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FPSHOT
Oct 24, 2003, 12:30 AM
I believe we have had this before but I can not find it.

Today being a "Concorde" day, a story came up again about the flight George had just after the Bob Dylan Anniversary concert.

It's from Patti Murawski and it comes from Abbey Road's newspage;

"

Oh yes, that story about George entertaining the passengers...I reported it in my Dec. 1992 issue...fitting to share on this last week of supersonic flight.

It happened when George left New York after the Bobfest (Dylan's 30th Anniversary) show in October 1992. George was booked to leave on the Concorde back to London on Monday, Oct 19, 1992 out of JFK to Heathrow. Forty-five minutes into the flight the Concorde had to turn back for New York. Some sort of warning light had come on on the control panel, so they turned around, dumped their fuel (standard procedure) and had to land back at JFK.

The recently retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf was also on the same flight, and he told the NY press, "Luckily, George Harrison was on the plane, so he entertained us." During the layover at the VIP lounge back in New York, George broke out his guitar and played for about 15 minutes. Stormin' Norman reportedly got up and started clapping to the music while George played, and was encouraging the other passengers to join in.
All told, they were laid over for about 3-4 hours while the Concorde was checked out and serviced...they didn't find anything wrong with the plane.

A British Airways spokesman said that no one complained about the delays "because of the unscheduled entertainment"--!!!

What I want to know is, who's got the videotape!

All the best,
Patti Murawski, Editor
The Harrison Alliance

And from Tom in Colorado:

Regarding the news link to the story about First Class air travel. The Harrison impromptu show in the JFK departure lounge was reported at the time. He performed a number of songs on ukulele after the Dylan tribute concert.

sourmilkpinky
Oct 24, 2003, 03:01 AM
Good 'ole George. How sweet of him, it was probably theraputic for him too. I wonder how nervous he was to get back on that plane.

Hari's Chick
Oct 24, 2003, 07:56 AM
Great story. images/icons/smile.gif

beatlebangs1964
Oct 24, 2003, 08:42 AM
I wonder what songs he played. No doubt he delighted his audience.

Savoy Truffle
Oct 24, 2003, 09:43 AM
Yeah, I wonder what songs he played too. This shows to me that George could definitely play the entertainer when need be. I hope these passengers realize how fortunate they were. Somehow I think they might have! images/icons/smile.gif

Great story! Thanks for that, FP. images/icons/smile.gif

Siobhan
Oct 24, 2003, 09:57 AM
I remember reading about that back when it happened. Nice story images/icons/smile.gif *

The incident can't have done much for George's dislike of flying though!

LittleDarlin909
Oct 24, 2003, 10:33 PM
haha, "Stormin' Norman" graemlins/laugh5.gif *

yet another great story about george images/icons/smile.gif