Sir James Paul McCartney
, MBE (born 18 June 1942), formerly of The Beatles and Wings, is the most successful songwriter in the history of popular music. [1] [2] [3] [4] McCartney is a multiple Grammy Award- and Academy Award-winning English singer-songwriter, poet, composer, multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur, record producer, film producer, painter, and animal rights and peace activist. He gained worldwide fame as a member of The Beatles, alongside John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr. McCartney and Lennon formed one of the most influential and successful songwriting partnerships and wrote some of the most popular songs in the history of rock music. [5] After leaving The Beatles, McCartney launched a successful solo career and formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda Eastman, and singer-songwriter Denny Laine. He has worked on film scores and classical and electronic music, released a large catalogue of songs as a solo artist, and taken part in projects to help international charities.
McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records
as the most successful musician and composer in popular music history, with 60 gold discs and sales of 100 million singles. [6] His song "Yesterday" (credited to Lennon/McCartney, but composed entirely by McCartney," ) is listed as the most covered song in history—by over 3,500 artists so far—and has been played more than 7,000,000 times on American television and radio. Wings' 1977 single "Mull of Kintyre" became the first single to sell more than two million copies in the UK, and remains the UK's top selling non-charity single. [7] According to britishhitsongwriters.com he is the most successful songwriter in UK singles chart history, based on weeks that his compositions have spent on the chart. [8]
Following the death of his first wife Linda in 1998, McCartney married Heather Mills in 2002. They divorced in 2008. McCartney now has Nancy Shevell as his partner. McCartney practices meditation, sometimes still using the mantra that the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi gave him when The Beatles went to a TM seminar in 1967. McCartney is an advocate for animal rights, vegetarianism, and music education; he is active in campaigns against landmines, seal hunting, and Third World debt. He is a keen football fan, supporting both Everton and Liverpool football clubs. His company MPL Communications owns the copyrights to more than 3,000 songs, [9] including all of the songs written by Buddy Holly, along with the publishing rights to such musicals as Guys and Dolls
, A Chorus Line
, and Grease
. Come 2010, McCartney is slated to star in Shrek Forever After as the villain, Rumpelstiltskin. [10] McCartney is one of Britain's wealthiest men, with an estimated fortune of £750 million ($1.2 billion) in 2009.
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PAUL MCCARTNEY TICKETS
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Childhood
Paul McCartney was born in Walton Hospital in
Liverpool, England, where his mother, Mary (née Mahon), had worked as a nurse in the maternity ward.
[11] He has one brother,
Michael, born 7 January 1944.
[12] McCartney was
baptised Roman Catholic but was raised
non-denominationally: his mother was Roman Catholic, and his father, James "Jim" McCartney, was a
Protestant turned
agnostic.
In 1947, he began attending Stockton Wood Road Primary school. He then attended the Joseph Williams Junior School,
[13] and passed the
11-plus exam in 1953 with three others out of the 90 examinees and thus gained admission to the
Liverpool Institute.
[14] In 1954, while riding on the bus, from the suburb of
Speke, where he lived, to the Institute, he met
George Harrison, who lived nearby.
[15] Passing the exam meant that McCartney and Harrison could go to a
Grammar school rather than a
secondary modern school, which the majority of pupils attended until they were eligible to work, but as Grammar school pupils they had to find new friends.
[16]
In 1955, the McCartney family moved to
20 Forthlin Road in
Allerton.
[17] Mary McCartney rode a bicycle to houses where she was needed as a
midwife, and an early McCartney memory is of her leaving when it was snowing heavily.
[18] On 31 October 1956, Mary McCartney, a heavy smoker, died of an
embolism after a
mastectomy operation to stop the spread of her
breast cancer.
[19] The early loss of his mother later connected McCartney with
John Lennon, whose mother,
Julia, died after being struck by a car when Lennon was 17.
[20]
McCartney's father was a trumpet player and pianist who had led Jim Mac's Jazz Band in the 1920s and encouraged his two sons to be musical.
[21] Jim had an
upright piano in the front room that he had bought from
Brian Epstein's store. McCartney's grandfather, Joe McCartney, played an
E-flat tuba.
[22] [23] Jim McCartney used to point out the different instruments in songs on the radio, and often took McCartney to local brass band concerts.
McCartney's father gave him a nickel-plated
trumpet, but when
skiffle music became popular, McCartney swapped the trumpet for a
£15
Framus Zenith (model 17)
acoustic guitar.
[24] [25] As he was left-handed, McCartney found the guitar difficult to play, but when he saw a poster advertising a
Slim Whitman concert, he realised that Whitman played left-handed with his guitar strung the opposite way to a right-handed player.
[26] McCartney wrote his first song ("
I Lost My Little Girl") on the Zenith, and also played his father's
Framus Spanish guitar when writing early songs with Lennon.
[27] He later learned to play the piano and wrote his second song, "
When I'm Sixty-Four".
[28] On his father's advice, he took music lessons, but since he preferred to learn 'by ear' he never paid much attention to them.
Musical career
Before The Beatles
At the age of fifteen, McCartney met
John Lennon and
The Quarrymen at the St. Peter's Church Hall fête in
Woolton on 6 July 1957.
[29] He formed a close working relationship with Lennon and they collaborated on many songs. Harrison joined the group as
lead guitarist, followed by Lennon's
art school friend,
Stuart Sutcliffe, on bass, and
Pete Best on the drums.
[30] [31] By May 1960, they had tried several new names, including "The Silver Beetles", playing a tour of Scotland under that name with
Johnny Gentle. They finally changed the name of the group to The Beatles.
[32] [33]
The Beatles
From May 1960, The Beatles were managed by
Allan Williams, who booked them to perform at a club in
Hamburg.
[34] For the next two years,
The Beatles remained in Hamburg for much of the time, performing as a resident group in a number of Hamburg clubs. During their two-year Hamburg residency they returned to Liverpool from time to time, performing at the
Cavern club. Prior to the end of the residency, Sutcliffe left the band, so McCartney, reluctantly, became The Beatles'
bass player.
[35] The Beatles recorded their first published musical material in Hamburg, performing as the backing group for
Tony Sheridan on the single "
My Bonnie".
[36] This recording later brought The Beatles to the attention of a key figure in their subsequent development and commercial success,
Brian Epstein, who became their next manager.
[37] Epstein eventually negotiated a record contract for the group with
Parlophone in May 1962.
[38] After replacing Best with
Ringo Starr on drums, The Beatles became popular
in the UK in 1963 and
in the US in 1964. In 1965, they were each appointed
Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).
[39] After performing concerts and tours almost non-stop for a period of nearly four years, and giving more than one thousand four hundred live performances internationally,
[40] The Beatles gave their last commercial concert at the end of their 1966 US tour.
[41] They continued to work in the recording studio from 1966 until their breakup in 1970. In the eight years from 1962 to 1970, the group had released twenty-four UK singles and twelve studio albums, along with further US releases (see
discography).
After The Beatles
After
the breakup of The Beatles, McCartney continued his musical career, in solo work as well as in collaborations with other musicians. After releasing his solo album
McCartney
in 1970, he worked with
Linda McCartney to record the album
Ram
in 1971. Later the same year, the pair were joined by guitarist
Denny Laine and drummer
Denny Seiwell to form the group
Wings, which was active between 1971 and 1981 and released numerous successful singles and albums (see
discography). McCartney also collaborated with a number of other popular artists including
Stevie Wonder,
Michael Jackson,
Eric Stewart, and
Elvis Costello. In 1985, McCartney played "Let It Be" at the
Live Aid concert in
London, backed by
Bob Geldof,
Pete Townshend,
David Bowie, and
Alison Moyet. The 1990s saw McCartney venture into
orchestral music, and in 1991 the
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society commissioned a musical piece by McCartney to celebrate its
sesquicentennial.
[42] He collaborated with
Carl Davis to release
Liverpool Oratorio
;
[43] involving the opera singers
Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Sally Burgess,
[44] Jerry Hadley and
Willard White, with the
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the choir of
Liverpool Cathedral.
[45] The Prince of Wales later honoured McCartney as a
Fellow of The
Royal College of Music.
[46] Other forays into classical music included
Standing Stone
(1997),
Working Classical
(1999), and "
Ecce Cor Meum" (2006). It was announced in the 1997
New Year Honours that McCartney was to be
knighted for services to music,
[47] becoming Sir Paul McCartney.
[48] In 1999, McCartney was inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist and in May 2000, he was awarded a Fellowship by the British Academy of Composers and Songwriters. The 1990s also saw McCartney, Harrison and Starr working together on
Apple's The Beatles Anthology
documentary series.
Having witnessed the
11 September 2001 terrorist attacks from the
JFK airport tarmac,
[49] McCartney took a lead role in organising
The Concert for New York City.
[50] On the first anniversary of George Harrison's death in November 2002, McCartney performed at the
Concert for George.
[51] He has also participated in the
National Football League's
Super Bowl, performing in the pre-game show for
Super Bowl XXXVI and headlining the halftime show at
Super Bowl XXXIX.
McCartney has continued to work in the realms of popular and classical music, touring the world and performing at a large number of concerts and events; on more than one occasion he has performed again with
Ringo Starr. In 2008, he received a
BRIT award for Outstanding Contribution to Music
[52] and an
honourary degree,
Doctor of Music, from
Yale University.
[53] The same year, he performed at a concert in Liverpool to celebrate the city's year as
European Capital of Culture.
[54] In 2009, he received two nominations for the 51st annual Grammy awards. On 15 July 2009, nearly 45 years after The Beatles first appeared on American television on
The Ed Sullivan Show
, McCartney returned to the Ed Sullivan Theater and performed atop the marquee of
Late Show with David Letterman
.
Creative outlets
During the 1960s, McCartney was often seen at major cultural events, such as the launch party for The
International Times
and at
The Roundhouse (28 January and 4 February 1967 respectively).
[55] He also delved into the visual arts, becoming a close friend of leading art dealers and gallery owners, explored experimental film, and regularly attended movie, theatrical and classical music performances.
His first contact with the London
avant-garde scene was through
John Dunbar, who introduced him to the art dealer
Robert Fraser, who in turn introduced McCartney to an array of writers and artists. McCartney later became involved in the renovation and publicising of the
Indica Gallery in Mason's Yard, London—John Lennon first met
Yoko Ono at the Indica.
[56] [57] The Indica Gallery brought McCartney into contact with
Barry Miles, whose underground newspaper, The
International Times
, McCartney helped to start.
[58] Miles would become
de facto
manager of the Apple's short-lived
Zapple Records label, and wrote McCartney's official biography,
Many Years From Now
(1997).
While living at the Asher house,
[59] McCartney took piano lessons at the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama, which The Beatles' producer Martin had previously attended.
[60] [61] McCartney studied composers like
Karlheinz Stockhausen, and
Luciano Berio.
[62] McCartney later wrote and released several pieces of modern classical music and ambient electronica, besides writing poetry and painting. McCartney is lead patron of the
Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, an arts school in the building formerly occupied by the
Liverpool Institute for Boys.
[63] The 1837 building, which McCartney attended during his schooldays, had become derelict by the mid-1980s.
On 7 June 1996,
Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the redeveloped building.
Electronic music
After the recording of "
Yesterday" in 1965, McCartney contacted the
BBC Radiophonic Workshop in
Maida Vale, London, to see if they could record an electronic version of the song, but never followed it up.
[64] When visiting
John Dunbar's flat in London, McCartney would take along tapes he had compiled at Jane Asher's house.
[65] The tapes were mixes of various songs, musical pieces and comments made by McCartney that he had
Dick James make into a
demo record for him.
[66] Heavily influenced by
John Cage, he made
tape loops by recording voices, guitars and bongoes on a
Brenell tape recorder, and splicing the various loops together. He reversed the tapes, sped them up, and slowed them down to create the effects he wanted, some of which were later used on Beatles' recordings, such as "
Tomorrow Never Knows". McCartney referred to the tapes as "electronic symphonies".
[67]
In the spring of 1966 McCartney rented a ground floor and basement flat from
Ringo Starr at
34 Montagu Square, to be used as a small
demo studio for spoken-word recordings by poets, writers (including
William Burroughs) and
avant-garde musicians.
[68] The Beatles' Apple Records then launched a sub-label,
Zapple with Miles as its manager, ostensibly to release recordings of a similar aesthetic, although few releases would ultimately result as Apple and The Beatles slid into business and personal difficulties.
In 1995, McCartney recorded a radio series called "
Oobu Joobu"
[69] [70] for the American network
Westwood One, which he described as being "wide-screen radio".
[71] During the 1990s, McCartney collaborated with
Youth of
Killing Joke under the name of
the Fireman,
[72] and released two
ambient electronic albums:
Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest
(1993) and
Rushes
(1998). In 2000, he released an album titled
Liverpool Sound Collage
[73] with
Super Furry Animals and Youth, utilizing the sound collage and
musique concrete techniques that fascinated him in the mid-1960s. In 2005, he worked on a project with
bootleg producer and
remixer Freelance Hellraiser, consisting of remixed versions of songs from throughout his solo career which were released under the title
Twin Freaks
.
[74] The Fireman's third album
Electric Arguments
was released on November 25, 2008.
[75].
In January 2009 interview with
L.A. Weekly
newspaper, McCartney explained what he saw as the most significant difference between the music he creates as The Fireman and the rest of his catalogue. "Fireman is improvisational theatre," McCartney said. "When I sit down to write a song, it’s a kind of improvisation, but I formalise it a bit to get it into the studio, and when I step up to a microphone, I have a vague idea of what I’m about to do. I usually have a song, and I know the melody and lyrics, and my performance is the only unknown. In this case, I had neither lyrics nor melody to go on—and it felt great."
[76]
Film
McCartney was interested in
animated films as a child, and later had the financial resources to ask Geoff Dunbar to direct a short
animated film called
Rupert and the Frog Song
, in 1981. McCartney was the producer, he wrote the music and the script, and also added some of the characters voices.
[77] McCartney wrote and starred in the 1984 film
Give My Regards to Broad Street
. The film and soundtrack featured the popular hit "
No More Lonely Nights", and the album reached #1 in the UK, but the film did not do well commercially or critically.
[78] Roger Ebert awarded the film a single star and wrote, "You can safely skip the movie and proceed directly to the sound track".
[79] Dunbar worked again with McCartney on an animated film about the work of French artist
Honore Daumier, in 1992, which won both of them a
Bafta award.
[80] They also worked on
Tropic Island Hum, in 1997.
[81] In 1995, McCartney directed a short documentary about
The Grateful Dead.
[82] [83] He is rumored to be doing the voice of the fantasy character
Rumpelstiltskin in the
fourth Shrek
movie, and maybe having a hand in writing music for the soundtrack.
[84]
In May 2000, McCartney released
Wingspan: An Intimate Portrait
, a retrospective documentary that features behind-the-scenes films and photographs that Paul and Linda McCartney (who had died in 1998) took of their family and bands.
[85] Interspersed throughout the 88 minute film is an interview by
Mary McCartney with her father. Mary was the baby photographed inside McCartney's jacket on the back cover of his first solo album,
McCartney
, and was one of the producers of the documentary.
[86]
Painting
In 1966, McCartney met art gallery-owner
Robert Fraser, whose flat was visited by many well-known artists.
[87] McCartney met
Andy Warhol,
Claes Oldenburg,
Peter Blake, and
Richard Hamilton there, and learned about art appreciation.
McCartney later started buying paintings by
Magritte, and used Magritte's painting of an apple for the Apple Records
logo.
[88] He now owns Magritte's
easel and
spectacles.
[89]
McCartney's love of painting surfaced after watching artist
Willem de Kooning paint, in Kooning's
Long Island barn.
[90] McCartney took up
painting in 1983.
[91] In 1999, he exhibited his paintings (featuring McCartney's portraits of
John Lennon,
Andy Warhol, and
David Bowie) for the first time in Siegen, Germany, and included photographs by
Linda. He chose the gallery because Wolfgang Suttner (local events organiser) was genuinely interested in his art, and the positive reaction led to McCartney showing his work in UK galleries.
[92] The first UK exhibition of McCartney's work was opened in
Bristol, England with more than 500 paintings on display. McCartney had previously believed that "only people that had been to
art school were allowed to paint"—as Lennon had.
In October 2000,
Yoko Ono and McCartney presented art exhibitions in
New York and
London. McCartney said, "I've been offered an exhibition of my paintings at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool where John and I used to spend many a pleasant afternoon. So I'm really excited about it. I didn't tell anybody I painted for 15 years but now I'm
out of the closet."
[93] [94]
As an artist, Paul McCartney designed a series of six
postage stamps issued by the
Isle of Man Post on 1 July 2002. According to
BBC News, McCartney seems to be the first major rock star in the world who is also known as a stamp designer.
[95]
Writing and poetry
When McCartney was young, his mother read him poems and encouraged him to read books. McCartney's father was interested in
crosswords and invited the two young McCartneys (Paul and his brother Michael) to solve them with him, so as to increase their "word power".
[96] McCartney was later inspired—in his school years—by
Alan Durband, who was McCartney's English literature teacher at the Liverpool Institute.
[97] Durband was a co-founder and fund-raiser at the
Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, where
Willy Russell also worked, and introduced McCartney to
Geoffrey Chaucer's works.
[98] McCartney later took his
A-level exams, but passed only one subject—Art.
[99] [100]
In 2001 McCartney published 'Blackbird Singing', a volume of poems, some of which were lyrics to his songs, and gave readings in
Liverpool and
New York.
[101] Some of them were serious: "Here Today" (about Lennon) and some humorous ("
Maxwell's Silver Hammer").
[102] In the foreword of the book, McCartney explained that when he was a teenager, he had "an overwhelming desire" to have a poem of his published in the school magazine. He wrote something "deep and meaningful", but it was rejected, and he feels that he has been trying to get some kind of revenge ever since. His first "real poem" was about the death of his childhood friend,
Ivan Vaughan.
In October 2005, McCartney released a children's book called
High In The Clouds: An Urban Furry Tail
. In a press release publicizing the book, McCartney said, "I have loved reading for as long as I can remember," singling out
Treasure Island
as a childhood favourite.
[103] McCartney collaborated with author
Philip Ardagh and animator Geoff Dunbar to write the book.
[104]
Contact with fellow ex-Beatles
This section is about social and other general interactions. For creative collaborations, see Collaborations between ex-Beatles.
John Lennon
Although McCartney's relationship with Lennon was troubled, they reconciled during the 1970s.
[105] McCartney would often call Lennon, but was never sure of what sort of reception he would get,
[106] such as when McCartney once called Lennon and was told, "You're all pizza and fairytales!"
McCartney understood that he could not just phone Lennon and only talk about business, so they often talked about cats, baking bread, or babies.
[107] According to
May Pang, during Lennon's "Lost Weekend" with her they planned to visit McCartney in New Orleans, where McCartney was recording the
Venus and Mars
album, but Lennon went back to Ono the day before the planned visit after Ono said she had a new cure for Lennon's smoking habit.
[108]
In a 1980 interview, Lennon said that the last time he had seen McCartney was when they had watched the episode of
Saturday Night Live
(May 1976) in which
Lorne Michaels had made his $3,000 cash offer
[109] to get Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr to reunite on the show.
[110] McCartney and Lennon had seriously considered going to the studio, but were too tired.
[111] This event was fictionalised in the 2000 television film
Two of Us
.
Reaction to Lennon's murder
On the morning of 9 December 1980, McCartney awoke to the news that Death of John Lennon|Lennon had been murdered outside his home in the Dakota building in New York.
[112] Lennon's death created a media frenzy around the surviving members of The Beatles.
[113] On the evening of 9 December, as McCartney was leaving an Oxford Street recording studio, he was surrounded by reporters and asked for his reaction to Lennon's death. He replied, "I was very shocked, you know—this is terrible news," and said that he had spent the day in the studio listening to some material because he "just didn't want to sit at home."
[114] When asked why, he replied, "I didn't feel like it." He was then asked when he first heard the news, McCartney replied "This morning sometime," and one of the reporters asked "Very early?" McCartney said "yeah" and then asked the reporters if they all knew, they added "yeah." McCartney then said, "It's a drag, isn't it?"
[115] When published, his "drag" remark was criticised, and McCartney later regretted it. He furthermore stated that he had intended no disrespect but had just been at a loss for words, after the shock and sadness he felt over his friend's murder.
[116] He was also to recall:
In 1983 McCartney said:
In a
Playboy
interview in 1984, McCartney said that he went home that night and watched the news on television—while sitting with all his children—and cried all evening. His last telephone call to Lennon, which was just before Lennon and Yoko released
Double Fantasy
, was friendly. During the call, Lennon said (laughing) to McCartney, "This housewife wants a career!"
[118] which referred to Lennon's househusband years, while looking after
Sean Lennon.
McCartney carried on recording after the death of Lennon but did not play any live concerts for some time. He explained that this was because he was nervous that he would be "the next" to be murdered.
[119] This led to a disagreement with
Denny Laine, who wanted to continue touring and subsequently left Wings, which McCartney disbanded in 1981.
[120] Also in 1981, six months after Lennon's death, McCartney sang backup on George Harrison's tribute to Lennon, "
All Those Years Ago," which also featured Ringo Starr on drums. McCartney would go on to record "Here Today", a tribute song to Lennon.
George Harrison
In late 2001, McCartney learned that his former classmate, neighbour and bandmate, and best friend of over 45 years,
George Harrison, was losing his battle with
cancer. Upon Harrison's death on 29 November, McCartney told
Entertainment Tonight
,
Access Hollywood
,
Extra
,
Good Morning America
,
The Early Show
,
MTV
,
VH-1
and
Today
that George was like his "baby brother". Harrison spent his last days in a Hollywood Hills mansion that was once leased by McCartney. McCartney said in many interviews after Harrison's passing that George was, "still laughing and joking" to the very end. He also said, "We just sat there stroking hands. And you know, you don't stroke hands with guys. But it was just beautiful. It's just a favorite memory of mine."
[121] [122] [123] On 29 November 2002, the first anniversary of George Harrison's death, McCartney played Harrison’s "
Something" on a
ukulele at the
Concert for George.
Relationships and marriages
Dot Rhone
One of McCartney's first girlfriends, in 1959, was called Layla, a name he remembers being unusual in Liverpool at the time.
Layla was slightly older than McCartney and used to ask him to
baby-sit with her. Julie Arthur, another girlfriend, was
Ted Ray's niece.
[124] McCartney's first serious girlfriend in Liverpool was Dot Rhone, whom he met at the
Casbah club in 1959.
[125] McCartney chose clothes and make-up for Rhone, and he paid for her to have her hair styled like
Brigitte Bardot's.
[126] [127] When McCartney first went to Hamburg with The Beatles, he wrote regularly, and she accompanied
Cynthia Lennon to Hamburg when The Beatles played there again in 1962.
[128] The couple had a three-year relationship, and were due to marry until Rhone lost the baby she was expecting.
[129]
Jane Asher
McCartney first met the British actress
Jane Asher on 18 April 1963, when a photographer asked them to pose together at a Beatles' performance at the
Royal Albert Hall in London.
[130] The two began a relationship,
[131] and McCartney took up residence with Asher at her parents' house at 57 Wimpole Street, London, where he lived for nearly three years before the couple moved to McCartney's own house in
St. John's Wood.
[59] McCartney wrote several songs while at the Ashers', including "
Yesterday" and several inspired by Asher, among them "
And I Love Her", "
You Won't See Me", and "
I'm Looking Through You".
[60] McCartney and Asher had a five-year relationship, and they planned to marry, but Asher broke off the engagement when she discovered McCartney had become involved with another woman,
Francie Schwartz.
[134] [135]
Linda McCartney
In 1969, McCartney married American photographer
Linda Eastman, whom he described as the woman who gave him "the strength and courage to work again" after the breakup of The Beatles.
[136] The pair had met previously at a 1967
Georgie Fame concert at
The Bag O'Nails club,
[85] [138] during her UK assignment to take photographs of "Swinging sixties" musicians in London. Paul and Linda were both vegetarian and supported the animal rights organisation
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
[139]. They had four children (Linda's daughter
Heather who was adopted by Paul, followed by three more children,
Mary,
Stella and
James) and remained married until Linda's death from
breast cancer in 1998.
Heather Mills
In 2002, McCartney married
Heather Mills, a former
model and anti-
landmines campaigner. The couple had a child, Beatrice, in 2003. They separated in May 2006 and were divorced in May 2008.
[140] Widespread animosity towards McCartney's wives was reported in 2004. "They [the British public] didn't like me giving up on Jane Asher," McCartney said. "I married a New York divorcee with a child, and at the time they didn't like that."
[141]
Nancy Shevell
McCartney has been dating Nancy Shevell since November, 2007.
[142] She is a member of the board of the
New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority as well as vice president of a family-owned transportation conglomerate which includes
New England Motor Freight.
[143]
Lifestyle
Recreational drug use
McCartney's introduction to drugs started in
Hamburg, Germany.
[144] The Beatles had to play for hours, and they were often given "Prellies" (
Preludin) by German customers or by
Astrid Kirchherr (whose mother bought them). McCartney would usually take one, but Lennon would often take four or five.
[145]
McCartney remembered getting "very high" and giggling when The Beatles were introduced to
cannabis by
Bob Dylan in
New York, in 1964.
[146] McCartney's use of cannabis became regular, and he was quoted as saying that any future Beatles' lyrics containing the words "high", or "grass" were written specifically as a reference to cannabis—as was "
Got to Get You into My Life".
[147] John Dunbar's flat at 29 Lennox Gardens, in London, became a regular hang-out for McCartney, where he talked to musicians, writers and artists, and smoked cannabis.
In 1965, Miles introduced McCartney to
hash brownies by using a recipe for
hash fudge he found in the
Alice B. Toklas Cookbook.
[148] During the filming of
Help!
, he and the other Beatles occasionally smoked a
spliff in the car on the way to the studio during filming, which often made them forget their lines.
[149] Help!
director
Dick Lester said that he overheard "two beautiful women" trying to cajole McCartney into taking
heroin, but he refused.
McCartney's attitude about cannabis was made public in the 1960s, when he added his name to an advertisement in
The Times
, on 24 July 1967, which asked for the legalisation of cannabis, the release of all prisoners imprisoned because of possession, and research into marijuana's medical uses. The
advertisement was sponsored by a group called Soma and was signed by 65 people, including The Beatles, Epstein,
RD Laing, fifteen doctors, and two
MPs.
[150]
McCartney was introduced to
cocaine by
Robert Fraser, and it was available during the recording of
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
.
[151] [152] He admitted that he used the drug multiple times for about a year but stopped because of the unpleasant come down.
[153]
In 1967, on a sailing trip to
Greece [154] (with the idea of buying an island for the whole group)
[155] McCartney said everybody sat around and took
LSD, although McCartney had first taken it with
Tara Browne, in 1966.
[156] [157] [158] He took his second "
acid trip" with Lennon on 21 March 1967 after a studio session.
[159] McCartney was the first British pop star to openly admit using LSD, in an interview in the now-defunct "Queen" magazine.
[160] His admission was followed by a TV interview in the UK on
Independent Television News on 19 June 1967, when McCartney was asked about his admission of LSD use, he said:
“
| I was asked a question by a newspaper, and the decision was whether to tell a lie or tell him the truth. I decided to tell him the truth ... but I really didn't want to say anything, you know, because if I had my way I wouldn't have told anyone. I'm not trying to spread the word about this. But the man from the newspaper is the man from the mass medium. I'll keep it a personal thing if he does too, you know ... if he keeps it quiet. But he wanted to spread it so it's his responsibility, you know, for spreading it, not mine.
| ”
|
In spite of his statements then, and his admission (in 2004) that he had used cocaine, McCartney was not arrested by
Norman Pilcher's Drug Squad, as had been Lennon, Harrison,
Donovan, and several members of
the Rolling Stones.
In 1972, however, police found
cannabis plants growing on his Scottish farm.
[161]
On 16 January 1980, Wings went to
Tokyo for 11 concerts in Japan.
[162] As McCartney was going through customs, officials found 7.7 ounces (218.3 g) of cannabis in his luggage.
He was arrested and taken to a Tokyo prison while the Japanese government decided what to do. McCartney had been previously denied a visa to Japan (in 1975) because he had been convicted twice in Europe for possession of cannabis.
Public figures called for McCartney to be put on
trial for drug-smuggling. Had he been convicted, he would have faced up to seven years in prison.
The members of Wings cancelled the tour and left Japan. After ten days in jail, McCartney was released and deported. He was told that he would not be welcome in Japan again, although a decade later he played a concert in Tokyo.
In 1984, Paul and Linda McCartney were both arrested for possession of cannabis.
[163] [164]
Meditation
On 24 August 1967, McCartney met the
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at the
London Hilton, and later went to
Bangor, in North
Wales, to attend a weekend 'initiation' conference.
[165] McCartney said that although he does not
meditate daily, he still uses the
mantra that the
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi gave him in Bangor.
[166] The time McCartney later spent in India at the Maharishi's
ashram was highly productive, as practically all of the songs that would later be recorded for
The White Album
and
Abbey Road
were composed there by McCartney, Lennon, or both together.
[167] Although McCartney was told that he was never to repeat the mantra to anyone else, he did tell Linda McCartney,
[168] and said he meditated a lot while he was in jail in Japan.
In 2009, McCartney, along with
Ringo Starr, headlined a benefit concert at
Radio City Music Hall, raising three million dollars for the
David Lynch Foundation to fund instruction in
Transcendental Meditation for
at-risk youth.
[169] [170] [171]
Activism
Paul and Linda McCartney became outspoken
vegetarians and animal-rights activists. They said that their vegetarianism was realised when they happened to see lambs in a field as they ate a meal of
lamb.
[173] McCartney has also credited the 1942
Disney film
Bambi
—in which the young deer's mother is shot by a hunter—as the original inspiration for him to take an interest in
animal rights.
[174] In his first interview after Linda's death, he promised to continue working for animal rights.
[175] [176]
In 1999, McCartney spent £3,000,000 to make sure Linda McCartney's food range remained free of
GM ingredients.
[177] In 2002, McCartney gave his support to a campaign against a proposed ban on the sale of certain
vitamins,
herbs and mineral products in the
European Union.
[178] Following his marriage to Heather Mills, McCartney joined with her to campaign against
landmines;
[179] both McCartney and Mills are patrons of
Adopt-A-Minefield.
In 2003, he played a personal concert for the wife of a wealthy banker and donated his one million dollars to the charity.
[180] He also wore an anti-landmines t-shirt on the
Back in the World tour.
[181]
In 2006, the McCartneys travelled to
Prince Edward Island to bring international attention to the
seal hunt (their final public appearance together). Their arrival sparked attention in
Newfoundland and Labrador where the hunt is of economic significance.
[182] The couple also debated with Newfoundland's Premier
Danny Williams on the
CNN show
Larry King Live
. They further stated that the fishermen should quit hunting seals and begin a seal watching business.
[183] McCartney has also criticised China's fur trade,
[184] [185] and supports the
Make Poverty History campaign.
[186]
McCartney has been involved with a number of charity recordings and performances. In 2004, he donated a song to an album to aid the "US Campaign for
Burma", in support of Burmese Nobel Prize winner
Aung San Suu Kyi,
[187] and he had previously been involved in the
Concerts for the People of Kampuchea,
Ferry Aid,
Band Aid,
Live Aid, and the recording of "
Ferry Cross the Mersey" (released 8 May 1989) following the
Hillsborough disaster.
[188] [189]
In a December 2008 interview with
Prospect Magazine, McCartney mentioned that he tried to convince the
Dalai Lama to become a vegetarian. In a letter to the Dalai Lama, McCartney took issue with Buddhism and meat-eating being considered compatible, saying, "Forgive me for pointing this out, but if you eat animals then there is some suffering somewhere along the line." The Dalai Lama replied to McCartney by saying his doctors advised him to eat meat for health reasons. In the interview McCartney said, "I wrote back saying they were wrong."
[190]
Football
The Beatles were advised by Epstein to make no comments about the football clubs they supported, in case they alienated fans of the group, although McCartney was known as a supporter of
Everton Football Club, because his father and relatives used to take him to matches.
[191] [192] His allegiance later encompassed
Liverpool F.C.,
[193] [194] as on 28 July 1968, The Beatles were photographed in a photographer's studio at 192-212 Gray's Inn Road, with McCartney wearing a Liverpool F.C.
rosette.
[195] Linda McCartney later said: "We spent last night listening to Liverpool football team on the radio, wanting them to win so badly. Paul supports Everton..
[196]"
Lennon and McCartney were present to watch the
1966 FA Cup Final at
Wembley, between Everton and
Sheffield Wednesday, and McCartney attended the
1968 FA Cup Final (18 May 1968) which was played by
West Bromwich Albion against Everton.
[197] After the end of the match, McCartney shared cigarettes and whisky with other football fans.
[198] The ex-Liverpool player,
Albert Stubbins, was the only footballer shown on the
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band cover.
McCartney tried to listen (on a radio) to the Liverpool v
Manchester United 1977 FA Cup Final, while sailing in the Caribbean,
and the video for McCartney's
Pipes of Peace (in 1983) recreated
the 1915 football game played between German and British troops during
World War I, at Christmas.
[199] [200] At the end of the live version of
Coming Up recorded in Glasgow in 1979 (later to become a US number one single) the crowd begins to sing
"Paul McCartney!"
until McCartney takes over and changes the chant to
"Kenny Dalglish!"
, referring to the current Liverpool and Scotland striker. At the same concert,
Gordon Smith, former
football player who played for
Rangers and
Brighton & Hove Albion, met the McCartneys, and later accepted an invitation to visit their home in East Sussex, in 1980. Smith later said that McCartney was "thrilled I knew
Kenny Dalglish”, to which Linda added: "I like
Gordon McQueen of Man United", and Smith replied, "I know him too."
[201]
McCartney was seen at the
1986 FA Cup Final between Liverpool and Everton,
and in 1989, McCartney contributed to the "Ferry Cross the Mersey" charity single that was recorded to aid victims of the
Hillsborough Disaster, which happened during a match between Liverpool and
Nottingham Forest.
[202] McCartney performed at the
Liverpool F.C. Anfield stadium on 1 June 2008, as a part of Liverpool's
European Capital of Culture year.
[203] Dave Grohl from the
Foo Fighters sang with McCartney on
Band on the Run, and played drums on
Back in the USSR.
[204] Ono and
Olivia Harrison attended the concert, along with
Ken Dodd, and the Liverpool F.C. football manager
Rafael Benítez.
[205] [206] [207]
Business
McCartney is today one of Britain's wealthiest musicians, with an estimated fortune of £750 million ($1.2 billion) in 2009,
[208] although Justice Bennett, in his judgment on McCartney's divorce case found no evidence that McCartney was worth more than £400 million.
[209] In addition to his interest in
Apple Corps, McCartney's
MPL Communications owns a significant
music publishing catalogue, with access to over 25,000 copyrights.
[210] McCartney earned £40 million in 2003, making him Britain's highest media earner.
[211] This rose to £48.5 million by 2005.
[212] In the same year he joined the top American talent agency Grabow Associates, who arrange private performances for their richest clients.
[213]
Northern Songs was established in 1963, by
Dick James, to publish the songs of Lennon/McCartney.
[214] The Beatles' partnership was replaced in 1968 by a jointly held company,
Apple Corps, which continues to control Apple's commercial interests.
Northern Songs was purchased by
Associated TeleVision (ATV) in 1969, and was sold in 1985 to
Michael Jackson. For many years McCartney was unhappy about Jackson's purchase and handling of Northern Songs.
[215]
MPL Communications is an
umbrella company for McCartney's business interests, which owns a wide range of copyrights,
[216] as well as the publishing rights to musicals.
[217] In 2006, the
Trademarks Registry reported that
MPL had started a process to secure the protections associated with registering the name "Paul McCartney" as a
trademark.
[218] The 2005 films,
Brokeback Mountain
[219] and
Good Night and Good Luck
, feature
MPL copyrights.
[220]
In April 2009, it was revealed that McCartney, in common with other wealthy musicians, had seen a significant decline in his net worth over the preceding year. It was estimated that his fortune had fallen by some £60m, from £238m to £175m.
[221] The losses were attributed to the ongoing
global recession, and the resultant decline in value of property and
stock market holdings.
Critique, recognition and achievements
McCartney is listed in
The Guinness Book Of Records
as the most successful musician and composer in popular music history,
[222] [223] [224] with sales of 100 million singles and 60 gold discs.
[225] McCartney has achieved twenty-nine number-one singles in the US, twenty of them with The Beatles, the rest with Wings and as a solo artist.
McCartney has been involved in more number-one singles in the United Kingdom than any other artist under a variety of credits, although
Elvis Presley has achieved more as a solo artist. McCartney has achieved 24 number-ones in the UK: solo (1), Wings (1), with
Stevie Wonder (1),
Ferry Aid (1),
Band Aid (1),
Band Aid 20 (1) and The Beatles (17).
[226] McCartney is the only artist to reach the UK number one as a
soloist ("Pipes of Peace"),
duo ("Ebony and Ivory" with Stevie Wonder),
trio ("Mull of Kintyre", Wings),
quartet ("She Loves You", The Beatles),
quintet ("Get Back", The Beatles with
Billy Preston) and as part of a
musical ensemble for charity (
Ferry Aid).
[227] McCartney's song "
Yesterday" is the most covered song in history with more than 3,500 recorded versions
[228] and has been played more than 7,000,000 times on American TV and radio, for which McCartney was given an award.
[229] After its 1977 release the Wings single "Mull of Kintyre" became the highest-selling record in British chart history, and remained so until 1984.
[230] (Three charity singles have since surpassed it in sales; the first to do so, in 1984, was
Band Aid's "
Do They Know It's Christmas?", whose participants included McCartney.)
The minor planet
4148, discovered in 1983, was named 'McCartney' in his honour.
[231]
On 2 July 2005, he was involved with the fastest-released single in history. His performance of "
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" with
U2 at
Live 8 was released only 45 minutes after it was performed, before the end of the concert.
[232] The single reached number six on the Billboard charts, just hours after the single's release, and hit number one on numerous online download charts across the world.
[233] McCartney played for the largest stadium audience in history when 184,000 people paid to see him perform at
Maracanã Stadium in
Rio de Janeiro on 21 April 1990,
[234] and he played his 3,000th concert in front of 60,000 fans in
St Petersburg, Russia, on 20 June 2004.
[235] Over his career, McCartney has played 2,523 gigs with The Beatles, 140 with Wings, and 325 as a solo artist.
[236]
In the run up his concert in St Petersburg in 2004, McCartney hired 3 jets, at a reported cost of £28,000, to spray dry ice in the clouds above St Petersburg Palace Square in an attempt to prevent rain.
[237] [238]
In the concert programme for his 1989 world tour, McCartney wrote that Lennon received all the credit for being the
avant-garde Beatle,
and McCartney was known as 'baby-faced', which he disagreed with.
[239] People also assumed that Lennon was the 'hard-edged one', and McCartney was the 'soft-edged' Beatle,
although McCartney admitted to 'bossing Lennon around.'
[240] Linda McCartney said that McCartney had a 'hard-edge'—and not just on the surface—which she knew about after all the years she had spent living with him.
[241] McCartney seemed to confirm this edge when he commented that he sometimes meditates, which he said is better than "sleeping, eating, or shouting at someone".
On 18 June 2006, McCartney celebrated his 64th birthday, the human milestone that was the subject of one of the first songs he ever wrote, at the age of sixteen,
[242] the Beatles song "When I'm Sixty-Four." Paul Vallely noted in ''The Independent'':
Discography
Tours
Notes
- Guinness World Records - News - Guinness World Records Launches 2009 Edition
- Paul McCartney Letterman (Video, Photos) - Historic Paul McCartney Tour Dates 2009 - Right On Music
- Paul McCartney to appear on 'The Late Show With David Letterman' next Wednesday
- Paul McCartney to 'Late Show' (The TV Zone) - Newsday.com
- The Lennon-McCartney Songwriting Partnership
- Paul McCartney: When I'm 64
- The UK's Best Selling Singles
- Title Unavailable
- Paul McCartney - Biography
- Title Unavailable
- Spitz (2005) p75
- Miles (1997) p4
- Beatle's schoolboy photo auction
- Miles (1997) p9
- Spitz (2005) p125
- Spitz (2005) pp82-83
- Photo of Forthlin Road
- Miles (1997) p6
- Miles (1997) p20
- Miles (1997) p31
- Miles (1997) p22
- Spitz (2005) p71
- Miles (1997) pp23-24
- Spitz (2005) p86
- Miles (1997) p21
- Larkin, Colin. ''The Guinness Who's Who Of Country Music'': Slim Whitman entry, Guinness Publishing, 1993. ISBN 0851127266
- Early guitars McCartney played
- Miles (1997) pp22-23
- Spitz (2005) p93
- Miles (1997) pp47-50
- Cynthia Lennon (2006) p94
- Cynthia Lennon (2006) p67
- Coleman (1984) p212
- Miles (1997) pp57-8
- Miles (1997) p74
- Cynthia Lennon (2006) p97
- Pawlowski (1990) pp39-40
- Spitz (2005) p330
- {{LondonGazette|issue=43667|supp=yes|startpage=5488|date=4 June 1965|accessdate=2008-12-05}}
- Gould (2008) p347
- Miles (1997) pp293-95
- ''Contemporary Authors Online'', Thomson Gale (2006)
- McCartney seeks chorus of approval for Latin piece
- Sally Burgess’ page
- Oratorio and StandingStone premiers - 4 July 2003
- "Paul McCartney." Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement, Vol. 24. Thomson Gale, 2005.
- {{LondonGazette |issue=54625 |startpage=2 |date=1996-12-30 |accessdate=2008-12-05}}
- {{LondonGazette |issue=55229 |startpage=8993 |date=1998-08-18 |accessdate=2008-12-05}}
- Second McCartney song for New York
- The Concert For New York City web site "concertfornyc.com" has been established to remember the concert and features photos of McCartney both on stage and backstage at Madison Square Garden. Various Artists, The Concert for New York City, 01/29/2002, Columbia/SME CK 54205 (1C2D54205 Discs: 2
- The Concert for George, Cat. No: 0349702412
- Sir Paul McCartney picks up special Brit award in London
- Yale gives Paul McCartney honorary music degree
- Paul McCartney Treats Liverpool to “A Day in the Life” Live Debut
- “The Carnival of Light” interview
- The Unknown Paul McCartney, by Ian Peel, Paperback, Reynolds & Hearn Ltd, 7 November 2002 ISBN 1-903111-36-6
- Indica Gallery
- Miles (1997) p232
- Miles (1997) p106
- Miles (1997) p108
- Miles (1997) p254
- Spitz (2005) p597
- How LIPA came to be
- Miles (1997) p207
- Miles (1997) p218
- Miles (1997) p217
- Miles (1997) pp219-20
- Miles (1997) pp238-39
- Oobu Joobu CDs and Mp3s
- Oobu Joobu
- Miles (1997) pp218-219.
- Sir Paul gears up for The Fireman
- Liverpool Sound Collage (CD) Capitol, 26 September 2000
- Twin Freaks LP — Parlophone, Cat. No. 311 30011, 4 June 2005
- www.thefireman.com
- Paul McCartney: A Fireman Interviewed
- Geoff Dunbar Interview
- “Broad Street” a flop - 17 June 2006
- Give My Regards to Broad Street review
- Animated film won a Bafta
- Tropic Island Hum
- The Biography Channel
- Movie Habit - The Music and Animation Collection
- Paul McCartney in “Shrek 4?
- Wingspan, DVD, Catalogue number: 4779109, 19 November 2001
- Lewisohn (2002) p21
- Miles (1997) p243
- Miles (1997) pp256-67
- Miles (1997) pp266-67
- Spitz (2005) p84
- Miles (1997) p266
- McCartney gets arty
- McCartney and Yoko art exhibitions, 20 October 2000
- Walker Gallery Exhibition: 24 May - 4 August 2002
- McCartney stamps to go on sale
- Spitz (2005), p82
- Miles (1997) p40
- Miles (1997) p41
- Spitz (2005) p205
- Miles (1997) p42
- Roll over, Andrew Motion
- Blackbird Singing - Poems and Lyrics 1965-1999, Paul McCartney, Faber and Faber, 4 March 2002, ISBN 0-571-20992-0
- Paul McCartney: A collaborative crusade
- Geoff Dunbar IMDb
- Miles (1997) p587
- Miles (1997) p588
- Miles (1997) p590
- Beatles: Lennon planned to meet McCartney in 1974
- SNL Transcripts: Beatles Offer, 24 April 1976
- Playboy interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono
- Miles (1997) p592
- Bresler, Fenton (1990). ''Who Killed John Lennon?'' reprinted. St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0-312-92367-8
- The Last Day in the Life
- Miles (1997) p593
- McCartney on John's death
- Miles (1997) p594
- The Paul McCartney Encyclopedia, article "Lennon, John"
- McCartney’s 1984 Playboy Interview
- Paul McCartney Wings It Alone
- Lewisohn (2002) p168
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5Tl9sBcNrg
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9jKLiVjok4
- George’s last daysbbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment - Retrieved 29 January 2007
- Miles (1997) p29
- Spitz (2005) p163
- Miles (1997) p69
- Spitz (2005) p171
- Spitz (2005) pp239-240
- Spitz (2005) p348
- Miles (1997) p101
- Miles (1997) p102
- Miles (1997) p106
- Miles (1997) p108
- Miles (1997) p452
- Harry (2000) p403
- SEQUEL: ALL TOGETHER NOW Thirty years later, the surviving Beatles get back to where they once belonged
- Wingspan, DVD, Catalogue number: 4779109, 19 November 2001
- The Beatles' London, 1965-66 ''Abracadabra!''
- Sir Paul McCartney's exclusive interview:we will win
- Title Unavailable
- "McCartney's lament: I can't buy your love", ''Sydney Morning Herald'', 12 June 2004.
- Former Beatle Linked to Member of M.T.A. Unit
- Title Unavailable
- ''The Beatles Anthology'' DVD 2003 (Episode 1: 44:28) Starr and Harrison talking about Preludins in Hamburg.
- Miles (1997) pp66-67
- Miles (1997) pp188-89
- Miles (1997) p190
- Miles (1997) p233
- Miles (1997) pp67-68
- Paul McCartney's arrest in Japan
- Miles (1997) p247
- Miles (1997) p191
- Sir Paul reveals Beatles drug use
- Miles (1998). ''The Beatles Diary'', p244
- Miles, Badman (2001) p272
- Miles (1997) p379.
- Miles (1997) p380
- ''The Beatles Anthology'' DVD 2003 (Episode 6 - 1:06:18) Harrison talking about the trip to Greece to buy an island.
- Miles (1997) p382
- Miles (1997) p393
- Miles (1997) p395
- Band on the Run: A History of Paul McCartney and Wings
- Milestones
- Paul McCartney on Drugs
- Beatles in Bangor
- Miles (1997) p396
- Miles (1997) p397
- Miles (1997) p404
- Just Say 'Om': The Fab Two Give a Little Help to a Cause
- Change Begins Within at Radio City Music Hall
- Coming together to teach one million at-risk youth to meditate
- Paul McCartney's New Ad for PETA!
- Linda McCartney, by Danny Fields, Time Warner Paperbacks, 1 February 2001, ISBN 0-7515-2985-0
- 'Bambi’ was cruel
- McCartney vows to keep animal rights torch alight
- Babe actor arrested after protest
- GM-free ingredients
- Protest at ban on ‘mineral’ products
- McCartney calls for landmine ban
- McCartney plays for Ralph Whitworth
- McCartney divorce battle: The full judgement part 2
- Paul and Heather call for seal cull ban, Friday, 3 March 2006
- Interview transcript, McCartney and Heather, Larry King Live, Seal cull
- McCartney attacks China over fur
- No-one is Beatle proof
- Make Poverty History
- US campaign for Burma protest
- Concert for Kampuchea
- Ferry Aid Single covers
- Sir Paul McCartney - McCartney's Meat Row with Dalai Lama
- Macca's a blue
- Did The Beatles Like Football?
- Linda McCartney Quotes
- Revealed – secret life of ex-Beatle Paul McCartney as Everton fan
- Did The Beatles Hide Their Footballing Love Away?
- Football and the Beatles: The Easily-Uncovered Truth
- Tennant (2002) p274
- The Beatles and Football
- Joy of Six: Great Christmas Matches
- The German View of Events - including the Football Match
- We Loved Them, Yeah Yeah, Yeah
- The Footie Fifty
- Sir Paul McCartney rocks Anfield stadium
- Paul McCartney and Dave Grohl: A Bromance Is Born Before the Grammys
- Sir Paul McCartney, Anfield Stadium, Liverpool: Macca's long and winding road brings him home
- Paul McCartney - Anfield
- Paul McCartney: Anfield Liverpool Sound gig will be just like playing to my mates
- Britain's Rich List: Sir Paul McCartney
- Justice Bennet's judgment on McCartney v Mills McCartney
- Sir Paul is 'pop billionaire'
- McCartney tops media rich list
- 48 million in 2005
- Guest speaker
- Spitz (2005), p365.
- McCartney talking about The Beatles catalogue
- MPL music publishing
- McCartney and the Musical “Grease”
- Paul McCartney Trademark
- ''Brokeback Mountain'' web page
- Goodnight and Good Luck
- Sir Paul McCartney hit by recession
- Sir Paul McCartney - music legend (review of a ''HARDtalk Extra'' television interview)
- Video
- Guinness Book of Records
- Sir Paul McCartney
- Number 1 singles
- British Hit Singles & Albums
- Sir Paul is Your Millennium's greatest composer
- McCartney's Yesterday earns US accolade
- The seven ages of Paul McCartney
- Planet called McCartney
- Live 8 (DVD) Various Artists, 7 November 2005, Cat. No: ANGELDVD5
- Live 8 single
- One Year Ago: Internet Gives McCartney All-Time Largest Album Promo
- Sir Paul hits 3,000 in Russia
- 3,000 concerts played
- [1]
- [1]
- Miles (1997) pXI
- Miles (1997) p32
- The Linda McCartney Tapes
- Miles (1997) p319
- Paul McCartney: When I'm 64 by Paul Vallely - The Independent, 16 June 2006 macca-central.com - Retrieved 29 January 2007
References
- Guinness World Records - News - Guinness World Records Launches 2009 Edition
- Paul McCartney Letterman (Video, Photos) - Historic Paul McCartney Tour Dates 2009 - Right On Music
- Paul McCartney to appear on 'The Late Show With David Letterman' next Wednesday
- Paul McCartney to 'Late Show' (The TV Zone) - Newsday.com
- The Lennon-McCartney Songwriting Partnership
- Paul McCartney: When I'm 64
- The UK's Best Selling Singles
- Title Unavailable
- Paul McCartney - Biography
- Title Unavailable
- Spitz (2005) p75
- Miles (1997) p4
- Beatle's schoolboy photo auction
- Miles (1997) p9
- Spitz (2005) p125
- Spitz (2005) pp82-83
- Photo of Forthlin Road
- Miles (1997) p6
- Miles (1997) p20
- Miles (1997) p31
- Miles (1997) p22
- Spitz (2005) p71
- Miles (1997) pp23-24
- Spitz (2005) p86
- Miles (1997) p21
- Larkin, Colin. ''The Guinness Who's Who Of Country Music'': Slim Whitman entry, Guinness Publishing, 1993. ISBN 0851127266
- Early guitars McCartney played
- Miles (1997) pp22-23
- Spitz (2005) p93
- Miles (1997) pp47-50
- Cynthia Lennon (2006) p94
- Cynthia Lennon (2006) p67
- Coleman (1984) p212
- Miles (1997) pp57-8
- Miles (1997) p74
- Cynthia Lennon (2006) p97
- Pawlowski (1990) pp39-40
- Spitz (2005) p330
- {{LondonGazette|issue=43667|supp=yes|startpage=5488|date=4 June 1965|accessdate=2008-12-05}}
- Gould (2008) p347
- Miles (1997) pp293-95
- ''Contemporary Authors Online'', Thomson Gale (2006)
- McCartney seeks chorus of approval for Latin piece
- Sally Burgess’ page
- Oratorio and StandingStone premiers - 4 July 2003
- "Paul McCartney." Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement, Vol. 24. Thomson Gale, 2005.
- {{LondonGazette |issue=54625 |startpage=2 |date=1996-12-30 |accessdate=2008-12-05}}
- {{LondonGazette |issue=55229 |startpage=8993 |date=1998-08-18 |accessdate=2008-12-05}}
- Second McCartney song for New York
- The Concert For New York City web site "concertfornyc.com" has been established to remember the concert and features photos of McCartney both on stage and backstage at Madison Square Garden. Various Artists, The Concert for New York City, 01/29/2002, Columbia/SME CK 54205 (1C2D54205 Discs: 2
- The Concert for George, Cat. No: 0349702412
- Sir Paul McCartney picks up special Brit award in London
- Yale gives Paul McCartney honorary music degree
- Paul McCartney Treats Liverpool to “A Day in the Life” Live Debut
- “The Carnival of Light” interview
- The Unknown Paul McCartney, by Ian Peel, Paperback, Reynolds & Hearn Ltd, 7 November 2002 ISBN 1-903111-36-6
- Indica Gallery
- Miles (1997) p232
- Miles (1997) p106
- Miles (1997) p108
- Miles (1997) p254
- Spitz (2005) p597
- How LIPA came to be
- Miles (1997) p207
- Miles (1997) p218
- Miles (1997) p217
- Miles (1997) pp219-20
- Miles (1997) pp238-39
- Oobu Joobu CDs and Mp3s
- Oobu Joobu
- Miles (1997) pp218-219.
- Sir Paul gears up for The Fireman
- Liverpool Sound Collage (CD) Capitol, 26 September 2000
- Twin Freaks LP — Parlophone, Cat. No. 311 30011, 4 June 2005
- www.thefireman.com
- Paul McCartney: A Fireman Interviewed
- Geoff Dunbar Interview
- “Broad Street” a flop - 17 June 2006
- Give My Regards to Broad Street review
- Animated film won a Bafta
- Tropic Island Hum
- The Biography Channel
- Movie Habit - The Music and Animation Collection
- Paul McCartney in “Shrek 4?
- Wingspan, DVD, Catalogue number: 4779109, 19 November 2001
- Lewisohn (2002) p21
- Miles (1997) p243
- Miles (1997) pp256-67
- Miles (1997) pp266-67
- Spitz (2005) p84
- Miles (1997) p266
- McCartney gets arty
- McCartney and Yoko art exhibitions, 20 October 2000
- Walker Gallery Exhibition: 24 May - 4 August 2002
- McCartney stamps to go on sale
- Spitz (2005), p82
- Miles (1997) p40
- Miles (1997) p41
- Spitz (2005) p205
- Miles (1997) p42
- Roll over, Andrew Motion
- Blackbird Singing - Poems and Lyrics 1965-1999, Paul McCartney, Faber and Faber, 4 March 2002, ISBN 0-571-20992-0
- Paul McCartney: A collaborative crusade
- Geoff Dunbar IMDb
- Miles (1997) p587
- Miles (1997) p588
- Miles (1997) p590
- Beatles: Lennon planned to meet McCartney in 1974
- SNL Transcripts: Beatles Offer, 24 April 1976
- Playboy interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono
- Miles (1997) p592
- Bresler, Fenton (1990). ''Who Killed John Lennon?'' reprinted. St. Martin's Press, ISBN 0-312-92367-8
- The Last Day in the Life
- Miles (1997) p593
- McCartney on John's death
- Miles (1997) p594
- The Paul McCartney Encyclopedia, article "Lennon, John"
- McCartney’s 1984 Playboy Interview
- Paul McCartney Wings It Alone
- Lewisohn (2002) p168
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5Tl9sBcNrg
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9jKLiVjok4
- George’s last daysbbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment - Retrieved 29 January 2007
- Miles (1997) p29
- Spitz (2005) p163
- Miles (1997) p69
- Spitz (2005) p171
- Spitz (2005) pp239-240
- Spitz (2005) p348
- Miles (1997) p101
- Miles (1997) p102
- Miles (1997) p106
- Miles (1997) p108
- Miles (1997) p452
- Harry (2000) p403
- SEQUEL: ALL TOGETHER NOW Thirty years later, the surviving Beatles get back to where they once belonged
- Wingspan, DVD, Catalogue number: 4779109, 19 November 2001
- The Beatles' London, 1965-66 ''Abracadabra!''
- Sir Paul McCartney's exclusive interview:we will win
- Title Unavailable
- "McCartney's lament: I can't buy your love", ''Sydney Morning Herald'', 12 June 2004.
- Former Beatle Linked to Member of M.T.A. Unit
- Title Unavailable
- ''The Beatles Anthology'' DVD 2003 (Episode 1: 44:28) Starr and Harrison talking about Preludins in Hamburg.
- Miles (1997) pp66-67
- Miles (1997) pp188-89
- Miles (1997) p190
- Miles (1997) p233
- Miles (1997) pp67-68
- Paul McCartney's arrest in Japan
- Miles (1997) p247
- Miles (1997) p191
- Sir Paul reveals Beatles drug use
- Miles (1998). ''The Beatles Diary'', p244
- Miles, Badman (2001) p272
- Miles (1997) p379.
- Miles (1997) p380
- ''The Beatles Anthology'' DVD 2003 (Episode 6 - 1:06:18) Harrison talking about the trip to Greece to buy an island.
- Miles (1997) p382
- Miles (1997) p393
- Miles (1997) p395
- Band on the Run: A History of Paul McCartney and Wings
- Milestones
- Paul McCartney on Drugs
- Beatles in Bangor
- Miles (1997) p396
- Miles (1997) p397
- Miles (1997) p404
- Just Say 'Om': The Fab Two Give a Little Help to a Cause
- Change Begins Within at Radio City Music Hall
- Coming together to teach one million at-risk youth to meditate
- Paul McCartney's New Ad for PETA!
- Linda McCartney, by Danny Fields, Time Warner Paperbacks, 1 February 2001, ISBN 0-7515-2985-0
- 'Bambi’ was cruel
- McCartney vows to keep animal rights torch alight
- Babe actor arrested after protest
- GM-free ingredients
- Protest at ban on ‘mineral’ products
- McCartney calls for landmine ban
- McCartney plays for Ralph Whitworth
- McCartney divorce battle: The full judgement part 2
- Paul and Heather call for seal cull ban, Friday, 3 March 2006
- Interview transcript, McCartney and Heather, Larry King Live, Seal cull
- McCartney attacks China over fur
- No-one is Beatle proof
- Make Poverty History
- US campaign for Burma protest
- Concert for Kampuchea
- Ferry Aid Single covers
- Sir Paul McCartney - McCartney's Meat Row with Dalai Lama
- Macca's a blue
- Did The Beatles Like Football?
- Linda McCartney Quotes
- Revealed – secret life of ex-Beatle Paul McCartney as Everton fan
- Did The Beatles Hide Their Footballing Love Away?
- Football and the Beatles: The Easily-Uncovered Truth
- Tennant (2002) p274
- The Beatles and Football
- Joy of Six: Great Christmas Matches
- The German View of Events - including the Football Match
- We Loved Them, Yeah Yeah, Yeah
- The Footie Fifty
- Sir Paul McCartney rocks Anfield stadium
- Paul McCartney and Dave Grohl: A Bromance Is Born Before the Grammys
- Sir Paul McCartney, Anfield Stadium, Liverpool: Macca's long and winding road brings him home
- Paul McCartney - Anfield
- Paul McCartney: Anfield Liverpool Sound gig will be just like playing to my mates
- Britain's Rich List: Sir Paul McCartney
- Justice Bennet's judgment on McCartney v Mills McCartney
- Sir Paul is 'pop billionaire'
- McCartney tops media rich list
- 48 million in 2005
- Guest speaker
- Spitz (2005), p365.
- McCartney talking about The Beatles catalogue
- MPL music publishing
- McCartney and the Musical “Grease”
- Paul McCartney Trademark
- ''Brokeback Mountain'' web page
- Goodnight and Good Luck
- Sir Paul McCartney hit by recession
- Sir Paul McCartney - music legend (review of a ''HARDtalk Extra'' television interview)
- Video
- Guinness Book of Records
- Sir Paul McCartney
- Number 1 singles
- British Hit Singles & Albums
- Sir Paul is Your Millennium's greatest composer
- McCartney's Yesterday earns US accolade
- The seven ages of Paul McCartney
- Planet called McCartney
- Live 8 (DVD) Various Artists, 7 November 2005, Cat. No: ANGELDVD5
- Live 8 single
- One Year Ago: Internet Gives McCartney All-Time Largest Album Promo
- Sir Paul hits 3,000 in Russia
- 3,000 concerts played
- [1]
- [1]
- Miles (1997) pXI
- Miles (1997) p32
- The Linda McCartney Tapes
- Miles (1997) p319
- Paul McCartney: When I'm 64 by Paul Vallely - The Independent, 16 June 2006 macca-central.com - Retrieved 29 January 2007