Musician remembers Sir Paul... with a little help from the Borehamwood & Elstree Times

8:41am Friday 13th June 2008

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It was less Abbey Road and more Shenley Road when Borehamwood resident Patrick Davey met Paul McCartney in 1983.

At the time, the youngster was playing the role of Paul in The Beatles-inspired Elstree Youth Theatre production John, Paul, Ringo and Bert.Now, a quarter of a century later, Mr Davey has revealed he was one of the youngsters shown with Sir Paul in an exclusive Borehamwood & Elstree Times picture.The photo was taken at Elstree Studios and featured in film historian Paul Welsh's column last month, where he appealed for the original actors to get in touch.Mr Davey, now 40, said: "I could not believe it when I saw the picture."Everyone got a copy of it at the time and a contract was signed saying that the Borehamwood Times would be the only newspaper that could publish it."Sir Paul had been visiting the town with his wife Linda to film Give My Regards to Broad Street at the studios, and met the actors from the amateur production."They were both lovely to us," recalled Mr Davey. "Paul was really kind and very jokey as I turned up with the other three boys in our costumes and he loved that. "He turned to us as we walked in and said, 'Oh, it's The Beatles', and then had a guess at which member of the band we each were."It was a fantastic opportunity to meet him and he was great fun."Now Mr Davey is part of a five-piece jazz band called the Fabulous Lounge Swingers, which he formed with Borehamwood resident Scott Baker.Mr Baker, who was not in the original picture with Sir Paul, said: "For Patrick it is fantastic to look back at a memory like that with Paul. "We both went to drama school and in 2006 we decided to create the band. "We are really excited this year as we are playing at the summer festival Bestival, which is being headlined by Amy Whitehouse. It is all going really well for us."Film historian Mr Welsh said Sir Paul had many connections with Elstree Studios and had at one point rented out a sound stage for his group, Wings."Paul was a very pleasant and chatty man and we were lucky to gain access to him," he recalled."I imagined that the key figures of that play would have moved away by now, but it is nice to see that they stayed in the area," he added."It will be a fantastic memory for them and, with the success of the band, it will be a great story for the members of the play to tell their grandchildren."