Shine On-line

Lady Linda McCartney

It was with the greatest sadness that we all read last month that Linda had lost her battle against breast cancer, just when it seemed she was making a good recovery.

As well as contributing much to Paul's music, Linda made outstanding contributions in the fields of animal welfare, vegetarianism and healthy eating. No one has campaigned more in changing the nation's eating habits as Linda, who would eat 'Nothing with a face' and encouraged the nation to follow suit.

In a recent book, Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, Paul recounts that his first meeting with Linda was on May 15th, 1967 at the Bag O'Nails Club, where she was taking photos of The Animals. They all went on to The Speakeasy. 'It was the first evening that any of us had heard Procol Harum's A Whiter Shade of Pale . The lyrics were all very poetic. We just thought 'God, what an incredible record!'

In the book Linda tells how the No 1 hit became 'their tune' and always reminded her of their meeting. Gary had a message from the McCartneys a few weeks ago via Wix and Margo. Linda and Paul had told them to tell Gary that AWSoP was 'their song' and that it had meant so much to them as they'd fallen in love when they first met and the record had been playing.

Gary recalls that Procol met her in October 1967 at the Café A Gogo in New York's Greenwich Village where she was taking pictures. He also met her when he played with McCartney's 'Rockestra' at Abbey Road and then played a concert at Hammersmith Odeon.

'She was a very nice girl and I remember she made us all take Redoxon before going on stage so we'd stay healthy.'

Shine On wish to express our sadness to Sir Paul and their children and will hope that the work started by Linda will continue long into the future.