John Saved Paul During Mad Day Out

I found an intersting story at the AbbeyRd site about John saving Paul during the Mad Day Out photo shoot:

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/s...ing%20Standard

Paul saved by John
By Jonathon Brown, Metro
5 February 2003
In a dramatic shot, photographer Tom Murray captures John Lennon saving Paul McCartney from falling from a Tube station roof.

It happened when Tom came along with war photographer Don McCullin to shoot the cover for the Fab Four's next album, which turned out to be The White Album.

Today, the 23 negatives, which lay forgotten in a drawer, are valued by Christie's auction house at £75,000 each - a total of more than £1.5million.

The one taken on the roof at Old Street station picked up most interest during its New York showing at The Pop International Gallery on West Broadway.

Now, The Mad Day: Summer Of 68 exhibition is coming to Britain - at Liverpool's Matthew Street Gallery, near the site of the original Cavern Club.

Tom, then 25, recalled: 'Paul almost fell from the Tube station roof. It took a lunge from John to grab and save him.

'The other boys reacted, too - holding on to each other. It was not staged - there was a 20ft drop.

'Later, John suddenly slumped. The others, looking worried and hovered over him to make sure he was okay. But it was just John being John.'

Tom, now a top New York photographer, spent a Sunday morning with the band 35 years ago, then at the peak of their success. He said: 'They were tired of shoots and wanted to give it one day to get it out of the way. Don told me he was shooting a band - but refused to tell me which one.

'The first I knew was when a door opened and I saw Paul. He was singing Lady Madonna.'

The locations - Old Street, Highgate and Docklands - were selected at random because crowds of fans would gather quickly.

Tom came back to Paul's St John's Wood home with the rest of the band - George Harrison, who died last year from cancer, and Ringo Starr - only to find fans fainting at the sight of their idols.

It was not until John was shot in 1980 that Tom thought again about the image of the Beatle playing dead.

But he has since released the prints to raise money for Aids, children's and drugs charities.

• The Mad Day: Summer Of 68 is at the Matthew Street Gallery Liverpool, April 24 to May 18.

"Thank you Johnny!"

...and thank you Siobhan!

BEATLELINKS: Feeder of important here-to-fore undisclosed minutia that we didn't know we couldn't live without. [img]graemlins/thumbsup2.gif[/img]

I've seen many photos from this shoot, but not this one. Very interesting. Great story, too! Thanks, Siobhan for posting this!

JOHNNY, MY HERO! [img]graemlins/inlove7.gif[/img]

Actually, if you look at the photo, you see George's hand almost making a grab for Paul's arm.

Thanks for the article and link, Siobhan!

That just goes to show you...

"What are friends for?"

Originally Posted By PaulsPrincess:
Thank you John! You know in a way this article makes you realize how much they really cared about eachother even when perhaps perfessionaly they were growing apart (or perhaps the others just reached for Paul out of instinct... [img]graemlins/wink3.gif[/img] ...) still I would like to think it was some sort of brotherly bond that made John lunge for Paul... ahhh... never-the-less hurray for John!
[img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif">My sentiments, exactly.

Interesting... He couldn't have gotten by without... a little help from his friends... *smacks forehead* sorry, couldn't help meself!

[img]graemlins/laugh4.gif[/img]

LOL....

THE FORBIDDEN STRIPES! [img]graemlins/drool.gif[/img]

Thank you John! You know in a way this article makes you realize how much they really cared about eachother even when perhaps perfessionaly they were growing apart (or perhaps the others just reached for Paul out of instinct... [img]graemlins/wink3.gif[/img] ...) still I would like to think it was some sort of brotherly bond that made John lunge for Paul... ahhh... never-the-less hurray for John!
Thanks for posting the article Siobhan! I've never seen this picture before, it's great.
[img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Almost looks like a scene from the Rutles. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Thanks for the link, Siobhan! This is very interesting!

You can't really see John's face in this picture, but I think you can see from the body language that this was no goofing about! Thank God he grabbed Paul, I shudder to think about the other possibility!

Good for John! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Originally Posted By Harbidge:
Almost looks like a scene from the Rutles. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif">Yeah. "Piggy In The Middle". [img]graemlins/laugh4.gif[/img]

If I didn't know the story behind it, I would have thought it was just another posed wacky Beatles photo...how dramatic!

The first sentence said John saved Paul. That was a little confusing at first.

Thanks for sharing this!

On this day in 1964 the Beatles arrived in America!

Well, ya know what Paulie was singing that day

I get by with a little help from my friends

web page

This site will help!

Paul's not giving a thumbs-up (so we know it's serious!)! [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

YUM....George....

Interesting... in the article g_o_c9 posted it stated that they were "pretending" to fall... wonder who got their facts mixed up? It looks to me like they're on the edge, but who knows for sure. [img]graemlins/thinker.gif[/img]
Anywho thanks for posting the links! Both had some great pictures and good articles! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Originally Posted By Hari's Chick:
Paul's not giving a thumbs-up (so we know it's serious!)! [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

YUM....George....

<font size="2" face="Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif">[img]graemlins/laugh7.gif[/img]