8 days until the start of the Get Back sessions
The party was on, and the feeling – the kind that only came that time of year – was there.
Let’s raise a glass – but don’t look down – to Linda Eastman. Having a professional photographer who would never leave her camera behind has given the world a view of Paul McCartney and Beatles we otherwise wouldn’t have had.
Like on Crimble 1968. Paul and Linda were on the Wirral to celebrate the holiday with family, specifically at Jim McCartney’s home in Heswall. Lacking in written recollections, Linda’s photos tell plenty of story. Some of these have been posted on her terrific archival Instagram account, others at different exhibitions and elsewhere, and they probably span a couple days around the holiday.
Anecdotally, Paul seems to be having an absolute blast. He sports an authentic smile in every photo.
This photo of Paul with his uncle Harry and aunt Jin first emerged in the 2021 McCartney 3,2,1 documentary.
From Linda’s Instagram: “Self-portrait with Paul. Christmas, Liverpool, 1968.”
The word was out about the town: Two different stories emerged from this one image with local Christmas carolers, who were greeted by a Beatle when they knocked on his dad’s door.
From Linda’s Instagram: “Paul with carol singers. Heswall, 1968”
From the There Are Places I Remember: Beatles Liverpool Locations blog:
What’s truly remarkable about this photo is that the young man on the extreme right of the photo, over Paul’s left shoulder is Neil Harrison.
In 1979, aged 28, Harrison joined the cast of the West End musical Beatlemania, playing the part of John Lennon. In March 1980, after the musical’s last West End show, Harrison formed The Bootleg Beatles with fellow cast members Andre Barreau and David Catlin-Birch, the musicians reportedly investing their dwindling finances in two guitars – an Epiphone and a Gretsch – as well as two Vox amplifiers, four black polo-necks and a wig.
Harrison performed the John role in the Bootleg Beatles until retiring in 2011.
Meanwhile, according to the Instagram account of the Staves — whose debut was co-produced by Glyn Johns and son Ethan – the other man holding a guitar in the photo is the father of the members of the British folk group (once a trio, now a duo).
The turkey situation was less chaotic than at Apple headquarters a few days earlier. Paul took control of the carving.
New dad Mike McCartney was probably there, and we can guess he was picking at that bird. From the December 14, 1968, issue of DISC and Music Echo, in discussing upcoming holiday plans, which included visiting Jim Mac if baby Benna was born before Christmas:
“It’ll probably be the usual Christmas scene with pud and turkey,” he says. “If I’d spent it at our home, I’d have liked to try something different, there must be other fantastic things you can have.
“We like French cooking, and my wife cooks such fantastic pork chops with garnishings I could eat those all through Christmas. …
“I’m a traditionalist at heart though. It would be such a gas if people could be like that and jolly all the time.”
The same issue placed hit Apple artist Mary Hopkin with her parents, too, in Wales. The newspaper was positively cruel in describing her:
Mary Hopkin, who is looking a shade fatter after three months in the chart, will throw diets to the winds at Christmas which she will spend quietly with her family in Pontardawe, Wales.
“I want to spend a quiet Christmas with my family,” says Mary. “I get to see them so rarely now, and I love Christmas at home.”
Broadcast across the kingdom, Queen Elizabeth II delivered her annual Christmas message, another event Linda captured on film.
On the heels of the tense White Album sessions and just a week from reuniting for a new project after some weeks apart, a certain quartet from Liverpool could take heed at a remark from the Queen that served as a bit of a warning:
The British people together have achieved great things in the past and have overcome many dangers, but we cannot make further progress if we resurrect ancient squabbles.
They May Be Parted 