On holiday in Portugal between May 27 to June 11, 1965.

Paul McCartney and Jane Asher on June 11, 1965 at the Estalagem do Gado Bravo (Vila Franca de Xira) watching a bullfighting demonstration.

A/N: I have never seen these pics before. I'll now load up everything I've learnt, below!

Paul and Jane arrived in the seaside town of Hammamet in Tunisia for a 10-day stay on February(?) 1965.

They stayed in a villa belonging to the British Embassy(?), ​​out of sight. The couple were therefore able to explore the coast south of Tunis without attracting the attention of the press.
In the villa area, there was a small amphitheater, and inside, a lavish bathroom, the acoustics of which were perfect for songwriting. It was the right place for Paul to make music! This Hammamet villa was the birthplace of the famous song "Another Girl" by McCartney.

And of course meettheBeatlesforReal has the best pics. Someone worried for Paul's safety on the wall in this pic (RHS), which you can see in the top pic!

The following is from a blog I translated. A sort of sliding door on this mans day in compare with Pauls...

I heard the front door slam and woke up with a start. The alarm clock said a little over eight hours, I should be leaving the house with my sister to get the bus from the College that made its first stop in Borlão. What would have happened to not wake me up? I suddenly remembered, it was June 11th and classes were over! My sister, still in Primary, would have classes until the end of the month, as well as those who attended years of exams (2nd, 5th and 7th), but it was not my case... I stretched longer than usual and I left me stay a little longer in bed.

At the same time of that Friday, in Albufeira, Paul McCartney got up much more quickly, since the trip to Lisbon was long, by a winding and narrow road, and he had already agreed to go to Vila Franca de Xira for lunch. His beautiful and serene girlfriend, Jane Asher, was already ready and had breakfast while the driver of the gray Opel who was going to transport them tried to pack several loose packages (including a box of Dão wine) that Paul and Jane had added to the his numerous suitcases, during the fifteen days they had spent in the Algarve.

In the meantime, I was delighted with fresh bread with a lot of butter and a huge cup of coffee with milk, the two essential components of a breakfast all my life. I still use a very large cup today, even if I don't fill it, I still prefer it that way; the bread is no longer "do Teixeira" nor is the coffee a "do Pena" mixture, strained in a bag, in the morning, to be served for breakfast, snacks and refreshments during the day, nor is the milk fresh , sold at the door and drunk a few hours after being milked.

Paul's morning was entirely filled with the Albufeira-Vila Franca trip, interrupted by a few stops to enjoy the landscape, the serenity and silence of the Alentejo, as well as the smell of vegetation, which Paul never got enough of. He was certainly happy: Jane was a company he appreciated and was going to return to England to receive one of the most coveted British decorations (MB E.) even before turning twenty-three (which would happen on the 18th). The release of Help - the single, the film and the soundtrack - was thoroughly prepared at that time and would constitute the artistic event of 1965 with more publicity in the world press. The musical successes seemed endless, Melody Maker and the Billboard of that 11th confirmed that "Ticket To Ride" continued, for the ninth consecutive week,

I took my tennis racket and went to the Park where, around ten o'clock, some colleagues would appear, like me, trying to learn to play. Some older tennis players, including Dr. Calheiros Viegas, Zé Augusto (father of Belão and Zé Sancho) and Dr. Henrique Mineiro gave us occasional "lessons", although always conditioned to their professional activities. I ended up exchanging balls with two or three friends; of them, only Miguel Bento Monteiro would make this sport the center of his life (my exaggeration?). But not me, I only played regularly until I went to study in Lisbon.

I had lunch at one o'clock sharp (mealtimes were sacred at my house), but Paul didn't arrive at Estalagem Gado Bravo until around fourteen thirty minutes.

History did not record what I had for lunch that day, but it is well documented that, in Gado Bravo, the meal consisted of regional sole, veal escalopes and almond egg jam, all washed down with lots of good red. We know this because Baptista Bastos (from Diário Popular) participated in the meal, unlike Joaquim Letria (from Diário de Lisboa) who, the previous day, had refused an invitation from the musician for dinner. The bill, one hundred and fifty escudos, was considered ridiculous by Paul - and it must have been for a foreigner, since that day's Diário de Lisboa reports that a Swedish worker was earning forty-five escudos at that time. The same newspaper reported on the front page that Admiral Mendes Cabeçada, a politician from the First Republic who, in addition to being a deputy, had become a temporary Prime Minister and President of the Republic for a brief period in June 1926 (precisely thirty-nine years earlier) had died. ). My father must have read all these news, since at that time he bought the First of January, in the morning, and the Diário de Lisboa, in the afternoon.

I spent that afternoon in the Park, satisfied with the prospect of a long vacation without school worries - and oblivious and unaware of what was going on in the World. He would know shortly after that precisely on that day the Rolling Stones released their first live album, "Got Live If You Want It", but only long after Paula Rego painted, also in London that equally sunny afternoon, two of the pictures with which she satirized and he condemned the Iberian political regimes: "Portrait of Grimau" and "Manifesto for a Lost Cause" (series started with "Salazar Vomita O País" in 1961). On that June 11, 1965, West Germany joined NATO, in the face of the disapproval of France, which would abandon the Executive Council of the Organization. "Repulsa" by Roman Polanski, with Catherine Deneuve but shot in England, also opens that same day in the English capital.

Ohhhhhh that is a drop !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Paul McCartney, after lunch, continued to drink chilled green wine and attended a bullfighting festival in the square adjacent to Gado Bravo, this after signing a postcard where the Inn was depicted; Jane Asher would also sign, after the date was inscribed: June 11, 1965. She signed, smoothed her hair gracefully behind her ear and commented "the best time of my life, these days I spent in Portugal".

below- front of postcard, and the back!

At the end of the afternoon I tried to read a Tintin album, with which my parents tried to stimulate my still incipient French, listening to some records from the small collection of EPs that I had. She Loves You, which had been offered to me the previous Christmas, I Feel Fine (the last Beatles EP released in Portugal), Apache of Shadows, Tell Me of Stones and Cuore by Rita Pavone (which I still don't listen to indifferently, due to to the passion I had for the Italian singer at that time!). Television started at seven o'clock in the afternoon (only one channel ...), but it rarely had programs for young people. I preferred the newly discovered frequency modulation, I heard Em Órbita on Rádio Clube Português from 7 pm to 9 pm.

When I started to have dinner, Paul and Jane boarded a Caravelle from TAP bound for London, with a stopover in Porto. Paul thought about the decoration he was going to receive and the millions of spectators and pounds that the Beatles were waiting for all over the world (in Italy, a few days later, Deputy Mário Quintieri would question the Minister of Finance in Parliament about the amounts and the tax values that involved the Beatles' tour of that country!). The musician assured everyone, when he said goodbye, that he would return to Portugal, despite having told Letria that what most impressed him in our country was "the sad look of most Portuguese". He kept his promise three years later, only in the company of his future wife, Linda Eastman, no longer with sweet Jane Asher ...

I meanwhile went to bed, certainly not dreaming that forty-six years later I would be here remembering that day looking at the postcard that Paul McCartney and Jane Asher had signed at the request of Mr. José Carlos Baptista, manager of Gado Bravo, and that your son, my friend Victor, offered me days ago.

Brian Epstein requested that Paul McCartney and Jane Asher return from their Portuguese holiday a day early, so all The Beatles could be in Britain on the day it was announced that they would be awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire.

The press embargo restricting publication of the Queen's Birthday Honours list was lifted during the evening, to allow the next day's newspapers to carry the news.

BEATLES IN PORTUGAL

(Happily Pilfered from : Casas da Cerca - www. facebook.com /pg/gracajalles23/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10152244207282308 who has obviously pilfered from books! Unchecked-just formatted for easier reading)

Paul writes (lyrics) " Yesterday" in Alentejo.

As a member of Beatles, Paul McCartney took two holidays in Portugal: in 1965 and in 1968. He brought the women of his life along on both journeys: Jane Asher came to the first, and Linda Eastman three years later . But is not only a matter of heart that connected the Beatle to the most British continental region of Portugal.

It was on his first journey to Albufeira, in 1965, that Paul McCartney wrote the lyric of "Yesterday", one of the most emblematic songs that he wrote for the Beatles. The words of the song were written inside a car, on a journey of five hours over bad roads between Lisbon and Faro. It was Paul McCartney himself who revealed as much in the book "Yesterday and Today" by Ray Coleman, published in 1995 on the 30th anniversary of the song. The claim was reaffirmed in a concert in 2004, in Lisbon. Of the more than 2500 versions - a Guinness World Record - six are Portuguese: Edmundo Falé, Demónios Negros, Mara Abrantes, Simone de Oliveira, Valério Silva and Dinâmicos and José Cabeleira.

The song has aired more than 10 million times on North American radio, another record. The melody of the song "Yesterday", which is only two minutes and eight seconds long, was composed while sleeping. One morning in 1963, in the beginning of the Beatles career, Paul McCartney, 21 years old, woke with the melody in his head, and immediately sat down on the piano to sound the song, which he gave the provisional but unromantic name "Scrambled Egg". "While he was humming the song that he had dreamed, Jane's mother came into the living room and asked if anyone wanted scrambles eggs."

"The melody came out of me so easily that I thought I must be copying somebody, inadvertently plagiarizing the piece. I went months to looking for someone who knew the song", said McCartney.

With many doubts and fears, Paul McCartney played the song for the first time to George Martin. In January of 1964 in the Hotel George V ( Paris). The Beatles was enthusiastic and encouraged McCartney to record it. "At this time, Paul told me that he wanted to name the song, perhaps "Yesterday", but that he thought the title a bit corny. Despite this, I advise him to go ahead", remembers George Martin.

The lyrics of the song were completed in Portugal on the 27th of May 1965, when Paul McCartney spent two weeks holidays with Jane Asher, in Albufeira. At that time, Paul and Jane frequented the Downstairs club in London's Great Newport Street. One night they met Bruce Welch, rhythm guitarist for The Shadows, and then they accept an offer to visit Portugal and agreed a date.

On 27th, May, 1965, Paul and Jane left London bound for the Boa Vista Hotel, in Albufeira, a house belonging to Cliff Richards in the south of Portugal, then inhabited by Bruce Welch. In the 60's, Albufeira was still a calm little fishing village, where pop stars like Cliff Richard, Frank Field and Tom Jones, and others had houses. Above all, they could spend holidays without being recognised. It was mainly the British Pop musicians who introduced Albufeira to the rest of the world.

"To us Albufeira was a fabulous place. The local people didn't recognise a Shadow or a Beatle and, although today that does not sound like much, at that time it was something very important for us. Paul had been working a lot, as we had, and he told me he was very anxious for a few weeks of peace", tell Welch.

On that day, Paul McCartney flew from London to Lisbon, where he arrived at the end of the afternoon on the 27th of May, at 6 p.m. with a guitar on his shoulder. Faro didn't have an airport yet. It would open two months later, on the 11th June.

The Portuguese press learned of arrival of the Beatle in the Portuguese capital, but could not photograph or guess his final destination:

"The news ran rapidly out from Lisbon's airport yesterday when the plane arrived from London. Somebody had seen a young man with a Beatle's haircut, moving hastily towards the end of the airport. He was accompanied by a blonde (!?!), and as soon as he collected the luggage, he jumped into a waiting car and disappeared. Soon after, some journalists succeeded in viewing the passengers list and there was the name: James Paul McCartney. Definitely one of the four famous Beatles." ( Diário Popular, 28 May 1965).

The car, a light grey Opel Kapitan, that the Portuguese journalists failed to follow, headed off to Algarve." Mr. Dakota, from the rent car company, didn't give any details about the destination of the couple.

The trip to Albufeira was long in 1965. The two hour flight to Lisbon was followed by a car journey of five hours. It was as on that road trip, PASSING OVER MIRA RIVER, in great heat and dust, Paul remembers writing the lyrics that had been left hanging 19 years before. " I hate the idea of killing time", Paul says, explaining how the car journey came to him as an opportunity to compose: " Seemed a waste to lose precious moments. Linda says it's time to fill". The words came, he says, quickly and naturally: " Yesterday All my troubles seemed so far away/ Now it looks as though they're here to stay/ Oh I believe in yesterday."

The rhythm of the lyrics seemed right. Paul was always an intuitive composer, instead of constructing a song around a theme. He trusted his natural instinct for inspiration for the themes. In most cases they had to do with love and relationships.

"Yesterday" appeared as something strangely different.

It had fallen from heaven, as the melody so long ago had fallen.

After settling at the Hotel Boavista, McCartney went to Cliff Richard's house, where Bruce Welch was staying, and asked for a guitar. The spacious house included four rooms, two bathrooms, a hall, living room and kitchen. Overlooking the sea, it was the ideal place to reach confidence that he was nearing the song's completion.

Next to the Boavista Hotel, in Coronel Águas Street and then Caveira ( skull) street (so called because of the proximity of the cemetery), today it is called Sir Cliff Richard street.

Bruce Welch remembers: " Paul asked immediately: Have you got a guitar? I realised he had been composing a lyric during the journey; he was carrying a paper in his hand."

In the hall, Welch gave McCartney the only guitar he had at home, a 1959 Martin 0018 model. Being a left-handed guitarist he had to play upside down.

He asked: "What do you think about this?" and almost immediately started singing the song. I did not know the chords transitions that he had included in the composition. My thing was only three chords . I think I was the first person to hear the song with the lyrics. I realized it was magic, with those chord progressions, but only after having heard the recording I realized the song had begun in Portugal. I remember telling him that it seemed beautiful and he answered that it still had to be polished while he was there.

Bruce Welch and his wife, who had been packing their bags while listening to the song, left immediately for London, while Paul and Jane settled in the Boa Vista Hotel to holiday. It did not take very much longer to complete the song, but the lyrics did not sound like a normal Beatles song. It seemed to have come from inside him. The power of the song was in its simplicity. But there was some ambiguity in the third verse.

After a two-week holiday in Portugal, McCartney was forced to come back to London a day earlier than expected. The reason was one of those events that made the Beatles headline news almost every day. Brian Epstein insisted that Paul arrive in England before midnight on the 11st of June, when the news would finally be released to the press that Paul, John, George and Ringo were to be appointed to the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.

McCartney, then 22 years old, told Portuguese journalists, that feelings of anticipation caused by the movie "Help!" were heightened ( the movie would premiere on 29 July), because he was unable to reveal the MBE award that he already knew. So when he told the other members of the Beatles that had renamed " Scrambled Eggs" to " Yesterday" and finished the lyrics, nobody cared.

Paul called George Martin and said he was ready to record it.

The producer was a bit sceptical about the title. "It's not very original" George Martin remembers as his first reaction. He told Paul, "There's already a great classic song called 'Yesterdays' in the plural." Paul replied: " I never heard of it and there won't be many people who have. Anyway, my song is called "Yesterday". The recording of " Yesterday" took only two days, the 14th and 17th June, 1965. It was completed after 7pm in the famous Abbey Road Studio 2, in London....

" I love Portugal. I've been in the south many times like most tourists. And I like that area a little way back into the interior just before the sea coast, when everything turns green. Linda and I had some great moments there. We used to take walk through the smaller villages. We had some great times there. I like the people and it's a little less touristy than Spain. In some respects it's more enjoyable. Now, Spanish people will be angry with me... But it's a fantastic place....

I remember travelling by car south of Lisbon, and catching the smell of eucalyptus. Beautiful!

Its an amazing place! "