Two of Us - The Infamous Twickenham Bust Up

Chapter Two - St. Margeret's

The temperature wouldn't rise above thirty-six degrees Fahreinheit all day and with the added wind chill and intermittent sleet, it felt a lot colder. Paul McCartney, turned up the collar of his herring-bone overcoat and walked the short distance from his green Aston Martin DB6 to the huge soundstage entrance slid ajar to welcome him. Alongside him, chin against his chest and red hair speckled with fine droplets was Kevin Harrington who would be hitching a ride with Paul throughout these sessions. Paul's experiment with using public transport had not gone exactly to plan. The forty-five minute journey from St. John's Wood to St. Margeret's had turned into nearly two hours of train changes, meanderings around Waterloo Station and unwanted trips into the suburbs as he struggled with Eastbounds and Westbounds. Now back behind the wheel he could settle into a steady routine: arriving early, talking to the crew and giving them valuable interview footage for the documentary. An early start also enabled him to get in some Piano practice and routine song ideas before the natural flow of his creativity was disturbed by constantly tuning guitars and clattering drums.
A small cadre of the band's most intrepid fans had already taken up residency outside the entry gate to the studio complex. Somehow word always got out to these girls regarding the Beatles' whereabouts, they had evolved a sophisticated intelligence network over the years, very little escaped their knowledge. Paul waved and held aloft a thumb in a gesture of affirmation to the decidedly cold looking girls with their wind-blown hair and high buttoned duffel coats and they squealed their response in unison. For these girls such gestures of recognition by their idols, however brief, made everything worth while. Their hours and days together forged lifelong friendships and a fierce loyalty to the band. In return the band often took time to chat and pose for pictures with the shivering bedraggled girls. George had even given them an affectionate nickname which they regarded as a badge of honour - 'Apple Scruffs.' The fairweather fans who had crowded infront of the studio gates on the first day of filming were looked on with nothing but scorn by the 'Scruffs'. That type of fan didn't respect the Beatles' boundaries, they would push and pull hair and grab clothes to such an extent that Police were needed. But that type of fan didn't stick around very long and that was just how they liked it.

Kevin ducked in through the door and Paul sauntered in behind, as extras dressed in any number of varied costumes from other productions weaved their way along the concourse behind. The area just inside the door was dusty and cluttered with stacks of equipment, disused and battered plywood scenery. Humming bundles of black cable snaked across the concrete floor. The large open space ahead was even colder than outside and Paul's breath rose up in steamy clouds as he strode, hands deep in his overcoat pockets towards the bright lights in the far corner. The band's rehearsal space was set to the right and alongside it seven or eight brightly striped directors chairs were arranged in a semi-circle. This space was set aside for production meetings which, as well as the rehearsals would be filmed incase anything interesting happened.

The choice of Twickenham as a rehearsal space was proving to be less than ideal. The stage was either freezing cold when the doors were open or unbearably hot under the bright lights needed by the film crew. The concept for a filmed rehearsal had been proposed by Head of Apple Films, Producer Dennis O'Dell. Although he was deeply involved in setting up the production of the Peter Sellers vehicle "The Magic Christian," Dennis found he could shift the production schedule around enough to give the Beatles and Apple access to a soundstage until the start of February. From Dennis' point of view this made practical sense. The Beatles had been inspired to return to live performance by their experience in this very same space, video taping the semi-live renditions of Hey jude and Revolution a few months earlier. Both of these clips had been directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg and he was back on board for this project. It also made sense to have Ringo on set, since he too was to co-star in "The Magic Christian". What Dennis had failed to anticipate, however was the Beatles' own lack of commitment to the concept of a live performance and especially a filmed rehearsal. They were very quickly tiring of the environment and the early mornings and in two days of rehearsal had achieved very little. Paul as ever chose to be upbeat about getting his bandmates to rally round when push came to shove. He believed a deadline would force the band to come up with the goods. It was with this optimistic mindset that Paul walked up to the gathering of production crew around a small table set aside for serving tea in white plastic cups.