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.

Speke Up (1996)

 

I Won't Let It Be Forgotten

By Ann Todd

Liverpool Echo

March 15, 1996

    Paul McCartney has given his blessing to a church project to brighten up his boyhood home. On his last visit back to Liverpool to officially open the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts (LIPA), Paul especially asked to be driven through Speke. He wanted to see his old home in Western Avenue and show his son James where he grew up. 

    As he traveled through the familiar streets, he told his brother Mike, he wanted to do something to boost this estate's image. Now he is to get together with Mike and Rector of Speke, Reverend Michael Plunkett, to come up with a plan. 

    Mike McCartney, who still lives in Mercyside said, "Paul felt that Speke had been neglected and we had to do something to help raise its profile." He told Paul about the annual Music and Arts Festival run by Reverend Plunkett, based in St Aidan's church. 

    Mike said, "Paul said the first school prize he ever won at Stockton Wood Juniors was a drawing of St. Aidan's church. He wrote to Reverend Plunkett to offer to help in any way he could, and the two are going to think something up together for the benefit of the people of Speke."

     Meanwhile, Mike is helping with this year's Spring Fling Arts Festival, which starts tomorrow with a jazz band and clowns outside St Aidan's. He has also got his showbiz pal Les Dennis, another former Speke boy, to make a guest appearance at the festival concert next Saturday, which Mike will compare. Mike said, "I was talking to Les one day, and he mentioned he was a Speke boy who went to Stockton Wood school." 

Multi-Media McGear (1974)

 Multi-Media McGear (O.K. Mike?)

No writer listed

Ray Hammond (editor)

Beat Instrumental

October 1974

    The first time I saw Mike McGear was around 1963 in the basement of a Liverpool furniture store that had permitted a number of Liverpool poets and musicians to take it over for poetry and jazz night. There just on the crest of fame were Adrian Henri, Roger McGough, John Gorman, Brian Patton, and a tall blonde lad. "That's Paul McCartney's brother," said someone, pointing.

    "Did you see me getting up on stage?"  asked Mike, looking back over an 11-year-old gulf. "That was my very first time on stage. Did you laugh? There I was, standing with my piece of paper in my hand, shaking, but I found that the people liked the comedy thing I was doing. It was then I realized, 'oh, so they're just people, there's nothing to be frightened of."

     That was the beginning of Mike's collaboration with Gorman and Co. in the music/poetry/comedy band Scaffold, which, riding on the crest of the Beatles' fame, brought Liverpool humor to every corner of Britain and to some unsuspecting audiences abroad. It's difficult to think what an American audience could possibly have made of their first enormous hit, penned by Mike,  "Thank U Very Much". It even baffled a lot of Britons, including our kid, brother Paul, who didn't believe it set a chance on the charts.

     "Paul and I have always been brutally honest with each other. He said, 'Don't put that out as a single, the public won't get it. They won't understand.' And I said, 'Well, you've got your opinion, and I've got mine. It's going ahead.' He replied, 'Well, I think you're stupid. It's going to be to your detriment', as I was determined to carry on with it. 

    "He helped in the production, which is why that record got a bit more in the production than there is normally on our records. He's got a very good head for music. When the record was a hit, all he said was, 'All right, mate, I was wrong.'"

     Of course, there was always a bit of friendly rivalry between brothers, but it must have been terrible having one as famous as Paul. After the initial glow of basking in the shadow of McCartney's fame had died down, it must have been very difficult for McGear to shake off all the tags and be accepted on his own merit, instead of being accused of letting Paul help him along. "I suppose in the first days of Paul's success, I did feel a bit under his shadow," Mike confessed. "It's quite a cross to bear having a famous brother. You get a bit bored with the tags, but then the same sort of thing often happens in families. Lots of people feel under the shadow of an older brother or sister.

     "You have to say, 'I'm not just Paul's brother, I'm me.'" Was it Paul who inspired Mike to write in the early days? "No, I never wrote at all when I was a kid; our kid had all that wrapped up, going round everywhere with his guitar and things."

      Was Mike ever actually jealous of his brother? "No, why should I have been? When the Beatles started getting really successful, Brian Epstein said to me, 'Do you want to be a pop star?' And I said, 'Brian, my dear, you must be joking.'"

     When you talk to Mike, it's as if you're on stage with him and he's including you in his comedy act. He talks, not so much in a string of words, but in a series of scenes. In fact, it's very hard to put down on paper exactly what the man says, just because he is so expressive. Everything is accompanied by gestures, movements, changes of accent, and intonation. 

    Yet initially, the words"show business" were anathema to him. Instead, he wanted to go to art college, and ended up at the point where he joined Scaffold --as an apprentice hairdresser! "I certainly didn't intend to be a pop singer, in a way, but I got interested in the theater side of it, sketches and things, and it was very satisfying. And I went off on that tangent while Paul did his music."

     The two brothers seem extremely different in personality. Perhaps that's why McGear's determination to follow his own ideas, and not join with Paul or follow in his footsteps, has brought him to the point where he is completely accepted in his own right. Changing his name from the family one to McGear was a first step in this direction. 

    Yet he and Paul are still very close with the friendly rivalry and intuitive sensitivity about each other that is only found within families. He has worked closely with Paul on his new solo album (the title hasn't been decided upon at the time of our interview), and he found that working together was entirely easygoing. "I think it was because we are brothers, and being brothers, we are a darn sight more honest with each other than people are in normal working relationships, but it was very rewarding as well."

    As well as Mike asking Paul's opinion on his music, it turns out that the rules are frequently reversed, with Paul asking Mike's opinion, which, as they are so honest with each other, sometimes leads to awkward situations.

    "When I know my opinion is not going to be a good one, I just keep quiet, and he knows, I mean, it can hit a bit hard when someone's putting their whole thing into something and really believes in it, and the other person doesn't like it. 

    "Like that 'Helen Wheels' single, I went down to the studio, and there they were, Paul and Wings all dancing around. Paul was saying, 'Isn't it great?' And bopping up and down. And I just had to sit down and say nothing, because it did absolutely nothing to me. It was a nice little pop tune, but not where the man's head is at all. He's a very clever boy, so to waste it on that seemed a shame."

     Has Paul been a lot of help to Mike as far as writing and constructing songs is concerned? "No," replied McGear. "He's always done his songwriting and left me to mine. You know it's often quite tough."  For instance, on that Antitree iron business I told you about, one thing I wanted to know for years was to what this expression actually referred. But Mike was giving no secrets away. "If I was to tell you, I'd have to tell Harold Wilson. I learned from a very authentic source that he was literally ringing round everyone saying, (he adopts a flat Wilson accent) 'for God's sakes, what's the Antitree iron?'"

     Although Mike has become well known as a humorist, his new album shows very little of the comic side of his nature. "That's where Paul and I are different. He's always done his thing, and I've always been basically comedy. But this record is basically serious, serious pop, if pop could be serious."

     He has also been working on the new Scaffold album, which will probably be released later this month or early next. So he certainly hasn't stopped writing humorous material. He is very optimistic about its success. "We've been working on it in AIR London, producing it with a friend of mine, John Meganson. It's the best album Scaffold have ever done. Already, the B side of the new single, which will be out a few weeks before the album, is so good that it should be an A side. It's called 'Pack of Cards', based on that old song, 'Deck of Cards' that Wink Martindale one, and it has Zoot Money doing impressions of WC Fields!"

     In spite of his current enthusiasm over Scaffold, it was only their sudden hit with "Liverpool Lou" that brought him back to work with them again after a rest period, and filled him with the determination to see them doing the kind of things he thinks they ought to do, such As a  Monty, Python, type of TV show.

     Although he may be about to embark on a dazzling solo career, he wants to combine this with Scaffold. "Although doing it will require careful planning. I believe in Scaffold. I always have, and hopefully I always will. They are a unique thing, a unique thing, but the only way I'm going out on the road is when they're solid, secure, and things are definite. There's an agent coming to see me tonight about dates and things.

    "Scaffold have been through some bad times, and that's why things in the future have got to be a progression, because before we were regressing and playing to smaller and smaller places. That is what led to the situation that night in Manchester last year, where I jacked it all in. I said to myself, 'Forget it. I've had 10 years of all this', and I gave it up for eight months."

     So what brought him back after this momentous decision, doing the album with our kid ?  "The Scaffold single 'Liverpool Lou'. I became involved in all this madness again, but it's easier this time. I can see it for its madness and be more objective."

     McGear has also written a book for children about yet another bear to share the nursery bookshelf with Paddington, Rupert, and Winnie the Pooh. "It's sad, really. When the book first came out, it was during all that business over Oz and Rupert, so my poor little Roger Bear got lost in all the troubles. All together now... 'ahhhhhh!'

     The book is now being reissued to coincide with the release of the album. Mike also did the illustrations. "Oh, there's no end to this man's talent!,"He joked.  "Multimedia Mcgear, there's your title!"

     If the album takes off as well as it might, with the heart, with the hand of McCartney resting heavy upon it, in the form of co-written songs, arrangements, vocals, and instrumental backings by Wings, plus session people like drummer Gerry Conway, it will still be quite a time before we see the solo McGear take to the road. 

    "The only time I'll perform in this country, apart from with Scaffold, that is, is when I've got the people I want with me. Gerry Conway, who's just got back from a worldwide tour with Cat Stevens, has already phoned me to ask me what I'm doing.

     "You see, there's certain killer people, amazing musicians, who are friends as well, and when I've got them, I'll go on the road. I can't tell you their names at the moment, but only when they are available, only when I can play them the full screw on top artist can pay to his so-called backing group. Will I go on the road. But they won't be a backing group -- they'll be like traveling with my friends.

In Loving Memory of Marie

It is with a lot of sadness that I want to inform you who haven't already heard that a friend of this site and a wonderful Beatles fan, Marie Lacey, has passed away. 

Marie lived a wonderful life full of fun and friends. She was lucky enough to travel to the UK and see Paul with Wings in 1973 and 1975.  She was a member of John's "Welcoming Committee."  And was the group that gave him the famed t-shirt. She met Paul and Linda numerous times, and she took some of the most beautiful photographs of Paul's children that I have ever seen. 

I only met Marie in person a few times at the Fest for Beatle Fans on the east coast.  We had been Facebook friends for many years and I always enjoyed seeing her photographs frmo Paul and Ringo concerts and her many trips to London and Liverpool through the years.  

She was a Paul girl and showed her love for the Beatles until the very end.  She was known for her deep faith and her smile.   

She will be missed by everyone who met her.   

Brothers

 

Brother Michael---Auntie Gin

 

This is wonderful!  A photograph of Paul with his brother Michael and their beloved Auntie Gin! 

Brotherly Sessions

 

August 14, 1974 

McGear

 January 1974 

Happy Birthday Brother Michael!

 Mike McCartney is now 80 years old!  Happy birthday to Mike!  

Get Well Wishes to Mike Mac!

 

It has been announced that Mike McCartney is currently recovering from open heart surgery.   I am sure you all will join me in wishing the younger McCartney brother a speedy recovery!

I am sharing these screen grabs from Get Back.   For years in Let it Be we saw Mike playing the piano during one of the sessions.   This new frame shows us that he was completely faking it the entire time!  I love it!   

Best wishes to Mike! 

Paul is the best man for the job

 

May 29, 1982 

Wishing Mike Mac a happy birthday

 

Cavern Rehearsal

Photo taken by George Harrison

 

Tipsy Brothers

 

Wedding blessing

 

Santa and Mike

 

Drake's Drum

 

March 26, 1966 -  Aintree Racetrack 

Mike tries to cross Abbey Road

Mike McCartney over this weekend in Liverpool at the Linda McCartney photo exhibit. 

Happy Mother's Day

Paul posted this adorable photo of himself and Mike with their mother, Mary on the U.K. Mother's Day.   

People you never thought would be in a photograph together

Today we celebrate Mike McCartney's birthday and I located these gems from days gone by of Mike with May Pang, Cynthia Lennon and Sid Berstein.   Interesting combination if you ask me.