Paul McCartney flies to France

On this day Paul McCartney flew to France on a plane-ferry from Lydd airport in Kent, England.

The intention was to take a driving holiday. In order to escape the attention of The Beatles' fans, McCartney wore a disguise, although his brand new dark green Aston Marton DB5 was enough to attract the attention of even the least observant bystander.

I was pretty proud of the car. It was a great motor for a young guy to have, pretty impressive said Paul McCartney

McCartney planned to drive to Paris before heading south to Bordeaux, where he had arranged to meet Mal Evans under the clock on the Saint-Eloi church on November 12, 1966. They then intended to follow the Loire river from Orleans.

It was an echo of the trip John and I made to Paris for 21st birthday, really. I'd cruise, find a hotel and park. I parked away from the hotel and walked to the hotel. I would sit up in my room and write my journal, or take a little bit of movie film. I'd walk around the town and then in the evening go down to dinner, sit on my own at the table, at the height of all this Beatle thing, to ease the pressure, to balance the high-key pressure. Having a holiday and also not be recognised. And re-taste anonymity. Just sit on my own and think all sorts of artistic thoughts like, I'm on my own here, I could be writing a novel, easily. What about these characters here in this room? - Paul McCartney

McCartney's journal was later lost, as was his film of his trip. Some of the reels were stolen by fans who broke into his home on Cavendish Avenue, London.

Kodak 8 mm was the one, because it came on a reel. Once it became Super-8 on a cartridge you couldn't do anything with it, you couldn't control it. I liked to reverse things. I liked to reverse music and I found that you could send a film through the camera backwards. Those very early cameras were great.

If you take a film and run it through a camera once, then you rewind it and run it through again, you get two images, superimposed. But they're very washed out, so I developed this technique where I ran it through once at night and only photographed points of light, like very bright reds, and that would be all that would be on the first pass of the film. It would be like on black velvet, red, very red. I used to do it in my car so it was car headlights and neon signs, the green of a go sign, the red of a stop, the amber.

The next day, when it was daylight, I would go and shoot and I had this film that was a combination of these little points of light that were on a 'black velvet' background and daylight. My favourite was a sequence of a leaning cross in a cemetery. I turned my head and zoomed in on it, so it opened just with a cross, bingo, then as I zoomed back out, you could see the horizon was tilted at a crazy angle. And as I did it, I straightened up. That was the opening shot, then I cut to an old lady, facing away from me, tending the graves. A fat old French peasant who had stockings halfway down her legs and was revealing a lot of her knickers, turning away, so it was a bit funny or a bit gross maybe. She was just tending a grave so, I mean, I didn't need to judge it. I just filmed it. So the beautiful thing that happened was from the previous night's filming. There she is tending a grave and you just see a point of red light appear in between her legs and it just drifts very slowly like a little fart, or a little spirit or something, in the graves. And then these other lights just start to trickle around, and it's like Disney, it's like animation!

One thing I'd learned was that the best thing was to hold one shot. I was a fan of the Andy Warhol idea, not so much of his films but I liked the cheekiness of Empire, the film of the Empire State Building, I liked the nothingness of it. So I would do a bit of that.

There were some sequences I loved: there was a Ferris wheel going round, but you couldn't quite tell what it was. And I was looking out of the hotel window in one French city and there was a gendarme on traffic duty. There was lot of traffic coming this way, then he'd stop 'em, and let them all go. So the action for ten minutes was a gendarme directing the traffic: lots of gestures and getting annoyed. He was a great character, this guy. I ran it all back and filmed all the cars again, it had been raining so there was quite low light in the street. So in the film he was stopping cars but they were just going through his body like ghosts. It was quite funny. Later, as the soundtrack I had Albert Ayler playing the 'Marseillaise'. It was a great little movie but I don't know what happened to it. - Paul McCartney

NEMS leaves 13 Monmouth Street, London

Brian Epstein's NEMS company had moved from Liverpool to London in 1963, establishing an office at 13 Monmouth Street in the centre of the capital.

In 1964 the company leased more offices at 5-6 Argyll Street, and gradually moved the operation to the new premises. On this day NEMS finally vacated 13 Monmouth Street.

The November 1966 issue of The Beatles Book Monthly featured an exclusive interview with Paul McCartney. Topics of conversation include the differences between their British and American albums, negotiations with Capitol Records, touring, songwriting, and the Revolver album.

First published in 1963 and continuing throughout their career and beyond, The Beatles Book Monthly was the official fanzine of the group. It took full advantage of having access to amazing rare photos, it featured exclusive articles, and contained insights not found anywhere else.

Sometimes also listed as Beatles Monthly Book, previously-owned copies of these excellent magazines continue to circulate in collector's circles, including online sites such as Ebay. While this UK-based fanzine had a rebirth in the late 70's and 80's, the most intriguing issues come from the years when the band was together.

It's so obvious why all the girls fall about at the thought of Paul McCartney, for when he puts on that impish grin and has that saucy look in his eyes, you can understand why all his fans want to smother him with kisses. But, not being one of the masses, I did what no other girl in her right mind would do whilst staring across the table into Paul's large brown eyes -- I took out my notebook and pen and proceeded to interview him.

As so many American fans had written-in asking why the Beatles' American LPs weren't nearly as good as the British ones, I asked Paul why their American albums feature as many as six instrumentals and only three new tracks, and why the rest of the tracks are made up of previous singles.

"Actually," said Paul, "It's not as bad as it seems. We're told that they like to have our singles on the LPs, and there's more demand for singles over there... about two to our one."

"We've argued this out with our record company, but they say it won't work if we release the same LPs over there because their selling is different. We've tried to compromise and asked if they would at least make the cover of the albums the same, but no deal."

"We also asked them to release fourteen tracks instead of twelve, but we were told that we'd lose the royalties on the extra two tracks, because apparently (in the United States) the royalties stay the same for six or eight tracks and also for twelve or fourteen."

"We wouldn't mind if we lost the royalties, but the publishers have to be paid, and someone's got to lay out the extra money for them. So we'd have to compromise and lose the royalties to make better (American) LPs... but I think we're beginning to get more control now."

I then asked Paul why their American record company releases more single than we do.

"Well, when we send the tapes over to the States, there are always two or three spare tracks, so they put them out as singles."

What did he think of the knockers who said that the Beatles weren't giving the public enough?

"We never expect to be knocked because we feel harmless. We don't want to offend, but we can't please everyone, and anyway, they'd get sick of us if we performed up and down the country the whole time."

I asked Paul if it was just because they'd made enough money, and therefore didn't need to keep up the personal appearances.

"Not really. It's a bit of everything -- over-exposure, laziness, and tax problems. You see, if we wanted to be the Beatles forever, then we'd have to become like Sinatra and take dancing lessons and acting lessons, and just be all-round entertainers... you know, get slicker. It's their whole life to other artistes, but we'd be kidding if we said that."

"It would have been different if we'd been struggling, but we made it so quickly and achieved a life-long ambition. Being a Beatle is not that big a part of life. There's lots more things for us to do. Take touring for example. We'd hate to be touring when we're thiry-five because we'd look silly. Anyway we'll probably be bald when we're thirty. Can't you see it... they'll be asking us to shake our hair, and we'd have to say 'We can't because we've got a bald patch.' Everyone has to get old. It's just that a lot of people don't adapt themselves and do exactly the same as they did at twenty, even though they are about forty."

On the subject of touring, I asked Paul whether or not they'd be doing a British tour. "I don't think we've really thought about not doing a tour in Britain this year." "You don't really miss touring. You get to rely a lot on your audience for your act, which means that when you perform live it's difficult to keep control of what's going on. I still get the same feeling as we had in the beginning. It's not quite as exciting doing a tour here as when we first started. But in a way it's the same. You still get rough nights with the good ones."

I asked Paul if he ever worried about not being able to come up with new material.

"No. I used to think that, and was frightened that I was going to dry up, but now I realize that it won't happen if you're interested. Our songs are always changing. But you still get the type of person who sticks to something even if they don't like it... Everyone can do something else... even a bank clerk or a labourer. I get annoyed with people who are too nervous to change their way of life."

"People say 'Yesterday' was my greatest piece of work, but I hope I will write a better one."

I asked him what had happened to the Beatles' plans to record in the States.

"Well, as I said before, we wanted to record some tracks for 'Revolver' in Memphis, but it all fell through for various reasons when Brian (Epstein) went over there to check up. We did go into the matter again when we were on our last American tour, but we found that the idea was going to prove very expensive and, as we didn't like being taken for a ride just because we're Beatles, we dropped it."

"One of the reasons why we wanted to try doing some recording in the states is that we have heard so much about the different sound they get. I think that 'Revolver' did produce a new sound anyway. Perhaps by accident, perhaps not. We have been looking for it a long time, and something was definitely there. We'd still like to record in the states, but I can't see it happening in the near future."

I finally asked Paul what he thought of their old hits -- do they sound old fashioned?

"Yes. They're a step back in time, and as for performing them on stage I don't think our audience would like it... but that of course depends on where we're playing. Germany, for example, cried out for the old hits because that is what they remembered us for."

What did he think of the knockers who said that the Beatles weren't giving the public enough?

"We never expect to be knocked because we feel harmless. We don't want to offend, but we can't please everyone, and anyway, they'd get sick of us if we performed up and down the country the whole time."

I asked Paul if it was just because they'd made enough money, and therefore didn't need to keep up the personal appearances.

"Not really. It's a bit of everything -- over-exposure, laziness, and tax problems. You see, if we wanted to be the Beatles forever, then we'd have to become like Sinatra and take dancing lessons and acting lessons, and just be all-round entertainers... you know, get slicker. It's their whole life to other artistes, but we'd be kidding if we said that."

"It would have been different if we'd been struggling, but we made it so quickly and achieved a life-long ambition. Being a Beatle is not that big a part of life. There's lots more things for us to do. Take touring for example. We'd hate to be touring when we're thiry-five because we'd look silly. Anyway we'll probably be bald when we're thirty. Can't you see it... they'll be asking us to shake our hair, and we'd have to say 'We can't because we've got a bald patch.' Everyone has to get old. It's just that a lot of people don't adapt themselves and do exactly the same as they did at twenty, even though they are about forty."

On the subject of touring, I asked Paul whether or not they'd be doing a British tour. "I don't think we've really thought about not doing a tour in Britain this year." "You don't really miss touring. You get to rely a lot on your audience for your act, which means that when you perform live it's difficult to keep control of what's going on. I still get the same feeling as we had in the beginning. It's not quite as exciting doing a tour here as when we first started. But in a way it's the same. You still get rough nights with the good ones."

I asked Paul if he ever worried about not being able to come up with new material.

"No. I used to think that, and was frightened that I was going to dry up, but now I realize that it won't happen if you're interested. Our songs are always changing. But you still get the type of person who sticks to something even if they don't like it... Everyone can do something else... even a bank clerk or a labourer. I get annoyed with people who are too nervous to change their way of life."

"People say 'Yesterday' was my greatest piece of work, but I hope I will write a better one."

I asked him what had happened to the Beatles' plans to record in the States.

"Well, as I said before, we wanted to record some tracks for 'Revolver' in Memphis, but it all fell through for various reasons when Brian (Epstein) went over there to check up. We did go into the matter again when we were on our last American tour, but we found that the idea was going to prove very expensive and, as we didn't like being taken for a ride just because we're Beatles, we dropped it."

"One of the reasons why we wanted to try doing some recording in the states is that we have heard so much about the different sound they get. I think that 'Revolver' did produce a new sound anyway. Perhaps by accident, perhaps not. We have been looking for it a long time, and something was definitely there. We'd still like to record in the states, but I can't see it happening in the near future."

I finally asked Paul what he thought of their old hits -- do they sound old fashioned?

"Yes. They're a step back in time, and as for performing them on stage I don't think our audience would like it... but that of course depends on where we're playing. Germany, for example, cried out for the old hits because that is what they remembered us for."

Source: Transcribed by www.beatlesinterviews.org from original magazine issue

John, Paul, George & Ringo figuring out what's next

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Nothing much happening today.

On October 29th 1966, Fred Robbins met up with John Lennon in Carboneras, Spain for an interview conducted between takes, on-location during the filming of 'How I Won The War.'

John Lennon was chosen for the role by director Richard Lester who had directed Lennon previously in the Beatles' first two films, 'A Hard Day's Night' in 1964 and 'Help!' in 1965. Lennon makes it clear that he would not have taken on a movie role with any other director.

In this outdoor interview, with the sound of the wind in the microphone, Fred Robbins chatted with Lennon about songwriting, the darker side of the Beatles 1966 Tour, and cutting his hair short for the film role.

John Lennon would write the song 'Strawberry Fields Forever' in Spain during the filming of this movie. In addition to Carboneras, other Spanish locations chosen by Lester for shooting the film included Almeria and Andalucia.

Robbins was originally a television emcee in the 1950's, moving to work with Radio Luxembourg in the 1960's. He later would work for CNN before passing away in 1992.

Q: "Well, so our good friend John Lennon has been shorn. How does it feel?"

JOHN: "It feels quite comfortable out here, you know. It's not too short."

Q: "You look a little like Bob Dylan this way. Have you noticed it? Anybody else say that?"

JOHN: "I dunno. About two people have said it. It's because me hair's standing on end." (laughs)

Q: "It's very becoming, John. Honestly. I think it's easy to get used to, eh?"

JOHN: "It's quite easy to get used to. It's full of sand and old rubbish, you know."

Q: "Do you think it'll take long to grow it back?"

JOHN: "No. It looks quite normal at night when I comb it, if I can get my comb through it. You wouldn't know it wasn't just the back's short and no sideboards."

Q: "This surely must be one of the most unusual locations in the world. I wonder if you could describe it and tell us exactly where we are and what's going on here."

JOHN: "You're asking me where we are! (giggles) Well, as far as I know we're somewhere in Spain. It could be anywhere for all I know, actually. And it's just like, uhh... I dunno. It's like a dump, really. It's like the moon, you know -- just desert and sand and hills and mountains. They're not very nice to look at, but the weather is ok now and then."

Q: "Beautiful weather. What a perfect spot for this picture. This is supposed to represent what?"

JOHN: "North Africa, and I believe it's pretty similar."

Q: "First dramatic role, eh, John?"

JOHN: "Well, dramatic's a good word. (laughs) First ROLE, really. The others were just messing about.:

Q: "How do you take to it? How does it come to you?"

JOHN: "Well, sometimes it comes hard (laughs) and sometimes it comes easy. It depends on the day."

Q: "Do you like it? Do you find it's natural to be an actor?"

JOHN: "Some of it is natural. The most unnatural bits are hard, you know -- the ones that are REALLY out of character for me. It's alright, but it's not the be-all and end-all for me."

Q: "But you do like it? You'd like to do more of it?"

JOHN: "I think I'd do limited amounts of stuff, because I AM limited at what I could do."

Q: "You really don't know until you try."

JOHN: "No, I don't. But I don't want to be trying meself out in films. It's too public."

Q: "That's true. But did you know you could write before you wrote?"

JOHN: "I didn't think about it, because I was always writing, you see, just sort of naturally."

Q: "In other words, the acting thing is still a new thing for you... just trying your wings."

JOHN: "Yes, it's really trying me wings."

Q: "It'll be fascinating to see what happens. Can you tell me about your character? Who do you play?"

JOHN: "It's a Private soldier called Gripweed. He's not particularly nice. He's not TOO horrible, but he's just looking after himself all the time. That's the main thing."

Q: "And what relationship do you have to the other people in the film."

JOHN: "Well, none really. We don't really have much of a relationship. We're not fighting or anything. We don't, sort of, have a lot to say directly to each other. And... well, I'm Michael Crawford's batman. He's Officer Goodbody and I'm meant to look after him, you know. But I spend most of the time not looking after him and trying to dodge it."

Q: "Kind of mess things up a little bit."

JOHN: "Uhh, it's a bit like that."

Q: "That's a different connotation of the word batman. In America we have a television series..."

JOHN: (giggling) "Oh, I know. We got it in Britain, too."

Q: "But it really means an 'aid' here, or 'helper.'"

JOHN: "Oh yeah. That's just the usual Army term for the fella that crawls about, looking after the officer. You know, 'Yes sir, no sir, certainly sir.'"

Q: "And you're right here with your old buddy Dick Lester again."

JOHN: "Yes, yes. He's alright." (laughs)

Q: "He certainly established a style, with you fellas."

JOHN: "Yes, hasn't he."

Q: "I mean, the individuality of you guys, as well as his uniqueness as a director, it was a great marriage in both pictures so far, you know. I think it's exciting that he's directing you in your first role awway from the group."

JOHN: "Well, I wouldn't have accepted, probably, if it hadn't been him. I would've been too nervous. (giggling) You know, I can make a fool of meself in front of him because I know him. If it had been some other director saying 'Do this, and do that,' I would have fallen apart."

Q: "What does this character give you a chance to do, and in what light does it show you, as opposed to anything you've done in the past?"

JOHN: "It just IS completely opposed to anything I've done in the past. I'm just a different person in it, and I'm nothing like people have seen me before, really."

Q: "Is that why you took the part?"

JOHN: "I took it because I was interested in the film, and interested in trying me wings at something else. I felt like doing something for a change, and this just happened to come up at a time when I felt in that mood."

Q: "What generally does the film deal with... without giving away any of the plot."

JOHN: "It's very hard to generalize. (giggles) It's a strange film. It's just about these people in the war, together and not together."

Q: "A British squadron."

JOHN: "Yes. It could be ANY squadron. It could be any soldiers, anywhere."

Q: "Where have you been filming so far?"

JOHN: "We've been to Germany. We were there two weeks, filming on the NATO grounds. (monotone) Whoopie."

Q: (giggles)

JOHN: (giggling) "And then we came out here."

Q: "Does this mean that all of the boys are going to be trying different things as you go along, John?"

JOHN: "Well, I can't speak for the others, you know, but George has just got back from India -- TRYING India." (giggles)

Q: "I saw a picture of him with a mustache the other day, picking up that teacher of the sitar (Ravi Shankar) at London Airport."

JOHN: "Oh yeah. He traveled with him from India. That's his teacher."

Q: "He flipped over that instrument, didn't he."

JOHN: "Yeah. Well, that fellow that teaches him is one of the all-time greats, so he's lucky that the fella would accept him as a pupil. He doesn't just have anybody, you know."

Q: "Will you be using the sitar as a regular sound?"

JOHN: "The sitar just happens to have come in useful on a couple of tracks, but it's really nothing to do with it. That's George's own scene."

Q: "It won't be a part of the regular albums or records?"

JOHN: "No, unless it's called for."

Q: "When is it called for?"

JOHN: "I don't know. When you suddenly think, 'A sitar would be nice here.' George will obviously write more numbers with the sitars involved if he feels like it."

Q: "Where does the inspiration come from, or is it just craftsmanship? Can you just sit down at a given time and say 'We have to write now,' and out it comes?"

JOHN: "Well, sometimes it comes like that. Sometimes they say, 'Now you must write,' and now we write. But it doesn't come some days. We sit there for days just talking to each other, messing 'round not doing anything."

Q: "How was 'Michelle' written?"

JOHN: "Paul has had this idea about writing a bit with some other language, with French in it. And he just sort of had a bit of a verse, and a couple of words, and the idea. I think he had some other name or something. He used to talk Double-Dutch French, you see, just to sing the bit." (imitates singing mock-French)

Q: (giggles)

JOHN: "He just brought it along and just sort of started fiddling around trying to get a middle-eight. We pinched a little bit from somewhere and stuck it in the middle-eight, and off we went. Q: "What about 'Yesterday?'"

JOHN: "'Yesterday' is Paul completely on his own, really. We just helped finishing off the ribbons 'round it, you know -- tying it up."

Q: "I'm delighted to see that your last tour was such a smash, in view of the pressure you were under. I was thrilled that it came out as good as it did."

JOHN: (giggling) "I was pleased, meself."

Q: "It was such a ridiculous thing that happened on this experience that you had. I want to know, just to wrap this thing up, what kind of reflections you had on that whole thing, John."

JOHN: "Well, now it's just like a bad dream. It's just way in the back of my mind somewhere, and it just comes back when you read things, just odd things that crop up now and then -- 'Cardinal So-and-so says it's OK,' (laughs) or things like that. But it's really WAY in the back of my mind."

Q: "What frightening implications, a thing like that. It could happen to anybody, you know, not just famous people."

JOHN: "Yeah."

Q: "But what a frightening implication, when things like that can be used to hurt a person."

JOHN: "Yes, a pretty amazing scene, that was. It was VERY frightening."

Q: "It's really, you know, like the McCarthy era..."

JOHN: "Mmm. It's just certain things seem to whip up certain emotions, and at certain times as well."

Q: "When are you going to be doing another tour? Do you know?"

JOHN: "No idea. I know we got music to write, soon as we get back. And Paul's just signed us up to write the music for a film. So I suppose it's off the plane and into bed -- Knock knock knock, 'Get up and write some songs.'"

Q: "A film that's not your own?"

JOHN: "Yes."

Q: "Very exciting. So Burt Bacharach is going to have a little competition."

JOHN: (sighs comically) "It's about time, you know."

Q: (laughs) "I think you're right, John. Just finally now, what do you think the audience can expect from 'How I Won The War?' What have we got to look forward to? Aside from seeing John Lennon in his first dramatic role?"

JOHN: "Well, I mean, I'm incidental. The thing you've got to look forward to is seeing a great film, I hope. The way it's going it seems to be fine. And if it gets out and on the road, you know, it should be a great film."

Q: "One thing, they'll be able to see you with a peeled nose for the first time."

JOHN: (giggling) "Yeah, they'll get to see a lot of things for the first time."

Q: "It's exciting, John, and I'm delighted to talk to you again, in such a place that really does look like the moon. They told us it was dusty, and it IS dusty."

JOHN: "It is. You've come on a good day."

Q: "John, this new guise of yours, with the shorter hair... has it given you some kind of joy, some sadistic joy in the privacy you've been able to enjoy?"

JOHN: "Well you know, I went 'round the flea market and did all things I haven't done for a long time. It was great."

Q: "Nobody recognized you?"

JOHN: "Uhh, one or two people did double-takes, you know, but nobody knew at all. It was shorter than this, then."

Q: "They thought, 'What's Bob Dylan doing over here?'"

JOHN: "No, it didn't look like him, 'cuz I had it plastered down."

Q: "That's a sweet joy, isn't it, to be able to have a little privacy once in a while?"

JOHN: "Yeah, it was great. I was knocked out."

Q: "Have any of the guys ever resorted to disguises to be able to go someplace?"

JOHN: "Well, I just heard the other day that Paul was at someplace in London disguised as an Arab."

(laughter)

JOHN: (giggling) "I don't know whether it's true or not. But he used to say that was the only way he could really disguise himself, was as an Arab. But if he did, he got caught."

Q: "I don't think anybody will recognize George with his mustache now."

JOHN: "No, they got him, because they got him in India. There's one of those shots you can see -- they caught it going out of a door, and he had a mustache. And it just said, 'George Harrison In Disguise.' They still know your face. People that do know, spot your face even if you're wearing a pith helmet."

Q: "That's what happens I guess."

JOHN: "Mmm."

Q: "You'll never get away from it, John."

JOHN: "I'll smash me face in."

John Lennon: I'm trying to do something else. I have tried to paint and write. Now I'm having a bash at a straight acting rôle. It's fun.

The Beatles doin' their own thing