Let Me Take You Down To Strawberry Field (no 's')

Tuesday morning at ni-i-i-ine o'clock as the day begins...

We thought it was going to rain on our wedding, but the swirling clouds off the Sour Milk Sea ;^) passed to the south. It started to warm up at about 11am...only one hour before the ceremony. YAY!

I arranged for the shuttle to pick up everyone at 11:30am, and it did...right on "shed yule". Everyone was ready with guitars in hand, as we were going straight to The Cavern for sound check at 1pm after the service. Because of those logisitcs, Linda & I kept things...such as our 'wedding attire'...casual. But she STILL looked beautiful WOW and glowing in that gorgeous creme top, holding the fresh flower bouquet I picked up from the market earlier in the day!

Let's see - me & Linda, Joe & Holly, Charlie & Denise, Stan, Tommy, Dale, Pat & MaryJean, his three grown kids and sister MaryLou...who are we missing? JOEY! He said he wanted to come, too! So down the hill we went to The Adelphi to pick him up.

On the way to Strawberry Fields (15 minutes of stop & go city traffic in 30-40 MPH), it was great listening to Joey talk with the driver (a local about Joey's age) and say things like "there used to be a cinema there...that Chinese food place has been there 45 years!...here's where I went to school...we used to jump the bus, and go into that place to cause trouble...". It was SO cool to hear about his childhood in Liverpool on the way there.

We arrived at just after 12noon, and there were about a dozen local folks waiting for us! How sweet. One was "Phil" who kind of adopted us as his favorite band, and followed us EVERYWHERE, including backstage to the Badfinger shows! He plans to visit every single City/Town/Village of Liverpool in the world between now and the next Beatle Week. He brought his camcorder to all our shows, and eventually taped the vows. We can't wait until he visits us here in NYState...he is most welcome. A very nice man.

Another attendee was from the Liverpool Echo newspaper - Deputy Photo Editor Eddie Barford. He snapped photos of the Beatles in the early days. The continued 'spiritually connected elements' of this wedding just keep popping up for us...we are SO blessed.

** Eddie shot the myspace photo you currently see on myspace.com/fabfivepaul!

And just when I thought it couldn't be any MORE special...as we were walking towards the gates of Strawberry Field, I asked Joey to 'give' Linda away, and he agreed. This was a very meaningful surprise for Linda. She's a Beatles fan, but not as hard core as me. She's more of the Cheap Trick, Raspberries (power pop) vein. Badfinger is one of her faves...she knows all the lyrics to every song. She was moved to tears that Joey 'filled in' for her own Dad. This truly turned into a full blown rock & roll wedding!!

Fab Five 12 stringer, Charlie Kraebel, is an ordained Baptist minister, and administered a traditional Elizabethian-era, Anglican service. It lasted only 15 minutes or so, but the language within was so beautiful. The vows were a mouthful for me to repeat-eth, but only 2 short lines for Linda to quote. (Luck-EE) After the rings were exchanged, we kissed and it was over before we knew it.

The band...or should I say, the WEDDING PARTY broke out a bottle of champange as Eddie took some nicely arranged photos, the cups were poured, and we were ready to be toasted.

Our 'Badfinger-only' drummer Tommy Allen just jumped right in and offered a toast to us. It was 'genius' all the way. Would you believe Tommy was Linda's first 'real date' back in 1982? Thank goodness for me it was just ONE! LOL

They stayed friends throughout his days in The Flashcubes and Screen Test. During their friendship in the early 80's, Tommy turned Linda on to Badfinger...so, who could have EVER guessed that Joey Molland AND Tommy Allen would BOTH attend Linda's wedding? It's...it's...GENIUS. (Love ya, Tommy!)

As Eddie B was taking one last picture, the crowd started an impromptu version of John Lennon's legendary song about his childhood - 'Strawberry Fields Forever' - about Lennon's first childhood memory at 4 years old. He heard the Salvation Army Band playing in Strawberry Field (an orphanage and private park, just around the corner from his Aunt Mimi's house). After she explained to him what 'that sound' was, John told Aunt Mimi..."I'm going to play in a band someday, just like the one at Strawberry Fields".

We loaded the bus, and drove to The Cavern. On the way, I strummed on Joe Donelan's acoustic (since I had some room up front) and we sang songs all the way there...a really nice experience. 'All Together Now', 'If I Fell', 'No Matter What' (sorry, Joey...it's "our" song!) and 'Jealous Guy'...my favorite Lennon tune of all time since I was 8 years old. Yet again - a true spiritual connection...Joey played acoustic guitar on that track in Lennon's studio during the Imagine sessions. Who'd have ever believed I would someday be friends with someone DIRECTLY connected to John Lennon in that way?

Eventually, Joey asked to play the "GI-tarr", and he strummed and sang a new original tune that was really beautiful. Unfortunately, his song hadn't quite ended when the shuttle stopped to let us off. I'll have to ask him the title, and if it's coming out on his new CD later this year.

Now...as our week in Beatle-land draws to a close, only one dream is left to come true:

Backing Joey Molland in the place he helped to make famous, by performing live in the late 60's and early 70's...with bands like The Merseys, Gary Walker & The Rain, The Masterminds and of course...

BADFINGER!!!

(Today's date - 12/10: Last blog about BeatleWeek to be posted soon. Thanks for following along...)