The announcement was made that tickets were going on sale at Madison Square Garden for the Wings Over America tour, and I immediately made plans to camp out on behalf of our foursome. After all, I lived in the City and they lived in Queens, so I was the logical choice. I was prepared to stand in line for as long as it took to get the great seats we deserved. I believe it wound up to be a three day-two night excursion, and because my Mom was amazing and unlike any other, she stayed overnight with me that first evening. She said she wanted to be sure that I was okay and surrounded by other benign Beatle people, but looking back, I think she wanted to be part of the "happening" that takes place when like-minded fans wait in line.
When it was finally my turn to stand face to face in front of that ticket agent, I was brokenhearted to find that the only tickets remaining were in the blue sections. For those who don't know or don’t remember, the blue section in the Garden was nicknamed "Heaven" because it was, of course, the very highest section in the arena. In an extremely strategic move that the four of us had discussed prior, if we couldn't get good seats, let alone great seats, we would not buy anything. Instead, we would take our chances scalping tickets out front on the night of the show. Scalping a ticket meant that instead of paying $10 - $20 at the box office, you would give maybe $100 to some guy who was often selling pretty good seats the night of. There was also our Plan B: we had fellow Beatle friends who lived in Long Island and had been able to buy tickets for all of us to the Nassau Coliseum show, in the days when you could still buy six tickets at one time. So yes, if all else failed, we had our ace in the hole that at least we would get to see one show. Of course, we were still determined to see all three.
If you’ve got the new deluxe boxed set remasters of WOA, among the treasures you'll find is a listing of the tour travel schedule and hotel directory. Although it lists the Gramercy Park Hotel as their location in NY, P&L once again stayed at the Stanhope because it felt like home. Their jet flew in and out of Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, and with New York being a hub for the first portion of the tour, they returned to the Stanhope each night. I was already out of school for the term and doing a part-time internship, and the girls had arranged for vacation time off from work, so no surprise that we were always on the scene. We were right there every afternoon to wish them a great show and every evening to welcome them back. On the tour off days, we saw them heading out to see family or just enjoy NY in the warm weather. This was the routine most days for almost the entire month of May, and soon the New York dates toward the end of the month were just around the corner.
The first performance in the New York area was coming up in about ten days at Nassau Coliseum on Friday, May 21, 1976. Just around that time, as Paul and Linda came out of the hotel one day, Paul stopped for a moment to talk as he usually did. Somehow the topic turned to us getting tickets to the show. He asked if we had our tickets to the shows at the Garden. One of us (and I really don't remember who, but it could have been me because remember I had no fear) blurted out no, that we were not going because we couldn't get tickets. He stopped dead and looked at each one of us for a moment before he spoke. "What??" he said, "You lot didn't get tickets??" He was stunned. So were we. We couldn't believe his reaction, he was actually trying to comprehend how it was that the four of us, who seemed to be psychic about almost everything, had missed out on tickets. Now of course, that wasn't exactly how it went, we did have an opportunity to purchase, but now we had inadvertently led him to believe that we were shut out. With no way to back peddle, one of us blurted out (don't remember who, but you know.....fearless) "you should give us tickets to the show.” He thought about that for a split second and laughed, but didn't agree. On the other hand, he hadn't said no either.
When it was finally my turn to stand face to face in front of that ticket agent, I was brokenhearted to find that the only tickets remaining were in the blue sections. For those who don't know or don’t remember, the blue section in the Garden was nicknamed "Heaven" because it was, of course, the very highest section in the arena. In an extremely strategic move that the four of us had discussed prior, if we couldn't get good seats, let alone great seats, we would not buy anything. Instead, we would take our chances scalping tickets out front on the night of the show. Scalping a ticket meant that instead of paying $10 - $20 at the box office, you would give maybe $100 to some guy who was often selling pretty good seats the night of. There was also our Plan B: we had fellow Beatle friends who lived in Long Island and had been able to buy tickets for all of us to the Nassau Coliseum show, in the days when you could still buy six tickets at one time. So yes, if all else failed, we had our ace in the hole that at least we would get to see one show. Of course, we were still determined to see all three.
If you’ve got the new deluxe boxed set remasters of WOA, among the treasures you'll find is a listing of the tour travel schedule and hotel directory. Although it lists the Gramercy Park Hotel as their location in NY, P&L once again stayed at the Stanhope because it felt like home. Their jet flew in and out of Teterboro Airport in New Jersey, and with New York being a hub for the first portion of the tour, they returned to the Stanhope each night. I was already out of school for the term and doing a part-time internship, and the girls had arranged for vacation time off from work, so no surprise that we were always on the scene. We were right there every afternoon to wish them a great show and every evening to welcome them back. On the tour off days, we saw them heading out to see family or just enjoy NY in the warm weather. This was the routine most days for almost the entire month of May, and soon the New York dates toward the end of the month were just around the corner.
The first performance in the New York area was coming up in about ten days at Nassau Coliseum on Friday, May 21, 1976. Just around that time, as Paul and Linda came out of the hotel one day, Paul stopped for a moment to talk as he usually did. Somehow the topic turned to us getting tickets to the show. He asked if we had our tickets to the shows at the Garden. One of us (and I really don't remember who, but it could have been me because remember I had no fear) blurted out no, that we were not going because we couldn't get tickets. He stopped dead and looked at each one of us for a moment before he spoke. "What??" he said, "You lot didn't get tickets??" He was stunned. So were we. We couldn't believe his reaction, he was actually trying to comprehend how it was that the four of us, who seemed to be psychic about almost everything, had missed out on tickets. Now of course, that wasn't exactly how it went, we did have an opportunity to purchase, but now we had inadvertently led him to believe that we were shut out. With no way to back peddle, one of us blurted out (don't remember who, but you know.....fearless) "you should give us tickets to the show.” He thought about that for a split second and laughed, but didn't agree. On the other hand, he hadn't said no either.