Paul was Here...

Photo Credit: Rock Tour London

On 18 April 1963, The Beatles performed at The Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBCs 'Swingin' Sound '63' program. They played two songs at 8:30pm (Please Please Me and Misery) and then took the stage again at 10:00pm playing Twist and Shout and From Me To You. Reviewing the groups that performed that night for the Radio Times was 17 year old Jane Asher, a budding actress.

After the show's finale, a photographer asked the band to pose for a picture with Jane for the Radio Times Magazine article. The boys were shocked to realize that Jane was a redhead. They'd only ever seen her on Juke Box Jury on black and white television and assumed she was a blonde.

Smitten, Paul asked her out on a date which led to their becoming boyfriend and girlfriend soon after and they were together for some time.

Living with the rest of The Beatles in a Mayfair flat that manager Brian Epstein had secured for them left Paul feeling out of place as he thought the apartment had no soul. He would check in to hotels only to be found out by fans and forced to flee back to that Green Street flat.

Jane's parents, (Richard Asher - a psychiatrist and consultant at Central Middlesex Hospital and Margaret Asher - a professional musician that once taught at the London School of Music -Margaret actually taught George Martin the oboe. Several attempts by her to teach McCartney to read music failed, however) heard of Paul's problematic living situation and offered for him to move into their posh Marylebone home on Wimpole Street.

In the old English tradition of artists living in garret rooms, Paul moved into a small room at the top of the house, next to Jane's brother Peter's room, in December of 1963.

Paul and Jane grew closer and enjoyed their mutual love of literature and theater. McCartney equated living in he Asher home with living in a novel. This family was a well rounded, hardworking, classy bunch. Having never been exposed to a family like this, Paul was astounded that every member of the family had daily agendas that went from early morning to evening every day. He also loved the spirited discussions about literature and poetry they all engaged in often.

The Ashers moved a piano into Paul's small attic room and often, John Lennon would visit and he and Paul would write together. Because McCartney was left handed and Lennon right handed, they would write facing each other like mirror images "eyeball to eyeball on our guitars" as John referred to their process. In the three years that he lived in the Asher house he and John wrote several popular Beatles tunes; All My Loving, And I Love Her, We Can Work It Out (all supposedly about Jane) to name a few. This is also where Paul wrote Yesterday.

There were always fans out front waiting to catch sight of Paul. It became such a nuisance that he, with the help of some neighbors, devised an escape plan he used almost daily that involved climbing out his bedroom window, navigating a small ledge, down to the neighbor's basement flat, where a young couple lived and would let him slip through their place, out to the back mews where a Beatles driver would be waiting for him.

In April of 1965, McCartney purchased a house in the North London neighborhood of St John's Wood, within walking distance of Abbey Road Studios. After extensive renovations, Jane & Paul moved into the house on Cavendish Avenue in March of 1966.

After four years together the couple announced their engagement on Christmas Day, 1967.

Jane was away much of the time, working with her theater group, leaving Paul to live the life of a bachelor with friends in and out of the St. John's Wood house. In July of 1968, Jane stated live on the Dee Time with Simon Dee television show that "I haven't broken it off but it's broken off, finished." It's said that's when and how Paul heard the news as well.

Today the Asher house is a private clinic.

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