Paul McCartney Announces The Freshen Up U.S. Tour 2019

www.billboard.com
Paul McCartney Announces The Freshen Up U.S. Tour 2019: See the Dates
by Alessandra Rincón

Friday 8/31/2018

Paul McCartney

MJ Kim

Paul McCartney announced a small set of tour dates today (Aug. 31). The Freshen Up U.S. Tour 2019 will begin May 27 of next year.

This will be McCartney's first series of U.S. performances since his One On One Tour in 2016 and 2017. It will also be the first time McCartney hits road in support of his soon-to-be-released studio album Egypt Station, which is due Sept. 7 and will feature lead single "Come On To Me."

The Freshen Up Tour will kick off in Raleigh, N.C. at the PNC Arena and will make stops in Greenville, S.C. and Madison, W.I. before wrapping things up in Moline, Ill. at the TaxSlayer Center.

Check out the five dates below.

The Freshen Up U.S. Tour 2019

May 27 -- Raleigh, NC @ PNC Arena

May 30 -- Greenville, SC @ Bon Secours Wellness Arena

June 1 -- Lexington, KY @ Rupp Arena

June 6 -- Madison, WI @ Kohl Center

June 11 -- Moline, IL @ TaxSlayer Center

ultimateclassicrock.com
PAUL McCARTNEY ANNOUNCES FIRST U.S. SHOWS OF 2019
DAVE LIFTON
August 31, 2018


MJ Kim, MPL Communications Ltd

Paul McCartney's Freshen Up tour will be making its way to the U.S. next year. The legend announced a few shows that will take place in the late spring to promote his upcoming album, Egypt Station.
The tour will start at the PNC Arena in Raleigh, N.C., on May 27 and conclude at the TaxSlayer Center in Moline, Ill., on June 11. Tickets for all dates will be available on Sept. 7, at 10AM local time, with a pre-sale for American Express card holders taking place beginning Sept. 4 at 10AM local time. You can see the dates below and get full information on VIP packages at McCartney's website.

Egypt Station will arrive the day tickets go on sale. McCartney has a couple of high-profile media appearances scheduled for the days leading up to it, including an appearance on The Howard Stern Show on Sept. 5 and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Sept. 6. That will be followed by a four-date tour of Canada, with shows in Japan and Europe between Oct. 31 and Dec. 16.
The album is McCartney's first since 2013's New. He's already given us a few previews of the music. "I Don't Know" and "Come On to Me" were released along with details about the album; a third track, "Fuh You," came out a couple weeks ago.
“We were just thinking of ideas and little pieces of melody and chords and the song just came together bit by bit," he said. "And then I would try and make some kind of sense of the story. So it was like, 'Come on baby now. Talk about yourself. Tell the truth, let me get to know you’ and basically I wanna know how you feel, you make me wanna go out and steal. I just want it for you. So that was the basic idea and it developed from there … sort of a love song, but a raunchy love song. There you go — fuh you."

Paul McCartney, 'Freshen Up' 2019 U.S. Tour
5/27 -- Raleigh, NC @ PNC Arena
5/30 -- Greenville, SC @ Bon Secours Wellness Arena
6/1 -- Lexington, KY @ Rupp Arena
6/6 -- Madison, WI @ Kohl Center
6/11 -- Moline, IL @ TaxSlayer Center

Mary McCartney Became an Artist With a Little Help from Linda and Paul

Paul McCartney with Linda McCartney Taking a Selfie with baby Mary McCartney, 1969



www.wsj.com
Mary McCartney Became an Artist With a Little Help from Linda and Paul
The photographer and cookbook author recalls her mother’s camera and her Beatle father’s first solo album while growing up in London and Scotland
By Marc Myers
HOUSE CALL
The Wall Street journal

Aug. 28, 2018

Self-portrait by Mary McCartney at her home in London. PHOTO: MARY MCCARTNEY

Mary McCartney, 48, is a fine-art photographer and author of several vegetarian cookbooks. Her latest book of photography is “The White Horse” (Rizzoli). She spoke with Marc Myers.

One of my earliest memories is my parents sitting me on a pony in Scotland. They carefully wrapped my hands around the horse’s mane and slowly walked me around. I must have been about a year old.

The pony’s name was Coconut. He was very kind and patient. I remember the coarse texture of his mane and how I held onto it tightly. Riding him that young gave me an early sense of pride and self-confidence.

As a family, we spent most summers together at a remote farmhouse on Scotland’s Kintyre peninsula. During the school year, we lived in central London.

Ms. McCartney at her home in Scotland in 1971, in a photograph taken by her mother, Linda. PHOTO: LINDA MCCARTNEY/©1971 PAUL MCCARTNEY LINDA MCCARTNEY/1971 PAUL MCCARTNEY

Those summer stays were about seclusion and family. By spending long periods far away and close together, my parents, siblings and I were each other’s entertainment.

Growing up, I loved the Scottish landscape. The land wasn’t manicured or developed. It was open and wide, and the sky was expansive. Hills were covered in heather and bracken, and the fields were divided by old stone walls that had fallen apart in places. You could see for miles.

Our one-story, green-and-red stone farmhouse was a comfortable and simple home. We spent much of our time outdoors, with our horses, sheep and dogs.


Paul and Linda McCartney with Mary (carried by her father) and Mary’s half-sister Heather in May 1971 as they arrived in Saint-Tropez, France, to attend the wedding of Mick and Bianca Jagger. PHOTO: AP ASSOCIATED PRESS

Growing up with artistic parents was inspiring. My mother, Linda, was a professional photographer, and my father was Paul McCartney. In London, they took me to art exhibits. I was encouraged to observe, feel and express myself. My mother always had beautiful photography books around and we had contemporary artwork.

In Scotland and London, my mother and her cameras were inseparable. They were a part of her and always at the ready to take photos of images that moved her.

Mum was kind and gentle, comforting and elegant. She had a great sense of humor. She often left me alone with a camera to figure out my own artistic taste and sensibility.

There were two parts of me growing up. Either I was out and about in London and everyone was watching. Or, in stark contrast, I was in Scotland, surrounded by nature. Those extremes made me who I am.

At school in London, I was quite chatty and sociable. I was curious about people and wanted to know their personal stories. On holiday, in seclusion in Scotland, I could become more introspective. I’d ride off into the hills for adventures on my new pony, Sugar Foot.

Riding was the perfect way to explore the landscape. I had an opportunity to become more observant, taking in nature from my pony’s perspective. I felt safe.

Photography first became a passion in my teens. My mother was forthcoming with invaluable advice. We both processed our artistic viewpoint through our own personal experiences.

I also learned a great deal just by watching her. I feel like I inherited her eye. Mum was interested in nonperfect, authentic moments. We both strived to gain a subject’s trust and not rush a promising situation.


Alejandro, subject of a new photography book, ‘The White Horse,’ by Mary McCartney. PHOTO: MARY MCCARTNEY/RIZZOLI INTERNATIONAL PUBLICATIONS

She also helped me develop a critical eye. During our summers in Scotland, I’d save up my rolls of film and have them developed at the lab when I got back to London. Then we’d go through the photographs and edit out our favorites together. I liked hearing her opinions.

After college, I had a job as a photo researcher at a music-book publisher. Then Mum invited me into her archive to look through all of her books of contact sheets.

This was the moment I became passionate about taking up photography professionally. I was 23 years old. And when I told my mother the news, she gave me one of her prized cameras—a Leica R7.

That Leica was the kind of camera that motivates you to take photographs. When I held it, I felt comfortable and inspired to go out on adventures and search for moments to capture in a single frame.

The camera’s sleek design made it easy to handle, and I loved the sound and feel of the shutter release. There was something about the click that was substantial and reassuring.

Today, my husband, Simon Aboud, and I live with our four children in central London, near Regent Park. It’s a Victorian apartment with lots of light. My favorite room is our bedroom. On a good day outside the bedroom windows I can watch the clouds float by and the trees sway in the breeze

A couple of times a month, I drive down to stables in the countryside south of London to ride my white horse, Alejandro. He’s strong and kind and stunningly beautiful. We trust and calm each other as we explore the natural landscape.

Sadly, my mother passed away in 1998. I still have the Leica R7 she gave me. When I use it now, I feel as if she’s there with me, giving me advice and confidence. Just holding the camera takes me back to the day she gave it to me.

THE STORY BEHIND THE FAB PHOTO

Perhaps my mother’s most famous photograph of me was taken in Scotland in 1969. When I was a little baby, my father, Paul, would put me inside his soft zip-up jacket when they went for a horse ride.

One day, after they returned to the farmhouse and my father dismounted, my mother took the image of my dad and me. It wasn’t pre-planned or posed. My mother just caught the moment in the golden light of late afternoon.

My parents used the image on the back of my father’s “McCartney” album when it came out in early 1970. I looked pretty cozy in there.


Mary McCartney on the back cover of Paul McCartney's 1970 solo album.

Mini-Beatles snapped recreating famous Dublin Airport picture of Fab Four

November 1963 The Beatles arrive at Dublin Airport (Bing Image Searxh)



www.irishmirror.ie
Mini-Beatles snapped recreating famous Dublin Airport picture of Fab Four
The four lads were promoting West End show ‘Let It Be’, which premieres in Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre next month
By Niall Moonan
28 AUG 2018


Pictured are (l to r) Matthew Porter (11), Eoin Griffin (9), Leo Bodkin (10) and Darragh Griffin (11), a new generation of Beatles' fans getting ready for the Let It Be Show which runs in the Gaiety Theatre from Sept 17th to 22nd. Photograph: Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland (Image: Leon Farrell / Photocall Ireland)

These mini-Beatles were day trippers to Dublin Airport today, to recreate a famous picture of the Fab Four.



The four lads mimicked John, Paul, George and Ringo’s animated pose when they arrived in the capital for their first - and last - Irish gig in 1963.

The boys were promoting West End show ‘Let It Be’, which premieres in Dublin’s Gaiety Theatre next month.


Iconic photo of the Beatles arriving in Dublin airport in 1963 Pic supplied by Masonry PR (Image: Masonry PR)

It arrives here on September 17, running until September 22 - with a never before seen Part II.

The show features over 40 of The Beatles’ greatest hits, along with the story of a reunion that never was.



Tickets are €21 on sale now at Ticketmaster outlets or the Gaiety box office in South King Street, Dublin/24hr booking: 08 18 719 388.

‘Hey Jude’ at 50: Celebrating the Beatles’ Most Open-Hearted Masterpiece

www.rollingstone.com
‘Hey Jude’ at 50: Celebrating the Beatles’ Most Open-Hearted Masterpiece
The band’s biggest hit was a tribute to everything the members loved and respected about each other
By ROB SHEFFIELD
AUGUST 26, 2018


REX/Shutterstock

“Hey Jude” sums up the Beatles’ turbulent summer of 1968 — a tribute to their friendship, right at the moment it was starting to fracture. The single was a smash as soon as they released it on August 26th, 50 years ago — their biggest hit, topping the U.S. charts for nine weeks. It’s the Beatles at their warmest, friendliest, most open-hearted. John, Paul, George and Ringo sound utterly in sync, building to that power-drone “na na na na” chant. Yet it’s a song born from conflict. Nobody knew they were falling apart — in fact, “Hey Jude” was released four days after Ringo officially quit the band, walking out on the White Album sessions. Paul wrote it during John’s divorce, to cheer up his mate’s five-year-old son. As Julian Lennon recalled, “He was just trying to console me and Mum.” The world has been taking consolation from “Hey Jude” ever since.


Paul McCartney holds four year old Julian Lennon, during a holiday near Athens in Greece, 1967.

It’s one of very few Beatle songs about a conversation between men — and like “She Loves You,” it’s a conversation where one friend is urging the other to do right by a woman. (Neither Paul nor John really cared what men had to say about anything — that was one of their deepest spiritual connections.) George Martin fretted the radio wouldn’t play a seven-minute single. John’s reply: “They will if it’s us.” A classic statement of fabulously bitchy Beatle arrogance — yet the word “us” really jumps out of that line. “Hey Jude” is the sound of the lads working hard to capture that feeling of “us,” after it stopped coming easy.

Back in May, John and Paul made a surprise appearance on The Tonight Show, during a brief NYC jaunt. The interview was a fiasco — guest host Joe Garagiola had barely any idea who they were. But there’s a revealing moment, about four minutes into a truly painful chat. Garagiola asks, “The four of you, socially, are you that close?” Paul and John say “yeah” simultaneously — Paul says it twice, while John adds, “We’re good friends, you know.” They’re totally blasé about it — just giving basic background info to this clueless American rube, as if they’re telling him where Liverpool is or how many films they’ve made. To them, it’s obvious. Nothing to get hung about.


May 14th 1968: John Lennon and Paul McCartney speaking with guest host Joe Garagiola

But just a couple of weeks later, John had blown up his marriage, his family, every detail of his life. They would never have a simple answer to that question again.

That’s where “Hey Jude” comes from. It’s a moment of fellowship the Beatles had to earn, after a decade when that bond had been the most reliable constant in their lives. Right up to the spring of 1968, John, Paul, George and Ringo were four mates who wanted to spend as much time together as possible, even when they weren’t working. (They’d just gone to India on retreat with the Maharishi.) John was the one who depended most on the other three emotionally. He rarely spoke to anyone outside the band. As he said in 1967, “We understand each other. It doesn’t matter about the rest.” But right after that New York visit, John made a few drastic changes — like walking out on his wife and child, the morning after his first night with Yoko Ono. (Cynthia came into the kitchen and found the two of them eating breakfast. Good morning, good morning.) The others no longer saw him without Yoko around, not even in the studio. His drug intake escalated. This bird had flown.


John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Julian Lennon, 1968

Like everyone else, Paul was blindsided by the sudden changes in John, and “Hey Jude” was his direct response. He composed it in his head while driving his Aston Martin out to visit Cynthia and Julian, at the Weybridge house where he used to join his partner for afternoon writing sessions. He brought Cynthia a red rose. Nobody else from the Beatles camp was speaking to her. But as Paul reasoned, “We’d been very good friends for millions of years and I thought it was a bit much for them suddenly to be personae non gratae and out of my life.” He also arrived with a tune to sing for Julian, who was only five. That’s just one of the countless weird things about this song — it’s impossible to imagine any other Sixties rock star choosing to spend his day off this way, checking in on his bandmate’s abandoned wife and kid. But that’s just more proof there’s only one Paul McCartney.

Paul was used to dreaming up songs on the road to Weybridge (“Eight Days a Week” for one, “Drive My Car” and “Paperback Writer” as well), but this occasion was different. As he recalled in his 1997 bio Many Years From Now, “I started with the idea ‘Hey Jules,’ which was Julian, don’t make it bad, take a sad song and make it better. Here, try and deal with this terrible thing. I knew it was not going to be easy for him. I always feel sorry for kids in divorces.” He knew the pain of losing a parent as a little boy. “He’d been like an uncle to him,” John recalled years later. “Paul was always good with kids.”


Paul McCartney and young Julian Lennon

Back in London, at the piano in his Cavendish Avenue bachelor pad, he played it for John and Yoko. When he got to the line “The movement you need is on your shoulder,” he told them, “I’ll change that, it’s a bit crummy.” John replied, “That’s the best line in it!” John heard this new tune as Paul cheering him on in his romance with Yoko. “I took it very personally,” John told Rolling Stone in 1968. “‘Ah, it’s me,’ I said. ‘It’s me.’ He says, ‘No, it’s me.’ I said, ‘Check. We’re going through the same bit.’ So we all are.”

Through the years, in all his sniping about Paul, John never hid his admiration for “Hey Jude.” “I always heard it as a song to me,” he told Playboy’s David Sheff in 1980, shortly before his death. “The words ‘go out and get her’ — subconsciously he was saying, ‘Go ahead, leave me.’ On a conscious level, he didn’t want me to go ahead. The angel in him was saying, ‘Bless you.’ The devil in him didn’t like it at all because he didn’t want to lose his partner.” Paul was going through his own turmoil, splitting with fiancée Jane Asher. He couldn’t stop thinking about this woman he’d met during that NYC visit in May — an American photographer named Linda Eastman. In September, he called and invited her to London. They remained inseparable for the next 30 years, until she died of cancer in 1998. He and John had both found their “someone to perform with” — female artists they not only married but collaborated with musically.

“Hey Jude” wasn’t easy to record — the first time they tried it, Paul and George had a furious argument over the guitar part. When they cut the final track on July 31st, Paul started without glancing back to notice that nobody was at the drum kit. Ringo was in the bathroom. “‘Hey Jude’ goes on for hours before the drums come in and while I was doing it I suddenly felt Ringo tiptoeing past my back rather quickly, trying to get to his drums. And just as he got to his drums, boom boom boom, his timing was absolutely impeccable.” (Ringo enters at the 50-second point.) Paul took the mishap as a good omen. “When those things happen, you have a little laugh and a light bulb goes off in your head and you think, ‘This is the take!’ And you put a little more into it.”



Paul was right — that was the take, the version you hear on the finished record. The Beatles’ biggest hit is the one they started playing while Ringo was in the can.



There’s something else you hear in “Hey Jude,” if you listen close — as the final verse kicks off, at the line “The minute you let her under your skin,” Paul misses a cue and mutters, “Whoa, fucking hell!” They did their best to hide it, mixing it as low as they could, but you can hear it at the 2:58 point — yet it just comes across as excited Beatle banter, the boys calling to each other in the heat of making music. Paul is playing the most hallowed piano in rock & roll history — the Bechstein at London’s Trident Studios. You’ve heard this same piano on countless songs — it’s the one Freddy Mercury plays in “Bohemian Rhapsody,” the one Elton John plays in “Levon,” the one Rick Wakeman plays in David Bowie’s “Life on Mars?” But Paul gets his own sound out of it here.

They made a video on September 4th, the famous clip where the audience gathers around the piano to sing along. It was a reunion of sorts: the return of Ringo. After he quit on August 22nd, he escaped to the Mediterranean, hiding out with his family on Peter Sellers’ yacht, until the boys tracked him down and bombarded him with telegrams saying “You’re the best drummer in the world.” He rejoined in time for the video shoot; the next day, he went back to work on the White Album at Abbey Road.


Hey Jude promo film, 4 September 1968

If you’re looking to make the case that Ringo really was “the best drummer in the world,” you couldn’t top “Hey Jude” as your Exhibit A. His fills are the heartbeat of the song, thumping in communion with the vocalist like he does in “A Day in the Life,” “God” or “Long, Long, Long.” As he once said, “I only have one rule and that is always play with the singer.” Paul, John and George did their most eloquent thinking-out-loud with Ringo providing the pulse. “Hey Jude” wouldn’t groove without him, a major reason why cover versions seem limp. The big exception is Wilson Pickett’s rendition, with Duane Allman on guitar — Muscle Shoals rhythm master Roger Hawkins anchors it, proving “Hey Jude” is a drummer’s song as much as a singer’s.




Cynthia and Julian thought “Hey Jude” was for them. John heard it as the ballad of John and Yoko. But neither side was wrong — countless people around the world have heard this homily speaking to them. “The movement you need is on your shoulder” — John was so right about that line, and as Paul says, he thinks of John every time he sings that part. “Hey Jude” is a tribute to everything the Beatles loved and respected most about each other. Even George, who plays the most low-profile role in this song, tipped his cap with the na-na-na-na finale of “Isn’t That a Pity,” which you can hear as a viciously cheeky parody, an affectionate tribute or (most likely) both. The pain in “Hey Jude” resonated in 1968, in a world reeling from wars, riots and assassinations. And it’s why it sounds timely in the summer of  2018, as our world keeps getting colder. After 50 years, “Hey Jude” remains a source of sustenance in difficult times — a moment when four longtime comrades, clear-eyed adults by now, take a look around at everything that’s broken around them. Yet they still join together to take a sad song and make it better.


John, Cynthia and Julian Lennon, circa early 1968

John Lennon's killer denied parole for 10th time

www.theguardian.com
John Lennon's killer denied parole for 10th time
Mark Chapman told by parole board in New York to wait two years before applying again
Press Association
Fri 24 Aug 2018


The former Beatle was shot dead in New York in 1980. Chapman was told by a panel: ‘You demonstrated a callous disregard for the sanctity of human life.’ Photograph: Alba Vigaray/EPA

Mark Chapman, who killed John Lennon in New York in 1980, has been denied parole for the 10th time.

Chapman, 63, has been serving a life sentence for the murder of the former Beatle. He shot Lennon, who was 40, four times in front of his wife, Yoko Ono. On Wednesday, Chapman appeared before a parole board in New York, which denied his request for release and told him he had to wait another two years before he could apply again. He is being held at the Wende correctional facility in the city.

The panel found his release “would be incompatible with the welfare and safety of society and would so deprecate the serious nature of the crime as to undermine respect for the law”.

It said: “Your criminal history report reflects that this is your only crime of record. However, that does not mitigate your actions.”

Ono, 85, had said she feared for her safety and that of Lennon’s two sons, Julian and Sean, should Chapman be released.

Chapman was deemed by the board to be a low risk for offending again and has had a clean prison record since 1994, but the panel found that none of this “outweighs the gravity of your actions or the serious and senseless loss of life you have caused”.

“You admittedly carefully planned and executed the murder of a world-famous person for no reason other than to gain notoriety,” it added.

“And while no one person’s life is any more valuable than another’s life, the fact that you chose someone who was not only a world-renowned person and beloved by millions regardless of the pain and suffering you would cause to his family, friends and so many others, you demonstrated a callous disregard for the sanctity of human life and the suffering of others. This fact remains a concern to this panel.”


 Mark Chapman, photographed in 2018. Photograph: Handout/Reuters

www.PaulMcCartney.com

AUG

23

2018

Paul Announces Denmark Show

THE 'FRESHEN UP' TOUR 2018
DENMARK SHOW ANNOUNCED TODAY

Friday 30th November: Royal Arena, Copenhagen, Denmark 

NEW ALBUM EGYPT STATION OUT SEPTEMBER 7th ON CAPITOL RECORDS

“I first toured in Copenhagen with The Beatles, then later with Wings and then again as a solo artist but my last concert there was unbelievably 15 years ago. We’ve been back to Denmark several times since and we’ve always had such fun experiences. We’ve freshened up the show since our last visit and we are excited to be playing some of our new songs from the new album as well as the songs we always love to play. So come on down, we want to see you, we want to rock out and party with you again!” - Paul

Register for Denmark presale tickets by clicking HERE!

Registration for the Paul McCartney Presale powered by Ticketmaster Verified Fan will close Sunday 26th August @ 11.59 PM CET. If verified and selected, you will receive your code via text message, two (2) to four (4) hours before your Verified Fan presale begins. Presale tickets will begin to be available on Wednesday 29th August at 10 AM CET. Due to the limited quantity of tickets, they will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

TICKETS WILL GO ON SALE TO THE GENERAL PUBLIC FRIDAY 31st AUGUST, 10AM CET 

These new dates mark Paul’s first series of live dates since the 'One On One' Tour that played to some two million fans over the course of 2016 and 2017.

The'Freshen Up' tour will also be Paul’s first outing following the release of his brand new studio album, Egypt Station, out September 7th on Capitol Records. 

This show will be Paul’s first live show in Denmark in two years. In 2016 Paul visited Denmark as part of his 'Out There' world tour.

'Freshen Up' will begin in Canada in September for four shows before heading to the US for Paul’s headline performance at the 17th annual Austin City Limits festival in October.  The tour will then head to Europe in December and Paul will finish the year with concerts in the UK.

The Paul McCartney live experience is everything any music lover could ever want from a rock show: Nearly three hours nightly of the greatest moments from the last 50 years of music, dozens of songs from Paul’s solo, Wings and of course Beatles catalogues that have formed the soundtracks of our lives. Paul and his band have played an unparalleled range of venues and locations throughout the Americas, the UK, Europe, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and all points between: outside the Coliseum in Rome, Moscow’s Red Square, Buckingham Palace, The White House, a free show in Mexico for over 400,000 people, the last ever show at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park where The Beatles played their final concert  in 1966, a 2016 week in the California desert that included two headline sets at the historic Desert Trip festival and a jam-packed club gig for a few hundred lucky fans at Pappy & Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, and even one performance broadcast live into Space! Featuring Paul’s band of the last 15+ years – Paul “Wix” Wickens (keyboards), Brian Ray (bass/guitar), Rusty Anderson (guitar) and Abe Laboriel Jr (drums) –and constantly upgraded state of the art audio and video technology that ensures an unforgettable experience from every seat in the house, a Paul McCartney concert is never anything short of life-changing.

PAUL McCARTNEY REVEALS RECURRING BEATLES NIGHTMARE

ultimateclassicrock.com
PAUL McCARTNEY REVEALS RECURRING BEATLES NIGHTMARE
MARTIN KIELTY
August 23, 2018


Getty Images

Paul McCartney revealed he has to deal with a recurring nightmare about the Beatles, in which everything that can go wrong indeed goes wrong.

But he said there was also a positive side to the dream that keeps coming back to him.

“We’re playing a dreadful gig somewhere and the audience are walking out,” he told Mojo in a new interview. “That happens a lot. But I get to meet John [Lennon], and George [Harrison]. So that’s kinda good.”


The Beatles Live Concert The Cow Palace August 31, 1965

On the theme of things going wrong he observed, “Sometimes in your life, you’re not a god on Olympus. You’re a real person walking round the streets. I’m a grandfather, a father, a husband, and in that package there’s no guarantee that every minute’s gonna go right. In fact, quite the opposite.”

Elsewhere in the interview, McCartney recalled the period of heavy drinking he went through in the aftermath of the Beatles’ split in 1970. “I did used to get stoned and wasted,” he said, “most particularly in the period right after the Beatles. I was bummed out and in the middle of this horrendous shit where someone was going to take every penny we’d ever made. That wasn’t easy and led to a very difficult time in my life. I definitely self-medicated there and drank more than I ever had and probably more than I ever have since. But you go through it.”



Those memories, and the experiences of recovering alcoholic friends Ringo Starr and Joe Walsh, inspired a song called “Happy With You” on McCartney’s upcoming album Egypt Station.



“When we were growing up, everyone would be going to the pub and drinking, but mostly it all seemed quite jolly," he recalled. "But when I talk to Ringo about it, he says, ‘No, if you give me vodka, I would have to finish the bottle.' I did used to get a little bit more crazy than I do now. I’ve got eight grandchildren. I haven’t got the time. Granddad can’t just be sitting in his armchair with a great big doobie on and a bottle of tequila.”

McCartney added that he does allow himself a glass of wine each week. “It’s a big glass!” he noted.


Paul McCartney and Keith Richards, drunk as skunks

Paul McCartney says he ‘self-medicated’ after The Beatles split

www.nme.com
Paul McCartney says he ‘self-medicated’ after The Beatles split
Rhian Daly
Aug 22, 2018


Paul McCartney

The star sings about his past drinking habits on new album 'Egypt Station'

Paul McCartney has said he “self-medicated” with whiskey after The Beatles split up.

The star is set to release his latest solo album ‘Egypt Station‘ on September 7 and sings about his past drinking habits on the track ‘Happy With You’. The track features the lyrics: “I used to drink too much/Forget to come home.”

Speaking to MOJO, McCartney described the song as “candid”. “I did use to get stoned and wasted,” he said.



He said he felt like he had self-medicated in the past, “most particularly in the period right after The Beatles [split up].” “I was bummed out and in the middle of this horrendous shit where someone was going to take every penny we’d ever made,” he explained.

“That wasn’t easy and led to a very difficult time in my life. I definitely self-medicated there and drank more than I ever had and probably more than I ever have since. But you go through it.”


The Beatles in 1967

Asked if he was unhappy while drinking heavily and taking drugs in the past, he replied: “That’s right. Also, I’ve got a lot of friends who are sober, cos they have to be. Like Ringo [Starr], [The Eagles‘] Joe Walsh. Because they just took it too far.”

He continued: “When we were growing up, everyone would be going to the pub and drinking but mostly it all seemed quite jolly. But when I talk to Ringo about it, he says: ‘No, if you give me vodka, I would have to finish the bottle.'”



McCartney said ‘Happy With You’ was “emphasising” with his Beatles bandmate, adding it told the story of how they “used to be doing crazy things, but you don’t now cos you’re happy.” “And Ringo is,” he said. “He’s very content with his life.”

The former Beatles bassist also reasoned that his family had had an effect on that part of his life. “I did used to get a little bit more crazy than I do now,” he said. “I’ve got eight grandchildren. I haven’t got the time. Grandad can’t just be sitting in his armchair with a great big doobie on and a bottle of tequila.”

He added that he now only drinks one glass of wine a week, but said: “It’s a big glass!”




Meanwhile, during filming for his recent appearance on Carpool Karaoke, McCartney recalled the time he spent nine days in a Japanese jail. He was arrested at Tokyo airport in 1980 after being caught with marijuana in his suitcase.

The star is due to play three headline arena dates in the UK in support of ‘Egypt Station’ later this year. Any remaining tickets are available here .

Paul McCartney will play:

Liverpool, Echo Arena (December 12)
Glasgow, SSE Hydro (14)
London, The O2 (16)

Paul McCartney Finally Addresses That 'Paul Is Dead' Conspiracy Theory in the Best Way

time.com
Paul McCartney Finally Addresses That 'Paul Is Dead' Conspiracy Theory in the Best Way
By MEGAN MCCLUSKEY
Aug 21  2018




After nearly 50 years of dealing with a conspiracy theory that he died and was secretly replaced by a look-alike, Paul McCartney has finally addressed those “Paul is dead” rumors.

During an extended cut of his “Carpool Karaoke” segment that was filmed in his hometown of Liverpool and aired on Monday’s episode of The Late Late Show, the former Beatle revealed his reaction to the far-fetched fan theory. “We just kind of let it go,” he explained.



McCartney also discussed the time he spent nine days in a Japanese prison after getting caught with marijuana at the Tokyo airport in 1980. “I still am hazy as to how that happened, but it did,” he said. “And in my suitcase, yes, there was some marijuana in the suitcase. And I ended up in jail.”



In addition to these fascinating anecdotes, McCartney gifted viewers with renditions of Beatles classics such as “Lady Madonna,” “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” “I Wanna Be Your Man” and “Drive My Car.”

Watch the original version of McCartney’s “Carpool Karaoke” segment below.