Merry Christmas

Please join me in raising a glass to absent friends and wishing us all a very merry Christmas and peaceful New Year...

Sheila Casey in memoriam

The singer Sheila Casey who, with her sister Jeanette formed the McKinley Sisters and supported The Beatles on tour in 1964, lost her long and brave battle with cancer on 16 December.
Alongside her husband, Seniors band leader and former Wings saxophonist Howie, Sheila always found time for my enquiries and kindly contributed valuable anecdotes and memories to Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth.
A personal tribute can be read here.

Beatles in Bournemouth A Go! Go!

Jon Kremer with Paul backstage at the Winter Gardens Bournemouth on 15 May 1973

This photo appears in a new book, Bournemouth A Go! Go! (£19.95, Natula Publications) with a remarkable account of just how accessible Paul and Linda and Wings were on their first UK theatre tour.
Little more than a year after the McCartneys took their new band on the infamous University Tour, Wings took flight in support of their Red Rose Speedway album and to launch the Live and Let Die single from the Bond film of the same name. The fourth date on the tour, at the Winter Gardens in Bournemouth, had been well received even though author Jon Kremer (that's him on the left) suspects a sizeable portion of the audience was there as much to see a Beatle in the flesh as hear anything Wings had to offer. After the show Jon made his way backstage with friends and before long found himself in conversation with Paul and Linda, talking about reggae and writing songs for films. It being the 1970s, there was no hesitation when it came time to 'flash the ash'...
"Accepting a proffered Rembrandt International before setting fire to it in the usual way McCartney ripped the filter off, discarded it, and continued to chat. I'd not see such a casually displayed craving for a maximum nicotine hit before, and found myself entertaining a bizarre thought regarding Beatle etiquette: when next offering him a cigarette should you detach the filter first? What would you do?" asks Jon.
Bournemouth A Go! Go! also features a comprehensive account of the episode outlined in Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth in which the young Jon and his friend Al Stewart negotiate a backstage audience with John Lennon following The Beatles' opening show of their summer season at Bournemouth Gaumont on 19 August 1963.
:: Copies of Bournemouth A Go! Go! can be ordered from www.natula.co.uk
:: Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth is available at www.beatlesandbournemouth.com along with art prints of a selection of the 200 rare and previously unpublished images featured in the book. There's also a set of colour photos of Wings performing at the Winter Gardens on 15 May 1973.