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I tried to meet Paul McCartney at the Airport recently - thoughts

Sir Paul was in my town a month back, so I tried to meet him. It was only about 4 of us at the airport and I thought he might actually sign for us. He did roll down the window and wave. I still think that was pretty cool. He didn't even have to do that… just could have keep driving.

NOW - I tried to meet him when he was leaving. Still only about 4 of us. It was cold and late at night.. which is ok - part of the game. His body guard came over and asked us to leave the parking area and wait by the street. Really… ok no worries we can just wait in the grass. He then went on to say - Paul has not stop to sign anything this tour - BUT if he does you have to write "YOUR NAME" "the CITY we are in" and the "Date". REALLY??? At the time I didn't raise a fuss, but later on I really wish I had. The reason we had to write all the crap on our album was because of "Ebay" according the to body guard. Really EBAY!! Please… Is Ebay really hurting Paul McCartney. I wanted to say… instead of complaining about ebay - why doesn't he just charge a fee and donate it to his favorite charity. Still has me shaking my head…. I am glad I didn't write all that crap on the album and ruin it. Oh - and Paul didn't stop btw.

Mark

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Permalink Reply by Mike T on January 2, 2015 at 9:40pm

You're getting all worked up over a discussion you're not even following properly.

This has nothing to do with the ethics of charging for autographs. Celebs that don't want to charge can easily make their autograph available for face value of the item the signature appears on.

My point is if they are refusing to sign autographs because some people might sell them, then they are idiots. It has nothing to do with my world views, it's simple math and economics. They are single handily creating an unnecessary gap in the market and than complaining about its very existence, punishing fans in the process.

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Permalink Reply by Peter C. on January 3, 2015 at 3:10am

I very much disagree with you. The reasons:
- ebay and market with autographs leads to the situation that vultures with behaviour of boors are more "succesful" in getting autographs than real fans who are not acting like complete idiots, because they have a respect for artist´s privacy..... This is consequence of ebay and market....
- it´s sort of type of fraud. Just imagine the hypotethical scenario of 3 groups of people waiting for autograph with tags "fan", "autograph collector", "dealer"..... NOONE of artist would give his autograph to dealer with previous knowledge - "ah, he´s going to sell it tommorow, I´ll support him by my autograph"! I think that main factor is, that artists presumption is that he gives autograph to FAN and definately NOT to the dealer - at least THIS is his intention. When you pretend to be fan when you are dealer.... it´s nothing else than fraud, foul trick. It´s more than obvious that patience with such a disgusting behaviour is not endless and I think that it´s very easy to understand that giving a sign is favour (to supposed fan), not the moral right of waiting and hunting vultures (and sadly because of collective guilt - real fans are punished too....).

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Permalink Reply by Mike T on January 3, 2015 at 6:44am

I think you more or less are agreeing with me, if celebs make their autographs more available it will drastically hurt the 3rd party market. That means less "non-fans" on the streets hurting the actual fans chances of meeting their favorite celeb.

I'm not saying selling autographs is a good thing, I'm just saying it's going to happen no matter what and the celebrity has the opportunity to control it, which they should.

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Permalink Reply by Mark Roberts on January 3, 2015 at 7:40am

I agree with you Mike T. all the way!

Because the fact I would really like to get a McCartney for my collection - I am shelling out $1800 to someone on Ebay - BECAUSE Paul did not stop and sign for me. How is that for IRONY!!! I know he will never come back to my hometown in NC and if so.... what are the chances.

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Permalink Reply by Scott W. Arnold on January 4, 2015 at 10:29am

I very much agree with you!

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Permalink Reply by Scott W. Arnold on January 4, 2015 at 12:51pm

That is so not true. Lets look at someone tried that lately. Mr. Roger Waters. He was for a very long time signing Anything for the "Fans" all it did was Encourage the damn people in the autograph business. He would show up somewhere and there would be 20 people with cheap guitars standing in line for his autograph. Are you telling me that all these people are his "Fans" Bull. Look at eBay with screen after screen of Mr. Roger Waters signed memorabilia!! Do a web search and you will find it everywhere! You know what I got to give it to the guy! He was really trying to change the field for music collectors saying bootleg recordings was just "harmless fun" Signed everything in the world to try to make them worthless but the sad fact its just never going to work. Most regular people never get the chance to meet him face to face so the only way to get an autograph is to buy it often for good money. So even he has thrown in the towel on that idea and is not signing things the way he was. Scott Ps. I feel giving Mr. Waters a Guitar to sign is an insult the guys weapon of choice is a bass!!

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Permalink Reply by Mike T on January 4, 2015 at 1:12pm

I'm not sure who this is in reply to because this website is awful at organizing these conversations.. but yes to your point you are correct, his stuff is everywhere - everywhere except roger-waters.com.

If you could go on his website and buy an autographed album for $50, no one would pay $300 on ebay for the same item. Unfortunately for your argument and Mr. Waters, signing tons of things is not the same as making the autograph more available. They have a different impact entirely.

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Permalink Reply by Scott W. Arnold on January 4, 2015 at 1:28pm

Sorry I thought I was replying to a person who was saying they should sign everything.... I don't know how I got here? Sorry Scott

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Permalink Reply by Peter C. on January 4, 2015 at 2:57pm

Roger is fantastic signer when you follow his rules - and his assistant ALWAYS tells you the rules. When I was getting his sign for the 2nd time his assistant asked whole group of us "have you ever been there before?" and I said yes in 2011.... and he asked me "do you remember the rules?" and I told him "yes, no handshake, one sign per person, taking pictures during signing, no posing" he just replied "perfect! tell the others, I´ll come for you later" - and everything was just perfect! I remember one Polish guy from 2011 who didnt follow these rules (but he heard them before!) and bothered Roger (very intrusively) after the signing to take posing picture with him..... Roger answered him very strictly and almost furiously something like "I´m not doing that, you know it so fu.... off!".... I think that his recollection of these minutes are very negative, but it was his mistake, not Roger´s. All others of us have beautiful memories, signatures and pretty fine pictures with one of the biggest rock stars of our times...

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Permalink Reply by Adam Halloran on January 4, 2015 at 3:02pm

was this a meet and greet at a concert?

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Permalink Reply by Peter C. on January 4, 2015 at 3:06pm

No.... It was at the hotel before his way on soundcheck. His assistant came to us, counted how many people are there and said "I´m going to ask Roger whether he will sign for you or not - at least, you will know...." and he did.