Announced yesterday out of the blue a new Wings “best of” compilation to accompany the forthcoming book, Wings – The Story of a Band on the Run (and possibly the new documentary film, Man On The Run):
WINGS – The Definitive Collection will contain purely Wings songs (in other words no Paul McCartney solo, or Paul and Linda McCartney releases) and it will come in the shape of a 3LP set, a 2CD set, a 1CD, and there’ll be a separate, exclusive Blu-Ray Audio Disc with Atmos mixes for the first time.
This 3LP set will also be offered as a McCartney Official Store limited edition coloured vinyl exclusive:
If you don’t want to pay US$20.00 for a lithograph and a sticker sheet then you can get a standard 3LP set without the trinkets:
And there’s a single LP on black vinyl containing 12 tracks in all:
If CD is more your thing then the 2CD set has all the tracks from the 3LP sets, including the poster:
While the 1CD replicates the 1LP track running order:
The McCartney Store and the SuperDeluxeEdition site are offering an exclusive Blu-ray Audio disc which is likely to be the format that most excites McCartney fans. As site owner Paul Sinclair writes, “For the first time, tracks are available in Dolby Atmos on a physical product. The mixes are by Giles Martin and Steve Orchard. 14 of them have been available in recent times on streaming, but 17 of them are unheard in this format, including tracks from un-reissued latter albums, such as ‘With A Little Luck’, ‘London Town’ and ‘I’ve Had Enough’ (from 1978’s London Town) and ‘Getting Closer’ and ‘Arrow Through Me’ (from 1979’s Back to the Egg). 7 out of the 10 tracks from the US version of Band on the Run also feature on this compilation.
Blu-ray Audio audio streams summary:
° Dolby Atmos Mix (48/24)
° 5.1 Surround Mix (48/24)
° Hi-Res Stereo Mixes (96/24)
This blu-ray audio contains 32 tracks and is presented as a ‘softpack’ with a 16-page booklet:
The WINGS – The Definitive Collection packaging has been designed by Paul and Aubrey ‘Po’ Powell of the famous Hipgnosis design studio. The two have worked together extensively in the past, not only on album artwork but also the art direction for McCartney tours. The first thing that hit us though was that front cover with the word WINGS populated with a photo montage of the band, and the inner sleeve replicating that was a little bit derivative. Some other band from the past used a very similar idea way back when…..
For the full news story and background on this release see the official Paul McCartney page.
WINGS – The Definitive Collection is out on November 7.
Eric Idle on 'getting a Scouse pass' from McCartney
Claire Minter
BBC News
30 August 2025
Eric Idle will perform at the Liverpool Empire theatre in September BBC
Comedy star Eric Idle says Sir Paul McCartney was initially "a bit weird" about his spoof band The Rutles until he found out the actor had spent his childhood in Merseyside.
Idle played McCartney-inspired Dirk McQuickly in the 1978 mockumentary All You Need Is Cash.
Idle told BBC Radio Merseyside: "I met Paul in the park actually and he was a bit, you know, he's a bit weird [about it] but [McCartney's then-wife] Linda loved it.
"Then he found out I'd been at school in Wallasey and he said, 'Oh, he's Scouse, he's one of us. That's great, he's one of us'."
Idle added: "So you know I was alright. I got the Scouse pass."
McCartney's fellow Beatle George Harrison had a cameo appearance in the film as a reporter interviewing Rutles' press officer Eric Manchester, who was based on Beatles' publicist Derek Taylor.
George Harrison’s cameo in The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash.
Now living in Los Angeles, Idle is touring the UK and is due to perform at the Liverpool Empire theatre on 14 September.
He plans to include some of The Rutles' back catalogue, which included more than a dozen Beatles-inspired songs, All You Need Is Cash and the follow-up Can't Buy Me Lunch.
"It was probably one of the most favourite things I ever did in my life was filming [All You Need Is Cash].
"It was a great fun to do. We did a lot in Liverpool 8… and then we went to Southport to try and pretend we were in the West Indies.
"We had cardboard cut-outs of coconut trees to film Ouch! which was our version of Help!"
Eric Idle (left) featured in the spoof band The Rutles, who released their own songs inspired by The Beatles Getty Images
Born in South Shields, Idle later spent some of his childhood in Merseyside with his widowed mother before he was sent to boarding school in Wolverhampton.
"On my fifth birthday, I went across the Mersey on a ferry and the Liverpool overhead railway which existed in those days and went along the docks," he said.
Ever wondered why the concerts, which form the centrepiece of the forthcoming John Lennon/Yoko Ono Power to the People box set, were called the One To One concerts?
The BBC has just released a backgrounder as part of it’s Witness History podcast series explaining it. You may need to register to listen (it’s free), but it is well worth it for a very informative 9-minute listen.
In 1972, after leaving The Beatles, John Lennon and Yoko Ono performed in the United States at the One to One benefit concerts at Madison Square Garden, New York.
They were helping to raise money for children with disabilities from Willowbrook State School, after a television exposé by journalist Geraldo Rivera showed the conditions and failings. It was watched by millions of people and led to a public outcry.
Sean Allsop speaks with Geraldo Rivera about breaking the story and organising the concerts.
If you want to view Rivera’s original documentary that blew the lid off the pain and misery of the the young Willowbrook residents who were being so appallingly treated check it out here. (Warning: it contains some very confronting scenes). This is what motivated John and Yoko:
Geraldo Rivera kept in touch with John and Yoko. Later in his life he reflected on meeting the pair and how he worked with them on such an important cause:
When you witness injustice “It’s up to you, yeah, you!”
Paul McCartney’s Reveals His (and His Late Wife’s) Favorite Wings Deep Cuts
BY MATT FRIEDLANDER
American Songwriter
SEPTEMBER 2, 2025
Fans of Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles band Wings have had quite a bit to be excited about lately. First off, a new documentary called Man on the Run focusing on the launch McCartney’s solo career just premiered at the 2025 Telluride Film Festival. The movie also will begin streaming on Prime Video in February 2026. In addition, a fully sanctioned book about Sir Paul’s work with Wings, titled Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, will be published on November 4.
Paul McCartney
LINDA MCCARTNEY
If that weren’t enough, the Wings Fun Club has been reactivated and an online hub focusing on the band was launched recently.
With all this Wings-related activity in mind, the latest installment of the “You Gave Me the Answer” Q&A series features McCartney answering a fan-submitted question asking what his favorite deep cut by the band is.
The fan, named Aidan, noted that his own favorite song by Sir Paul is the 1979 B-side “Daytime Nighttime Suffering.” He also pointed out that McCartney’s late wife and Wings bandmate, Linda, said that tune was one of her favorites too.
“I agree!” McCartney responded. “‘Daytime Nighttime Suffering’ is one of my favourites, as it was Linda’s. But another song I like a lot is ‘Arrow Through Me.’”
He added, “It is lovely to see these songs reappear from time to time, mainly when they are used in a film or TV show. I think a lot of young people discover my songs this way. Thanks for listening!”
More About “Daytime Nighttime Suffering” and “Arrow Through Me”
“Daytime Nighttime Suffering” and “Arrow Through Me” were both recorded during the sessions for Wings’ seventh and final studio album, Back to the Egg, which was released in June 1979.
“Daytime Nighttime Suffering” was released in March 1979 as the B-side of the non-album single “Goodnight Tonight.” The latter tune peaked at No. 5 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the U.K. singles chart.
About two minutes into “Daytime Nighttime Suffering,” Paul and Linda’s son, James, who was 1 year old at the time, can be heard crying in the background.
“Arrow Through Me” appeared on Back to the Egg and was released as a single from the album in the U.S. The reggae-influenced tune reached No. 29 on the Hot 100.
Writing about “Arrow Through Me” in his 2021 book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, McCartney noted, “I have always had a soft spot for this song. There’s a nice horn riff in it, and it’s funky. Sometimes you write to get a sort of feeling rather than a perfectly ‘correct’ lyric. Sometimes the lyric can be secondary to the feeling. This one has as much, or more, to do with the feel of the song, the groove.”
