George and Paul on stage in 1979

Pattie Boyd and Eric Clapton were married in Tucson, Arizona on the 27th of March 1979. A couple of months later, on May 19th, they held a wedding reception at their home in Hurtwood Edge, in England. For a long while, we had no photos from the famous «Beatles reunion» which took place at this wedding reception. Then in 2019, Zak Starkey posted this photo of himself on the guitar, Jim Capaldi behind the drums and Paul McCartney playing bass guitar.

Zak Starkey, Jim Capaldi and Paul McCartney on stage at Eric and Pattie’s wedding party, 1979.

We have had some of Linda McCartney’s photos from the occasion, with Paul, George, Ringo and Lonnie Donegan, but no other photos from the stage. But today, another photo showed up in our SoMe feed. Clearly taken seconds before or after the one Zak posted, we can also see George Harrison next to Paul.

This new photo was published in Pattie’s new book. According to reports from the occasion, some of the songs played were «Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band», «Get Back» and «Lawdy Miss Clawdy».

12 Responses

  1. Ess Emm says:

    Such a pleasure to see Paul and George playing together. Mixed emotions: joy at seeing the photo, a nagging sadness contemplating what might have been if John had been present. Fantastic pic, thanks for sharing.

  2. Blakey says:

    Such a shame John and Yoko didn’t go. John said he would have done if he’d known.

  3. Looks like George is playing a lefty Stratocaster flipped around and strung for a righty (you can tell by the upside down headstock and tuners). You’d think Eric would have had a bunch of righty Strats on hand at home 😉 Who knows, maybe that was the lefty he bought for his friend Jimi Hendrix prior to his death. He reportedly did buy one either the day of or before his death to give to him and he never got the chance to give it to him. Whatever the case, it has been customized so a righty like George could play it. Similarly, Paul is playing a righty bass, but not sure if he reversed the strings or not. I know Paul could play passable guitar on a righty upside down at parties and such, but never heard of him doing the same on a bass.

    • Shad Radna says:

      I suppose it might explain why Paul is watching his right hand in both photos – not something he generally needs to do. Although George seems to be watching his left hand too, so maybe they were just avoiding looking at each other.

    • Dave says:

      Enough of the “righty” nonsense…

  4. nateboy2 says:

    I’m assuming John was unable to attend due to his immigration problems?

  5. Jon Schorle says:

    I knew there were pictures out there of them playing that night
    Good to finaly see them. Got any more?

  6. Tim Wilson says:

    Amazing to see George and Paul playing. Unfortunately, such lousy film cameras were common back then. If Zak has the original negatives, it could probably be processed in a way to look crisper. I recall someone saying the boozy session was not the greatest, but they were just having fun.

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