McGear Interivew (1974)

 McGear Interview

The Write Thing

January/February 1975

    You shouldn't buy Mike McGear's new album McGear because it was done by Paul's brother, or produced by Paul, or half-written by Paul, or even played on by Paul. You should get it because it's a damn good album, maybe one of three bests of the year. 

    Mike's voice is very deep, very British, and very, very good. The production is tight with beautiful background instrumentation and the kind of songs that stay in your mind. It was supposed to be promoted heavily by Warner Brothers, but I haven't seen any publicity on it around here, where most stores have only one copy hidden under M in the rock section, not exactly overexposing him.

     Mike was on a coast-to-coast American promotional stint to plug the album. John Awarski from Cleveland, Ohio, took photographs of him there and sent us this interview by Janet Macoska.

 Q:  The "Liverpool Lou" record was that Scaffold or was that you?

 Mike:  That was Scaffold. Yes, I did the lead on it, just the lead singing.

 Q: On the other side, "Ten Years After on Strawberry Jam" (written by Paul and Linda), it's sorta like the Beatles... 

Mike:  It's not. That comes from my heritage, you see. It comes from all our heritage.

 Q Is that you doing the voices?

 Mike:  We were all doing it, but it may be that I had the strongest influence on it because we were talking about the old days. We had had a few drinks. I must admit, I'm sorry about that, and we were feeling a bit relaxed, and we started to talk, talking about this character, a very old, amazing man named Tommy Houston, who came out of Liverpool. He was back before the big pop evolution and the Beatles and all those groups. He was well before that. That "Strawberry Jam" was just talking about his experience in life and how he started it all. One of the bits was back to Hamburg. 

Q: A lot of people did think that was about the Beatles.

 Mike:  Sure. But what I could do in that context with a few drinks down me... I know all of that backwards, you see, because I had a brother that went there. So I could say all these things, and they could all be based on facts. That's why it was a bit more interesting. 

Q: Okay, I want to talk about your album too. Could you tell us a little bit about what we should expect?

 Mike:  Well, what to expect is insanity-complete insanity for a start. It's sort of straight pop, and my first sort of straight pop album. There's one track on it called "Norton", which I've allowed my heritage to creep through. It's sort of a comedy one. It's got a little sketch in the middle. That's the only one on it, though. The rest is straight pop. (Corrects himself.) Sorry. In that very statement, it's wrong because straight pop would have one song done in different ways. That's all groups do. It's the same feeling on every track. And I, because I like variety, this is exactly what life is about now. We'll go out of this posh hotel and we'll fall over a dustbin because that's down there too. That's what life's about. You can walk through a door and there can be somebody who hits you in the face. I like life to change, so my album has a lot of changes on it. Suddenly, you go from a very Andy Williams ballad, as it were, into a heavy Lou Reed rocker.

 Q: Did you have this idea in your head before you went into the studio to do it? I mean, you must have talked it over.

 Mike:  Yes, we did, but I mean, no, that evolved. We originally were going to do a lot of songs. The only one that's been captured of another person's is Bryan Ferry's one, "Sea Breezes", and that in concept is completely different from Bryan's version. His one was on a Roxy Music album. It was quite mad. 

Q:  He probably would enjoy that too, because he has a knack for taking other people's things and doing them in his own style.

 Mike:  Oh yes, well, when he heard mine, the first thing he said when I met him was, "Let us shake hands, and I love your version of my song." He's a friend now.

 Q. How did you and Paul work together? Was this the first time that you ever wrote songs together?

 Mike:  No, we wrote other things together before, but not seriously. We've always done things sort of lightheartedly with no structure, just like fooling around, mockin' around. So we haven't worked seriously together. 

Q: Were you happy with the finished product?

Mike:  Very. Amazingly, I haven't even heard it in a while, cause I've been talking too much about it on the radio and to people. I'm very proud of it. It goes on. That's my only criteria in life of a record, is if it goes on a turntable, then that'll do. There are only a few records that go on my turntable, and that, (McGear), thank God, is one of them. 

Q:  Do you have plans to come back and do some kind of tour, either with Scaffold or by yourself?

 Mike: Now I am. When I came to this country, I was just going to do a promo tour and go home, thank you. I've been listening and being drawn into America, and you sort of, (in an Irish brogue) get in me heart. You shock me. It's quite amazing. And so with that reaction, I can come back. Anybody who talks to me, I'll talk to them. Now, people have come in saying, "How do you do?" and talking instead of the things they were doing last time. They certainly weren't talking to me. They were talking at me.

 Q:  Is your children's book that you wrote and illustrated, Roger Bear available over here?

 Mike:  It's not been released over here. They were thinking of releasing it in my album, but they suddenly thought, "Oh God, it's going to confuse and take away from the album". It's going to be an awkward thing to relate to both of them at the same time, whereas the lovely thing about it is that I'm relating to both of them anyway. The only problem is the people can't get the product over here. (He pulls out a copy of Roger Bear to show us) Spike Milligan, John Lennon, and Bowie-three different people who have read that thing and got off on it. It takes a lot of time to color it in. Look at those colorings there.

 Q:  Did you do that?

 Mike: Yes, I did. 

Q: you stayed in the lines and everything. 

Mike:  Oh God. Well, you wait till you start doing it. It's very hard, but it's great fun. 

The single "Leave It, written by Paul, is one of the album's best too, was supposed to receive a lot of airplay, but I haven't heard it on the radio here, and it hasn't made any of the charts yet. But it deserves to be a big hit. Be sure to look for it or the album.