The day seemed endless but finally my dad came home from work and we got it settled that I would stay over at Anna's house while I went to Los Angeles. Anna and I had met each other on her Beatle mailing list and then my dad and I met her entire family when we went to go see Ringo in concert. The rest of the week went by so slooooow, but finally Friday came around and I took off on a plane to go to L.A. and meet up with Anna. In the late afternoon Anna and I got to talking and all that jazz two teenage Beatle fans do when they get together! At around a quarter till 6:00 p.m. we left her house to drive over to the House of Blues where the whole event was going to take place. Anna was wearing a Beatles For Sale shirt and I was wearing a very psychedelic shirt of the four Beatles during their Sgt, Peppers Era. We got to the House of Blues at around 6:30 and there was a very long line already. We managed to kind of sneak in with a friend we had met at the Ringo concert and cut in line…what luck! We had hidden our cameras hoping to take pictures, but while we were standing in line security kept walking back and forth telling us to get rid of our cameras, that they weren't allowed by request of Mr. McCartney. If they caught you with it inside or outside of the House of Blues they would 1) Take the film out of the camera. 2) Take the camera away and 3) you would leave with your camera, in other words, you would be kicked out! That is when Anna and I chickened out and left our camera with her dad that was going to stay outside during the entire show. A lot of people went back to put the cameras away as well. When the line finally started moving we came up to a podium type thing where they asked for your name and they checked your bag or whatever you had on with you. Then after finding your name you went over to a table where they would give you an envelope with your tickets. After getting the envelope they checked you again. We headed towards the entrance to the House of Blues where we met up with these two guys, maybe in their middle to late 20's and they asked us how we had gotten tickets. After telling them how we had gotten them I told them I came from Texas just to come to this. He smiled and laughed and said, "Well we don't have to worry about the Beatles' legacy, it's going to be in good hands!" I felt so proud of that comment! It was wonderful to hear that!
So we went in and got even more excited because we had gone through the whole inspection…three times we got searched for cameras, and we were now inside, nothing could go wrong now. We edged ourselves over to the front of the dance floor where a lot of people had already positioned themselves to see Paul. We got in through the left side and were standing second row from the stage. I don't think it was more than 4 feet…maybe 5, that we were from the microphone that was standing in the middle of the stage. We stood there listening to the oldies music playing and talking to the other people around us. We ended up telling each other how we had won and all that stuff! A little later we met this guy who had just been given tickets to come and see Paul from a guy standing outside! He had been begging for someone with tickets and he finally got them! What luck!! He was so cool! From what I saw, we were probably the youngest ones there, or at least in our little area of fans. A little later in the evening we met up with this really groovy, amazing, Paul fan named Betty. We ended up listening to some of the most fascinating stories we had ever heard about Paul because she had met him! You can just imagine how excited we were!!! The party was suppose to start at 8:00 p.m. but instead it started around 9:15 p.m. or so. All the while we had been enjoying ourselves talking and sharing experiences with other fans!! I couldn't believe how friendly they were! It was so great to share the love we have for a person with others that know exactly what you're feeling!
Then someone came out to introduce Paul. [Don't rally know who it was.] Before coming out however, they played a video of the making of the album on two big screen T.V.'s which were positioned on either side of the stage. The footage was absolutely incredible! It showed Paul talking about particular songs and stuff and there was footage of him recording the songs, posing for pictures and even dancing to some of the tunes! He was too adorable!!! Then the time came when Paul was to come out! Everyone was waiting for him to step onto that stage….and finally he did! The crowd went wild, obviously and I was pushing forward towards the stage just as everyone else was. Honest to God I was feeling faint! My heart was jumping out of my chest with such excitement! Paul waved and took in all applause and pandemonium coming from the crowd. He was dressed in black/blue jeans [I couldn't tell because of the light] with a white tee under a green, windbreaker type jacket. He was sporting the same tennis shoes he wore at the Town Hall meeting. He looked great to say the least!!! Once the crowd calmed down, took us a while, but we finally managed to do it, Paul started talking about how this [listening party] was why we were and people started cheering again! He talked about some of the songs on the album and why he had chosen them. At one point he got to a statement that started something like "Well me and John…" and he stopped abruptly and waited for the applause, which we all kindly supplied. And then went on. We wouldn't let the man speak, but we were only doing it so he wouldn't leave! Honest! He then said that we reminded him of a Jerry Springer show and he started playing out the part of an offended guest…it was adorable!!!! That got us even more thrilled and screamed even more! Of course he was enjoying every minute of it, it was clear as the water to see that! He was having a blast just like everyone else! He finally said to enjoy the album and thank you for coming and waved one last time before leaving the stage.
Anna and me were in heaven after seeing him! It was such a thrill! We were kind of disappointed he hadn't sung and left so quickly. People around us were saying that was it and that he wasn't going to come back…that got us more in a rut, but once the music started playing we forgot our troubles! The album is so awesome! It has some really cool rockers! There are a couple of ballads, but for the most part the album is full of hyped rock and roll! My favorite song of the album has got to be 'Try Not To Cry.' He totally kicks ass with that one! After the last song had played everyone was hoping he'd come back out…and once again our prayers were answered for he walked out onto the stage. We all went wild again. He thanked us and asked how we had liked it to which we all responded with cheers and praises! From where I was at I could see some people holding albums and pens for Paul to sign and it was in plain view to him, however he merely said " Oh I already have that one, had it for quite a while actually." and kindly rejected signing. There were a couple of people that managed to give him some things. If my memory serves me right it was what looked like a beanie bear and a card/letter sort of thing. For the life of me I can't remember some of the comments people in the crowd made, but I do remember Anna and me trying to get him to show us his shoes! Hehehe. Paul was trying to say goodbye, but we just WOULDN'T let him! He kept saying " I have jet lag, it's past my bedtime….I need to go to sleep and so do you…" but everyone would just scream and object to him leaving. That is when he went into the chant of " JERRY! JERRY! JERRY!" which we quickly took over and changed it to "THANK YOU PAUL! THANK YOU PAUL! THANK YOU PAUL!" He said his goodbyes for like the millionth time and waved one last time to the crowd before I saw the man of my dreams walk of the stage.
There was an announcement that the album would be run through one more time and immediately people started leaving. Anna, Courtney and I stayed there…on the dance floor as everyone tried piling out of there to get a glimpse of Paul as he left. We knew we would never get out there in time to see him so we just stayed put and waited for the album to play. When it did we decided to put the dance floor to good use and danced the rest of the night away. We were the first who initially started the dancing but a few who were still inside joined in. During one of the slow songs, when we didn't know how to dance being as were three girls we messed about doing a tango and stuff and then approached the stage. We just had to touch the place where Paul had been standing not long before and there was actually dirt from his shoes! It was wonderful! After the album finished for the second time we went upstairs to check out what it looked from that position. We walked around there and saw these huge promotional posters/billboard type things that would have been perfect to take a picture with, in fact it would have been perfect to take pictures of Paul too but that's not the point! As we walked further into the area we saw a table reserved for MPL and saw that there were three menus of what was going to be served. Security was standing just beyond there and so Courtney told them it was her birthday, which it was, and if she could take one as a souvenir. She ended up picking all three of them for us. The House of Blues was closing and practically kicking people out so we made our way out of there. We had cups of water that we had obtained after dancing and as we were walking out something strange in my opinion happened. One of the personnel said we couldn't leave with the cups…they were plastic cups for goodness sake! I don't know what they thought we were going to do with them, but they didn't let us take them.
That is how the night ended, but it was all worth it; all the suspense of waiting for Paul to show up! I still can't believe I actually saw him, but I have proof of it…I have my ticket and the menu and one single picture of the outside of the House of Blues with the promotional poster. Thank you Paul for giving me this chance of a lifetime and thank you Anna for inviting me to come with you. I will never forget it, it was such an incredible night for the both of us. I just have one last thing to say. PAUL MCCARTNEY TOTALLY KICKS ASS AND I LOVE HIM!!!!