Wings live: Théâtre de la Mer, Juan-les-Pins

Wings performed at the Théâtre de la Mer in Juan-les-Pins, France, on 12 July 1972.

It was the second night of the Wings Over Europe Tour, which opened in Ollioules, France, on 9 July. They were Paul McCartney’s first European concerts since 1966.

Backstage in Juan-les-Pins, Wings’ Denny Laine met Jo Jo Patrie, whom he would marry in 1978.

In Juan-les-Pins, three dates into the tour, a strikingly pretty, almond-eyed brunette by the name of Joanne Patrie, a Boston-born model working the European catwalks, had managed to maneuver her way into the Wings dressing room. Jo Jo, as she preferred to be known, already had a rock-star-devouring past, having lost her virginity to Jimi Hendrix backstage at Woodstock, spent a “wild night” with the booze-soaked, in-decline Jim Morrison, and enjoyed a two-year off-and-on relationship with Rod Stewart.
Linda was instantly suspicious of Jo Jo, and, as it transpired, with good reason. As a seventeen-year-old Beatles fan, Patrie had written devotional fan letters to Paul, before turning up in Britain three years later with the express intention of meeting and marrying him. Following the Juan-les-Pins show, she had ended up seducing one of the Wings roadies, securing herself a place on the crew’s tour bus, which drove in convoy with the band’s more colourful transporter. In the days that followed she made a play for Denny Laine, engaging in flirty eye contact with the guitarist whenever the group’s open-topped bus pulled level with the roadies’ vehicle. Later, Laine walked in on Jo Jo taking a bath in her roadie beau’s room. Within days the two were an item and inseparable. It was at this point that Jo Jo stepped into the inner circle.
The McCartneys were less than happy about this development. A week into their relationship, Denny sat Jo Jo down and told her that Paul and Linda were “very uptight about you being around.” Linda, especially, was convinced that Jo Jo was simply using the guitarist to get close to Paul. Patrie began crying, having effectively suffered the rejection of her former pin-up. While the guitarist and the groupie’s affair was to prove far more enduring than these flaky beginnings promised, the future Jo Jo Laine’s relationship with the McCartneys was to remain painfully strained.

Man on the Run: Paul McCartney in the 1970s
Tom Doyle

Wings were Paul McCartney on vocals, guitar, and bass guitar; Linda McCartney on vocals and keyboards; Denny Laine on vocals, guitar, and bass guitar; Henry McCullough on guitar and vocals; and Denny Seiwell on drums.