A Pattie Boyd Biography
John Whelan
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/8446/pattibio.html
COMPILED BY: Elle: good2bfree@h...
A Pattie Boyd Biography
Patricia Anne Boyd was born March 17, 1945 in Somerset,
England. She was the first child of the Boyd family, who would
soon welcome daughters Paula and Helen (better known as Jenny).
Boyd had a good relationship with her sisters, particularly Helen,
who got her nickname from one of Boyd's favourite dolls. The family
moved to Kenya for some time during the 1950's for their father's job,
they returned when Boyd was in her late teens. Boyd and her sister
Jenny went out to London in 1962, where they began successful
modeling careers. Pattie and Jenny were used to traveling for the jobs,
usually to New York City. Pattie also modeled in Paris for mod
designer Mary Quant. Pattie's exposure in the press led to her
getting a commerical contract from American director Richard Lester.
Lester wanted Pattie to be the Smith's Crisps girl. Smith's Crisps is
a potato chip company in the UK. She was to be in television
advertisements and do promotional appearances at stores throughout
London. Around the same time,Lester was hired to do a film to The
Beatles. He liked working with her for the advertisements , so he
offered her a small role in A Hard Day's Night. Pattie was casted as
a schoolgirl in the opening scene, named Jean. However, her part is
shortened to the line "Prisoners?" and she is also seen during the
Beatles' performance of "I Should've Known Better." Boyd later
commented that it would be her last acting role, (which it was), stating
"I'm quite happy modeling."
After a few days of filming, Pattie and some of the other schoolgirls
asked the Beatles for their autographs, except John (Boyd was afraid
of his sarcasm). George signed autographs for Pattie and her sisters.
He put one kiss on Pattie's sisters autographs, and seven for Pattie.
Pattie said on her first meeting with George: "George hardly said
hello. When we started filming, I could feel George looking at me and
I was a bit embarrassed."
After admiring Boyd from afar, Harrison proceeded to ask Pattie on a
date. Just when George was about to give up, she said yes. She
already had a boyfriend, but she found that this date would probably
be harmless and he'd never find out. Their first date consisted of
going out to dinner and driving around London. Pattie secretly dated
George for a few dates, but soon had to break up with Eric Swayne, a
30-year-old photographer whom she dated for two years.
Boyd, circa 1964: "Eric was my boyfriend, but not any longer. George
is tremendous fun to be with. We want it to stay just fun without having
to talk about engagements and marriages."
Harrison, circa 1964: "She's my kind of girl and we like each other a
lot but marriage is not on our minds. We hope to see more of each
other when we can. It isn't a sin to have a girlfriend, is it?
Once Boyd broke up with her boyfriend,(to avoid tabloid scandal), the
couple was able to plan their first holiday together, which would be
with the Lennons, to Ireland. This was Pattie's first exposure
to "Beatlemania", for soon the press found out were they were. Nobody
knew Boyd's name, but they were trying their best to find out. Their
holiday was ruined, all they wanted now was to leave and go back to
London. Pattie and Cynthia disguised themselves as maids, then hiding
in the dirty linen basket. The basket was then pushed out by a
bellboy, who took them to the airport. Unfortunately for the women,
he forgot about them, only thinking of the good deed he did. When
they finally got out, John and George were laughing hysterically.
Despite problems in Ireland, the four of them were able to sneak away
from the press, in which they traveled Waikiki, Hawaii. They were
able to stay from May 5 to May 20, 1964. After that, they even
stopped by Los Angeles with only being noticed once. But the press
found them again, and Pattie would not pose for the photographers.
Oddly, George, who would learn to hate the press in later years,
finally introduced Pattie as "my 29-year-old sister, my chaperone" as
a joke.
With their relationship now public, Pattie started writing a column
for 16 Magazine called "Pattie's Letter From London" which, among
other things, included beauty tips. By early 1965, Pattie moved into
George's Esher bungalow. The fans hated Pattie for taking "their
George" away after they realized how serious their relationship was.
The only Beatle wife (or future one) that had the fans' blessing was
Cynthia Lennon, and Pattie received most of the torture from the
fans. Harrison's fans would stalk Pattie whenever she was out, spit
at her, kicked her, beat her, and some even had threats of murder if
she didn't break up with George. When Pattie told Harrison how the
fans acted toward her, George went out to tell the girls to stop it,
but they were too busy staring at him, not listening to him.
Things were about to get worse for the fans. George proposed to
Pattie on Christmas day, 1965. Boyd recalled in 1968:
"We were just motoring along [to Brian Epstein's party] listening to
the radio when suddenly he very calmly told me he loved me and wanted
us to get married. I think I just said yes or some such nonsense, but
believe me, inside I was doing cartwheels. We really were very much
in love."
They were married soon after the proposal, January 21, 1966 at the
Epsom Registry Office in Surrey. Paul McCartney was the only Beatle
in attendance. John and Ringo sent their best wishes, flowers, and
very expensive gifts for the newlyweds. The couple were in outfits
designed by Mary Quant, and to many, it was the picture perfect
marriage. They posed for the obligatory wedding photos with their
families, and were headed off to Barbados, where they let the press
take photos of them on the beach together.
When they returned to Esher after their honeymoon, they entertained
guests. Pattie's sisters came over a lot, because often George was
out. George said he didn't want any more press, so Pattie was to give
up her budding modeling career. Her last photo shoot was with her
sister, Jenny, for Vogue UK. Pattie tried to help out the poor, but
the press made a big story out of it. Boyd was forced to become a
northern wife and give up her career for the sake of her husband's.
A new culture in London was emerging at the same time, with free love
and drugs. Pattie, along with many other of the fashionable people of
the 1960's, soon found the usual glasses of wine turning into
marijuana, LSD and heroin. Boyd's first experience with LSD took
place in 1964. Cynthia Lennon recalled the incident in the 1980's:
"I'll always remember that when we walked into this man's (a one-time
friend of George Harrison's) drawing room, there were four lumps of
sugar arranged along the mantelpiece. We all(her, John, George and
Pattie) had a delicious dinner and lots of wine. When the coffee
came, one of the four sugar lumps was put into each of our cups. It
was as if we sudenly found ourselves in the middle of a horror film.
The room seemed to get bigger and bigger. Our host seemed to change
into a demon. We were all terrified. We knew it was something evil-we
had to get out of the house. But this man told us we couldn't leave.
We got away somehow, in George's Mini, but he came after us in a
taxi. It was like having the devil following us in a taxi. We tried
to drive to some club-the Speakeasy, I think it was. Four of us,
packed into a Mini. Everybody seemed to be going mad. Patti wanted to
get out and smash all the windows along Regent Street. Then we turned
around and started heading for George's place in Esher. God knows how
we got there. John was crying and banging his head against the wall.
I tried to make myself sick, and couldn't. I tried to got to sleep,
and couldn't. It was like a nightmare that wouldn't stop, whatever
you did. None of us got over it for about three days."
As Boyd's drug consumption increased, so did her need for
fulfillment. The couple had taken a trip to India in 1966, and were
fascinated by the country. When a friend suggested to Boyd to hear
Marharishi Mahesh Yogi speak, she thought it was a good idea. She
told Harrison, and eventually most of The Beatles and their entourage
went to hear him speak. Boyd thought it would be a good idea to get
spiritual fulfillment by going to this lecture, since she wasn't
happy being by herself all the time. However, she would eventually
regret this decision for two reasons. First, George fell deeply in
love with India and being very spiritual, a major part in the breakup
of their marriage. Secondly, they all came back disappointed by not
receiving spiritual fulfillment, and were cheated by the Maraharsi,
whom had less than spritiual practices. The end of their happy
marriage was coming.
March 12, 1969 was the day Paul and Linda McCartney were wed. Also
that day, Pattie answered the door of Kinfauns to find Sergeant
Norman Pilcher. He had a warrant to search their house for illegal
substances. They tore the house up looking for whatever they could
find. They were charged with possession of cannabis resin
[marijuana]. They were taken to the jail and released on bail. They
plead guilty, and they claimed they had no idea the drugs were where
they were. They had a stash somewhere else they said, which weren't
found. Ironically, the Sergeant who searched the house was charged
with planting illegal drugs on an innocent suspect a few years later.
However,this wasn't the first time that Pattie and George were
involved in drug busts. A bit earlier in 1967, Pattie, George, Mick
Jagger and Marianne Faithfull, along with some other friends, were
partying at one of the places of Mick and Marianne. As usual, drugs
were present, mostly LSD, but also heroin,. The police knew what was
going on, but with the Beatles' lawyer David Jacobs and manager Brian
Epstein, which the police respected, they were alright. Only a few
hours after the Harrisons left did the police raid the house. Of
course, by the time of the Harrisons' drug bust, both David Jacobs
and Brian Epstein were dead.
With George Harrison's increasing drug use and isolating himself from
Boyd through his religion, the marriage continued to get worse.
Harrison acted upon the chances given to him, which was the complete
opposite of Boyd. There were plently of opprunities for her as well,
even an tryst with John Lennon, (who was infactuated with Pattie),
but Boyd still cared deeply for her husband. She was aware of the
problems in her marriage, but did not have an affair at this point.
While their marriage was coming apart, Eric Clapton became friendly
with George Harrison. Clapton did uncredited work on
Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", and they became instant
friends. Clapton would spend a lot of time with George and Pattie,
and he could tell things weren't good between the couple. Pattie
flirted a lot with Clapton to get her husband's attention, but the
plan backfired, Clapton was falling in love with Pattie, becoming
extremelly jealous of his best friend.
Clapton's attempt to win Boyd's heart started with dating one of her
sisters. He also started to reject religion, he believed Pattie's
unhappiness was to be blamed on it. Pattie finally listened to
Clapton, and they began seeing each other, but as Boyd commented
later, she felt very uncomfortable about the whole situation.
Clapton's obsessive love for her fascinated and frightened Boyd, and
when he said it was either drugs or her, Pattie backed out of their
relationship. Her rejection, along with the death of Clapton's good
friend Jimi Hendrix, led Eric into a 3-year bout of depression and
drugs. It was during this time Clapton wrote "Layla", one of his most
popular songs, which was as straightforward to Pattie as possible,
which asked her "to ease my worries now". The title came from the
1,000-page The Story Of Layla And Manjun, which was about a Manjun's
obsessive love for women he could not have, Layla.
While Clapton went into seclusion from the public, Pattie had
problems of her own. During night at Ringo and Maureen Starr's home
proved to break uptwo marriages. Harrison suddenly said how much he
loved Maureen, and Boyd broke down in tears. Ringo Starr, who knew of
Harrison's ways, could just roll his eyes. With such a shocking turn
of events,Boyd started to defy what was told of her by Harrison. She
started modeling again, and began a relationship with guitarist Ron
Wood. She still lived at Friar Park (which Harrison still lives in
today) with her husband, but her life almost ended in 1972.
George Harrison always loved racing cars, and when he drove along
roads, he drove just as fast. Boyd was in the car when they crashed,
and she was knocked out unconscious and had serious injuries,
including broken ribs, cuts and bruises. She was admitted into a
hospital, where she stayed for several weeks, and then had
rehabiliation for a while after that. When Boyd got her strength
back, she was back out again with Harrison. Eric Clapton, even though
still in depression, would often come out to some parties. On one
particular night, he was at the same party with George and Pattie.
Clapton got Harrison's attention when Boyd was away, and simply told
him, "I'm in love with your wife." Harrison just replied, "Fine, you
get her, I get your girlfriend." By this time, Pattie came back on
the scene and was completely shocked that Clapton had the nerve to
tell George that he loved her and that Harrison was insensitive to
her. She left angry at the both of them. But it was only a matter of
time before Boyd left Harrison.
In 1974, George decided on the spur of the moment to try one more
time to straighten out his marriage to Pattie, but it was too late.
Pattie had flown to Los Angeles in desperation and was staying with
her sister Jenny, and her husband, Mick Fleetwood. Soon after, she
went to see Eric Clapton in Miami. After all his heartache of not
being able to have Pattie as his wife, he finally had the woman of
his dreams. George's and Pattie's divorce was finalized June 9, 1977.
George on Eric's relationship with Pattie:
"We both loved Eric, still do....Pattie and he got together after
we'd really split, and actually we'd been splitting up for years.
That was the funny thing, you know. I thought that was the best thing
to do, for us to split, and we'd should've done it much sooner. I
didn't have any problems about it; Eric had the problem. Every time
I'd go and see him he'd really be hung up about it...I was saying, 'I
don't care.'
Pattie married Eric Clapton March 27, 1979 in Tuscon, Arizona. Forty
of their closest friends, including Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr,
Denny and JoJo Laine, Mick Jagger, Elton John and David Bowie, were
in attendance. Someone even had the nerve to sing "Something" at the
party they held at Hurtwood Edge for their friends in England. George
and his new wife, Olivia, came for the party after which an all-star
band played. There was a semi-Beatles reunion, with George, Paul and
Ringo taking the stage. The night after the marriage, Eric brought
Pattie on stage on his tour and sang to her, "Wonderful Tonight", a
song inspired by her. The next day he sent her off to England.
Pattie was again being left at Hurtwood Edge by herself. The northern
wife pattern started again. Her alcoholism continued to worsen, along
with Eric's. Clapton's love for Pattie was still there, but he
claimed later he just didn't know how to have a "normal
relationship". By 1985, Boyd had enough. Clapton had had very public
affairs and had two children by other women, and by this time Boyd
was publicly and privately humiliated. She knew she couldn't have
children, and this was in part to blame for the failure of her
marriages. They were separated, and by 1989, the divorce was
finalized.
Pattie currently lives with her boyfriend in the London area. Pattie
has put the past behind her, but she admits she sometimes feels
special when she hears songs like "Layla", although "the moment
passes."
Furthermore, just because she's not still married to either Harrison
or Clapton doesn't mean her social standing has decreased either.
Pattie has long been friends with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards,
who "treat her like royalty", and enjoys the company of some of
London's most exclusive social circles. The respect Pattie has gained
is because she has never made money off of her famous husbands by
selling her story, she instead started to make a name for herself in
photography. She did the photography for Eric Clapton's Behind The
Sun album in 1985, along with work for a London law firm. She is also
involved in a charity helping drug addicts and alcoholics, called
Sharp, which she founded in 1995 with Barbara Bach.
Pattie, George and Eric are all on speaking terms, but one could only
guess how well. Pattie and George were both at the funeral
(separately) for Eric's son,Connor, who died at the age of four. In
1998, however, Clapton said his relationship will "never be the same"
with Harrison.
Some written for or about Ms. Boyd include:
"Layla"
"Wonderful Tonight"
"Old Love" (post-divorce)
"Pretty Girl"
"Man in Love"
"Shape you're In"
"Pretty Blue Eyes"
(thanks to astute reader CL)
Writer's note: The Pattie Boyd biography was written using the
following sources: The Beatles' Authorized Biography, press
interviews with Eric Clapton, George Harrison and Pattie Boyd, and
unauthorized books on The Beatles, George Harrison, John Lennon and
Eric Clapton.
robertandrews
>Clapton's attempt to win Boyd's heart started with dating one of her
sisters.
Maybe if she had a brother, he'd have turned gay for awhile.
>He also started to reject religion,
Which religion? I'd say this total BS.
>he believed Pattie's unhappiness was to be blamed on it.
I think not.
Stephen Carter
(John Whelan) wrote:
>Link to the following biography:
>http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/8446/pattibio.html
>COMPILED BY: Elle: good2bfree@h...
>
>A Pattie Boyd Biography
>
>Patricia Anne Boyd was born March 17, 1945 in Somerset,
>England.
Writing from Somerset..... where precisely? Anyone know?
>Beatles. He liked working with her for the advertisements , so he
>offered her a small role in A Hard Day's Night. Pattie was casted as
>a schoolgirl in the opening scene, named Jean. However, her part is
>shortened to the line "Prisoners?" and she is also seen during the
>Beatles' performance of "I Should've Known Better." Boyd later
>commented that it would be her last acting role, (which it was), stating
>"I'm quite happy modeling."
>
>After a few days of filming, Pattie and some of the other schoolgirls
>asked the Beatles for their autographs, except John (Boyd was afraid
>of his sarcasm). George signed autographs for Pattie and her sisters.
>He put one kiss on Pattie's sisters autographs, and seven for Pattie.
Interestingly parts of the HDN train scenes were filmed IN
Somerset on the Minehead branch line.....
--
st...@stephencarterNOSPAM.net
Nothing is Beatle Proof!!
Stephen Carter
(John Whelan) wrote:
>Link to the following biography:
>http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/8446/pattibio.html
>COMPILED BY: Elle: good2bfree@h...
>
>A Pattie Boyd Biography
>
>Patricia Anne Boyd was born March 17, 1945 in Somerset,
[excellence snipped]
>
>Some written for or about Ms. Boyd include:
>
>"Layla"
>"Wonderful Tonight"
>"Old Love" (post-divorce)
>"Pretty Girl"
>"Man in Love"
>"Shape you're In"
>"Pretty Blue Eyes"
>(thanks to astute reader CL)
You forgot.... "Something"
Steve
>From: "robertandrews" robert...@hotmail.com
>Date: Sun, Sep 2, 2001 11:33 PM
>Message-id: <ORCk7.860$KG.11...@paloalto-snr1.gtei.net>
>
>"John Whelan" <an...@freenet.carleton.ca> wrote:
>>Clapton's attempt to win Boyd's heart started with dating one of her
>>sisters.
>
>Maybe if she had a brother, he'd have turned gay for awhile.
Reread that. It meant his wanting her started while he was dating her sister.
It didn't mean that he dated her sister in order to get to her.
>>He also started to reject religion,
>
>Which religion? I'd say this total BS.
Eric had become a strong Christian at one point. That's what the song Presence
Of The Lord was about.
She was into eastern religion.
>>he believed Pattie's unhappiness was to be blamed on it.
>
>I think not.
Did Eric Clapton tell you something different?
Hey, come on Robert.
~Steve~
robertandrews
>It meant his wanting her started while he was dating her sister. It didn't
mean that he dated her sister in order to get to her.
The article states that Clapton attempted to win Patti's heart by dating her
sister (which is a bit ridiculous, even for a rock star). In any case, his
girlfriend during his heroin years was another girl (Beatles content), whose
name slips my mind.
>Eric had become a strong Christian at one point. That's what the song
Presence Of The Lord was about.
Began to reject religion? What does that mean? He began to compose
passionate music & then seriously use heroin, neither of which are
incompatible with Christianity. He's got a great song called "Gimme
Strength" on 461 Ocean Blvd.
If Patti was deeply unhappy, I'd speculate that it was due to matters other
than religion.
AllYouNeed
--
"Nothing matters but the writing. There has been nothing else
worthwhile…. a stain upon the silence."
(Samuel Beckett, London Times 10 Apr 86)
Steve
> Hey, Steve, you're really into the gossip thing, aren'tcha?
No I am just sick of people who think they know what is in someone else's
mind or situation.
I think you are Ms Gossip herself, ie: Body Count.
~Steve~
³Outside looking in is hardly ever the same as (being) inside looking out.²
©Steven W Flinchbaugh
http://www.guitar.com/artists/stevehawk
http://artists3.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/Steve_Hawk/
SteveShannon
> Hey, Steve, you're really into the gossip thing, aren'tcha?
No, that's your bag Francie.