Pattie Boyd and George Harrison Honeymooned in Barbados
“She was a Vogue model, a fresh-faced blonde from Somerset, England, with little-girl bangs that hovered over blue button eyes.
She met, on the set of “A Hard Day’s Night,” George Harrison, who proposed to her just 10 days later.
She was “Layla” – inspiration, muse and eventual wife of guitar god Eric Clapton…”
… from a David L. Coddon article in the Union-Tribune (link here)
Pattie Boyd married Beatle George Harrison and he wrote “Something” for her. After George ran around and they broke up, she wed Eric Clapton, who wrote a couple of mildly successful songs about her called “Layla” and “Wonderful Tonight”. Along the way she said no to Rolling Stone MIck Jagger and one or two other famous names. Alas, she wanted children and so did her men, but she was unable to have any. This thread runs through her biography, but now she says she is perfectly happy.
She is writing her third book, this time about Barbados. In a recent interview she said that she would soon be traveling here to do more research, so she might be poking about already.
Boyd’s website has a selection of photos from her 1966 Barbados honeymoon with Harrison and a treasure trove of old photos for rock and roll aficionados.
Here is one of the Barbados photos. Can we identify any friends? Can anyone identify the hotel?
And who could forget BOAC? Here’s George and Pattie leaving Barbados in 1966…
Further Reading
Pattie Boyd – Official Website
Pattie Boyd – Wikipedia entry
David L. Coddon article in the Union-Tribune (link here)
21 Comments
May 10, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Glad to see an interest in classic rock and the fab four. Maybe Bim inspired some of George’s songs at that time. A lot of great tunes were written during that time period.
I’ve recently stumbled on a great video of George and Clapton jamming with Delaney and Bonnie & Friends. You can find it at;
http://www.kidnepro.com/blog/remembering-delaney-bonnie-and-friends/
Enjoy!
May 10, 2008 at 10:47 pm
I don’t think they stayed at a hotel on their honeymoon. I believe it was a house somewhere on the west coast. I still have the album A Hard Day’s Night which George Harrison signed on the back cover. Geez, I wonder what that would be worth today?
May 10, 2008 at 10:49 pm
The world turns and the days come and go. Those of us who “came up” playing beach cricket, riding your bicycle to school, visiting sugar factories at night; with Basie, Ellington, Sinatra, Fitzgerald… dancing at the Children’s Goodwill League, Drill Hall, Aberdeen Jones…. to the Blue Rhythm Combo, Soul Kings, Tropical Islanders and the Teen Age College Thrillers… will realize there was no better time and place to be, than right here in Bimshire.
And yes, with the Beatles too – who definitely were the greatest song writers of the 20th Century.
There was a different attitude then. By no means was it Utopia but at least you could leave your car unlocked and come back and find it intact…..
Well, different times are upon us now. My advice to readers : a one-eyed man is a king in a blind man’s country. Strive to be a one-eyed man.
May 10, 2008 at 10:49 pm
I’ve recently stumbled on a great video with Kim Kardashian and a rap artist doing the nasty. Man would I like to post the link. Christ guys the value of the US dollar is plummeting. Let’s talk issues nuh?
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BFP says
All work and no play makes Marcus a dull boy.
Besides, the issue for some is memory of a better way of life on this rock.
And, I like the Beatles.
May 10, 2008 at 11:46 pm
“Christ guys the value of the US dollar is plummeting. Let’s talk issues nuh?”
After awhile, the constant stream of bad news can get to be a bit depressing. I’m getting tired of reading about how much a barrel of oil costs. Good to break that up with posts like these once in awhile.
John used to say that the boys were “in the eye of the hurricane”. Coming down here for a few days must have been just what they needed. If anyone has any memories of their visits please share.
May 11, 2008 at 12:07 am
I feel so young…..I had to google BOAC.
May 11, 2008 at 1:02 am
BFP,
I love your press, but truly you could come up with a better topic.
The woman is a “has been” and not worthy for any discussion.
May 11, 2008 at 1:16 am
You swallowed my last post and there was not even a not that it was being held for moderation. Whassup…
May 11, 2008 at 1:53 am
It happened again…
May 11, 2008 at 5:21 am
Hello BFP, and thanks for the article. There’s really no limit to the depth of your knowledge of everything! However, I dispute one ‘fact’, which is that Clapton is a sex-god! BF, you should know that there’s only one guitaring sex god in this world, or was, and that’s the unparalled, Jimi Hendrix! Nice try, though!
Bet she does n’t look like that, today!
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BFP says
All work and no play makes Marcus a dull boy.
Besides, the issue for some is memory of a better way of life on this rock.
And, I like the Beatles.
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You tell e, BF!! Silly lad!
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Technician
May 11, 2008 at 12:07 am
I feel so young…..I had to google BOAC.
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Technician, stop lying!
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Eddie- Patti “who?”
May 11, 2008 at 1:02 am
BFP,
I love your press, but truly you could come up with a better topic.
The woman is a “has been” and not worthy for any discussion.
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Listen to this one! Well, at least, we’ve HEARD of her before! And who are YOU, exactly! What memorable, feat have YOU achieved! Look, shut-up do!!!!
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Banned Again From VOB
May 11, 2008 at 1:53 am
It happened again…
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Maybe the computer realised you were talking foolishness! Did u consider that?!
May 11, 2008 at 7:37 am
Trust me Bimbro…anything before Caribbean Airways is a test of my memory.
May 11, 2008 at 11:50 am
Technician
May 11, 2008 at 7:37 am
Trust me Bimbro…anything before Caribbean Airways is a test of my memory.
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Technician, you liar! Nex u gun tell me u is sixteen!!
Lordddddddddddddddddddddd!!!!
I doan suppose u remember Pan Am, either, u gun tell me now!!!!
May 11, 2008 at 11:55 am
Guys all I am saying is that you have been bashing Africans and Chinese for weeks and I am here holding my breath for you to finally get around to the real reasons for our suffering. Man why can’t we do the Yankee bashing thing too…? Fair is fair.
May 11, 2008 at 11:58 am
Changed the handle and the comment got thru. But BFP how yo gun tell me that I talking foolishness… and I thought that you were there to help. Now that is a foolish comment.
May 11, 2008 at 1:20 pm
To: Bimbro,
Don’t talk to quickly….
In my younger years my diet of music was strictly Rock.
I believe that there is very little you can tell me about Rock music or Rock muscians from the 60’s and 70’s.
Is knowing about Patti Boyd a “memorable feat”?. I wonder how many English Baby Boomers remember her?
The article is a non issue. But I love BFP
May 11, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Eddie, the article is n’t a ‘non-issue’ as you said. I’m very grateful to BFP for publishing it. It’s given me a well needed respite from considering the postings of people like you, who nuf to drive me crazy!
As BFP, instrutfully, indicated to you and as my great grand father used to say and has been repeated ever since; “all rest and no play makes Jack a dull boy”! You should have learnt that by now! Or should they have said, “all playing rock music and no play makes YOU a dull lad!”
Laaaaaaaaddddddddddddddddddddddd!!!!
May 11, 2008 at 1:59 pm
Techie, do u remember Seawell Airport, then!
You can’t be THAT young!
May 12, 2008 at 5:31 am
That picture is at Gibbes beach. A steep beach and the sea-grape trees.
May 12, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Nothing much has changed re. the barrel of crude oil, except demand for it.
What has changed FAR more
is the value of the U.S.Dollar currency buying it.
We have such faith in our paper monies that we assign blame to the product,
rather than the currency that buys the product!
Read Milton Friedman’s “PAPER MONEY” and get a realistic ‘grip’ on that cellulose stuff in your pocket,which incidentally remains the property of the Central Bank that issued it(it’s not “yours”)
Barbados (and most of The Americas?)
badly needs to UN-peg from the dying USD – what are we waiting on, before we peg to a more stable currency-of-the-future, like the Euro??
WHAT are we waiting on?
The actual DEATH of the Dollar?
October 9, 2008 at 11:45 pm
October 9th
The hotel that the Harrisons stayed at was the Sandy Lane Beach Hotel. It was well noted in the news of the wedding at the time.
Listen, folks, let’s have some respect and stay on topic of this news article that we are SUPPOSED to be commenting on. The majority of the posts were silly one-upmanship nonsense that smacks of mere attention-getting. How old are you people, anyway?!
- If you want to have a discourse about local or political matters, surely there are other, more appropriate sites you can do this on!
If I were you, I would be glad that a noted personality (she is NOT a “has-been”; she is now more her own woman than ever before and has long ago moved beyond the Beatlemania days) is going to be capturing all the beauty and charm of your own country with her excellent photography and sharing it with the world. Obviously, she has a great deal of respect and admiration for (and no doubt wonderful memories) of Barbados. And the fact that Barbados is where her honeymoon, surely one of the happiest times in her life, was, certainly does not mean that she is living in the past. It is a cherished part of her personal history and she now wants to bring her experience of your country into the 21st century. I hope that she will receive a warm welcome from all of you while she is there working on her book.
December 1, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Pattie and George rented a house called “Benclare” at Gibbs Beach in Barbados during their honeymoon. They are posing with the Benclare staff in the photo – don’t know their names. They also visited the Sandy Lane Hotel and beach.