19th May, 1967: 24 Chapel Street. The evening party for Pepper chez Eppy was a two-part affair - first, assorted photographers were given some time to do their respective thang as ver Fabs posed with and without a handy copy of the new album. After a bit, the snappers were ushered out (pausing to take a few shots by the front door), and the Beatles returned to eat, drink and chat with various journalists.
To wit, Ray Coleman's contemporary piece, bits of which I've seen quoted before, but not the whole caboodle. Ray felt that John was out of it, and yer know wot? He might just have been right.
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Brian was, in fact, mid-way through a stay at the Priory, attempting once again to dry out, but made it to the party all the same. Other contemporary reports have him leaving early in order to head down to Kingsley Hill (see posts passim), but in fact it was back to the clinic. However, his famous eye for detail was clearly still intact; the story goes that he had 100 1oz solid silver coins cast to hand out at the party, and also to give to Nems employees and other favoured folk. One of these was found amongst his personal effects in the immediate interval post mortem:
George too left early - some scribbler pissed him off. Grumpy.