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   CLUB SANDWICH 84

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MAKE IT A BEAUTIFUL NIGHT FOR ME
(Oh, and my friend here wants one as well)

Out on location with Paul and the gang

            Some people travel across countries and across borders to see Paul McCartney in concert or at a personal appearance. Others discover Paul playing beneath their window and don't bat an eyelid.
            Life's like that.
            Filming a sequence for the video to promote the new 'Beautiful Night' single, Paul was belting through the closing bars of the song just feet away from a block of flats in East London, when out stepped a man on to his balcony, a steaming mug of tea in his hand, and plonked himself down to watch. Then, a few gulps later, he disappeared inside his flat to find something better to do. It's enough to make a die-hard Macca fan spit.
            Paul spent most of 28 October 1997 playing those last few bars of 'Beautiful Night' over and over and over again, as the film camera whirred at one location after another on the Nightingale Estate in Hackney. As a bitterly cold wind blew across the open spaces in between the tower blocks, Paul froze along with the rest of the crew and the onlookers while endeavouring to produce another winning video. The director, Julien Temple, had already filmed on location in Liverpool, without Paul, and the previous day Ringo Starr had added his on-camera contribution. Following the tower blocks shoot, one final date was scheduled, in the studio on 4 November, before filming was wrapped up.
            Working in this bitty manner only serves to mystify those who attend just one of the shoots: you see 20 seconds of the video in isolation here, 10 seconds in isolation there, and you're left wondering how they could possibly fit into the overall picture. Just why are a dozen people chucking television sets out of those high windows? Everything will become clear in the end, lad. All in good time.
            Paul and Linda arrived on location around eleven in the morning. Linda, who wouldn't be required on set for another nine hours, did the sensible thing on such a freezing-cold day and took shelter inside a warm Winnebago Adventurer to wile away the time in comfort. Needed on camera, on and off, for those next nine hours, Paul hopped in and out, appreciating the crispness of the day, and the glorious blue sky above the city of London.
            Inevitably, some of the estate's residents stopped to see what was going on. The number of people necessary to staff a video shoot, with attendant caterers and whatnot, the generators that thrum away incessantly, to say nothing of the music blasting out intermittently, does tend to attract attention. All day long, Paul chatted amicably with any stranger who stopped to talk.
            This is the essence of the man: despite his fame and fortune, Paul sees no reason why he should not chat with the ordinary, everyday people -who wish to shake his hand, seek an autograph, snap a photo, have a conversation. As he reminded people when they asked him what he thought of the Nightingale Estate, he himself was raised in council accommodation: not tower blocks, admittedly, for they 'were a 1960s fiasco, but level housing. Not one to forget or lose sight of his roots, Paul is at ease with strangers, and goes out of his way to make them feel comfortable. He spent hours doing this at the 'Beautiful Night' shoot, making a massive impression upon everyone who met him. No request was too great: sign my hand, sign my jacket, sign this photo of my child, sign this person's get-well-soon card, hold my baby, pose with me for my Aunt Dolly's Christmas photo... he did it all.
            In between the socialising, Paul filmed his 'Beautiful Night' performances with a backup band, Spud, that he had not laid eyes on before. Spud are a four-piece combo of A-level students from Ealing,

Club Sandwich 84