May Pang at Concert for George
May Pang and Paul McCartney in 2002. Photo by Dr Mark Plotkin.
In conjunction with the 20th anniversary of the Concert for George at the Royal Albert Hall in London, May Pang posted this photo of herself with Paul McCartney at the after party. She also shared her memories from the day before and the concert day:
Amazing that 20 years ago, I attended the Concert For George in London at The Royal Albert Hall. It was a gorgeous night. Afterwards, there was an after party. My friend, Dr. Mark Plotkin from the organization Amazon Conservation Team, took this photo of Macca and me. Magical night, continued from the night before at Friar Park where Olivia Harrison threw an American Thanksgiving Dinner for all the players on the show. That was the last time I saw a lot of friends that have since passed on… Ravi Shankar, Billy Preston, Astrid Kirchherr and Mo Ostin.
May Pang was John Lennon’s companion and girlfriend when he was separated from Yoko Ono, the time which Lennon labeled as his “lost week-end”. It was an 18 month long week-end, and lots of people think that John was just being drunk or doing cocaine in Los Angeles in this time periode. That is far from true, as Lennon also cleaned up when the couple moved to an apartment in New York. His time with May Pang was Lennon’s most productive, and led to him collaborating with other musicians, like David Bowie and Elton John, among others.
It was in October 1973 that John Lennon and May Pang left New York for Los Angeles to promote “Mind Games”, and Lennon commenced recording of his rock and roll oldies album with Phil Spector producing. In March 1974, Lennon began producing Harry Nilsson’s “Pussy Cats” album and May Pang rented a beach house in Santa Monica for herself, Lennon, Nilsson, Ringo Starr and Keith Moon to live in. At this time, Pang encouraged Lennon to reach out to family and friends. He and Paul McCartney mended fences and played together for the first and only time after the breakup of the Beatles. May also arranged for Julian Lennon to visit his father for the first time in almost four years. “My memories of that time with Dad and May are very clear—they were the happiest time I can remember with them,” Julian recalled, and the cover of Julian’s 2022 album, “Jude”, features a childhood photo of him taken by May.
When Julian met Paul at Heathrow Airport November 12, he asked “Uncle Paul” to promote his new album. From Julian’s Facebook page.
In June 1974, John and May returned to live in Manhattan. Lennon stopped drinking and concentrated on recording his new album, “Walls and Bridges”. The famous photos of John wearing a New York City t-shirt was taken by Bob Gruen on John’s and May’s balcony.
In February 1975, Lennon and Pang were also planning on visiting Paul and Linda McCartney in New Orleans, where Wings were recording the “Venus and Mars” album, but Lennon reconciled with Yoko Ono the day before the planned visit, after Ono said she had a new cure for Lennon’s smoking habit. May says that she and John still kept in touch after he had moved back with Yoko.
A 97 minute documentary, “The Lost Weekend: A Love Story” has been screened a couple of times. First on June 10 via virtual home viewing in conjunction with Tribeca Film Festival, but it was only available for viewers in the U.S.A. November 18, it was screened at the Grammy Museum. The film was produced and directed by Eve Brandstein, Richard Kaufman and Stuart Samuels. We believe the film is currently looking for distributors.
I just saw this last night. I owe the DVD so have already seen it put wanted to see it on the big screen.. It’s such a great concert so for those that haven’t seen it you owe it do yourself to do so. You won’t regret it.