lipa graduation, macca and 50 per cent

By Catherine Jones on Jul 25, 09 07:00 AM

I spent yesterday afternoon at the Lipa graduation ceremony - the sixth I've been to.
More than 300 excited students were receiving their graduation badges and congratulations from Macca - Sir Paul McCartney.

Sir Paul seemed in good spirits, joking with the boys and kissing the girls on the cheek (sometimes both cheeks actually).
In fact, he jested about just that in his speech saying: "I just come up here every year to kiss all the girls. I hope I haven't given you swine flu!" then comedy coughing.
He also told an anecdote about how not everything in your career goes to plan and how you have to be able to think on your feet.
He said: "I was on tour in the US, playing in stadiums where everything you do gets a big cheer. Everything is so much bigger than real life.
"Whenever I got to a city I got cheap applause by saying the name of that city.
"But that can go wrong.
"One night I was playing in Pittsburgh and I wasn't thinking, there was something wrong with my voice, and I was on autopilot. In front of 50,000 people I shouted "people of Detroit."
"And I descended into a black hole. My mind was going 'that should have been a cheer, what's going on?'"
Quick as a flash he ad libbed: "People of Detroit...you aren't, people of Pittsburgh - you are!"
There was also a lovely moment from Lipa principal Mark Featherstone-Witty who caused much laughter among the graduates when he referred to American rapper 50 cent as "50 per cent" and Kanye West as "Kane" West.
A much warmer and funnier graduation ceremony than I remember having all those years ago!