- Title: UNITED KINGDOM: PAUL MCCARTNEY RECEIVES KNIGHTHOOD/ JOAN COLLINS GETS AN OBE
- Date: 11th March 1997
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UK (FILE - OCTOBER 26, 1965) CROWD OF FANS OUTSIDE BUCKINGHAM PALACE BEATLES ARRIVING IN A CAR BEATLES WITH THEIR MBE MEDALS FANS ATTEMPTING TO CLIMB GATES OF PALACE
- Embargoed: 26th March 1997 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM/ FILE
- Country: United Kingdom
- Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz
- Reuters ID: LVA96NQLE7TM7PKM8TFRHB2XBFTF
- Story Text: Paul McCartney had a solo performance at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday (February 11) - when the former Beatle received his knighthood from Britain's Queen Elizabeth.
McCartney, who joked 30 years ago about smoking marijuana in the Buckingham Palace toilets, went back to collect a knighthood for helping to revolutionise pop music.
The impish lad from Liverpool, one of the most successful songwriters in history, became Sir Paul in a centuries-old ceremony of pomp and solemnity.
But outside the palace, it was just like the old days as central London was treated to the screaming adulation that marked Beatlemania in the 1960s.
Hundreds of tourists and die-hard fans of the Fab Four, wearing Beatles t-shirts and badges, gathered outside the palace gates for a glimpse of McCartney. As they waited they sang old Beatles songs and played Beatles cassettes.
McCartney's wife Linda did not accompany him. A spokesman for the former Beatle said Linda was fine but had not attended because Paul wanted to keep the family out of the spotlight.
McCartney admitted he was very nervous before the ceremony but said it had been a great experience.
"Proud to be British, wonderful day and it's a long way from a little terrace (street) in Liverpool," he told reporters.
It was the second trip to Buckingham Palace for McCartney, now 54, who has made an estimated 642 million U.S. dollar fortune from his talent for dreamy ballads such as "Yesterday" and catchy pop songs like "Band on the Run".
Along with the three other Beatles, McCartney collected an MBE (Member of the British Empire) medal in 1965 - and shocked the stuffy British establishment by joking that the band had smoked marijuana in the palace toilets before meeting the Queen.
McCartney has dedicated his knighthood to fellow Beatles George Harrison, Ringo Starr and John Lennon -- shot dead in New York in 1980 -- and the people of the north-western port of Liverpool.
Lennon, McCartney's co-songwriter, sent back his MBE in 1969 in protest at the Vietnam war. But McCartney, always the Beatles' diplomat, kept his.
McCartney formed the group Wings after the Beatles splt up in 1970 and made records with stars like Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder before trying his hand at composing classical music.
Upstaged, for once, by the McCartney-mania, film and TV soap star Joan Collins was also at the Palace to receive her Order of the British Empire (OBE).
Wearing a stylish lilac outfit, with matching wide-brimmed hat, Collins said the order was one of the reasons she will always be British.
Accompanied by her artist son, Sacha, she planned a celebratory lunch at a top London restaurant before getting back to work. "It means a lot having survived in such a perilous profession" she said.
Collinc became best known for her role as the scheming Alexis in the soap opera Dynasty. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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