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Wednesday, August 26, 2026
McCartney: He's at Ease at Last (1986)
McCartney: He's at Ease at Last
By: Robert Hilburn
The Los Angeles Times
August 26, 1986
Paul McCartney has just finished explaining that six of the ten songs on his new Capitol album were co-written by English musician Eric Stewart when a reporter at the ex-Beatles press conference here raised a question. "Of all the people that you've collaborated with on songs," she asked, "people like Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson in recent times. Who did you enjoy working with most? Who was the one person who stands out?"
McCartney quickly replied, "John Lennon." The answer caught the 11 journalists in the room by surprise. Surely the questioner was referring to post-Beatles collaborators, but the fact that McCartney extended the question to include Lennon was touching. So were his additional good-natured comments about Lennon. "The boy was good, talented. It's got to be him."
After years of being resentful and later uneasy about dealing with Beatles questions, McCartney, 44 seems at ease with the issue. He acknowledges the virtual impossibility of his making music that will match the influence and celebration of the old days, and he seems to take comfort in all he, John, George, and Ringo once contributed to pop culture. He didn't even mind when a young fan who had learned McCartney would be visiting the local office of his public relations representative approached him for an autograph as McCartney stepped from the elevator after the press conference. The fan handed him not a McCartney solo album, but a poster for the Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night. McCartney easily took the boy's pen and signed the poster, smiling, and he noticed that Ringo Starr had already signed it. "Well, you've got a collector's item there," McCartney said as he handed the pen back to the fan.
McCartney and his wife Linda were then driven by limo to Radio City Music Hall, where he met for more than an hour with disc jockeys and more writers. Tables were set up for everyone, and there was lots of food on a buffet table, but few people sat down or bothered with the food. Most were busy getting McCartney's autograph or having pictures taken with him. "Most of the time everybody is really cool at affairs like this," said one man about 40, who was standing apart from the crush of people around the guest of honor. "But look at them-they're falling all over themselves. It's funny what seeing a Beatle does to people." Moments later, the man joined the crush as the photographer took yet another souvenir.
Sitting on a couch in an office before the press conference last Friday, McCartney appeared in especially good spirits as he stirred a cup of freshly made tea. There's a lot of gray in his hair and several lines across his face, but he's still able to flash that disarming choir boy smile. "I accept it (the lingering Beatle's fascination) now,"he said quite matter-of-factly. "It must be a little like Charlie Chaplin never escaping the little tramp figure. The whole thing is kinda inevitable, I guess. People just want to talk about the Beatles, but you know what is funny now? I want to talk about them too."
McCartney took a sip of tea, then finished the thought. "Some people say 'Don't talk too much about the Beatles. Talk about your new album.' But I don't mind. I think what happened for a while, the reason I didn't want to talk about the Beatles, is that we all felt like we'd just gone through a divorce, and it was painful to keep discussing it.
"But also, I was very defensive about my own work. It was so hard trying to live up to the expectations that surrounded the Beatles, so I became supercritical with Wings, the records, the tours. I never felt the songs were good enough."
Many Beatles fans would argue that McCartney's evaluation of his post-Beatles work wasn't all that inaccurate. For every noteworthy album like Band on the Run, Venus and Mars, or Tug of War, he has released something so listless that you may wonder why a man of his reputation and wealth would even put it out. McCartney wasn't offended by the question. "Yes, you'd think I'd be more careful, but you need some distance before you can really see the quality of a record," He explained. "You can't be objective at the time you finish it. You're too close. Take Back to the Egg, which is kind of a minor record. At the time, I probably thought it was a good record.
"The situation is, if you've made a record, you put it out. It doesn't matter how big you are or how little you are. You do your bit, and you put it out. I'm not that precious with it. For instance, the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson is supposed to have burned the tapes of some of his music because he hated it so much. I'd rather do it the way I do it than be so critical. I know there are lots of people who say that 'You owe it to yourself, you owe it to us to always make sure it's the finest quality', but I didn't promise a rose garden type of thing. It's not my whole thing to be that safe."
However, McCartney does seem particularly pleased with the new album Press to Play, co-produced by Hugh Padgham, who has worked with Phil Collins and the Police. There's a friskiness about several of the tracks that seems to match his current mood. The album, which marks McCartney's return to Capitol Records, should be in stores this week. A CD version with three bonus tracks is due next week.
About the decision to write with Eric Stewart, formerly a member of the British rock group 10 CC, McCartney said, "Eric is a friend, which is often the starting point for me. I could see how people might think you'd scour the world to find the finest writer, but songwriting has more to do with chemistry. He had been around to dinner a few times, and I asked if he'd like to work with me on some songs. My thoughts had started to stray back a little to the Beatles' recordings, when one of my favorite ways to write was for John and I to sit opposite each other with guitars and try to work out a song; you'd actually write at each other so you can see the reaction when something is good. "
McCartney said the thing that bothers him the most about the media interest in the Beatles is the tendency to play up anything that smacks of a feud between him and Lennon. He said he tried to make his love for Lennon as plain as possible in "Here Today", a song from Tug of War that McCartney wrote shortly after Lennon's death.
And what about the remaining Beatles getting together? "I don't know, really," he said during the press conference. "The Beatles thing is always in a kind of state of flux; it always depends on whether we are getting along well or not. At present, we are kind of friends again, which is nice. The problem is all these business problems. The minute someone talks about business, someone hits the ceiling. So what we do is forbid that subject."
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Beatles Hits Seattle Like a 3-Ring Circus (1966 Seattle)
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Beatles hit Seattle Like a 3-Ring Circus
By Barbara Hanna
Kitsap Sun
August 26, 1966
Cool is when you recognize the whole thing's a circus. You go ahead and play the game anyway without losing your sense of humor, and throughout all of Thursday's happenings in Seattle, the Beatles were clearly cool.
Their three-ring circus began Thursday afternoon when they arrived at the Seattle-Tacoma Airport to be greeted by 33 fans, even more policemen, and the Port of Seattle's fire truck. From there, they were driven to the Seattle Center Coliseum, where they moved through crowds of screaming teenagers who lay in wait at the gate and into the Coliseum. They emerged only to give two concerts at three and 8p.m. and headed for Hollywood that night.
The action in Ring One of the Beatles Circus was staged by some eight dull-looking persons who paced up and down in front of the Colosseum, bearing signs that included "Teenagers who support the Beatles continue to crucify Christ." They were in distinct contrast to the excited teenagers, male and female, who milled about the Colosseum in all their mod finery, waiting for the big event inside the Colosseum-- Ring Two.
The big event transpired twice before an 8,200 afternoon audience and a 14,382 sellout evening crowd. Now, when it is said that the Beatles are giving a concert, it does not mean that they are giving an entire concert. So the teenagers had to first sit through the Remains, Bobby Hebb, the Circle [sic], and the Ronettes, which they did in profound silence. It's not that these groups are bad; it's just that they aren't the Beatles.
With the announcement that the Beatles were coming on, the teenagers began venting all their saved-up energy. They began screaming, and as the Beatles appeared on the stage, it was like the Fourth of July. What with all the flash bulbs going off all over the Colosseum, neither screaming nor flash bulbs bursting abated significantly in the course of the concert. As for the Beatles themselves, they wore gray suits with lilac stripes and lilac pint shirts. Their singing style was easy and open, and their music, while people who like Beatles' music like it, and all the words in the world won't convince those who don't that it's really a pretty good thing.
At 6 p.m., between the two concerts in Ring Two, Ring Three was activated. A couple dozen press people who had duly presented their letters at each checkpoint found themselves in a hot, dingy room in the basement of the Coliseum and were given the ground rules for the press conference. One of the ground rules was that still photographers had priority the first five minutes, and then they had to step back so the TV cameras could have clear shooting. So the Beatles came in and stood behind a table, and everyone with a camera rushed to the front of the room and stood along the other side of the table. And for five minutes, the Beatles stood there trying to be casual about the whole thing, while being thoroughly photographed. Actually, that part wasn't like a circus. That part was like a zoo.
During the press conference proper, the Beatles parried the reporter's sometimes silly questions with good humor and apparent frankness. The number one issue was whether Paul McCartney was to be married to British actress Jane Asher that evening, as the Associated Press had reported. "No," said Paul. "I just got here today and found out I'm getting married tonight," he said. Yes, he really knows her. He said, "But really, it the marriage rumor was just sort of a joke." And fellow Beatle George Harrison added, "If she does come here tonight, we're going out, so we'll miss her." The Beatle spoke the truth, as it turned out. For this morning, Paul was still unwed.
Asked about all the furor over Beatle John Lennon's "The Beatles Are Bigger Than Jesus" statement, Beatle John said they've all been missing the point. Beatle George said, "People who think that need their mind straightened out." Beatle Paul said it was ridiculous for people to say they despised Jesus and Christianity, and Beatle John concluded that "Twisting what they said that way isn't Christian."
When they were told that a revival would be given at the Seattle Center during their evening concert by an anti-Beatle religious group, Beatle John quipped, "Yeah, we'll be there". The Sagarid concert by baritone Fuge Springman drew 250. The Beatles weren't there.
Has the furor hurt their present tour? The press keeps saying, "See, it hurt you, but our manager keeps telling us no," Beatle Paul said. "And we listened to our manager. "Then a reporter asked them if, having disposed of religion, they'd like to try American foreign policy. They agreed that they wouldn't.
Asked if it's true their average fan is older now than when they started out, Paul said "Yes, somewhat older." Was that what they were trying for? "We don't intend anything," Paul said.
And a woman who identified herself as a mother of three said she was concerned about a statement of theirs that "When moms love us, we're dead." "We were rebels when we said that," said Paul.
In the evening, there was more picketing and another concert, and then the Beatles were whisked off to the airport, taking with them $73, 717.81 for their half-hour performance at the two concerts and at the press conference. The gross take for the two concerts, $118,071, was the largest one-day take in Seattle entertainment history, according to Zolly M. Volchok of Northwest Releasing, the event sponsor.
Tuesday, August 25, 2026
Yea Yea Yea They are Here for Concert (1966 Los Angeles
Yea Yea Yea: They Are Here For Concert
By Ken Lubas
The Van Nuys News
August 26, 1966
"Hot" best describes the day, and "frantic" denotes the atmosphere as crowds surged about the Capitol Record Tower in Hollywood last Wednesday evening, awaiting the arrival of rock and roll's young kings, the Beatles. Youngsters and oldsters alike awaited the opportunity to catch a glimpse, and that's all that it was of the shaggy-haired foursome, as the Beatles emerged from the back door of an armored truck and were quickly swept away by security guards to their Hollywood press conference.
Revolver, the title for the British foursome's 20th gold record since the Beatles made their U.S. debut in January '64, proved to be the golden word of the evening. Alan W. Livingston, the president of Capitol Records, announced that with the awarding of a gold record for Revolver, their latest album, the Beatles now have a greater number of certified million sellers than any other artist in the history of the Record Industry Association of America. A gold record for a single is given for selling more than 1,000,000 copies. Capitol Record officials estimated the Beatles' separate recordings of either "Yellow Submarine" or "Eleanor Rigby", both on Revolver, will reach the magic mark.
Sitting before the throng of reporters gathered in the large but, under the circumstances, not too spacious sound studio, Ringo Starr, the drummer, appeared in a blue-and-white polka-dot, high-colored shirt, multicolored sports coat, and blue-and-white striped pants. John Lennon was dressed in a reddish-brown wide-lapel suit and black sweater. Paul McCartney wore white slacks and a gray striped long-sleeve shirt, and George Harrison was in blue jeans, a white silk shirt, and a brown suede jacket.
Answering questions concerning everything from their latest run-in with religion to future plans, the mopheads flourished their Liverpudlian personalities and aired their views. In reference to the widely quoted article in which Lennon allegedly said the British foursome is more popular than Jesus, Lennon said at the press conference. "I've clarified it about 800 times. I could have said more popular than telly or any other number of things, but they certainly wouldn't have been as good publicity."
McCartney said bigots took it (the remark) up. He feels the bigots understood the statement to mean, "Ah, he's bound to be arrogant." When asked about reports of Beatles' record burnings, Lennon said Pictures he had seen showed "middle-aged disc jockeys and 12-year-olds burning a bunch of LP covers."
When asked if they thought all the publicity hurt their image, all agreed."Our image is what we read in the newspaper." Elaborating on the subject, McCartney said, "We know our real image, which is nothing like our picture image."
Turning to the subject of their expected money from the current American tour. The Beatles don't have time to worry about such matters, Lennon said, "If we worried about it, we'd be nervous wrecks."
About future plans, the group is considering a script for a new movie, but couldn't give any details of pending production. Lennon explained his appearance in the movie How I Won the War came about while he was alone on a holiday. "They just asked me, and I said yes." When asked what his favorite American singing groups were, Lennon said the Byrds, the Mamas and the Papas, and the Lovin' Spoonful.
Starr explained to disappointed reporters that he doesn't carry pictures of his baby in his wallet, or any other pictures for that matter. Harrison, the quiet Beatle, was overshadowed by his counterparts during the meet.
' When earlier asked about politics, Lennon said, "Politics? They have no message for me, nor for any of us. I haven't got much time for politicians. I've never bothered to vote. The bomb? Nuclear disarmament? Well, like everyone else, I don't want to end up a festering heap, but I don't stay up nights worrying. I'm preoccupied with my life, not death."
The Beatles, who were in Southern California for a performance at Dodger Stadium Sunday evening, said their most disappointing tour was in Manila, Philippines, last month, where they were booed as they left the islands.
Following the conference, the Beatles, surrounded by security guards, bounded for the nearby armored truck and were mobbed by about 500 hysterical teenage girls. Guards surrounded the truck, and once their valuable cargo was safely enclosed, they rode through the Capitol parking lot on the rear and front bumpers to prevent the girls from hanging on. As the vehicle departed into the sunset, heading toward the Hollywood Hills, many of the excited youths leaped onto motorcycles to follow the group back to their residence there.
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