[On January 1967] Two pals moved in to keep Paul McCartney company — the artist Dudley Edwards and Prince Stanislas Klossowski de Rola, the playboy son of the French painter Balthus.
Stash — as he was known — had just been charged with possession of cocaine and cannabis, along with his friend, the Rolling Stone Brian Jones.
In St John’s Wood, the three young men entertained what Stash describes as harems of girls, while Beatles fans camped outside, periodically bursting in through the gates ‘sort of like cattle breaking through a fence’.
Then, one night in May 1967, Paul, Dudley and Stash drove over to the Bag o’Nails, one of London’s trendy clubs. It was packed with people, many of whom Paul knew, including Peter Brown who worked for The Beatles.
It was Peter who introduced Paul to an American photographer called Linda Eastman, who was in town shooting pictures of musicians.
When Dudley came back from the bar, he found Paul and Linda engrossed in conversation. Dudley paired up with the singer Lulu, and Paul asked everybody back to his place.
Half an hour later, Linda found herself inside the home of one of the world’s most eligible bachelors. Memories are hazy about whether she slept with him that night.
Stash and Dudley say it didn’t seem important at the time. ‘You just think, it’s yet another girl, and yet another night,’ says Dudley.
In fact, Paul was powerfully attracted to Lin, as he called her. He liked blondes. He liked the fact that, as a single mother, she was clearly maternal. And he was pleased that — like Jane — she was from a wealthy background.
A few days after meeting Paul, Linda showed up at the Belgravia home of Beatles manager Brian Epstein for the press launch of their new album, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
It was noted that she made a beeline for Paul, crouching at his feet by the fireplace and looking up into his face.
That weekend, she tried calling him at home and got Stash on the line instead. He told her Paul was in Liverpool. Unfazed, Linda said she wanted to come over anyway.
So she did — and promptly fell into bed with Stash. It was a bizarre weekend. While
Stash and Linda were rolling around together, Paul phoned to tell his lodger to move out. So Stash took Linda to stay with the musician Graham Nash.
And soon their affair was common knowledge in London’s rock community. ‘I was teased extensively by Roger Daltrey and [Jimi] Hendrix and so on, because, you know, Linda had gone around,’ says Stash, ungallantly.
‘But . . . you’ve got to put these things in context: everybody had very open relationships, and it wasn’t cool to be jealous.’
Yet when Linda flew back to New York shortly afterwards, her conversation was not about Stash, but Paul McCartney.