Following Sir Paul McCartney’s blockbusting announcement that the town of Ryde was the inspiration behind the Beatles classic ‘Ticket to Ride’ Ryde’s Mayor Michael Lilley would like to officially welcome Sir Paul McCartney’s to revisit us here at any time!
Sir Paul McCartney has confirmed the song came out of a hitchhiking trip with John Lennon to visit his cousin Betty who had a pub in the town. It has long-been believed that this was the case but the confirmation given in a recent interview was very welcome and the cause of much excitement.
Mayor, Cllr Michael Lilley said:
“It is official, the Beatles hit song ‘Ticket to Ride’ is, in fact, about Ryde! We now have now two connections with the Beatles as Ringo Starr was in the movie ‘That’ll be the Day’ filmed in Ryde.
“Any time Paul, or indeed Ringo, would like to visit Ryde then they officially have a standing invitation to come at any time – we will even buy their ticket to get here!”
He further added:
“Ryde has a really great music tradition and with our internationally recognised Carnivals and Mardi Gras we are a place to gave a great boogie in.
“So get your Ticket to Ryde, thank you Sir Paul for your confirmation. Great news.”
Cousin Betty had a pub in Ryde
The Beatles star explained his connection to the Isle of Wight during an event at the Southbank Centre in London for the launch of ‘The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present’.
Sir Paul said,
“My cousin Betty and her husband Mike Robbins were very influential on me. I would say to John on this occasion, lets hitch hike somewhere.
“He would play along so we ended up going down to the Isle of Wight, Ryde where they had a pub.
“They were always running pubs so they moved around Reading and various other places. So we wrote Ticket to Ride there with the play on words. Ryde was spelt R-Y-D-E and we spelt it ride.”
If anybody knows which pub that Paul’s cousin Betty used to run then please let us know at [email protected]
Article edit
1.30pm 19th Nov 2021 – Text above the quote from PM amended
News shared by Hannah on behalf of Ryde Town Council. Ed
