Man on the Run
Page 33
23. Still smiling amid the crush and chaos, in spite of the potential seven-year jail sentence hanging over his head for carrying nearly half a pound of weed into Japan, January 1980. Paul: ‘It was like a mad movie.’
24. Greeting the British press at the Sussex farm after being deported from Japan, 28 January 1980. Asked whether he was planning to spend time with his family, Paul responded: ‘Yeah, if you fellas would leave me alone, that would be possible.’
1. Linda, Heather and Paul arrive at JFK Airport, NYC, 17 March 1969, five days after their London wedding. Paul: ‘She had a child. I was genuinely impressed by the way she handled herself in life.’
2. Paul and Linda emerge from the High Court in London on 19 February 1971 on the first day of the proceedings to untangle the Beatles’ legal affairs. Paul: ‘I was having to fight my mates. It was just fucking awful.’
3. Allen Klein, the master of casual intimidation, March 1971.
4. Wings Over Europe soundcheck, Châteauvallon, France, 9 July 1972. Paul and Denny Seiwell go over keyboard parts with a nervous Linda. Seiwell: ‘She was unhappy and frightened. But she had a lot of chutzpah.’
5. Paul the bed-headed businessman, behind the desk, 1972.
6. The McCartneys peer out of the back of a police car, after the Swedish dope bust, Gothenburg, 10 August 1972. Linda to photographer Joe Stevens: ‘Just get the pictures.’
7. Togetherness vibes backstage during Wings Over Europe: L–R: Denny Seiwell, Henry McCullough, Paul, Linda and Denny Laine.
8. The Wings Mark I front line at the Théatre Antique in Arles, 13 July 1972. L–R: Henry McCullough, Denny Laine and Paul.
9. The fivesome with the trundling, freakadelic open-topped bus used for Wings Over Europe, July 1972.
10. 1 December 1972, the day ‘Hi Hi Hi’ was released and instantly banned by the BBC. Paul: ‘I think the BBC should be highly praised, preventing the youth from hearing my opinions.’
11. Outside Campbeltown Sheriff Court, March 1973, trying to keep straight faces, after being fined for growing marijuana in Scotland. Paul: ‘We got a load of seeds. We didn’t know what they were. We planted them and . . . five of them came up illegal.’
12. Paul and Henry McCullough onstage at London’s Hammersmith Odeon, May 1973, just weeks before their argument that caused the latter to quit. McCullough: ‘I was driving off the edge of a cliff.’
13. ‘We’re not pinching your music’: the summit to quell the Africaninfluences ‘controversy’ stirred by Fela Kuti (right), Band On The Run, Lagos, 1973.
14. The fearless leader of the band. Paul: ‘If anyone’s gonna make a decision, it should probably be him.’
15. Dressed up in La La Land. At the 46th Annual Academy Awards, April 1974. ‘Live And Let Die’ was nominated for Best Original Song, but lost out to Barbra Streisand’s ‘The Way We Were’.
16. On the porch of songwriter Curly Putnam Jr’s house, Tennessee, July 1974, toasting the end of the troubled preliminary rehearsals with Wings Mark II.
17. Venus And Mars press shot, May 1975.
18. The record-trouncing, critics-bowling, all-conquering Wings line-up of 1976: L–R: Joe English, Linda, Jimmy McCulloch, Paul and Denny Laine.
19. The outlook returns to cloudy. Back down to a trio, eating fish and chips in the rain, at the London Town launch on the Thames, March 1978.
20. Wings Mark III in Liverpool, aboard the Royal Iris ferry, scene of early Beatles gigs, November 1979. L–R: Laurence Juber, Linda, Paul, Steve Holley and Denny Laine. Paul: ‘I feel I’m not judged with the same harshness by the people here.’
21. Take these broken Wings. Paul: ‘It was getting a bit boring, to tell the truth. I was getting a bit fed up with yet another line-up.’
22. Full circle: recording McCartney II alone, ten years after the solo-recorded McCartney, 1979. Paul: ‘I think of it as being a nutty professor, holed up in this little laboratory.’
23. Still smiling amid the crush and chaos, in spite of the potential seven-year jail sentence hanging over his head for carrying nearly half a pound of weed into Japan, January 1980. Paul: ‘It was like a mad movie.’
24. Greeting the British press at the Sussex farm after being deported from Japan, 28 January 1980. Asked whether he was planning to spend time with his family, Paul responded: ‘Yeah, if you fellas would leave me alone, that would be possible.’