Biography of Paul McCartney

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Biography of Paul McCartney

Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM (born 18 June 1942) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles (1960– 1970) and Wings (1971–1981), 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 in the United Kingdom alone. Childhood McCartney was born in Walton Hospital in Liverpool, England, where his mother, Mary (née Mohin), had worked as a nurse in the maternity ward.[14] He has one brother, Michael, born 7 January 1944.[15] McCartney was baptised as a Roman Catholic but was raised non-denominationally: his mother was Roman Catholic and his father James, or "Jim" McCartney, was a Protestant turned agnostic.[15] In 1947, he began attending Stockton Wood Road Primary School. He then attended the Joseph Williams Junior School[16] and passed the 11-plus exam in 1953 with three others out of the 90 examinees, thus gaining admission to the Liverpool Institute.[17] In 1954, while taking the bus from his home in the suburb of Speke to the Institute, he met George Harrison, who lived nearby.[18] 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.[19]

20 Forthlin Road now attracts large numbers of tourists. In 1955, the McCartney family moved to 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton.[20] 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.[21] On 31 October 1956, Mary McCartney died of an embolism after a mastectomy operation to stop the spread of her breast cancer.[22] 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.[23] 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.[24] Jim had an upright piano in

the front room that he had bought from Epstein's North End Music Stores. McCartney's grandfather, Joe McCartney, played an E-flat tuba.[25][26] Jim McCartney used to point out the different instruments in songs on the radio, and often took McCartney to local brass band concerts.[26] 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.[27][28] As he was left-handed, McCartney found right-handed guitars 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.[28][29] 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.[30] He later learned to play the piano and wrote his second song, "When I'm Sixty-Four".[31] On his father's advice, he took music lessons, but since he preferred to learn 'by ear' he never paid much attention to them.[31] McCartney was heavily influenced by American Rhythm and Blues music. He has stated that Little Richard was his idol when he was in school and that the first song he ever sang in public was "Long Tall Sally", at a Butlins holiday camp talent competition.[32]

Musical career
Main article: Paul McCartney's musical career

1957–1960
At the age of 15, McCartney met John Lennon and The Quarrymen at the St. Peter's Church Hall fête in Woolton on 6 July 1957.[33] He formed a close working relationship with Lennon and they collaborated writing many songs. Harrison joined the group in early 1958 as lead guitarist, followed in early 1960 by Lennon's art school friend, Stuart Sutcliffe on bass.[34][35] By May 1960, they had tried several new names, including "Johnny and the Moondogs" and "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" in mid-August 1960 and recruited Pete Best at short notice to become their drummer for an imminent engagement in Hamburg.[36][37]

1960–1970: The Beatles

McCartney (left) in 1964 with Beatles bandmates George Harrison and John Lennon

From August 1960, The Beatles were booked by Allan Williams,[38] to perform at a club in Hamburg.[39] During extended stays over the next two years, The Beatles performed as a resident group in a number of Hamburg clubs. On returns to Liverpool they played at the Cavern club. Prior to the end of the residency, Sutcliffe left the band, so McCartney, reluctantly, became The Beatles' bass player.[40] The Beatles recorded their first published musical material in Hamburg, performing as the backing group for Tony Sheridan on the single "My Bonnie".[41] 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.[42] Epstein eventually negotiated a record contract for the group with Parlophone in May 1962.[43] 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 as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).[44] After performing concerts, plays, and tours almost non-stop for a period of nearly four years, and giving more than one thousand four hundred live performances internationally,[45] The Beatles gave their last commercial concert at the end of their 1966 US tour.[46] They continued to work in the recording studio from 1966 until their break-up in 1970. In the eight years from 1962 to 1970, the group had released twenty-four UK singles and twelve studio albums, often released in different configurations in the USA and other countries (see discography). In late 1966, there was a hoax called "Paul is dead" saying that McCartney had died in a car crash. The hoax was proven false in 1969 when the front cover of a magazine said "Paul is Still With Us." 1980:Reaction to Lennon's murder On the morning of 9 December 1980, McCartney awoke to the news that Lennon had been murdered outside his home in the Dakota building in New York City.[124] Lennon's death created a media frenzy around the surviving members of The Beatles.[125] 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.[126] He was later criticised for what appeared, when published, to be an utterly superficial response: "It's a drag". [127] McCartney explained, "When John was killed somebody stuck a microphone at me and said: 'What do you think about it?' I said, 'It's a dra-a-ag' and meant it with every inch of melancholy I could muster. When you put that in print it says, 'McCartney in London today when asked for a comment on his dead friend said, "It's a drag."' It seemed a very flippant comment to make."[127] McCartney was also to recall: I talked to Yoko the day after he was killed and the first thing she said was, "John was really fond of you." The last telephone conversation I had with him we were still the best of mates. He was always a very warm guy, John. His bluff was all on the surface. He used to take his glasses down, those granny glasses, and say, "It's only me." They were like a wall, you know? A shield. Those are the moments I treasure.[128] In 1983, McCartney said: I would not have been as typically human and standoffish as I was if I knew John was going to die. I would have made more of an effort to try and get behind his "mask" and have a better relationship with him.

Since 1970

McCartney during a Wings concert, 1976 After the break-up 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 Wings 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. Initially Australia was to be included in the 1989 world tour but McCartney decided to play extra shows in America. On the 1993 (New World Tour), McCartney toured Australia extensively; this was his third and most recent tour of Australia. A proposed further tour to Australia in 2002 was cancelled after the Bali Bombings claiming that touring after the bombings would be insensitive.[47] In 1989, he joined forces with fellow Merseysiders including Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers and Holly Johnson of Frankie Goes to Hollywood to record a new version of Ferry Cross the Mersey (originally recorded 25 years earlier by Gerry and the Pacemakers) to generate money for the appeal fund of the Hillsborough disaster, which occurred on 15 April that year and in which 96 Liverpool F.C. fans died as a result of their injuries.[48] 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.[49] He collaborated with Carl Davis to release Liverpool Oratorio;[50] involving the opera singers Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Sally Burgess,[51] Jerry Hadley and Willard White, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the choir of Liverpool Cathedral.[52] The Prince of Wales later honoured McCartney as a Fellow of The Royal College of Music[53] and Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music (2008). Other forays

into classical music included Standing Stone (1997), Working Classical (1999), Ecce Cor Meum (2006), and "Ocean's Kingdom" (2011). It was announced in the 1997 New Year Honours that McCartney was to be knighted for services to music,[54] becoming Sir Paul McCartney.[55] 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 Songwriters, Composers and Authors. 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,[56][57] McCartney took a lead role in organising The Concert for New York City. In November 2002, on the first anniversary of George Harrison's death, McCartney performed at the Concert for George.[58] 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 and Ringo Starr promoting The Beatles: Rock Band in 2009.

McCartney performing in Dublin, Ireland, on 12 June 2010 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[59] and an honorary degree, Doctor of Music, from Yale University. The same year, he performed at a concert in Liverpool to

celebrate the city's year as European Capital of Culture. In 2009, he received two nominations for the 51st annual Grammy awards, while in October of the same year he was named songwriter of the year at the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Awards. On 15 July 2009, more than 45 years after The Beatles first appeared on American television on The Ed Sullivan Show, McCartney returned to the Ed Sullivan Theater to perform on Late Show with David Letterman. McCartney was portrayed in the 2009 film Nowhere Boy, about Lennon's teenage years, by Thomas Sangster. On 2 June 2010, McCartney was honoured by Barack Obama with the Gershwin Prize for his contributions to popular music in a live show for the White House with performances by Stevie Wonder, Lang Lang and many others. McCartney's enduring popularity has helped him schedule performances in new venues. He played three sold out concerts at newly-built Citi Field in Queens, New York (built to replace the iconic Shea Stadium) on 17, 18, and 21 July 2009. On 27 June 2010, McCartney did a benefit concert at Hyde Park for the Born HIV Free foundation. On 18 August 2010, McCartney opened the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. On 15-16 July 2011, McCartney performed the first concerts at the new Yankee Stadium. McCartney has been touring since 2001 with guitarists Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray, Paul "Wix" Wickens on keyboards and drummer Abe Laboriel, Jr. In 2010, plans for an upcoming Paul McCartney tribute album were announced with recordings of McCartney songs by Kiss, Garth Brooks, Billy Joel, B.B. King and others. Kisses on the Bottom, a collection of standards, was released on 7 February 2012. McCartney was honoured as MusiCares Person of the Year on 10 February 2012, two days prior to his performance at the 54th Grammy Awards.

Lifestyle
Drugs
McCartney's introduction to drugs started in Hamburg, Germany.[155] 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.[156] McCartney remembered getting "very high" and giggling when The Beatles were introduced to cannabis by Bob Dylan in New York, in 1964.[157] 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 the phrase "another kind of mind" in "Got to Get You into My Life".[158] John Dunbar's flat at 29 Lennox Gardens, in London, became a regular hangout for McCartney, where he talked to musicians, writers and artists, and smoked cannabis.[79] In 1965, Barry Miles introduced McCartney to hash brownies by using a recipe for hash fudge he found in the Alice B. Toklas Cookbook.[159] During the filming

of Help!, he occasionally smoked a spliff in the car on the way to the studio during filming, which often made him forget his lines.[160] Help! director Dick Lester said that he overheard "two beautiful women" trying to cajole McCartney into taking heroin, but he refused.[160] 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, 15 doctors, and two MPs.[161] McCartney was introduced to cocaine by Robert Fraser, and it was available during the recording of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.[162][163] He admitted that he used the drug multiple times for about a year but stopped because of the unpleasant comedown.[164] In 1967, on a sailing trip to Greece[165] (with the idea of buying an island for the whole group)[166] McCartney said everybody sat around and took LSD, although McCartney had first taken it with Tara Browne, in 1966.[167][168] He took his second "acid trip" with Lennon on 21 March 1967 after a studio session.[169] McCartney was the first British pop star to openly admit to using LSD, in an interview in the now-defunct Queen magazine.[170] His admission was followed by a TV interview in the UK on ITN on 19 June 1967, and 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. McCartney was not arrested by Norman Pilcher's Drug Squad, as Donovan and several members of the Rolling Stones had been.[164] In 1972, however, police found cannabis plants growing on his Scottish farm.[171] On 16 January 1980, Wings went to Tokyo for 11 concerts in Japan.[172] As McCartney was going through customs, officials found 7.7 ounces (218.3 g) of cannabis in his luggage.[172] 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.[164] 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.[172] The Wings Japanese tour was cancelled and the other members of Wings 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.[172] In 1984, Paul and Linda McCartney were both arrested for possession of cannabis.[173][174] In an interview in 2004 he stated that he no longer smoked marijuana; he also admitted to taking heroin, LSD and cocaine but said his drug use was never excessive.[175]

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, at which time he and the other Beatles learned Transcendental Meditation (TM).[176] "The whole meditation experience was very good and I still use the mantra. . . I find it soothing and I can imagine that the more you were to get into it, the more interesting it would get." [177] 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.[178] Although McCartney was told that he was never to repeat the mantra to anyone else, he did tell Linda McCartney,[179] and said he meditated a lot while he was in jail in Japan.[177] 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.[180][181]

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.[182] 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.[183] In his first interview after Linda's death, he promised to continue working for animal rights.[184][185]

McCartney in cam In 1999, McCartney spent £3,000,000 to ensure Linda McCartney's food remained free of genetically engineered ingredients.[186] 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.[187] Following his marriage to Heather Mills, McCartney joined her in a campaign against landmines. Both McCartney and Mills are patrons of Adopt-A-Minefield.[188][189]. In 2003, McCartney played a personal concert

for the wife of a wealthy banker and donated his one million dollar fee to the charity.[190] He also wore an anti-landmines t-shirt on the Back in the World tour.[189] 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.[191] 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.[192] McCartney has also criticised China's fur trade[193][194] and supports the Make Poverty History campaign.[195] 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,[196] 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.[197][198] In 2008, he donated a song to Aid Still Required's CD to assist with the restoration of the devastation done to Southeast Asia from the 2004 Tsunami. 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 responded, saying his doctors advised him to eat meat for health reasons. In the interview McCartney said, "I wrote back saying they were wrong." 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.[143] The two began a relationship 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.[72] 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".[73] 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.[144][145] However, Schwartz stated that McCartney and Asher had already broken up before the incident.[146]

Linda McCartney

McCartney performing with wife Linda in 1976 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 break-up of The Beatles.[147] The pair had met previously at a 1967 Georgie Fame concert at The Bag O'Nails club,[95][148] 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.[149] They had four children – Linda's daughter Heather (who was adopted by Paul), 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. 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."[150]

Nancy Shevell
McCartney married New Yorker Nancy Shevell in a civil ceremony at Old Marylebone Town Hall, London on 9 October 2011. The wedding was a "low-key affair" attended by a group of around 30 family and friends.[151] The couple had been dating since November 2007.[152] A breast cancer survivor,[153] she is a member of the board of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority as well as vice president of a familyowned transportation conglomerate which owns New England Motor Freight.[154

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).[68] 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.[69][70] The Indica Gallery brought McCartney into contact with Barry Miles, whose underground newspaper, the International Times, McCartney helped to start.[71] 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,[72] McCartney took piano lessons at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, which The Beatles' producer Martin had previously attended.[73][74] McCartney studied composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Luciano Berio.[75] 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.[76] The 1837 building, which McCartney attended during his schooldays, had become derelict by the mid-1980s.[76] On 7 June 1996, Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the redeveloped building.[76]

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.[77] When visiting John Dunbar's flat in London, McCartney would take along tapes he had compiled at Jane Asher's house.[78] 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.[79] 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".[80] 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 S. Burroughs) and avant-garde musicians.[81] 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.[81] In 1995, McCartney recorded a radio series called "Oobu Joobu"[82] for the American network Westwood One, which he described as being "wide-screen radio".[83] During the 1990s, McCartney collaborated with Youth of Killing Joke under the name The Fireman,[84] and released two ambient electronic albums: Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest (1993) and Rushes (1998). In 2000, he released an album titled Liverpool Sound Collage[85] with Super Furry Animals and Youth, utilising the sound collage and musique concrète 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.[86] The Fireman's third album Electric Arguments was released on 25 November 2008. Unlike the first two Fireman albums, this one was more song-based

in its structure. McCartney told L.A. Weekly in a January 2009, "Fireman is improvisational theatre ... 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."[87]

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 character voices.[88] 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 No.1 in the UK, but the film did not do well commercially or critically.[89] Roger Ebert awarded the film a single star and wrote, "You can safely skip the movie and proceed directly to the sound track."[90] Dunbar worked again with McCartney on an animated film about the work of French artist Honoré Daumier, in 1992, which won both of them a Bafta award.[91] They also worked on Tropic Island Hum, in 1997.[92] In 1995, McCartney made a guest appearance in the "Lisa the Vegetarian", an episode of The Simpsons, and directed a short documentary about The Grateful Dead.[93][94] 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.[95] 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.[96]

Painting
In 1966, McCartney met art gallery-owner Robert Fraser, whose flat was visited by many well-known artists.[97] McCartney met Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Peter Blake, and Richard Hamilton there, and learned about art appreciation.[97] McCartney later started buying paintings by Magritte, and used Magritte's painting of an apple for the Apple Records logo.[98] He now owns Magritte's easel and spectacles.[99] McCartney's love of painting surfaced after watching artist Willem de Kooning paint, in Kooning's Long Island studio.[100] McCartney took up painting in 1983.[101] 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.[102] The first UK exhibition of McCartney's work was opened in Bristol, England with more than 50 paintings on display. McCartney had previously believed that "only people that had been to art school were allowed to paint" – as Lennon had.[102] 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."[103][104] 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.[105]

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".[106] McCartney was later inspired – in his school years – by Alan Durband, who was McCartney's English literature teacher at the Liverpool Institute.[107] 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.[108] McCartney later took his A-level exams, but passed only one subject – Art.[109][110] 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 City.[111] Some of them were serious: "Here Today" (about Lennon) and some humorous ("Maxwell's Silver Hammer").[112] 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.[111] In October 2005, McCartney released a children's book called High in the Clouds: An Urban Furry Tail. In a press release publicising the book, McCartney said, "I have loved reading for as long as I can remember", singling out Treasure Island as a childhood favourite.[113] McCartney collaborated with author Philip Ardagh and animator Geoff Dunbar to write the book.

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