, we do.” The police tried to move them on.

The atmosphere now had something of the air of a Grosvenor Square thump-up, the faintest trace of a prayer meeting, and a tangible suggestion of a communal suicide pact. Down the town hall steps came the happy couple, throwing the freesias to the crowd as police wrenched open the door of their car.

Fans flung themselves in front of the car. One of them was guided into the building by the police in a dazed state. One arms-linked group fell down in the mud, got up again and wandered backwards and forwards across the Marylebone Road, chased by the police and television cameramen saying: “Cry into this microphone.”

From TheGuardian, March 13, 1969

PAUL WEDS LINDA

PAUL McCARTNEY was due to marry American girlfriend Linda Eastman at London’s Marylebone Register Office yesterday (Wednesday) — so ending weeks of speculation and confirming Disc’s world exclusive news on February 8.

Linda (25), daughter of wealthy U.S attorney Lee Eastman, and a member of the Kodak-Eastman family, met Paul while working as a pop photographer two years ago. She is divorced and has a six-year-old daughter, Heather.

First hint of the romance also came exclusively from Disc last October when the couple were pictured together en route for a holiday at Paul’s Scottish farm. This was only a few months after Paul’s engagement to actress Jane Asher (whom he met before Beatlemania) was broken off.

Paul — 27 in June — was the last bachelor Beatle. He originally met Linda at the late Brian Epstein’s London home in June 1967 — at a party to launch the group’s “Sgt. Pepper” album. On Christmas Day that year he was secretly engaged to Jane. But the engagement was broken last summer.

The wedding was initially tipped for February this year after friends of Linda in America had heard that the couple had decided, some seven months earlier, to wed.

Paul refused to comment on this news — printed in Disc on February 8. Then Apple said: “There were rumours about Paul and Jane. There will be stories about Paul and Linda.”

The couple are believed to have made a sudden decision to get married early this week. Linda gave official notice at Marylebone Register Office on Tuesday. She gave the names Paul James McCartney, musician, of Cavendish Avenue, St. John’s Wood, and Linda Eastman, previous marriage dissolved, photographer, of the same address.

Apple’s press officer, Derek Taylor, said on Tuesday that the ceremony would take place around mid-morning on Wednesday. No family or relations of Paul and Linda, nor the other three Beatles, were expected to attend.

There were no immediate plans for a honeymoon. Paul and Linda will continue to live at his London home.

From Disc & Music Echo – March 15, 1969

PAUL’S WEDDING DAY PICTURES

Paul McCartney – the last of the bachelor Beatles – finally put an end to weeks of speculation when married 27-year old American photographer Linda Eastman at Marylebone register office on Wednesday morning.

The streamlined wedding – no guests, no reception and no honeymoon – caused hundreds of teenage fans to picket Paul’s St John’s Wood home in a last minute effort to persuade him to change his mind.

A large crowd also waited at the Register Office – among them many tearful fans.

The couple met in New York when Linda photographed the group for a teenage magazine. They have been going out regularly since Paul’s engagement to Jane Asher was broken last summer.

To avoid even larger crowds attending Wednesday’s ceremony the other Beatles were asked not to attend.

Linda has a six-year-old daughter by a previous marriage.

From New Musical Express, March 15, 1969

And the bride wore yellow

WEDNESDAY, March 12: a suitably sombre, rainy day for the wedding of the last bachelor Beatle.

The announcement on Tuesday night of the news of Paul and Linda’s wedding had put the time at 11 am. “You’ll have to be up early if you want to catch us,” Paul had remarked. So early we were — and very cold and wet.

By just after 9.30 the news had somehow crept through on the grapevine that Paul and Linda had left the house in St. John’s Wood and were on the way. More photographers had turned up, and speculation began as to which entrance the couple would come in by. “The front of course,” said every-one. Wrong.

At ten to ten, a black Daimler purred quietly along the little mews at the back of the hall, registration number VYV 440G with an ominous dent in the back. They had arrived. Out into the rain stepped Paul, Linda and her six-year-old daughter, Heather.

Linda looked bright, happy and beautiful, wearing a calf-length coat in sunflower yellow. It was a lovely coat, breaking all current fashion rules by its length — neither maxi nor mini — and for the moment the bright colour was a ray of happy sunshine on the terrible weather.

Underneath, Linda wore a beige dress and heavy brown clumpy shoes. Her face had hardly a trace of make-up — she doesn’t need it. It is a good strong face, clear skinned with high Scandinavian cheekbones and serious grey eyes. Linda’s face and clothes on that Wednesday summed her up. Her total disregard for fashion demands and make-up show her strong individuality.

Paul wore a black suit and white lightly patterned shirt — his kipper tie exactly matched the brilliance of Linda’s yellow coat.

And Heather? She skipped in front carrying a bunch of yellow flowers and wearing a beige coat over a blue smock. She wore thick tights and strong button shoes — the sort most little girls ought to and used to wear, but which most Mums nowadays replace with more fashionable substitutes.

Within seconds before anyone realised, the trio were inside the building through a dustbin-cluttered side door off a narrow, depressing alley.

“Good heavens,” said a man in uniform who worked at the town hall. “Nobody’s used that door for years. I didn’t know it would still open.”

The long vigil continued outside, nobody knowing what was causing the delay. Police reinforcements began to arrive. As a black maria parked round the back, a familiar figure galloped towards it — weaving its way through three lanes of traffic looking like a hunted criminal. After lolloping down the length of the mews and back, it then became apparent it was Mike McGear, running with every chance of a Gold Medal, and obviously lost.

“Which way?” He panted.

“Round the front,” cried three policemen and me, little realising we were directing the best man and cause of the long delay. Mike galloped off, clutching paper parcels, muttering “I’m late, I’m late,” with the conviction of the White Rabbit.

There was not much -longer to wait. Four faithful chanters, who had given up chanting “We love you Paul” an hour ago, struck up again, and more fans appeared.

Then they were there. The double doors opened and Mr. and Mrs. Paul McCartney appeared. Paul had one arm protectively round Linda’s shoulders and he held Heather’s hand. The crowd surged forward.

For a few minutes it was the Beatlemania of four years ago. Screams rent the air, the tears flowed. Paul was used to it, Linda was clearly terrified. As a traditional bridal gesture she threw her bunch of yellow flowers into the crowd. Fans swooped on them.

Finally they were in the car and off, fans running after them.

Then came the anti-climax. The car, holding its precious cargo had gone. A few girls were left sobbing on the pavement, and the grey sombreness of the day returned in earnest.

Fans are shocked

WHILE pandemonium reigned at Marylebone, organisers at the Beatles’ fan club HQ in Liverpool prepared themselves for the fans’ reactions.

Says Freda Kelly, who has been national secretary of the club for six years: “We knew about the wedding on Tuesday, because Peter Brown rang and told us from Apple, so we were prepared for the phone calls. And we certainly got them— the phone didn’t stop ringing all day. Seventy-five per cent of them realised, and wished Paul and Linda the best of luck, but the other 25 per cent were very upset and there wore a few tears over the phone. I think it dawned on them that it was for good, so they wore suffering from shock. But I explained to them — I haven’t met her, but by all accounts she seems a very nice girl.

“We haven’t had the mail in yet — that will come in by the sackful. Especially the American letters — they’re worse than anywhere else. But it might be all right, and they won’t be too upset because Linda is American. So they might think it’s good that one Beatle has got an American.

“But the questions the fans ask now have changed anyway. They ask about records, and who’s playing what. Before it was always who’s Paul going out with — they know all that now.”

One of Freda’s assistants at the fan club, Elfa Breden, told Disc: “I think they were working their way up to liking Linda — they had Jane Asher for a good few years — that was the main shock because Linda hasn’t been around for so long.“

From Disc & Music Echo – March 22, 1969

THIS GIRL LINDA

NINE WORDS, tucked away in Disc’s pages five months ago, set the stage for what must be the biggest headline-hitting romance pop has known.

The much-publicised entente between Paul and Jane Asher had ended. Their expected engagement — quietly on Christmas Day, 1967 — had been broken… by Paul. The last remaining bachelor Beatle was once more “available.”

Fans the world over gave a long sigh of relief. But their feelings were mixed with sorrow. They’d grown used to Jane. It was almost inevitable that the couple should wed. But they still loved Paul.

Then on October 19, 1968, Disc’s Bob Farmer, in an article about Pop’s still-eligible bachelors — at that time stars had been surrendering to matrimony at an alarming rate — dropped the bombshell.

Mr. McCartney, of course, topped the list. His love-life was comparatively quiet following the split. General opinion was that the flame-haired Jane was still foremost in his mind. Even Apple’s Derek Taylor was moved to remark: “If he doesn’t marry Jane – forget it.”

Then Bob revealed: “But current companion is blonde American photographer Linda Eastman.” Those nine words started it all! Just 20 weeks and four days later Paul and Linda became man-and-wife. The deed was done!

But even in those early days, Paul kept very cool about the Romance. After all, he hardly knew Linda. She was just another girlfriend.

The very first meeting had been at the London home of the late Brian Epstein. An informal dinner-party to launch the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper” album. Selected journalists and photographers had been invited. Linda, in mini-skirt and candystripe blazer, camera in hand, cornered Paul. He was casual, both in conversation and clothes. A battered grey pin-stripe jacket, coloured scarf round his neck, creased trousers. But they talked a lot. And obviously enjoyed each other’s company. The date… June 1, 1967.

Disc editor Ray Coleman was at the party. He asked Paul the stock question: when was he getting married? Paul: ”I dunno. Stick around.” A frivolous reply — or prophetic hint? Had something already clicked in the McCartney mind? And destiny was to make the couple’s paths cross again. Nearly a year later.

DATELINE: New York, May 11, 1968. Paul and John fly to America on Apple business. Linda is there, too. She and Paul meet again. They spend a lot of time together. The Beatles return. But the match has been made. Next Linda flies to Britain to spend a few days with Paul. He follows her home. Brings her back to London.

DATELINE: Campbeltown, Argyllshire, Scotland, November 23, 1968. Disc prints exclusive first-ever picture of the couple, with Linda’s daughter, Heather, and Paul’s pet sheepdog, Martha, holidaying at his farmhouse hide-away.

“He’s fantastic,” sighs Linda. “One of the nicest people in the world.” Soon the pop world is wondering. “Will they? Won’t they?” Marriage seems definitely on the books.

Christmas comes and goes. All is quiet. Not a word. Then in Disc on February 8, news editor Mike Ledgerwood breaks the news. “Paul McCartney To Wed?” screams the headline. The grapevine has been busy. Friends say the date may be February 16. And Disc’s world exclusive sets Fleet Street, and the world press, alight with speculation.

But Apple is adamant. “No confirmation. There were rumours about Pau! and Jane. There will be stories about Paul and Linda.”

Then a “red herring” is dragged across the path. “Romeo and Juilet” movie star Olivia Hussey is quoted as saving she’s in love with Paul. But 24 hours later she denies all. “Someone has made a big mistake. I love Paul Ryan,” she claims.

February 14 (appropriately St. Valentine’s Day): Paul and Linda together at GPO Tower party to launch Mary Hopkin’s LP. They avoid reporters’ questions.

February 15: A new puzzle. “Is Paul already married?” asks Disc. New York reports hint that the couple wed secretly in the States in January. Linda goes househunting. Paul? Still “No comment.“

March 9: Their minds are made up. They will wed.

March 10: Linda gives official notice at London’s Marylebone register office.

March 12: Paul is bachelor boy no more. A million hearts are broken!

From Disc & Music Echo – March 22, 1969

‘But he hardly knows her!’

HER shoulder-length brown hair was wet and windswept. It clung to her cold little face. The pretty blue eyes were red-rimmed from tears. Sixteen-year-old Mary Morton had a broken heart. “He shouldn’t have done it,” she sobbed, leaning against the white railings outside the Beatles’ Apple building in London’s West End. “I’ve always loved Paul the best. What will I do now?“

Mary, of Hounslow, Middlesex, had started her weary vigil before 9 a.m. on Paul’s wedding day. She was still there — waiting, hoping, long after most of her companions had called it a day. “All I wanted was one glimpse of him. They told us he’d come to Apple sometime during the day. I’ve been a Beatles fan from the start. But I’ve never seen Paul once. I can’t believe he’d do this to us. It’s just not fair.”

And her friends shared her sorrow. They’d all braved the cold wind and rain. Both at Apple and in the street outside the McCartney mansion in London’s St. John’s Wood. From the early hours they’d kept their cold, silent vigil. Waiting. Hoping.

Said Sandra Dobson (14), of Streatham: “I missed school so I could see him. I spent most of my pocket money getting up to town. Then I missed them both by a few minutes!”

The small army of unhappy fans at Apple didn’t see Paul or Linda. But they got their usual cheery wave and word from John Lennon. “He arrived with Yoko and was singing ‘I’m Getting Married In The Morning’,” said 15-year-old Diane Robbins, of 14 St. Johns Road, Tottenham, N.15. “We love John and Yoko. He always speaks to us. She’s awfully nice, too. Very sweet. I think they’ll be getting married soon also.”

Diane was another who had waited at Apple all day. Her wait started before 10 a.m. She was still there at five o’clock. “It’s all over now. It’s the end, in a way, isn’t it?”

Many fans were mystified at the Beatle’s choice of bride. “He hardly knows her,” said a bitterly upset Donna Ross, of Epping. “I do hope he knows what he’s doing. We’re not against him marrying. It’s just that we want him to be happy. I think everyone hoped it would be Jane Asher.“

And then there were none… The Thoughts Of Derek Taylor, Apple Press Officer

WE CRIED MARRIAGE once more than often enough in the early sixties when all of us were young and the thighs were flashing down at “Ready Steady Go” and by now, by March 11, 1969 (and Paul McCartney, Beatle Paul is 27 this summer; Paul? PAUL?) we have ridden our bobbing lifeboats on so many blithe tides of rumour that when the Evening Standard ring the Apple Press Office and say “We hear Paul is getting married,” we toil not neither do we spin replies for have we not heard it so many, many times before?

“We haven’t any information. I’ll check and call you back.”

Yet it is true this time. Not flat, not dull, not glum, nor is anyone sad, but somehow “Well, at last, it’s time, why not, of course, isn’t he already married? seems sensible, seems only right, his dad’ll be glad.” Me in my small corner and you in yours, we most of us heard it the same way — on the printed page or by diffident word of mouth.

What happened at Apple was that Paul told Ray Connolly, a friendly guy who comes from Liverpool and writes some not inelegant prose for the London Evening Standard. Paul just told him, off the top of his head: “I’m getting married tomorrow Ray.”

It had been arranged in secret, insofar as anything is secret when Paul McCartney, the last bachelor Beatle — unless you include John, and in this context you don’t — the world’s most eligible man (better believe it, folks) decides to marry in the West End of London at 10 o’clock on a Wednesday morning in Spring.

There is an old lady who cycles round London’s marriage shops, looking at the registers, noting the names, and if she is spurred by recognition, she phones the national daily newspapers and sells what she has seen. She is said, by this means, to earn about two pounds ten a week which pays for Wimpys and punctures and phone calls.

The old lady was not so old nor yet so punctured that she didn’t know a Beatlename when she saw one and she phoned the papers and Ray Connolly came to Apple to check and got his exceptional exclusive in an exclusively exceptional way, face to face, honest Beatle to honest press man and the news moved across the universe as fast as a drugbust.

The newspapers responded with news sense and it massively displayed as well it might be for it was no ordinary announcement.

It is not every day… it is not every man …

There are only four Beatles and this man, Paul, Beatle Paul, this most exquisitely historic and romantic figure, was ever anyone…? No not ever! Never was anyone so anything, anything like so whatever you like to fill in, there has not been in our time a young man who came near this one, this very substantial, very exceptional Beatle.

Well… Elvis? Of COURSE Elvis. His fan club are already appalled by the last ten lines and I love them. I love them very much, but there never was, never was a last bachelor Beatle and it has taken me this long to say there it is, it is over. All the Beatles took a wife and now none of the Fabs is virgin; for now, none of them is to be had.

It is the beginning of the end and it is the end of the beginning and we settle down, we learn to live with it, we can cope. We are all older now than we were and do you know John and Paul were doing gigs in 1956, in 19 hundred and 56 when Kevin their present road manager was five and a half?

It is in nice time that Paul married and it couldn’t happen to a nicer girl, anything more apt I never saw. Linda Eastman McCartney, 27, from Manhattan, welcome and we love you, in our clumsy and confused way we love you, Apple and family and fans and everyone, we love you both.

See how good and strong the unison sounds when both (as Lenny Bruce would say) are really cooking, really cooking man. Forget it, forget it if you don’t know love when you see it.

We see it and the fans saw it too, and lived through their pain; the fans they saw it round Apple’s white mad Marchhare muddied rainspotted door; a crowd which grew larger after the announcement, larger still after the wedding and large than ever a day later.

These were the hard core of fan, those who were little when it all began in Liverpool, where Paul was a fat schoolboy and John’s Aunt Mimi was warning the neighbourhood to beware George Harrison the [unreadable] George a Ted? Come on. You must be jok…

These are the girls now out of school, loyal still to these most extraordinary heroes whom even awful old men somehow respect. Beatles medal-honoured grown rich, pursued by princes, persecuted by others, secretly nurtured even by scared and novice nuns.

These girls-in-waiting now bereft arc the Beatlemaniacs, who suffer the mis-name for they are not maniacs, but loving kids — who wait without any spend everything they have to bring the Beatles in facsimile or on record into their [unreadable] suburban bedrooms, and if yes they have tears to shed, prepare for it is to the fans that the Beatles will always look for real answer to what happened when it all began.

In 12 months or so John and Ringo enter their thirtieth year.

Ringo is a movie actor and father of two fast-growing sons. George, George the baby business Beatle (cheese blonde and small slices) is a wise nice soul, already ready for another incarnation — show me a [unreadable] of pink cars and I’ll show you a pink carnation — and Paul, Paul of Jane fame, he has married Linda and anyone who cares for all three will have thought of Jane and thought then that what will be will be and what is right will be right and what you sow you reap.

Paul sowed Paul and [unreadable] Linda who is one and the same thing; nature is true, and also he reaped little Heather and it looks very good from any small corner and you in yours, it looks OK too? Yes?

The beginning has ended. We now, us Apples and extensions of what the B(eatle), CDE and F and so on of our little pop oasis means we now no longer have the dilemma, of an image-loss.

They now, those much-expected-of moptops, now settling into comfortable neighbourly separate ways of how they are no more “The Boys” whom Brian knew and tried to peterpan.

Come mothers and fathers throughout the land. And don’t criticise what you can’t understand. Your sons and daughters are beyond your command. For the times, they are a’ changing. Till death do them part Linda and Paul. We give them all our love, that’s all we do…

From Disc & Music Echo – March 22, 1969

THIS FORM BROKE A MILLION HEARTS

THE WEDDING of James Paul McCartney (26), bachelor, musician, MBE, of 7 Cavendish Avenue, London, NWS, and Linda Eastman, otherwise Linda Eastman See (27), previous marriage dissolved, photographer, of the same address, will forever stand out in the official record book of Marylebone Registrer Office. Not just because it testifies to the removal of Britain’s most eligible bachelor, but also because the fateful signatures of Paul and Linda are almost obscured by an enormous, half-inch smudge of ink that stands out like a sore thumb.

“But it wasn’t their fault,” explained an embarrassed registrar, Mr. E. R. Sunders, a few minutes after Mr. Mrs. McCartney had left for home. “Paul was using the superintendent registrar’s pen, which seemed to be leaking.“

It wasn’t the only blotch on the big day. British Railways provided the other. The train bringing Scaffold’s Mike McGear from Birmingham to be one of his brother’s witnesses of the wedding ceremony broke down and delayed his arrival by an hour, which the groom whiled away with choruses of “The Stars And Stripes,” no doubt a dedication to his bride, while six-year-old Heather Eastman suggested speeding things up by saying: “Are you married yet, Mummy? I’d like to marry you both.“

You could hardly blame Heather for her impatience – she may have been missing a day from Robinsfield School, Ordinance Road, St. John’s Wood (so now you know, folks, where to find dad picking up his step-daughter each day), but that day had already become a long and tiring business.

It had started – Wednesday, March 12, 1969, hereafter set aside as Ash Wednesday in the calendar of every McCartney idol — soon after 6 a.m. as the first fans and photographers started gathering outside 7 Cavendish Avenue to start the long vigil for their various reasons. The fans to mourn, the photographers to guard against any surprise early woop on the register office by Paul and Linda.

But neither fans nor photographers need have bothered. Inside No. 7, Paul and Linda calmly kept to their intentions -at 9:45 a.m. ceremony — and duly arrived at the back door to Marylebone Register Office a few minutes before the appointed hour.

But where was the best man? Apple executive Peter Brown got in touch with British Railways to learn of the Birmingham train breakdown which was causing Mike McGear’s delay. “Good old British Railways,” remarked Paul with good-humoured sarcasm.

Exactly an hour after the ceremony should have started, the breathless Mr. McGear came hurtling up the steps of the main entrance at 10.45 am. “Late again,” he grinned before nearly losing balance as he swung through the heavily-guarded double front doors.

He then raced up to the first the door, crawled in on hands and knees to be met by a smiling Paul who said: “Ah, here you are, Mike.” To which his panting younger brother replied: “Forgive me, it wasn’t my fault. Have you been done?” Said Paul: “No, we’ve been waiting for you.”

Fortunately for all, there were no other marriages fixed for that morning so the delay did not set any problems for officials. The wedding entourage immediately filed into the registrar’s office where the simple ten-minute ceremony was conducted with Mike handling his brother the ring which Paul had bought only the night before after knocking up a jeweller after closing time.

Then it was downstairs again and through the front doors to face the crowds. Paul and Linda had hardly taken two paces before the surge forward started. “How do you feel, Paul?” — “Fantastic.” “Are you going on honeymoon?” — “No – not till later.“

“Heather, Heather”… and that was Linda, as her little girl got lost in the human sea, only to be plucked to safety by a policeman. It was only a few yards but from front doors to Daimler took Paul and Linda at least two minutes. Then they were away to Cavendish Avenue for a few more sips of champagne, smiles for yet another cluster of cameras and questions to be answered.

Paul told of how he had first met Linda last year at a Press conference in New York, of how they bumped into each other again by accident and of how he realised then that she had always been at the back of his mind from his first sight of her. “But we didn’t get to know each other until we went out for a night on a bit of a thrash,” he added.

Linda stressed that she had no connection with the Eastman-Kodak photographic firm. Paul pulled a face and complained “I’ve been done. Where’s the money?”

Linda, though, left most of the talking to Paul… and Heather. The pair of them get on famously. “Heather is just marvellous,” said he. And she holds her stepfather in similar esteem. When she was taken along recently to a Mary Hopkin recording session, she looked around at the mass of musicians turned to her mother and said: “Mummy! All these men here and Paul’s the boss” with a great show of pride.

By 1 p.m., Paul and Linda left Cavendish Avenue again. Only this time they were Mr. and Mrs. Paul McCartney and although they had been married in a register office, they wanted a short service of blessing so they went to St. John’s Wood Parish Church where the Rev. Noel Perry-Gore, officiated.

Later on in the afternoon, Paul left Linda and went to work! He was supervising a recording session. It must have seemed like the longest day in his life.

For those weeping fans outside No. 7, it was worse — it was the end of their lives… at least, until they, like Paul, find someone they simply cannot live without. Then they’ll understand why Paul had to break their hearts on Ash Wednesday, 1969.

From Disc & Music Echo – March 22, 1969

FIRST MAN TO KNOW

First person to learn about Paul’s wedding was journalist Ray Connolly, who called at the Apple headquarters on 11th March. While he was there, he saw Paul who casually remarked: “Hello, Ray, do you know I’m getting married tomorrow morning!” And that, as far as we know, is how the Press got on to the biggest Show Biz wedding of 1969. When Paul McCartney married Linda Eastman at the Marylebone Registry Office on the morning of 12th March.

Although many of the Apple executives were surprised by the news, they all turned out in force for the wedding. Mal Evans and Peter Brown were very much to the fore in protecting Linda from the hectic crush outside the Registry Office.

From the Beatles Monthly Book, N°69, April 1969