Paul and Linda McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr were among the guests at Pattie Boyd and Eric Clapton’s wedding party on 19 May 1979.
Boyd and Clapton had married on 27 March in Tucson, Arizona, at the Apostolic Assembly of Faith in Christ Jesus church. It was attended by friends and family, but a larger celebration party was organised back in England two months later in England.
The event took place at Hurtwood Edge, their estate in Surrey. McCartney and Harrison were photographed jamming on stage with Traffic drummer Jim Capaldi. McCartney played a right-handed Fender Precision bass guitar left-handed, and Harrison played a left-handed CBS-era Fender Stratocaster right-handed. Zak Starkey, Ringo Starr’s 13-year-old son, also played a Fender Telecaster. The impromptu band was named The Dingalings.
Everyone was sitting around in a big marquee having drinks, and they had some microphones and a bit of a stage thing down the end, and all the kids get on, screaming away. So the grown-ups turfed off, and we had a little play. It was just crazy, you know, but then the newspapers noticed that the next day. There was Ringo, George, me. Is it a reunion folks? Nay. Denny? Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker…
Capital Radio, 14 June 1979
George, Paul, and Ringo also played, only missing John, who later phoned me to say he would have been there too if he had known about it. How that came about, I’ll never know; suffice it to say I had little to do with the invitations; but a great opportunity was lost for the Beatles to reform for one last performance.
The Autobiography
Three hundred people came – Eric’s family, my family, the Ripleyites, the local farmers and tradespeople, and lots of great musicians, who jammed together. We had Jeff Beck, Ronnie Wood, Bill Wyman, Donovan, Robert Plant, Robert Palmer, and Jack Bruce. George, Paul, and Ringo came – for some reason John wasn’t invited, but he said he would have come if he’d been asked, which was sad because if he had, it would have been the first and last time the Beatles played together since the breakup – because the next year he was dead.Lonnie Donegan turned up, uninvited, and said, ‘Where are they all?’
I took him up to the smallest room in the house where they were smoking joints and said, as I opened the door, ‘Guess who’s here?’
They all jumped up and tried to hide the evidence, then George said, ‘I remember when I was a little boy and I knocked on the door of your house and asked for your autograph,’ and Donegan said, ‘That’s why I’m here. I want it back!’
Mick Jagger came with Jerry Hall, who had been engaged to Bryan Ferry but had left him for Mick. Moments later Bryan Ferry arrived and asked who was there. When I told him that Mick and Jerry had just arrived, he turned on his heel, jumped into his car, and zoomed off, taking half the drive with him.
The party started at three or four in the afternoon and went on with people coming and going until morning. We had two marquees, a small one for the children, which was full of toys and games, and another with a dance floor, a stage for the musicians, and loads of guitars. Roger had asked his friends from the East End to come as security, and as Eric was walking down the drive in the middle of it all, out jumped a guy from the bushes with a sawed-off shotgun and aimed it at his head. ‘I live here,’ said Eric indignantly.
Fireworks began at about midnight. Roger had asked Paines, the manufacturers, to design the display and it was the most amazing fireworks show I have ever seen. Half the village could see them and the noise was loud enough to wake everyone in Surrey. The village policeman was with us (wise move), and when Roger said, ‘Oh, God, I’m going to get complaints about these fireworks,’ he replied, ‘Fireworks? What fireworks?’ He was great. He used to come in for a drink in the early hours of the morning and we’d give him a brandy or two and send him on his way. We never had any trouble.
By the time Eric and I went upstairs to bed it was daylight. We were ready to drop – but Mick and Jerry were tucked up and fast asleep in our bed, with little Jade, his daughter with Bianca Jagger, sleeping sweetly beside them. Trust Mick to have found the best bed in the house.
Wonderful Today