This  was originally published on a private Paul McCartney list on 4/24/01.  The webmaster thanks Bob and Freeman for allowing this post to be shared with all who visit!

      Hey Gang,
     Well, where to start? Well it all begins with a trip to New York City to
see Les Paul at the Iridium. Freeman and myself have been
talking about seeing Les Paul for over a year now. So with both of us going
to the Paul McCartney interview tomorrow, we got together and decided to go
to NYC to sit in on both of Les Paul's sets. The first set was pretty much
uneventful other than Les Paul and his band playing great. So between sets we
moved up front to the first table and sat down to eat dinner. The club began
to fill up again and the seats next to us in the middle remained empty. A
person tried to sit in the seats and was quickly asked to leave and the
Manager told them that the seats were for Les Paul's VIP guests. At this
time, Freeman and myself looked at each other both knowing that Paul
McCartney was good friends with Les Paul. In fact, we had thought enough
beforehand to take a chance and bring our digital cameras as well as covers
of Run Devil Run and Wingspan just in case our dreams were answered. We had
been joking all night how amazing it would be if Paul showed up but kept
laughing it off. But now with the announcement of VIP guests, we
thought....well maybe. Of course I had to try to keep crazy about thinking of
it and I announced to Freeman that it would probably be someone like William
Shatner who would be drunk and combative demanding to sing his priceline dot
com song. We both had a great laugh at that one.
    Freeman knew Les Paul from before and one of the guys in his band (Lou
Pollo) came on stage in front of us for the second set. He immediately looked
down at Freeman and said "You guys are in luck tonight" and pointed towards
the back of the club. The club is really small  (88 maximum capacity) and
looking back, we saw Paul McCartney (dressed in black tux and black trainers)
and Heather Mills ( in an olive/gold chiffon gown on and diamond shoes) and
where do they sit......you guessed it, the table right next to
us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
     You could imagine the excitment of Freeman and myself now trying to plan
when and where to start taking pictures. They did not seem receptive in the
beginning so we did not try to snap any shots. As Les Paul played, McCartney
continued to watch and sing along with many of the songs. Paul and Heather
seem extremely happy as they held hands during the whole show exchanging
glances back and forth. Paul of course was still wearing both wedding bands
as usual. We tried not to stare too much and we started out taking pictures
of Les Paul and his fantastic trio. Paul bopped and sang and played drums on
the table during the whole set. Heather also sang along with many of the
songs and looked stunning. I snuck a couple of dark shots without flash just
in case I didn't get an opportunity later to take any. Les Paul got towards
the end of his set and he announced that he had a special friend in the
audience but he had promised him not to say his name. Les went on to say that
they had been friends for many years and hoped they'd still be friends after
this. Les than asked the crowd to welcome his "special friend". Of course
everyone in the place knew it was Paul and gave a loud resounding cheer. He
then got Paul to come up on stage and directed him over to a mic. Freeman and
I looked at each other and tried to pinch ourselves as now it appeared as if
Paul would be singing. As he approached the stage, many cameras started
snapping away so we figured that this was our opportunity to do so as well.
We took a bunch of photos of Paul on stage. Well, Paul did not sing but he
did take time to praise Les Paul and tell a quick story of the first song
that John and himself ever played together was Les Paul's "How High the
Moon". Of course Les Paul was tickled to death at this and Paul left the
stage after a hug and a kiss of Les and said he didn't want to interupt the
set. With this, Les Paul waited for Paul to get back to the seat and then
asked who this young lady was with him. He asked if this legal or if he was
just screwing around. Paul said it was "Heather" and Les Paul stated "The
Heather we've been hearing about?" Paul answered in the affirmitive and with
that, Les Paul started to encourage Heather to the stage to say Hi. Macca
also mentioned that she played sax and urged her to go up on stage. Heather
then went onstage where she enagaged in a little light banter with Les Paul
about sex and then about her playing sax. She confirmed that she did in fact
play alto sax and she stated that she wished she had brought it with her.
Again we took some pictues while she was on stage. As she was getting off the
stage, Les Paul began to tease McCartney some more where Paul took off his
tuxedo jacket and started pointing at Les Paul. We got some great shots of
this fooling around. After they finished joking around, Les Paul finished his
set and walked off stage where he hugged and kissed Paul as he went by. The
house announcer then asked all to thank Les Paul and his special guests Paul
McCartney and his wife Heather. With this, the whole joint started to uproar
with Paul and Heather laughing. Freeman yelled over to Paul "Hey, we didn't
hear about that." Paul made a who knows gesture and hit the table and said
back to Freeman "I didn't even know about that" All had a great laugh over
it. " Paul then had people start handing him things to sign, at this point
Freeman reached into his jacket and grabbed our two cd jackets from his coat
and Freeman's wife handed them to Paul to sign. Paul could not reach them so
Heather handed them to him. Paul became excited upon seeing my WingSpan cd
cover and pointed out to Heather that the CD wasn't even released yet and
asked where we got it. We all in unison told him from the TV offer. He had
been signing the previous autographs with a ball point pen but upon seeing
the Wingspan and Run Devil covers and saw Freeman holding a black sharpie. He
put down the pen and reached for the sharpie. He signed both covers for us as
well as maybe 10 others. As he was signing, Freeman leaned down and asked
Paul if he could take a picture with him and Paul said "yes". Freeman almost
passed out trying to stand up after it (yes, Freeman was Paulzapped). Paul
then began to get ready to leave and I took the chance to walk over and asked
Heather if I could take a shot of her and Paul. She told me to ask Paul.
While I wnet over to ask Paul, Heather had asked to take a picture with
Freeman. So while they posed, I asked paul for a picture and again he stated
"yes". So I leaned down and got a picture with the man. Pictures to come
soon. He then left after signing two or three more things.
     We then got to see Les Paul where we posed for a photo with him and had
some things signed by him as well. I'll say right off the bat that Paul
looked fantastic. Healthy and happy and very much in love with Heather. So
what did you do tonight?????    :P

bob & freeman   (of the excellent adventure)