Conference beatle::beatles

    
from
    www.yahoo.com/headlines/970311/entertainment/stories/people_mccartney_1.html
    
    
Tuesday March 11 4:36 PM EST (used w/o permission)

Beatle McCartney Knighted Sir Paul By Queen

By Jill Serjeant

LONDON (Reuter) - Paul McCartney, the Beatle who joked 30 years ago about
smoking marijuana in the Buckingham Palace toilets, went back to see Queen
Elizabeth Tuesday to collect a knighthood for helping to revolutionize pop
music.

The impish lad from Liverpool, one of the most successful songwriters in
history, became Sir Paul in a centuries-old ceremony of pomp and solemnity.

But outside the palace, it was just like the old days as central London was
treated to the screaming adulation that marked Beatlemania in the 1960s.

Hundreds of tourists and die-hard fans of the Fab Four, wearing Beatles
t-shirts and badges, gathered outside the palace gates for a glimpse of
McCartney. As they waited they sang old Beatles songs and played Beatles
cassettes on sound systems.

The crowds screamed as McCartney swept through the gates in his
chauffeur-driven limousine, and he answered with a thumbs-up.

On the way out he lowered the car window to smile and wave to the fans. His
wife, Linda, who is fighting breast cancer, and his four children were not
with him. McCartney admitted he was very nervous before the ceremony but
said it had been a great experience.

"Proud to be British, wonderful day and it's a long way from a little
terrace (street) in Liverpool," he told reporters.

It was the second trip to Buckingham Palace for McCartney, now 54, who has
made an estimated $642-million fortune from his talent for dreamy ballads
such as "Yesterday" and catchy pop songs like "Band on the Run."

Along with the three other Beatles, McCartney collected an MBE (Member of
the British Empire) medal in 1965 -- and shocked the stuffy British
establishment by joking that the band had smoked marijuana in the palace
toilets before meeting the queen.  >>I thought this was John - not Paul!<<

McCartney described his first visit to the palace, which attracted
thousands of Beatles fans, in the typically iconoclastic tones of the
1960s.

"It's a keen pad, and I liked the staff. I thought they'd be dukes and
things but they were just fellas. The queen was lovely. She was just like a
mum to us."

McCartney dedicated his knighthood to fellow Beatles George Harrison, Ringo
Starr and the late John Lennon -- shot and killed in New York in 1980 --
and the people of the northwestern port of Liverpool.

Aides say he will not not be calling himself "Sir Paul" -- the title
conferred by the queen tapping him on each shoulder with a naked sword as
he knelt on the investiture stool.

"He's always been a modest chap and he won't be getting us all bowing and
scraping," one aide said.

Lennon, McCartney's co-songwriter, sent back his MBE in 1969 in protest
over the Vietnam War. But McCartney, always the Beatles' diplomat, kept
his.

McCartney's knighthood is considered long overdue even by the conservative
standards used in Britain, which sees most such honors going to judges,
scientists and politicians.

Cliff Richard, Britain's other enduring 1960s pop star, was knighted in
1995. George Martin, the musical genius who produced virtually all the
Beatles hits, got the award last year.

McCartney formed the group Wings after the Beatles spilt up in 1970 and
made records with such stars as Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder before
trying his hand at composing classical music.

He now lives a quiet life on his organic farm in southern England with
Linda, his wife of 27 years. A spokesman for the former Beatle said Linda
was fine but had not accompanied him to the palace because Paul wanted to
keep the family out of the spotlight.

Reuters/Variety