---

ALL CONTENT ON THIS PAGE IS COPYRIGHT!!

---

Macca Report current Paul News!!!
Macca Report Archived News Index

---

!!!Some links could be outdated!!!

---

---

August 2005

---

---

August 31, 2005 -- Billboard

Paul is the featured "Artist of the Day" on Billboard.com You can order a copy of of the 'special edition' of the latest Billboard Magazine that features an indepth interview with Macca. Click for order page.

Would you care to sit with me
for a cup of English tea?
very twee, very me,
any sunny morning.

What a pleasure it would be
chatting so delightfully,
nanny bakes
fairy cakes,
every Sunday morning.

Miles and miles of English Garden
stretching past the willow tree,
lines of hollyhocks and roses
listen most attentively.

Do you know the game croquet?
Per adventure we might play,
very gay,
hip hooray,
any Sunday morning.

Miles and miles of English Garden
stretching past the willow tree,
lines of hollyhocks and roses,
listen most attentively.

As a rule the church bells chime
when it's almost supper time,
nanny bakes
fairy cakes,
on a Sunday morning.

Both McCartney and late Beatles bandmate John Lennon grew up listening to the Everly Brothers and together impersonated brothers Phil and Don.

McCartney says, "He was such a figure from my youth that I went all daft and said, 'Er, I used to be you... John was Don'... and all the most stupid things. He got very embarrassed.

Sir Paul McCartney had forgotten how to play Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band prior to last month's Live 8 concert, and asked U2 guitarist The Edge to help him find the right notes.

The former Beatle had never played the classic song live before (???), and he was terrified of making an embarrassing mistake on the big day.

He says, "I needed to re-learn Sgt Pepper for Live 8. I'd never sung it (live) before. Me and The Edge couldn't figure out the guitar riff. I had the guitarist from my band helping out too, but we eventually sorted it out."

(WEBMASTER'S NOTE: McCartney has been performing "Sgt. Pepper" LIVE since 1989!!!)

Paul McCartney's new single 'Fine Line' is out now. 'Fine Line' is the first track to be taken from his forthcoming new album 'Chaos and Creation In The Backyard' which is released on Monday 12th September.

As well as being able to buy the 'Fine Line' single in record shops, you can now also buy the official 'Fine Line' download packages on www.paulmccartney.com.

There are 3 options to choose from:

- The radio edit of the single 'Fine Line'
- The CD1 bundle, which includes 'Fine Line' & new track 'Comfort Of Love'
- The CD2 bundle which includes 'Fine Line' & the new track 'Growing Up Falling Down'

Within each of the bundles you can buy individual tracks also.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE DOWNLOAD SHOP

Unfortunately, these downloads are currently only available for PC users as they use Windows Media 9 technology. All tracks will be available on CD in our official Paul McCartney online shop next week.

The member's only content currently now available on the Chaos and Creation Pin Board includes:

- Full length audio of 'Fine Line'
- Audio clips of 'Jenny Wren' and 'Promise To You Girl'
- 'Fine Line' Performance video.
- Flash Banner ads for 'Fine Line'
- Downloadable 'Fine Line' screensaver
- Paul McCartney promo images
- 'Chaos and Creation In The Backyard' Album pack shot and press release

Keep checking back for more content very soon, including some 'Behind The Scenes' video clips of new songs from the new album.

Hippie icon Donovan frequently clashed with his pal Sir Paul McCartney when they attempted to write songs together, as he insists they had both trouble keeping up with each other.

The Mellow Yellow star, who considers himself in the same songwriting league as the former Beatles star, admits life was not always easy for artists of such stature.

He says,"We were kindred spirits, but we found it hard to write songs together as we were both too prolific. Any ideas that I had, he would immediately riff off into an idea of his own, and vice versa."

Donovan was amazed by the preferential treatment The Beatles received from authorities during the heady 1960s - as they were frequently pardoned by sycophantic police officers.

The singer recalls a policeman knocking on Sir Paul McCartney's door regarding an illegally parked car, but Donovan couldn't believe the constable's reaction upon seeing the superstar.

He recalls, "Paul came to the door and the policeman said, 'Oh, it's you, Mr McCartney. Is it your car, sir? A sports car?'

"Paul gave him the keys and the car was parked - by the starstruck policeman!

"A few minutes later he returned with the keys and saluted, would you believe?"

Falkner talks about working with Macca

Jason Falkner plays on "Growing Up, Falling Down" from McCartney's "Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard" album.

Q: I meant to ask you, when you were recording with Paul McCartney, did he follow your work, and if so, what did he think about the Beatles instrumental album?

Falkner : Ah, yes, this is my favorite story about what happened. He was unfamiliar with my stuff when we met. The odd thing is, when my Beatle record was still pretty current, a girl that worked at Sony in New York said she was at a party and she was talking about her work at Sony/Wonder, and she said that Stella McCartney like was standing right there and said 'excuse me, did you say you worked at Sony/Wonder? Did you have anything to do with the 'Bedtime with the Beatles' record?' And this girl was like, 'well yeah we put it out but Jason Falkner did it.' And she was like 'oh my god, I love that record, I'm sending it to my dad.' So I heard that story that f*king rocked my world. But then the second day of working with Paul...the way we were set up in the studio, we were the only two people in the main track room, which is this huge tracking room, and poor James had his drum set stuffed in this tiny vocal booth. Cuz Nigel (Godrich) likes the really really dead sound. So he was just in this little room, we couldn't even see him, we could just hear him through the headphones. So Paul and I were like facing each other when we were recording. And I was still kind of wetting myself, you know, looking up and there's Paul McCartney with his Beatle bass, looking at me and sorta pointing his finger and smiling and stuff. So then we put down our instruments to go listen to what we'd just done, and I was like 'hey Paul, did you ever hear this 'Bedtime with the Beatles' record?' And he was like 'no, no. Let's have it.' And he said 'what is it?' And I said, well, I did it in this same room, and I played every instrument on it, and I just kinda took you guys into outer space, and it's to put your kid to sleep. And I know you have a new daughter, so here's the pink one for your daughter, and here's the blue one for you.' And he was like 'ah, no, I've never seen this!' And so there went my Stella McCartney story.

So then, it was incredible, he was sitting down -- we were listening to music -- and he opened it up, and he kinda kept looking up at me and looking back at the thing and looking up at me, and uh, we were listening to music so we couldn't talk, the music was loud. But when it was done he was like, 'oh, mate, you'll have to sign it for me.' So I signed my little Beatle record for Paul McCartney. And then I didn't come back for a couple days. Nigel was just working with Paul on his own. And the next time I came in was maybe three or four days later, and I had to pick up some of my stuff, cuz I had a solo show -- i had to pick up my guitars and stuff. And I walk in, and I see Nigel first and he pushes the button and he's like 'Hey Paul, guess who's here?' And before Paul and I could see each other he goes 'is it Jase?' Cuz he calls me Jase, which is just the most surreal thing, period. He's got a little nickname for me. And I'm like 'Hey Paul, how's it going?' And he says 'ah Jase, 'Bedtime with the Beatles,' man - nice one!' And I'm like 'ahhh, ok. cool, cool.' And he finishes his tambourine or whatever, and he comes out of the room and he's like 'yeah, man, me and my friends listened to it. Me and John' -- uh, his other friend John -- 'and Keith, we listened to it last night. We had a bottle of wine and we listened to it, it's amazing!' And he had all these really specific comments, like he really listened to it. And that just blew my mind. And you know, he met my girlfriend a week later and the first thing he says is 'ah, Bedtime with the Beatles'. You know, he just kept saying that, like I'd be walking down the hall...'ah, nice one!' It was f*king bizarre.

So that's kinda my favorite McCartney story. The stuff that we worked on, it actually turned out really good, but it's kind of a hobby for Paul at this point, you know? He splits really early, he's only there for a few hours, maybe five or six hours, really giving it all of his attention and everything, and then he's got a life. A different life. So, that was mind-boggling. And maybe a month ago, I got a Fed-Ex thing came and I saw that it was from MPL, which is his company, and I thought that it was maybe some sort of receipt for what they paid me, you know for tax or something, and I opened it up, and it was a letter on stationery, like a real letter, and he said 'Still playing 'Bedtime with the Beatles' in between naps' and you know 'thanks for the amazing stuff you did.' It was just so nice, I got an actual letter and he drew a weird little face on it and whatever. Pretty cool.

And while MPL -- the acronym stands for "McCartney Productions Ltd." -- has certainly focussed on McCartney's work, it has grown to represent almost a century of copyrights from the likes of Buddy Holly, Jerry Herman, Frank Loesser, Meredith Willson and Harold Arlen.

MPL's catalogue holdings include Nor-Va-Jak (which contains many of Holly's songs), Desilu Music (Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball's company), Edwin H. Morris & Co. (a major standards catalogue), Meredith Willson Music and Frank Music (which includes songs by Loesser).

"We've been predominantly a catalogue company, and catalogue is still the cornerstone of the company and will still be in the future since there's no substitute for incredible standards and classic songs that are timeless," says Bill Porricelli, senior VP of promotion and new product development.

"But we felt we needed a new dimension in the last few years, so we signed a couple of staff writers, Russ DeSalvo and Martin Briley, and they've had some good success with us in film projects and various artist covers -- and have added a new dimension to the company."

Porricelli notes that MPL has been "very successful and consistent" in working with movie studios, TV producers, ad agencies and sheet music companies in exploiting its copyrights. Recent noteworthy catalogue placements in films have included MPL songs "Let the Good Times Roll" and "Route 66" in "Ray"; "After You've Gone," "Bugle Call Rag" and "Milenburg Joys" in "The Aviator"; "Sitting on Top of the World" in "Cold Mountain"; "Grazing in the Grass" in "Anchorman"; "Unchained Melody" in "Alfie"; and "The Christmas Song" in "Christmas With the Kranks."

Upcoming film placements include "It's So Easy" in "Brokeback Mountain" and "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning" in "The Matador."

But MPL is seeking newer means of exposing its catalogue besides traditional methods.

"Like every publisher, we're taking a more proactive approach to the new media," Porricelli says, "which is very critical. We're in the process of redoing our Web site to make it more user friendly for industry people and fans alike in acquiring information. And you can licence MPL material on the Internet. There will be links to our sheet music partners like Hal Leonard, and if you want to buy Paul McCartney CDs, you can do that through the Web site as well."

Porricelli also cites increased licensing of MPL copyrights to ringtone companies.

"Every publisher has to look at alternate means of revenue, and with new media it seems another market is opening up every few months -- and we want to be part of it," he says.

But he adds that the company is still geared towards more traditional means of promotion.

"It's very important to put out promotional samplers of both our new and existing and recognisable songs," he says. "We've received so much good response in the past (with samplers) and continue to do them on a regular basis to keep our songs in people's consciousness and introduce new material to the industry."

Porricelli notes that there's "only a couple handfuls of really exceptional projects every year" in film and TV production, "and every publisher desperately wants to be part of them. We rely on our relationships, but we also need to stay ahead of the curve and know about things right from the outset since competition is so stiff on these special licensing opportunities."

Nowhere is this more important at MPL than with its founder's catalogue. MPL for the first time just placed a McCartney song in a TV commercial. "Fine Line" -- the first single from McCartney's album "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard," which bows September 13 via Capitol Records -- is part of a national Lexus campaign that began in late August.

"Having a national spot with Lexus gives us enormous exposure and gets more people aware of the album and tour, which MTV and VH1 simply can't do at this point due to the nature of their programming," says Porricelli, who notes that Lexus is sponsoring McCartney's ensuing U.S. tour."

But MPL also wants to maintain its successful record of placing McCartney catalogue copyrights in major films like "Jerry Maguire" ("Junk"), "50 First Dates" ("Another Day") and "The In-Laws" ("Live and Let Die," "I'm Carrying" and "A Love for You").

The company recently produced "Listen to What the Man Said," a 20-song McCartney sampler spanning the writer's entire post-Beatles career up to his last album, 2001's "Driving Rain."

Porricelli says McCartney's catalogue has potential beyond placement in film and TV. He points to Jenn Cuneta's dance hit "Come Rain Come Shine," which employed a rare McCartney-authorized usage of "Silly Love Songs" -- with producers Andy & the Lamboy sharing co-writing credit with Paul and Linda McCartney.

"They did a completely new lyric and turned ("Silly Love Songs") into a dance track," Porricelli says. "Paul liked it a lot and gave them authorisation to release it. But it's basically 'Silly Love Songs' with a new lyric, so we experiment with new things now and we're much more open to licensing opportunities that make sense.

SIR PAUL McCARTNEY, FAITH HILL, ALANIS MORISSETTE and DEPECHE MODE are among the huge acts using aliases in a bid to make sure their new albums get to critics at newspapers and magazines.

Music industry bigwigs fear the bigger stars' preview albums are being swiped by interns and pirated weeks before their release dates.

So, McCartney's upcoming album has been credited to PETE MITCHELL, while Hill, Morissette and Depeche Mode are sending out their albums as FERN HOLLOWAY, ARTHUR MOORE and BLACK SWARM respectively, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Publicist MITCH SCHNEIDER, who represents both Morissette and Depeche Mode, says, "It is really a practical thing for protection when there are people walking by desks wanting to take things."

But the publicists admit their alias plan is far from flawless - some critics, who are inundated with albums to review, give unknown artists' albums away or discard them.

Geffen Records publicist JIM MERLIS explains, "You can actually out-clever yourself in these situations."

Doing the garden? Digging the weeds? Who could ask for more? But don't expect Paul McCartney to slow down like that when he's 64. Just one year shy of the milestone he once immortalized in song, McCartney is gearing up for the release of his 20th album of his post-Beatles career and a major U.S. tour. The album, "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard," arrives Sept. 13 from Capitol Records in the United States and from EMI worldwide. McCartney's US Tour, as he calls it, opens Sept. 16 at the American Airlines Arena in Miami. But this Liverpudlian knight of the realm does not confine himself to the typical album-tour-album-tour cycle. Last summer, McCartney took the stage at Britain's renowned Glastonbury Festival and played a set in tribute to his deceased former bandmates, John Lennon and George Harrison.

In February, he played the halftime show at Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville, Fla. And when called to join the global consciousness-raising of Live 8 in July, McCartney was there front and center. In another creative sphere, on Oct. 4 McCartney will publish "High in the Clouds," his collaboration with author Philip Ardagh and animator Geoff Dunbar for Penguin Young Readers Group. But for McCartney's longtime fans, the focus first is always on his music.

On "Chaos," the artist resumed the role of multi-instrumentalist that distinguished "McCartney," his first post-Beatles project -- released precisely 35 years ago -- and the "McCartney II" set exactly a decade later. Adding zest to McCartney's challenge, this is his first studio set in four years, after the 2001 release of "Driving Rain," which was a modest performer in the marketplace by McCartney's exacting standards. In conversation with Billboard on the eve of the release of "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard," McCartney emphasizes that the only challenges he now needs are the ones he sets himself. Prior to this interview, Billboard heard an advance copy of the new album that was credited with a pseudonym for security.

Q: I sense that people are surprised that this is your 20th solo album.

PAUL: I'm kind of surprised, because I don't count how many I've done; I just do the next one, and love it. There're always people who say, "Did you know it's 40 years since the Beatles?," and I go, "Get away." Or "You've done 3,000 gigs." I say, "Never." Of course the more we go on, the more it mounts up. But it really doesn't matter to me whether it's the 30th or the 3,000th. But at the same time it's kind of impressive.

Q: How did your initial meeting with producer Nigel Godrich go?

PAUL: Our ideas were surprisingly similar. I said, "I'm going to make a great record." I thought instead of saying, "I would like to make a good record," I'm going to put some pressure on myself and motivate myself. And he said, "If I do it with you, it's got to be you." I suggested a couple of possible things I was listening to that we might draw off. And he said, "No, we've got enough to draw off. That's what people want: an album that sounds like you." So we decided to do two weeks at Rak Studios to see if we could work together or if we hated each other. Sure enough, we got on very well. First week, I came in with my live band, thinking that might be the way we'd go. But he started to intimate toward the end of the week that he wanted, as he put it, to take me out of my safety zone, to do something different.

Q: In what way?

PAUL: He said, "I like the way you play drums." I said, "I've got one of the world's greatest drummers in Abe (Laboriel)." He said, "Yeah, but it might be a bit safe. You know these guys, they know you. I'd like to try something out." I love playing drums. I love knocking about on a lot of instruments. I may not be the world's greatest drummer, but I've got a feel that he liked. I remember Elvis Costello talking to me about the feel I had on drums. So that turned out to be the feel, and I had to say to the guys in the band, "Look, we'll be playing this live, but I hope you understand." They were really cool about it, and we set off on the road.

Q: You mention Costello, who you collaborated with on (the 1989 album) "Flowers in the Dirt," and this feels like it could be your best record since that one. Is there a link, in terms of bringing somebody new in who was prepared to tell you good things and bad things?

PAUL: I think that's probably true, yeah. Someone you respect who has their own respect in the community and who is forthright enough to say, "No, we can do better than that." The funny thing is, I always like that, but what happens is when you reach a certain position, people will naturally, in a way, assume that whatever you say goes. But in a lot of the areas I work, like tours and in the office, if you were able to look in on a meeting of mine, it'd be, "OK, who's got a good idea? What do we do now?" I really like teamwork.

Q: When you meet new people, not just in work but socially, you must have to take the lead. You must be aware that an awful lot of people are completely daunted by meeting you at all.

PAUL: It's true, yeah. It'd be like when I met Phil Everly. He was such a figure from my youth that I went all daft and said, "Err, I used to be you ... John was Don ...," and all the most stupid things, and he got thoroughly embarrassed. But I am very aware of that, even to people at the newspaper shop. I do a sort of Liverpool thing, which is (jokingly), "Look here, I don't want any trouble off you," or whatever. I'll be in their face, and they'll go, "Oh, he's just ordinary," and we soon get at ease. It comes in handy in situations like that. People always expect you to be riding around in stretch limousines all the time, but I will sometimes take public transport if it's convenient, and it does surprise people, you see the heads turn. I was in New York and I needed to get uptown, so I took one of the uptown buses. A few people noticed, and this black lady said, "Hey, you Paul McCartney?," and started getting quite loud. I said, "Yeah, but I don't want any trouble off you, babe," and she laughed. I said, "If you're going to talk to me, come over here, sit by me." So she did, and I heard her entire history, how she was going to visit her sister and all this stuff.

Q: Another tour coming up in the States suggests that you're having a good time now.

PAUL: The end of my last American tour, promoters were saying, "We could still take more, do longer." Because I don't really go out for much longer than three months, I find I get bored and it really becomes a slog. Three months at the rate we tour, which is pretty much one gig, then a day off, is pretty leisurely compared to how we used to work.

Q: Are you planning on any more "new old" songs onstage?

PAUL: Yeah, I found a few, I must say, which will be surprises. That's one of the great pleasures now, because I used to resist Beatles songs. It was as if I was just trading on the past. But I realized audiences loved them. They didn't mind you doing that -- in fact just the opposite. But I found that on the last American tour, things like "Hello Goodbye," that I'd never sung live before, was very entertaining for me and the audience. So that became a big plus. I've got a few songs I did in Europe that I've never done on American soil, and I'm thinking of a couple of others I've not done before, so it means they're very fresh.

Can there be anything left to discover about the Beatles? Perhaps not, but the fascination for turning every last stone goes on. In this live Front Row special in conversation with Paul McCartney, he reveals how his 1968 song "Blackbird" has its roots in a Bach lute suite he and George Harrison had tried to play as teenagers, and discusses why he"s written a companion piece to "Blackbird" called "Jenny Wren", to appear on his next album. Sitting at the studio piano, he reflects on songwriting as therapy and shows how he finds chords for a song by trial and error.

Winning a place on the Radio Two A-list might be par for the course for Paul McCartney, but he is now finding himself in previously uncharted territory - London alternative station Xfm.

Since his new album's lead single, Fine Line - which is commercially released next week - was first played on the station on Lauren Laverne's drivetime show, it has been added to the playlist, while breakfast host Christian O'Connell named it record of the week and DJ John Kennedy interviewed the singer. "If this weren't Paul McCartney and just a new band we'd say 'There's something in this'," says Xfm head of music Nigel Harding. More expectedly, Radio Two recorded an intimate performance at the Beatles old stomping ground of Abbey Road Studio 2 earlier this month for broadcast on September 17.

Xfm support and exposure in the past 18 months at Glastonbury, Live 8, as an NME cover star and guest appearances on Radio One plus continuing sales of The Beatles' 1 retrospective, have placed McCartney in front of new, and sometimes younger, audiences. "His profile has grown in areas of the media we expect our audience would be aware of," says Xfm's Harding, who notes the Nigel Godrich connection was important in raising his station's interest. "It's not the same with The Rolling Stones - they've made a great new album, but their music wouldn't quite make sense on the station because they're still seen in a dinosaur category."

Parlophone's Leonard suggests the Godrich collaboration has highlighted that McCartney's music remains fresh. "There's the fanbase that will really enjoy the songs and melodies and craftsmanship of the songs, but there's enough in this album to excite a younger audience," he adds.

McCartney's introduction to a new audience is acknowledged by the artist himself, who highlights Glastonbury as a high point. "It exposed a lot of different people to me and I remember a lot of young people and seeing people in the audience who were about 10 knowing the words to all The Beatles songs," he says.

In an interview aired on Dutch radio, Paul said there were three songs from "Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard" that he is considering for the US tour setlist: "Fine Line," "Jenny Wren" (acoustic set) and "English Tea."

Macca said the band was rehearsing "Fine Line" and it sounded great live. As far as other choices for the setlist, Paul said there are songs he must always include in the show, but the setlist will have some new additions that will please the fans.

Macca teams up with Radiohead man for new album

Paul McCartney tells NME about making his best record in years and hanging out with Franz and the Kaisers.

Paul McCartney has compared working on his new solo album to recording with The Beatles- and says having Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich on board is one of the reasons why.

Godrich, who, as well as working on Radiohead's classic "OK Computer", is famous for producing the likes of Beck and Travis, has produced McCartney's first studio album in four years, "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard", due out on September 13.

McCartney said the during the sessions for the album which followed last year's triumphant Glastonbury headline slot, Godrich forced him to work harder and challenged him in a similar way to that which his old Beatles bandmates John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr used to.

He said: ' It was more like working with a band than a producer...it's pretty hard to live up to John and George. Working in a band like The Beatles, we had four votes, so if Ringo didn't like something John and I brought in, he got to vote it out. Which I suppose is very democratic. And in the same way, Nigel had that same vote.'

He continued: 'I've produced a lot of records, been on a lot of Beatles records, Wings records, on my own- I've had a lot of hits. He told me,"I just want to make a great album, and for it to be you." Once we got into the studio, and were playing head to head on a couple of songs that I thought of as good and he didn't, I immediately thought of firing him. I just thought, "I don't have to take this". But then I told myself, "That's the point, this is why you're working with him"'.

As the relationship developed, McCartney started to take Godrich's advice on board. He continued: 'He'd be like, "Look, I've got to tell you that I don't like this", and I said, "What don't you like about it?" He'd say, "You've done better than that." In the end I started to value that, it's what I need. We kept the standard up that way, but we had out moments'.

The former Beatle told NME that despit being 63 years old, he enjoyed headlining Glastonbury 2004 and is going to this year's NME awards in February - especially as it gave him the chnace to meet new bands, with Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand, and Coldplay particular favourites.

He told NME: 'There's this kind of respect thing that was a bit surprising for me, 'cos you could understand id young bands just went, "Forget it, not relevant to today." But I'm quite pleased to see that a lot of the young bands relate to a lot of what we did. Getting an NME Award, that was really cool because it got me among all these other bands who I hadn't had a chance to see. Franz Ferdinand, the Kaiser Chiefs, a lot of the other bands who were getting awards that night - that was a really good feeling. I definitely felt part of it. Not the young end of it, but a part of it.'

The Wisdom of Paul McCartney

On missing John and George

"When you look back at The Beatles' sessions, they seemed like fun or otherwise I wouldn't have continued with them. But then when you look back in greater detail you think, 'Wait a minute, what about that raving argument I had with John and that argument I had with George?' And now, because they've gone, you think, 'How could I do that?' Suddenly it's too late to pull your words back. But you know why you did it - because you didn't bloody agree with what he was saying and he didn't agree with what you were saying. But we had a really great time. In the end there were aguments about whose amp was louder than the other's. George and John were always arguing, one would go away and the other would sneak back and turn his amp up a bit. Then the other one would come back and change it, all the engineers kept pulling it back.'

On Pete Doherty

'I know his reputation is the drugs thing. He wouldn't be the first person I knew who had that kind of repiutation and , nearly always, the guys who I knew who got really heavy into this were real sweethearts. Quite good, really cool people, just had over-indulgence as part of their make-up. It doesn't mean to say they are all bad. I don't want to give him any fatherly advice (puts on voice) as long as he looks after himself and gets plenty of sleep!'

On new bands being influenced by The Beatles

'I hear references in lots of people's songs and it's really lovely. It's a great feeling- after all this time there are still kids trying to look like we looked. The gear, the hair, the clothes. I was with Bono at Live 8 and he said, "Man, The Beatles were the Big Bang", and I do get a feeling of that. We certainly started something and there's a lot of really good live bands now continuing it.'

Macca's new album - his verdict

Fine Line

It's about this idea, really smart people and nutters...there's a very fine line between them. Things that are opposite come together, so be careful to choose the one you really want. It could tip over into the one you don't want.

How Kind of You

I brought Nigel How Kind of You as a jangly acoustic thing. I got interested in older posh English people, a lady I'm thinking of, just a neighbor, who's always putting herself down. I just noticed how shee and other people like her talk. I realized they use different language.

Jenny Wren

It's based on Blackbird (from The Beatles White Album), the Blackbird guitar style. You know, the false finger picking thing. I can't do that thing like John does on Julia. This idea originally came from a little thing George(Harrison) and I used to do when we were kids.

Riding to Vanity Fair

It's about people who reject friendship, and I've had it from time to time. It's a way to get back at those people. You do it in a song, you satisfy yourself that you've said it. So in one song you're saying it to all the people who were ever like that. They may not know they're the ones you're trying to reach, but it's better than going around bitching to everyone.

More content added to the 'Chaos and Creation Members Pin Board' at www.paulmccartney.com

As members of the site you can now listen to clips of the 'Chaos and Creation In The Backyard' album tracks 'Jenny Wren' and 'Promise To You Girl', plus watch a fantastic performance video of the new single 'Fine Line' that features Paul performing all the instruments on the track. Also added are some flash banners ads that can be downloaded, plus a 'Fine Line' screen saver.

The full line up of content now available on the Pin Board is:

- Full length audio of 'Fine Line'
- Audio clips of 'Jenny Wren' and 'Promise To You Girl'
- 'Fine Line' Performance video.
- Flash Banner ads for 'Fine Line'
- Downloadable 'Fine Line' screensaver
- Paul McCartney promo images
- 'Chaos and Creation In The Backyard' Album packshot and press release

Keep checking back for more content very soon, including some 'Behind The Scenes' video clips of new songs from the new album.

'Fine Line' is released as a single on 29th August, followed by 'Chaos and Creation In The Backyard' on 12th September. You will be able to download 'Fine Line' at www.paulmccartney.com as of next week in the new digital store.

With the new 'US' Tour coming up look out for our 'Live Review' feature on www.paulmccartney.com . We will be adding a tool to the site, where you can upload your own reviews after attending one of Paul's shows!

Looking through the backyard of my life
Time to sweep the fallen leaves away

(Chorus - harmonies)
Like the sun that rises every day
We can (chase) the dark clouds from the sky

I gave my promise to you girl, I don't wanna take it back
You and me side by side, We know how to change the world
That is why, I gave my promise to you girl

Hey why wait another day, that won't get us anywhere
All the time, that ain't changed, to repair this brave old world
We'll be up, I gave my promise to you girl

(Chorus - harmonies)
Everything single second of our lives
We can use to chase the clouds away

(Guitar Solo)

Well, there's no more barking up the tree, no more howling at the moon
Same old scene, you and I, (diving) for the secret trust
That is why, I gave my promise to you girl

(Chorus - guitar)

(Chorus - oh woh)

Looking through the backyard of my life
Time to sweep the fallen leaves away

JENNY WREN (Paul McCartney)

Like so many girls, Jenny Wren could sing
But a broken heart, took her soul away

Like the other girls, Jenny Wren took wing
She could see the world, and it's foolish ways

How, we, spend our days, casting, love aside
(losing, sight of life), day, by, day

She saw poverty, breaking all the home
Wounded warriors, took her song away

(solo) verse, chorus

But the day will come, Jenny Wren will sing
When this broken world, mends its foolish ways

(do) we spend our days, catching up on life
(all because of you), Jenny Wren

You saw who we are, Jenny Wren

Technicians have employed computer program Auto-Tune to refine the performances of artists including Bono, Sir Paul McCartney and Madonna - prompting some critics to claim the DVD sound recording is faked.

A source says, "It's Botox for the vocally challenged. By cutting up and reassembling notes it can erase the wrinkles and bum notes and make a karaoke drunk sound like Frank Sinatra."

August 22, 2005 -- NY Post

Meet the baby Beatle

Paul McCartney gabs on his cellphone while biking with 22-month old Beatrice in tow in East Hampton.

Sir Paul also took his little cutie to play at a local jungle jim.

The ex-Beatle and wife Heather, 37, relaxed with the tot at a play park.

His 20th album since splitting from the Beatles - "Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard" is out September 13.

August 22, 2005

Fae gets a kiss from McCartney

Fae Currie was congratulated by two legends of the pop world when she graduated from a theatrical school.

The 19-year-old, from Nailsea, was presented with her diploma by former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, who also planted a kiss on her cheek.And also at the ceremony to offer his best wishes was Robin Gibb, who formed The Bee Gees with his brothers Maurice and Barry.

Fae, who is making a name for herself as a singer and dancer, graduated from the Liverpool Institute Of Performing Arts. The institute was Sir Paul's old school, which he saved from being demolished by ploughing large sums of money into a regeneration program.

Fae said: "Sir Paul kissed me on the cheek after handing over the diploma certificate and they both wished me all the best for the future.

"I intend to keep working hard because I would love to appear in a famous musical in London's West End."

Fae began her dancing and singing career at the age of three with Bristol School Of Dancing's Nailsea and Backwell branch. She will start a three-year dance and drama course at Liverpool Theatre School later this year.

GARY: So, Paul, another new album. After all this time, do you still get the buzz, the same excitement on releasing a new CD?

PAUL: Releasing isn't my favourite bit because you're letting your baby go. Making it is, that's great, you know, the whole creative process. Releasing it's a bit more difficult, you've got to sort of think about promoting it and doing this that and the other and it's not necessarily what you got into it for and also then you're letting it go and people have all these opinions that you don't necessarily agree with, you know, someone just said to me the other day, 'One of these tracks this is about this, so and so, isn't it?' I went, 'No.' It was like Oh Dear this is going to start happening now, but I've enjoyed making the album and the idea of releasing it is great because people will get it, many people will get it, you know, but all the chat that goes on outside it, you know, that's not my favourite bit.

GARY: If each album you make presents a new and different challenge, what was the challenge that this album presented? (NB 'Nigel' = Producer Nigel Godrich).

PAUL: Yeah, you know, it's the strangest thing even with The Beatles you thought, 'O.K., we've made a big album', let's say like Revolver or something, and we thought, 'Now we know how to make albums. This is going to be easy.' You go back in to make the next one and you go, 'How do we do this? And you've really got to get up to speed again and so I always used to play the last album just to see where we were up to, you know. It is different every time and it's, you know, I just realized every time, I don't know how to do this but I'm glad. I wouldn't want to know how to do it, you know. And this time the challenge was to do something good. I actually said to myself, 'I'm going to make a good album.'

Normally you say, 'I hope I'll make a good one,' or 'I'd like to make a good 'un.' I just actually really put my foot in it this time to myself and said, 'I'm going to make a really good album' because I knew there was some prospect of me going out on tour and I thought, 'I'm going to go out with a really good album that I'm very pleased with so I met up with Nigel and he agreed that that was sort of what he wanted to do as well so we set about it.

GARY: Are you any clearer, after all these years of writing great popular music, where the songs actually come from? And do you wonder?

PAUL: Erm, yeah, you always do, you know, and I don't wanna know. That's the nice thing about it. I actually don't wanna know because that's what makes it always fascinating, to just have nothing, be sitting here, pick up your guitar and then after an hour or two you suddenly have like got a song and, if it works, some people are going to go, 'I love that one.' Or whatever and it's like, 'Wow, yes', it's like baking a great cake or something, you know, so yeah, I've no idea where it comes from. It comes from my love of music, I think that 's the starting point. I was talking to Keith Richards not so long ago and he was saying, 'You know, man,' he was saying, 'we started off listening to music. None of this writing it and singing it. What we used to do was listen to it.' And he was very right, you know, then we started playing it and singing it and then eventually writing it.

I think it comes from this love of listening to what you think is great music so it just gets a beautiful sort of feeling going in you. Everyone loves music, feels that feeling and that's what's special about it. It's kind of mystical. Why do these combinations of vibrations, why do they affect us so much? How do they really affect our emotions? I mean, I can't hear "God Only Knows" without welling up, you know. It's just one of those songs for me. It's just so special, you know, and it's something to do with the words, something to do with the chord changes, something to do with the record, but it's mystical, you know, so I love that, I really love that about what I do and when people say, 'Why do you still do it, man?' and, you know, 'Aren't you jaded ? Aren't you fed up?' I go, 'No.' Sometimes I wish I was. I could go on holiday. But I love it. I really love it. I' m really looking forward to going on tour, America, because then you get the feedback from your audience as well as all this stuff but, yeah, I don't know how it happens, I don't know how it works, and I think a lot of people if you talk to them about how they make their music there's a kind of mystical element in it which I think is, great. I mean, how lucky to be in a job where there' s that kind of an element, you know, rather than just boring, very mundane and I do feel it's hugely lucky, you know. .

GARY: How if, at all, have your vocal delivery and range changed over the years?

PAUL: It has changed, yeah. I listen to old records and my voice is different but the funny thing is, you know, when I come to do some of those old songs live I still do them in the same key.

When I did Live8 someone said, 'Is Helter Skelter still in the same key?' I said, 'Yeah.' I have a very innocent way of thinking about singing because a lot of people don't and will talk about ways to sing and from your diaphragm and I kind of do that naturally, I think, the diaphragm bit so I think that is true but I have a very simple view of singing. It's like, 'Just do it. Don't think about it too much and just sort of...' so I just get on with it and it's always been like that.

I remember doing, recording er, I think it was Kansas City with The Beatles and I was, (Clears throat) I'm going to', and it was like, you've gotta kind of get out of this person who's talking quite sensibly and you've gotta go (Shouts) 'WELL! WELL!' And you've gotta like go somewhere, and I always used to say, 'It comes out of the top of your head,' and talking to John about it... (sings). I don't know, it just comes out of the top of my head.

I remember I was having trouble with it (sings) 'Kansas City' and I couldn't let go, you know and he came down in Abbey Road and said, 'It comes out of the top of your head, right?' 'Yeah.' (sings) 'Well I' and that's all I know, sort of it's stupid stuff like that comes out of the top of your head which I'm sure isn't true but that's enough for me and I went up to my old school which is now a performing arts centre in Liverpool, LIPA, a school I have a lot to do with and I was helping some of the kids there, some of the songwriting kids, and we were in the vocal room and they had a big chart up there showing what goes on here, like the larynx and all the names for it, and I said, 'I think you'd better get that down, because if I knew all of that went on in there, there's so much to go wrong. I mean, I just think of it like a tube and it goes out the top of your head.'

So what was the original question? Has my voice changed? Yeah, I think so just with maturity, I think it must change but the stuff's still in the same key and I still think the same way about doing it, that you just get up and you just do it. And, you know, it's stood me in good stead, many a year.

GARY: Where was Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard recorded?

PAUL: We started off, basically we recorded the album in Nigel's favourite studios really because I'm not a sound guy. I'm just the other side of the mike so it' s important for him to be listening in conditions he's either used to or happy with, so I said, 'Well, where do you want to work?' kind of thing and he said, 'Well, Rak in London, the old Mickey Most studio.' I said, 'That's great. I've worked there. I like that' and then Ocean Way in Los Angeles which is a big favourite studio of his that I hadn't worked in but he said, 'Oh, it' s a great room. I really love the sound in that room. Something magic happens in that room.' So I said, 'Fair enough.' Great excuse to go to L.A. So, and then here, Air Lyndhurst, Air Studios. Again, I have worked here but it really was, the reason was 'cos they're studios that Nigel likes and as he's the sound man, I bow to that.

GARY: Was the album recorded in one go, or over a period of time?

PAUL: It was stop and start. At Rak I just wanted to do a couple of weeks to see if we got on, me and Nigel, because, you know, we might not have got on and after a couple of weeks it was like, Pull the plug, I don't want to do this,' but in fact it went the other way. I really enjoyed working with him and we put together a couple of nice little tracks that are still on the album but then we had some time off while we each considered when we might do the next bit and then I think we did a month and then had some more time off, then another month, had some more time off so I think it was over the period of a couple of years but I'm not sure. Probably all in all it, it was four or five months the whole process but over a long period of time.

GARY: Whose music were you listening to in the run up to making the album?

PAUL: I had been listening to various things. A friend of mine, Nitin Sawnhey, who I like and stuff and I'd been to a few concerts and I listened to a bit of his stuff and I sent that to Nigel and said, 'Maybe this is the sort of little direction I'd like to play around in,' and he promptly said, 'No. I don't think so.' 'Oh, all right.' He said, 'No, I want it to be you. You can forget everyone else. I want it to be you.' He said, 'That's what I think people want to hear. Let's just concentrate on what you do and get it right. I'd been listening to a couple of other people and there were pointers but it wasn't their music. I mean for instance, somebody like Nat King Cole where his voice is just so there; so a couple of things like that we might have talked about and just have the voice really there, you know, if you're going to buy someone's record I like to be able to hear them, you know, really hear every little syllable and luckily that's the way Nigel wanted to go, but yeah, Nitin, I sent him Nitin but he said, 'No, that's Nitin, it's great, lovely stuff, but we don't want to go there, you know, it's gotta be you.'

GARY: Do you listen to other people's music while actually involved in the recording process?

PAUL: I listen to stuff all the time, you know, but it's not necessarily with a view to informing what I'm going to do. Some of it does. You just can't help it, you know. If I was listening to people like Neil Young and stuff then I might be thinking, 'Oh, yeah, I'd like to do an acoustic track,' but that's as far as it goes really. I don't think I want it to be Canadian and Neil-ish. It'll just be a vague ballpark or something, but I listen to a lot of stuff and it's all so varied that you couldn't make an album with that as your influence.

GARY: Nigel Godrich (Radiohead etc) is the producer. Is it correct that Sir George Martin (Beatles' producer) recommended that you should work with him?

PAUL: Yeah. I didn't know who would produce the album but I knew I wanted the very best and I wasn't sure who that was so I thought, 'Well, I'd like George Martin really,' but he doesn't produce any more, his son Giles does and George kind of oversees projects but he doesn't produce, so I rang him and I said, 'I' m thinking of doing a new album. I've got some songs together. Who would you recommend? Who do you think's the best person around?' And he got back to me a week or so later and he said, 'Well, you know, I've had a talk with Giles and a few people and the name that seems to be coming up is Nigel Godrich. And I knew Radiohead stuff and I liked particularly the sounds on it and I think it's a great sound he gets and that's particularly important for me and Travis, I knew he'd done that album, The 'Invisible Band' album, and so I liked what he did and I say particularly the sound so we met up just to see if we had the same kind of thing in mind and he did. I think maybe he went a bit further than I did in as much as he said, 'I want it to be a great album as well but we've got to focus on you, you know, so I've been thinking about it, I've been talking to people. What would you want in a Paul McCartney album? Would you want it to sound like him and a good one sort of of that?' So yeah, it all came through George.

GARY: How did Nigel Godrich's approach to making a record differ from yours?

PAUL: Basically it was quite similar really except the key thing, I think, was when I started to do the album that two weeks in Rak. I came in and I said to him, 'You know, I'd like to work with my live band, because they're my guys and the last tour we'd been doing we'd been talking about, 'You know, I can't wait to go into the next batch of songs, new album.' Nigel said, 'You know,' he said, 'I've been thinking about that. I'd like to take you out of your safety zone,' he said. 'That's your safety zone. You know these guys and you know what you're doing with them,' he said. ' I'd like to kind of get you out of that zone.' And so it turned out that that basically meant that he'd like me to have a go at drumming for instance whereas Abe, my drummer is a much better drummer than I am but Nigel wanted this sort of English feel, which I've got and I'm not a great drummer but I've got a feel, so I hear, you know. I enjoy drumming but it's the feel that I've got. So he said, 'I want to try that, you know,' he said. 'Try it,' so we just tried it on one of the tracks that we'd made with the band and he said, 'This is what I meant, yeah, you know, this is what I'm looking for.'

So gradually I had to really, you know, very embarrassing, I had to say to the guys, 'Look, he wants to go in this other direction and he's the producer so I can't really say, No, you've got to work with my band.' I said, 'How do you feel about it?' and they were really cool. They just said, 'Look whatever it takes to make a good record. We're coming out on tour. We'll be playing it but whatever it takes to make it, you go and make it,' so that's what we did and that I think was the big difference that Nigel brought to it, to how I might have done it with the band, I think, but it did make quite a bit of difference, you know, it's changed the feel of the album and did mean I was out of my safety zone a bit. It was like, 'Oh God, I've got to play drums. Oh God, I've got to do this. Got to think it all up,' instead of just, 'Well, you do that bit,' so it did make it, it was a lot more work for me but, I think he was right to do that.

GARY: Did you have any major differences or fallouts with Nigel Godrich?

PAUL: I think so. You know it's, that was the thing. I brought in some songs and Nigel would just sort of say, 'Well, I don't really like that.' And, you know, it was like, I thought, 'Well, you know, had it been in another situation I might have got away with that, thought, well, I'm going to do it, simple as that,' but with him it was like, 'Why don't you like it?' He said, 'Well, look, that seems a bit corny, you've done better than that.' And it was really quite cool, you know, and there was none of the sort of yes-man bit which is very easy in my position. People can sort of say, 'Well, you're the one who knows,' but to be working with a good producer, you know, they'll say as Nigel did, 'I'm not really keen on that song. Let's not do that one,' so he'd knock out those songs and then other things, he said, you know, 'I like the opening line,' and I said, 'O.K.' We nearly came to, you know, it got a bit fraught because I got a bit fed up with it. I said, 'Look, tell me what you don' t like. Don't just say you don't like it. Get very specific. Let's go down the lyrics.' He said, 'All right, well, I like that opening line. I said ' O.K., tick.' He said, 'But I don't like those next. That's boring.' I said, 'O.K., cross.' We did that, went all the way down, and I said, 'What kind of thing are you looking for?' He said, 'Well, it's boring. It's been said before.' 'O.K. Mmm.'

You know, we had a couple of moments. Probably the best moment/worst moment, was, I was sitting down to do a bass piece, stick bass on a track and I was feeling great, (Sings) and I was really, 'O.K. Let's go.' And just before I sat down, got the sound, got everything out, knew roughly what I was going to do on the part and then Nigel with the greatest timing ever says, 'You know that song we were doing the other day, I think it's crap.' I went, 'Oh, yeah. O.K. Fine, anyway. Let's just get on with the bass,' but of course I'm going, (Whistles) 'Plungerino, Well, O.K.' (Sings). 'What do you mean you don't like it?' 'I don't really like it. It's crap.' I said, 'Well, you know what, Nigel, that was not the greatest timing you could have waited till I'd done the thing,' and it was one of them. I just lost it. I mean, I didn't get angry, but I just lost all confidence. I just thought, 'Oh, the song was crap, was it? Great, you know.' He said, 'I didn't think you'd take it like that, didn't think it'd affect you.' I said, 'Well, think again, you know, because it did' and we had, that was our moment, like pivotal moment on the album and I said, 'O.K. Fair enough.'

Next day, 'Let's get that bass.' Came in, nailed it somewhat angrily and then when we started putting it back together and I said, 'Look, that was really bad timing and, you know, I'm used to George Martin, the ultimate diplomat, 'Paul, do you think, perhaps...?' I said, 'No, I don't think.' He said, ' Well, can we give it a try. And we possibly might...?' George is that. Fabulous.

So I think Nigel learned a lot of stuff. We both learned on the album and then we put the whole thing back together. Now we knew where we stood and it was like, 'O.K. if you don't like it just tell me but not just before I'm going to do a take. And let's be very specific. What don't you like?' And so we did that with all the stuff and there was one song that we totally re-made, it was a song that's called Riding to Vanity Fair. It's on the album and we went through it, he said, 'I don't like that, don't like the melody, don't like blah, blah, blah,' and so I just got in the studio and said, 'Right, O.K., how about this?' 'Wow, much better,' So I kind of re-wrote the whole thing and it wasn't going to make it to the album and it has now and a lot of people are kind of noticing that track, so what he did was definitely right but caused a couple of tense moments along the way, but it was good we did it. I'm much more pleased with the track than when I brought it in.

GARY: OK, now you've got on to specific tracks, let's run through the album one track a t a time. First up, "Fine Line". What's the inspiration behind this song?

PAUL: It was just the opening line, 'There's a fine line between recklessness and courage.' You know, you'll see some people just go, (sings) 'Waaah' and you' ll think, 'that's the way you do it and sometimes it is just foolish and just reckless but they think they're being courageous so that thought really was what started me off and I just kind of followed on from that idea that you've got to choose which of the two you're going to do, you know, be reckless or courageous so that was lyrically based on that. And then I just sat down at the piano and started that kind of chuggy thing, keeping it very simple and then the little hook, (sings) 'Fine line, it's a fine line' came so I brought it into the studio in Los Angeles and I was working it out and on that little bit there's a little riff that goes around the (sings) Fine line bit and when I was playing that I made a mistake and I went to a wrong bass note and Nigel goes, 'That's great. That's it.' I went, 'Actually it's a wrong note.' He said, 'No, no, check it out. Listen to it.' 'Ooh, I see what you mean.' It just didn't go where you expected it. It was supposed to be like an F# and it went to an F and so that became a really interesting little thing then. It was like, 'Ah, O.K. that's good. That's got a little signature originality to it so that and the words and the tune then we just put that all together.

GARY: Track 2 is "How Kind of You". Interesting choice of words....

PAUL: It's something I've done for a long time but recently I've started to notice more perhaps, like how some people talk, what phrases they use and I've got a couple of sort of older posh English friends who instead of saying, 'That's very nice of you,' or 'Thanks a lot,' where I come from - they might say, ' How kind of you,' and, you know, so I just started with that phrase and this whole idea, 'How kind of you to think of me when I was out of sorts,' instead of, 'Thanks very much for thinking of me when I wasn't feeling too good,' which is just an ordinary way of saying it. I just liked this slightly sort of elegant language; so I was just imagining it from the point of view of somebody like that, writing a thank you letter, 'How kind of you to think of me. It was very nice...' and so and so, and so and so. It wasn't particularly about anything, just playing with that language thing and then trying to put the tune a bit more rock and roll, pop, to set it against it, so it kind of wrote itself that one, coming off the phrase, 'How kind of you.'

GARY: Was "How Kind of You" fully ready when you started recording, or did it develop in the studio?

PAUL: It did develop in the studio. That was one that I brought in as a kind of, I can't remember what key it's in, (sings) 'How kind of you to think of me, when I was out of sorts,' but then what we did it was just like a drone and a sort of harmonium thing (sings) 'how kind of you to think of me.' Just put it in a kind of limbo land, like an Indian piece, (sings) 'When I was out of sorts,' so that changed its nature putting like a harmonium thing in there with it so it became like an Indian continent and then this pop song sitting on the top of it and then brought in some drums about half way and bass on a kind of Sixties kind of vibe, almost reminds me of The Doors or somebody this funny little, kind of two beat funny little thing on the drums, but, yeah, that changed quite a bit in the studio.

GARY: Jenny Wren is next: how did that song get written?

PAUL: With Jenny Wren it's one of those things. I love to play acoustic guitar so I 've done things like Blackbird, Mother Nature's Son, - Calico Skies more recently just because I love playing acoustic guitar. It's just a nice thing. Me and millions of other people love to do that. And I was in Los Angeles and I was in one of those moods. 'I want to go and play my guitar in the great outdoors' so I went into a spot in one of the canyons there, lovely nature spot, getting away from all the traffic and everything, and just found a little spot and just sat down and started playing guitar and I was, so when you get Blackbird it's a kind of two part thing, Blackbird, instead of just (plays) a strumming thing it's a little picking thing, (plays) so you've got the two notes so I was trying to do something similar so this was like (plays) so it's always got the two, it's got like a bass line and a little melody (plays) and when I got to there, that was cool because that sort of should have gone (plays) major, because it's all been in the major till there but (plays) I found that was really nice and the cool thing about it was as I did it there's another note comes out (plays) that little note just comes out by mistake (sings) so I just got a bit fascinated. 'O.K. right.' (Sings) 'Like most other girls, Jenny Wren could sing, but a broken heart took her song away...' So it's just that kind of genre that I love and I just had a lot of fun, wrote the basis of it there outdoors in the canyon, lovely day, went back home that night to where we were staying and sat around while dinner was getting made and just sat around with the girls and sang it and made it up.

GARY: And who actually is Jenny Wren?

PAUL: You know it was, it isn't anyone. It's like a lot of my things, it's just a made up thing,. But it's funny actually I was talking to someone yesterday, and I was talking about how much I love Dickens, and I read a lot of Dickens. She was talking about it for different reasons. And this person said 'Ah Jenny Wren, Our Mutual Friend' which is this character in the Dickens book Our Mutual Friend; and she is a really cool little girl who's sort of magical, who sees the good in things and I think subconsciously that reminded me that's where I got it from, I think, but to me it was just something to do with Blackbird, a wren: a wren is one of my favourite birds, little English bird, it's the smallest English bird and I always feel very privileged to see a wren because they're very shy and it's just 'Ah!' So a combination of all of that. It's a favourite bird for me, and then instead of making it a bird, again like Blackbird, only more definitely this time I made it a woman, you know, a girl. So it was good fun doing it.

GARY: The next track is called "At The Mercy".

PAUL: "At the Mercy" was one that I wrote on a day off in LA. Sometimes when you get into recording an album, you start to sort of get a feel of what you and the producer are going for and what kind of a new song might fit with what you've already recorded. So this one was just made up like on the Sunday when I was having the weekend off. We'd worked all week. So on the Sunday I just sort of thought 'Oh I'd like to take this in tomorrow' and have a new completely new thing that he hadn't heard that I hadn't heard. Just very, very fresh. So I was just sort of messing around on the piano and I just got a couple of chords that I liked, slightly darker chords than I might normally have. And this phrase just kept sort of coming. A lot of people do this, when they're writing, they just let anything happen, so that it can be "Scrambled Eggs, Baby over, Baby's legs, Oh no... Man of here, Man of Fire" and you just suddenly go ' Ooh Man of Fire that could be a direction you know' and with me it just came ' At the Mercy, At the Mercy ' At the Mercy of what? At the mercy of a busy road. At the mercy of a busy road and I didn't really attach any significance to it but one of the things that I like about my songs when I've written them is you can attach very specific significances to them. I was talking to Heather about that particular one and she said 'Whoa! For me at the mercy of a busy road.' Remember she lost her leg in an accident. You know that's very appropriate. So that's the kind of thing I was thinking of that how life can throw you a curve ball, suddenly you're going along and then suddenly 'Oh no!' and it' s a similar scene to Maxwell's Silver Hammer. Only that was like a comedy dark black comedy based on that idea: you never know what's round the corner kind of thing. So At The Mercy was that and I took it in to Nigel next day and said 'What do you think of this?' And he said 'Oh great, great.' It became his favourite, you know. So we just worked on it and that was it and I erm, It was basically that it was finding a couple of chords that were kind of dark enough to get this sort of message that life can throw you curve balls and what do we do about it? Oh well I don't know just keep on resolute, whatever you do.

GARY: What's the inspiration behind the next track, "Friends to Go"?

PAUL: Funny thing about some songs is when you're writing them you can think you' re someone else. (Picks up guitar). I mean when I was doing Long and Winding Road I thought I was Ray Charles. (Sings title). In actual fact my record of it, the Beatles record of it, is nothing like Ray Charles at all. But in my mind I was being him. I was playing Ray. And on Friends to Go I realised I was playing George Harrison. So to me it just started dot sound like a George Harrison song. So I was writing with that in the back of my mind, so it was kind of like (sings) 'I've been waiting on the other side for your friends to leave so I don 't have to hide' You know that whole sequence (plays) I can see George doing it (Sings) I've been waiting on the other side for your friends to go.' So that was it. You know I was just sat down to write and the feeling of George came over me and I just kept writing it thinking 'George could have written this' it was nice. It was like a sort of friendly song to write. And I just kept imagining I was just over by some sort of housing estate, where these people lived, in a sort of block of flats and I was like over the other side over here just watching them and waiting for them to go so I could go in. I don't know why, a psychiatrist could probably again have a whale of a time with that one.

GARY: Track number 6 is "English Tea," a song to make you smile...

PAUL: It's erm, the lyrics say 'Very twee, very me' and I think it is very me that stuff. The Beatles made a sort of Englishy sort of music, once they got past their American roots, American influences. You know a lot of our early stuff was 'Some other guy now' and you know pure soul R'n'B stuff that we loved (sings Twist and Shout) was directly taken from America. But then we started to sort of work in little things that were more us, and erm that kind of thing, that' s particularly me that kind of English Tea type of thing. Again it was this fascination with sort of how people speak, how some English people speak. But the idea started, I was on holiday, and if you want a cup of tea, you don't do what you do in England, say 'A cup of tea please', They always say 'What kind of tea?' You know like in England nobody would ever say 'What kind of tea?' Well they actually would these days, but in the old days it was never like ' What kind of tea?' It'd be like 'What do you mean? Cuppa tea.' So now they say 'What kind of tea?' and you have to say 'English Breakfast tea ' and then they go 'Oh OK' and you get it you know you get an ordinary cup of tea. So I just thought that's amazing that calling it English tea', but I thought it' s kind of original because we don't call it that . So I just started playing with that idea, of English tea.

And then as I say, there's one particular older English person I'm thinking of who instead of saying 'Do you want a cup of tea?' might say 'Would you care for a cup of tea?' It's just the way they say it, and I love that. 'Would you care?' and in this case 'Would you care to sit with me, for a cup of English tea?' And so I really went to town on that whole fruity way of talking, that whole fruity language that I like. It's I think it's very endearing, very English, and I even managed to work in the word 'peradventure' which I was very proud of. Cos that's like, cos I read Dickens quite a bit, it came to me from...I thought there is a word 'peradventure' and I think as I say I read it in Dickens (you get these old usages of words in there). And I thought 'I do hope I'm right cos I've put it in the song'. 'Do you know the game croquet ... Per adventure we might play' ... You know I thought 'Oh I hope this is right ' I looked it up in the dictionary, : ' peradventure - perhaps, maybe' 'Yes!' I thought 'Oh great I'm sure not many people work that into a song.' And then also, 'Do you know the game croquet, peradventure we might play, Very gay Hip hooray' you know in the old sense of the word 'gay' so it was nice, it was that croquet, very English, lawns, hollyhocks, roses, very Alice in Wonderland, that was also in the back of my mind, which influenced a lot of me and John' s writing. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, that's Alice to us you know (Sings) Picture yourself...' The whole idea of 'picture yourself' you know in a boat on a river very Alice very Lewis Carroll, it's just the way I like to write that, so a fruity little song.

GARY: "Too Much Rain" comes next. Where did this song come from?

PAUL: The actual inspiration for "Too Much Rain" is Charlie Chaplin's song "Smile". Which he wrote: not many people know he wrote it, you normally think of him as a comedian, but I was always amazed to hear he'd written that you know, beautiful song. Good old Charlie wrote it. I think it was for a film, you know Modern Times, or something was it? It's a great song and the idea of Smile (sings) Smile even though your heart is breaking Smile when your heart is breaking do do. That's a nick, a direct pinch from that so it's 'Laugh when your eyes are burning, Smile when you're doing this and Sigh when you're that'.. So it was really that it was hints for feeling horrible, you know when you're really down this song could get you up. You know remind you as the Smile song does to just sort of push through it, feel good cos it'll be alright. So that was that. And er I think also in some way I know I was thinking of my missus Heather who's had lots of rough times in her life, and the chorus just sort of says 'It's not right in one life, Too much rain'. So that was kind of inspiration and you know I'm never that specific I would never say that's exactly what its about and it then widens out and its for everyone who's had just too much in their lives to cope with. And that applies to an awful lot of people. But that was it, it was really just a sort of helpful song.

GARY: Next on the list, "Certain Softness".

PAUL: "Certain Softness" is just a straightforward love song, to me. I like things like Brazilian music, I like that sort of rhythmic, Latiny kind of thing. I think it's sexy, very romantic, and I was actually on a holiday, where I do a lot of writing because it's where I've got a lot of time. Here's me, I go on holiday to work! I don't think of it as work, it's more, I just enjoy just sitting around. And I was in Greece, actually, on a boat trip, and this sort of Latiny moment came upon me. I just found some nice chords and this idea of a certain softness in her eyes and a certain sadness haunts me. It's just sort of all the love songs that I've heard and the ones I love, cos I love a lot of old fashioned stuff, it's just so well crated. I have v lot of influences from before my time, before my dad's time even you know, people like Fred Astaire, people like that I listen to and love really. The craft behind it all. So sometimes all that just floods in and becomes a new song. If I'm lucky. And that was one of them and I like very much the way we recorded it, which was very simple. It was just me playing guitar, and we just decided to have a go at it. And this was in LA and the bongo player, Joey, was just sitting on the floor, and the guitar player was just sort of sitting there, and I had a guitar, so it was just 2 guitars and bongos, so it was very informal. But we just got a good little take on it, you know and so then we built it up from there, and its got a very intimate sound on the record. I like particularly the sound on that record.

GARY: How did track 9, "Vanity Fair," develop in the studio?

PAUL: "Vanity Fair" I originally had as quite an up tempo sort of thing. I had it as...(plays and sings) 'I bit my tongue.' It was like (plays and sings) ...all kind of staccato and very fast. I came in one evening when things were all kind of laid back a bit more like, and we said, O.K. let's just... (plays and sings) 'I bit my tongue.' I sort of swamped it right out ...(plays) Just took it right down which changed the mood completely. But this was particularly the one that Nigel didn't like... (sings) 'I bit my tongue...' It was all these little short phrases so he encouraged me to try and go somewhere else so I ended up keeping the first line which was what he liked. So it was, (sings) 'I bit my tongue. I never talked too much....' And got those run much more smooth, those next couple of lines and knocked out the 'Where did it get me? Where did it get me?' I just knocked that out. Kept the kind of meaning about you' re approaching someone for friendship and they just kind of don't want to know. They're just kind of rejecting you and it's not about any particular person, it's about anybody who's like that which I think we all meet in life, you know. You're in a great mood with somebody and, 'Well, I bit my tongue. I didn't talk too much,' and it's one of those songs where you get your own back on those people by writing a song about them and whoever it applies to -- people who are just generally a bit sort of you know a bit yuck and so that was it yeah, and we'd done the backing track but we didn't like the basic song. We liked the track. It was nice and dark and quite moody. Nigel had messed around with some sort of echoey things, got kind of quite spooky but yeah, we re-worked it here, right here in the studio and kept working at it 'till we liked all the words and all the tune and finally I said, 'O.K. Wait a minute. This is an O.K. song now'. Because it was getting blown off the album, it wasn't going to be on and by the time we'd finished working with it, it was like, 'O.K. we like this one now,' and it made its way back onto the album so it was worth all that work.

GARY: And next is "Follow Me".

PAUL: "Follow Me" was one of those songs that kind of almost wrote itself. You know, sometimes you're feeling great about your life, not always but you've been lucky. You're feeling great (plays) and, erm, I actually had done something where I had sung Let It Be and I was thinking, 'It's kind of nice having a song like that because it's kind of quasi religious but it's very uplifting, you know'. 'There will be an answer, let it be,' and stuff, you know. (Plays) It's in C, a very sort of open key. (Sings) 'When I find myself, in times of trouble,' so I was sort of messing around in that region and thinking of the same sort of thing, you know. What is it? It's just somebody very important in your life or is it spirits of goodness or whatever it is, something kind of great so it was just like, (sings) 'You lift up my spirits, you shine on my song, whenever I'm empty, you make me feel whole, I can rely on you to guide me through any situation, hold up the sign that reads, Follow Me.' Come on, boys, everybody in. It was one of those that just kind of wrote itself once you got there. It was like you do this, you're great, you just give me direction, it just inspired.

GARY: How did "Promise to you Girl" develop?

PAUL: It started as a piano thing. You know, I just wanted to ... It's a little two part piano thing. The right hand is doing the melody a bit and then the bass has got a definite part instead of just vamping away so it was just like a little mathematical problem trying to work out how I could do this and I just started singing it, (sings) 'Gave my promise to you, girl. I don't wanna take it back.' And then it kind of went like a Motown thing, for me, started to go like a, I could hear tambourines and Chooka, chooka, chooka, chooka, I could hear the Motown guys, the Funk Brothers putting a backing track to that. 'You and me, side by side, we know how to save the world.' Actually, originally, it wasn't, that was slightly less positive. I can't remember what it was, but it wasn't, 'we know how to save the world.' Anyway, so it just developed, went through that little Motowny thing. (Sings) 'That is why I gave my promise to you girl,' second verse, diddly, diddly der. Then I had this other little bit that is on the front of it, (sings) 'Looking through the backyard of my life, Time to sweep the fallen leaves away, Gave my promise to you girl.' And that ends it as well. It's really two little songs put together and then when we came to do it in the studio it was multi-layered because it was just me so I think I started off with the piano and then put a bass on it, put a bit of drums on it and then Nigel started encouraging me to play some guitar licks and things so that was quite complicated, all a lot of little bits, but I think it sounds like a band in the end, you know.

GARY: Track 12 is "This Never Happened Before". Tell us about this track.

PAUL: "Never Happened Before" is a straight love song and, you know, I'm a lover not a fighter as they say. I think that's such an important thing in the world and it gets spoken of, sung about a lot but I, certainly you know Silly Love Songs, what's wrong with the message of that? I love that, I love to do that so this one was really exactly that. It just kind of wrote itself a bit, you know, it just (sings) 'I'm very sure it's never happened to me before.' The chords, it's always a big help if you get a nice little chord sequence and the opening chords to the verse of that go a nice place so they settle you down with your melody and you feel like you're going somewhere, so that was what was happening and wrote it and recorded it, one of our very first things we did with Nigel at Rak, that was one of the things to see if we could sort of get it on and I thought, 'This is good. We're going to go somewhere with this'. That and Follow Me were really the first two that Nigel and I did together and nice little story about it was, I was in America and I was actually getting a massage and I happened to play it and the girl who was doing the massage said, 'Oh, I love that song, it's magnificent,' and she happened to tell me she was getting married so very quietly I just sort of sent her, a few weeks later, she told me when she was getting married and you know where it would be so I got her number off her, sent her a little letter saying, ' Look, if you love it that much, why don't you play this at your wedding?' so I said, 'but this is highly bootleggable,' I said, 'so just play it and send it me back. You can't keep it, but,' I said, 'I'll send you the proper record when we're done with it,' and it was great, really lovely. They did do that. They got married to it and it was like their first dance. Highly romantic stuff this and, but it was very nice because she just wrote me a letter, thanks and all that and told me about the wedding and all that, about her husband but she just put this one little line, she said, 'You know we had a great time. We laughed. We cried,' and I thought that sums up that song for me.

GARY: The last track is "Anyway".

PAUL: (Sings) 'Anyway, anyway,' yeah, it started off as the (sings) 'If you need me,' the little verse thing, (sings) 'won't you call me?' which is just about, 'If you love me will you call me?' And then, you know, it was going quite straightforward and for some reason I was getting this feeling, again, why do you get these feelings? I don't know, but I was getting this feeling as if it was the deep south of America, like Charlestown, Savannah, something about the chords, I think. There was just something reminding me, almost sort of Randy Newman kind of thing, I thought I was doing. As always it turns out nothing like him but at the time I think I'm doing this thing, so that was going on. Then I got these other chords that sort of happen half way through the verse which were Oooh, really sort of started to inspire me then. (Sings) 'Only love is strong enough to take it on the chin,' and that started to move it into a slightly other area which then led up to this, (sings) 'Anyway, anyway, you can make that call.' So then it was written and took it, recorded it in Los Angeles and then got our string arranger out there, we use two string people, one 's David Campbell, happens to be Beck's dad, or Beck happens to be his son, and then we use a guy, Joby Talbot, over here who's very good too, he's our English guy, and took it to David and we did a little string arrangement on it and so that kind of sewed it all up, you know, and it was sort of a ballad Anyway.

So, "Anyway" wasn't actually the very last track. There's a hidden 3 part instrumental that ends the album... We'd done a lot of the album. We were almost finished and we just thought, you know, 'How about opening the album with just something for nothing, not like a song? Let's just open it with like a little jam thing, a noise, just something to get your attention, then we'll go into the first song,' so we said, ' O.K. great,' and I always like that where you sort of throw away the rule book and you go, 'O.K. let's just do something completely different'. It's not a song, it's not a thing, you just go and play a bit and Nigel said, 'Why don 't you just have a couple of ideas, songs, and we'll make them. They don't need to be long. We'll just see which one works,' so he said, 'Just go and do two things. While you're doing one, do two,' so I thought, 'O.K. I'll do three just to show him,' so I came out here. The piano was set up here and just sort of started doing the first little vibe, second little vibe and I said, 'O.K. I've got a couple of ideas here,' so he said, 'That'll do,' so we recorded the piano bit first. (Sings) just really nothing, just in your face, sticking your tongue out and erm, we were joking. It was like as if the grown-ups had gone away, you know, they'd left us the studios, so 'O.K. come on, then,' and I just got on the drumkit, just thrashed that out and we recorded in the space of like about ten minutes, well, maybe an hour, but we just did all three of them and in the end instead of choosing one of them for the beginning we stuck three of them all together and put them at the end.

GARY: What's the story behind the title of the album?

PAUL: You know, you're always looking for a title when you've finished an album. The Beatles album Abbey Road was going to be called Everest and suddenly it didn't seem like a very good idea and we all came up with Abbey Road and hey, once you've got it, you sort of feel good so I was looking around and once we'd finished the album and "Promise ToYou Girl "says, (sings) 'Looking through the backyard of my life,' so I thought, 'Backyard'. That might be kind of good for an album, just Backyard. Rang Nigel up and said, 'What do you think about that, Backyard?' and he said, 'It's O.K., just not very intriguing. It's kind of catchy and all, it's just not very intriguing. Why? What's it mean? You know.' So, 'O.K.' So I rang him back the next day and I'd had a thought of maybe then calling it, 'Looking in the Lyrics'.

In Fine Line it says there 's a long way between chaos and creation so I thought, 'O.K. maybe chaos and creation could be a good title but it sounded a little too monumental, Chaos and Creation, the Book of Ecclesiastes, you know, it was a little bit too sort of posh, so then I thought, 'In the Backyard' and that kind of stuck so, and that's from "Promise To You Girl" so I just stuck those two little quotes together and that kind of put the tongue in cheek and stopped it being too sort of pretentious and then we were talking about it and he text'd me back and said, 'You know, great, it fits because that's sort of what this album's been about, chaos, creation and it's also home-made, it's a bit in your backyard, you know,' so he said, 'Yeah, that'll do it then.' He just text'd, 'Yes, I love it, yes it fits, yes.' And all that so that was it.

GARY: In conclusion, Paul, what have you got from the making of this record?

PAUL: You know, from making this record I've got a record I like and that's what I set out to do. I wanted to be able to have a record that I wanted to play and then if other people liked it that was a bonus, so, yeah, I've got a record that I like.

GARY: And what, do you think, will the listener get from it?

PAUL: I never really think about what I want people to get from a record because that's very difficult. You start to want them to give you things they're not going to give you. So a long time ago I just learned, make it something that I like and then people put their own interpretations on it and that's fine by me. As long as I like it that's the main thing, and I like this one.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: A very limited number of Paul McCartney VIP Travel spaces have become available in select cities. These spaces are available for a very limited time and are available on a first-come-first-reserved basis. VIP Travelers will enjoy quality accommodations in an exciting host city, and will experience Paul McCartney live within the first five rows!

PHILADELPHIA: Enjoy two nights with Sir Paul in the City of Brotherly Love, SEP 22 & 23.

NEW YORK CITY: Spend a weekend in NYC and catch Paul McCartney perform live @ Madison Square Garden, SEP 30 & OCT 01.

TORONTO: Head up north to Toronto and catch the McCartney show on OCT 10.

SAN FRANCISCO: Head out west to the City By The Bay and party with Paul McCartney during his concert @ HP Pavilion, San Jose, on NOV 07.

LOS ANGELES: Head to Southern California for the final two McCartney concerts of the year, NOV 29 & 30.

Visit the Paul McCartney Travel Center to book your reservation today!

August 17, 2005 -- From Paul McCartney.com

Next week we will be adding two FULL length tracks from Paul's new album to the Chaos and Creation Members Pin Board.

The tracks 'Jenny Wren' and 'Promise To You Girl' are the first of 4 full length tracks to be made available prior to the album release on PM.com.

Look out for video and EPK footage very soon!

---

August 17, 2005 -- PETA

Naked Tommy Lee Declares, 'Ink, Not Mink,' in New Ad for PETA

Tommy Lee has a new album and a new show on NBC, but the bad boy of rock isn't too busy to speak up for a good cause: animal rights. "Be comfortable in your own skin and let the animals keep theirs," says Lee in a new PETA ad, which features him wearing nothing but his trademark tattoos alongside the slogan, "Ink, Not Mink." The ad-shot by Mary McCartney Donald, daughter of Sir Paul McCartney and longtime PETA supporter-will be unveiled at New York's trendy new nightclub Home, which will mark the occasion by announcing a door policy banning fur coats.

See the video of Mary McCartney Donald with Tommy Lee. Click here.

Record producer Sir George Martin has revealed how he saved the day for Sir Paul McCartney at Live 8 by using Sibelius.

Sir Paul McCartney was preparing to perform the song when with only hours to go, he realized that there were no French Horn parts, as the song had never been performed live by any of The Beatles.

He called Sir George Martin, who had written the parts in the first place. Sir Martin had his laptop with Sibelius loaded with him and, realizing the parts' whereabouts was "a mystery in the sea of time", he immediately set about re-writing them completely from memory in Sibelius.

The Sibelius file was then emailed across the Atlantic and the Live 8 concert began in spectacular style with Sir Paul accompanied by four French Horn players in full Sergeant Pepper costume.

August 15, 2005 -- Billboard

PRESS RELEASE

PAUL McCARTNEY Profiled in the Billboard Star Series

­ Special Report Hits Newsstands on August 27th ­

Billboard, the world's most trusted source of music, video and digital entertainment news, charts, reviews and analysis, profiles Paul McCartney, one of the most influential artists in pop history, with an in-depth Billboard Stars special feature in the September 3rd issue of the magazine, on newsstands August 27th. The tribute will also be posted on www.billboard.com and will be available to fans at www.orderbillboard.com/paul.

The Billboard Stars special feature on Paul McCartney provides an intimate look at the artist and the story behind the recording of his new album. The report precedes the September 13th release of McCartney's 20th solo album, "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard," and the launch of his US Tour, which opens September 16th in Miami.

The Billboard Stars series celebrates the achievements of artists, executives and companies that have reached significant milestones. As such, the feature on Paul McCartney will include:

* An exclusive Q&A interview with McCartney on the surprising decisions that shaped "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard"--his most vital album in many years.

* Insider reports on the marketing of the album in the U.S. and around the world.

* Backstage news on how two top concert promoters set aside their rivalry to present McCartney's upcoming tour.

* An exclusive ranking of Paul McCartney's albums and singles as they have appeared on the Billboard charts throughout his career with the Beatles, Wings and as a solo artist.

* Tributes from artists including Keith Richards, Brian Wilson and Pete Townshend, citing their favorite songs from McCartney's long career.

"For me, this new album represents his best collection of material in a long time," says Andrew Slater, chairman of Capitol Records. "All of his records have elements of his immense talent as a singer, a writer, and a player, but on this one, it really all comes together."

Fans can purchase the Paul McCartney special feature online at www.orderbillboard.com/paul or order by phone (800)-562-2706 (in the U.S.), (818)-487-4582 (International).

Neighbors of Paul's farm are bemused that he has decided on this time of year to spend a while in Scotland given his strong feelings about the areas other inhabitants - midges!

Paul has not been to his High Park Farm for two years and last time he stayed he complained that the pesky creatures drove him mad.

He said then " Everything's great at the farm except the midges. You must go indoors around five o'clock or they bite you to death."

Says one local " I hope he's covered himself and his family with insect repellent. The place is alive with midges at the moment."

If the Beatles had played in Moscow, that would really have been something, but their music was banned there during the Cold War. But the next best thing is Paul McCartney making a long-awaited pilgrimage to Moscow and blowing away 100,000 people (including current Russian president Vladimir Putin and former leader Mikhail Gorbachev) when he sings the Beatles' ''Back in the U.S.S.R." As the singer says in ''Paul McCartney in Red Square," the crowd ''just went electric."

McCartney performed in Moscow two years ago, and this concert documentary just came out this summer, but it is so good that it should leap to the forefront of most rock collections. McCartney sings with gut-wrenching passion, but he is also humbled by the memories of Russians who loved the Beatles back when they were outlawed and who credit them with bringing a taste of freedom to a country mired in communism. He is startled when Russian defense minister Sergei Ivanov tells him that he heard the Beatles' ''Love Me Do" when he was only 10 years old in 1963. During those years, a Beatles album cost a Russian citizen the average of a half-month of wages on the black market.

Various Russian artists and social historians share their thoughts in this goose bump-inducing DVD, which finds McCartney visiting orphans in St. Petersburg (they serenade him with ''Yesterday" and he jokes, ''Excellent song -- who wrote it?") and giving a master class to young students. The emotion culminates in the brilliant Red Square show, as an ecstatic, all-ages crowd sings along gratefully. He may now be Sir Paul, but he was a man of the people in Moscow.

Extras: Concert in St. Petersburg with songs not on the Moscow footage, including ''Jet," ''Get Back," and ''Penny Lane." (A&E Home Video, $24.95; Click banner to order.)

Sir Paul McCartney has received an apology from a British newspaper which falsely claimed his wife had suffered a miscarriage.

The former Beatle and Heather Mills McCartney were described as grief-stricken and struggling to cope with the loss of an unborn baby in an article published in The People on June 26.

The publication has agreed to donate a substantial amount of money to a charity of the McCartneys' choice and to pay their legal costs.

The Beatles were signed to a "slave contract" according to former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney, who is still furious at the way the supergroup were treated in the early sixties.

The Yesterday hitmaker believes he and bandmate John Lennon were exploited and robbed by an unscrupulous lawyer when they were naive young men.

He says, "John and I were taken for a ride. No doubt about it. "We were in a little mews in Liverpool one morning, and there was this lawyer, who we later found out was sort of ours. He didn't look like ours, and he certainly didn't do a deal like he was ours! And he just said, 'Oh just sign there', and we said, 'Is it all right?' And he said, 'Yeah.'

"Bang! We'd signed the whole thing away one morning before getting on a train, and we just didn't understand what it was.

"So in other words, yeah, we were signed to a slave contract."

The full circle of friends

You've got to be animal-friendly to get the seal of approval from animal rights supporter Stella McCartney.

The British designer won't use fur or leather in her creations. So it makes sense that her Hollywood store was the site of a summer tea party, with such stars as Pamela Anderson, Amy Smart (Starsky & Hutch), Emily Deschanel (Boogeyman) and Emmy Rossum (The Phantom of the Opera) turning out to support the Humane Society of the United States and raise awareness of baby seals being hunted in Canada.

The night's hot gift, given to celebs to thank them for their support?

The Alex & Ani expandable wire bangle, a 14-karat gold filled bracelet adorned with a mother-of-pearl seashell, signifying protection and luck. The piece retails for $250, and all proceeds go to the Humane Society. McCartney, naturally, already has one.

It's available at www.alexandani.com.

McCARTNEY CAN'T GET OVER LOST BEATLES

Sir Paul McCartney is still grieving for the loss of fellow Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison, as he sees imagery of the Fab Four wherever he goes.

The British rocker's bereavement will always be close to the surface, as he will never be allowed to forget the untimely deaths of his songwriting partner Lennon, who was shot in 1980, and Harrison, who passed away after a battle with cancer in 2001.

He says, "We can't last forever and one of us has got to go first, and another one's got to go second. Now it's very sad, just me and Ringo left.

"It particularly hits me when I'm asked to sign a picture, and it's always the four of us.

"Suddenly there's a little jolt, 'cos I just see two of the guys there: John and George. Oh. F**k. It's just sad. Like any bereavement."

The Beatles used to motivate themselves by imagining what they could buy with the profits their music made them, according to Sir Paul McCartney.

When the legendary band first found fame in the 1960s they were overwhelmed by their newfound wealth and joked about the worth of each song to keep their creative juices flowing.

But despite their irreverent approach, McCartney insists they never sold out and poured their heart and soul into every single note.

He says, "The joke used to be, 'OK let's write a swimming pool!' It was great motivation. 'OK, what have you got?' (sings) 'Eight days a week...' 'Go on, that's a swimming pool!' Haha, great fun. But you've to be able to take it lightly.

"Then in the next three hours, HELP! appears from nowhere, you'd suddenly get the idea this'll be a hit. You became aware you were making money. Making good money.

"But obviously these were just jokes we made to keep ourselves sane and comfortable. We actually were writing what we considered to be art. That was the bottom line."

Around 15 per cent of Australians are left-handed and in earlier times it was considered bad luck, evil and in many languages the left hand is called the sinister hand.

But every left-hander must take encouragment in the fact that among their kind are Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo, Paul McCartney, Nicole Kidman, tennis players Mark Woodforde and John McEnroe and cricketers Mark Taylor and Allan Border.

The former BEATLE is famed for his business brain and insists if his record isn't commercially successful, he will have failed because it means people don't want to listen to his music.

And he hates the way money-making music is frowned up, because to him it serves as a symbol of achievement.

He says, "I don't know anyone who makes records who doesn't want them to sell. Sell has become a bit of a dirty word. OK - forget the money, you want people to have them. Or else you wouldn't do music, you'd just be a busker.

"But you make records because you want people in Edinburgh, Cleveland, Melbourne to have it. You want to communicate to them how you're feeling.

"But yeah, I think there was a commercial consideration. I wanted it to do well. I always do."

SIR PAUL McCARTNEY has slammed rumours he will take advantage of MICHAEL JACKSON's financial troubles to make a low offer for THE BEATLES song rights - because he will get them anyway.

Reports of Jackson's dwindling financial prospects prompted speculation McCartney would buy back rights to his classic songs like YESTERDAY, but the rocker revealed a legality means the songs will soon be his anyway.

And the superstar stresses his one time feud with Jackson is over because he is too happy to be angry with the fallen pop king.

He says, "I don't think so. I've had people talk to me who are more concerned for me than I am about it. But the interesting thing is, there are actually things in the whole deal that actually revert to me anyway.

"There are years approaching, there are date approaching, that we never thought would approach, where things revert to me. So really, it's a waiting game rather than a big proactive buying game.

"Which suits my personality: just hang on, be patient, it's cool. Don't get your knickers in a twist."

HEATHER MILLS McCARTNEY is so inspired by her husband SIR PAUL McCARTNEY's devotion to vegetarianism and animal rights, she's gone one step further by becoming Vegetarians International Voice For Animals' (VIVA) new patron.

The former model is so concerned about the animal kingdom, she plans to forgo all dairy products as well as meat in her quest to improve the planet.

She explains, "It's only since I met Paul that I really got to understand how vegetarianism not only benefits your health but also makes a huge difference to the planet and to feeding the world.

"I could never go back to eating meat or fish and I'm moving towards being vegan. When I crack an egg now, I think, 'Could that have been a baby?'"

McCartney's late wife LINDA was once VIVA's celebrated patron.

North East-born model Heather Mills McCartney is the new patron of a vegetarian campaign group.

She has followed in the footsteps of husband Paul by giving her name to pressure group Viva!

Heather, originally from Washington, became a vegetarian herself as part of the cure for an infection caused when she lost a leg in an accident.

She said: "In one week my infection cleared up and then my wound started to heal. It"s only since I met Paul that I really got to understand how vegetarianism not only benefits your health massively but also makes a huge difference to the planet."

Paul McCartney has been associated with Viva! for years and first wife Linda helped set up National Vegetarian Week in 1991.

MORE

Get your free copy of It's Time to Go Veggie magazine (VIVA-UK)

Watch Paul's "Go Veggie" Video for VIVA CLICK HERE (You'll need Real Player)

Bright, up-beat and very readable, "It's Time to Go Veggie" includes delicious recipes, a mass of information on how to go veggie, slimming the veggie way, an irreverent quiz for those who think they know their nutritional onions, a powerful section on children's health designed to help worried parents (and advice for adults as well) and celebrity interviews with some of Britain's favourite household names, including Martin Shaw, Joanna Lumley, Jenny Seagrove and Chrissie Hynde.

Plus an exclusive, feature-length interview with veggie dad, Paul McCartney. Click here to receive your free copy.

Following his predecessor John Paul II's proclamation that animals have souls, Benedict has slammed the practice of factory farming - and McCartney, who was raised a Catholic, is excited by the validation from such an influential source.

In an interview to celebrate People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals' (PETA) 25th anniversary, he says, "God bless him! I think it would be fantastic if someone in his position who's able to reach so many people took a strong stance on that, because one of PETA's strongest points, and one of mine, is compassion.

"That certainly is a basic tenet of the Catholic religion. I think it would be terrific if he took a strong stance and urged people to come out against that kind of thing." (read PETA interview)

John Lennon always wished musicians would cover his songs as much as Paul McCartney's, Yoko Ono has revealed.

The Beatle's widow said Lennon would have loved the new musical, "Lennon," which focuses on his solo material.

"John would love that people sing these songs," she said. "He was always saying, 'People cover Paul (McCartney) songs. Why don't they cover more of me?'"

Sir Paul McCartney and his late Beatles bandmate John Lennon once spontaneously cried together over their grief at the death of their mothers.

McCartney always felt an affinity with Lennon due to their "unspoken bond" from losing their mums during their adolescence, culminating in a highly emotional night in 1964 while touring America.

The incident went on to inspire the lyrics in "Here Today": 'What about the night we cried?/Because there wasn't any reason left to keep it inside'.

McCartney, 63, says, "The Beatles were under a lot of pressure, touring all the time, and we didn't have any release.

"The night we were flying to Jacksonville, Florida (9 September 1964), but to avoid a hurricane we had to put down in Key West, which at that times was the end of nowhere, like in the Humphrey Bogart movie (Key Largo).

"We stayed up all night drinking, all of us together, chatting about everything, and there came a moment where we, um, cried. Which we'd never done.

"I'm not sure, but the likely explanation is that John and I had both lost our mothers - mine died of breast cancer, John's in a road accident - and it had always been a sort of unspoken bond between us.

"Knowing we had both been through that grief and horror. That night we finally got round to talking about it."

As Paul McCartney preps for his latest solo album, "Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard," first single "Fine Line" implies he might have a pleasant surprise in store. Nigel Godrich's Rubenesque sonic touches are well-suited for this slice of piano-fueled classic rock: Chords reverberate, cellos glow, and crisp violins are deployed for a jolt of energy. There are a couple of fortune cookie-worthy lyrical turns, but there is also definite vitality here, and the last minute strikes a satisfying tension between minor chord changes and McCartney's falsetto. "Fine Line" is above par for McCartney's solo work, and will be fine entertainment for nostalgic baby boomers.

Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney always took songwriting lightly until he realized his lyrics had an emotional impact on his listeners.

The Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band rocker, who headlined London's Live 8 concert last month, believed his lyrics were throwaway until a friend's mother told him how much his words moved her.

He says, "The first time I realized people take their own meanings from what I write was in 1963 when I went back to Liverpool. I was 'round at RORY STORM's (frontman of Rory Storm and the Hurricands) mum Vi's house.

"I played 'From Me To You' to her... She said, "I didn't know you could think like that.' I was like, 'It's just a song.'

"But it hit an emotional nerve, I don't know what, she didn't say, but it made me realize something about the power of songs."

THUMBS UP FROM MACCA FOR SONGLINK AWARDS AT LIPA

SongLink International editor/publisher David Stark presented awards to songwriting graduates of LIPA (the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts) along with Sir Paul McCartney, the academy's Lead Patron. The annual Graduation Day ceremony on Friday July 29th also saw LIPA Companionships presented to Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees, writer/producer Guy Chambers, and Tim Wheeler of Ash.

This was the second year that the 'SongLink Prizes' have been awarded, to Bachelor of Arts (Music) graduates Thomas Kongshavn (from Norway) and Alex Reid (UK), whose work was selected from over 30 final year students. David Stark commented, "It's incredibly hard to pick out just two individuals from a talent collective which is producing such a high standard of work, but Thomas and Alex's songs shone out. Hopefully these awards will help give them a leg-up to success in the biz."

Sir Paul McCartney added, "I always take a particular interest in the songwriting activities at LIPA, and try to take regular one-to-one sessions with the final-year students, offering bits of advice about their songs and ideas. Whether they bother to take my points on board is up to them of course, but the main thing is that we end up with an incredibly creative and dedicated bunch of kids graduating each year, who all have the potential to make it in whatever branch of the performing arts they have chosen."

LIPA was established in 1996, and offers diploma, degree and postgraduate courses in the whole spectrum of arts and entertainment, including music, theatre, dance, sound technology and related business studies. Led by Founding Principal and CEO Mark Featherstone-Witty, it took about £20m and five years' effort to create LIPA from the ground up. The result is a range of unique courses and a cultural centre with world class facilities, with over 1,000 people per year learning there, ranging from full-time students, to part-timers, to children aged from 4 years up who come in at weekends.

SongLink International was launched by David Stark in 1993, and over the past twelve years has provided exclusive information (leads) to songwriters and music publishers around the world, resulting in songs being recorded by such names as Christina Aguilera, Cliff Richard, Mis-Teeq, Tom Jones and many other artists who depend on finding hit material from outside writers. David also publishes Cuesheet, which is a similar service for Film & TV music writers and composers, and has himself been honoured with a Gold Badge Award from the British Academy of Composers & Songwriters.

Award recipients and celebrities appearing at the gala will include Casey Affleck, Gillian Anderson, Pamela Anderson, Rosanna Arquette, Bea Arthur, Alec Baldwin, Hilly Beavan and Anthony Lawrence, Marc Bouwer, Atom Cianfarani and Genevieve Gaelyn, James Cromwell, Jeanne Daniels, Andy Dick, Lauren Shuler Donner and Richard Donner, John Feldmann, Heather Mills McCartney, Moby, Morrissey, Kathy Najimy, Martina Navratilova, Sharon Osbourne, P!nk, Dennis Rodman, The Rev. Al Sharpton, Martin Sheen, and Persia White. This list is growing every day.

The awards ceremony and show will be followed by an exciting "after-party" with live music, dancing, and more celebrity entertainment under the stars on the spectacular "New York Street" movie and TV set, the backdrop for Breakfast at Tiffany's, Forrest Gump, Friends, and Seinfeld.

Tickets start at $500 each. To order tickets Click Here.

Recently, PETA Vice President Dan Mathews sat down with his longtime friend Paul McCartney to reflect on their two decades of work in behalf of animals.

Dan: What would you say about how things have changed since PETA's been on the scene?

Paul: Twenty years ago when you talked about animal rights, people didn't know what you were talking about. But with the help of PETA, people have been exposed to knowledge over the years and have learned what it's about-just how cruel we as a species are to our fellow inhabitants of the Earth. When I first heard of PETA, the idea that it would be called People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals appealed to me because it was elegant and gentle about the idea that we simply just need to treat them ethically. I think the idea has grown from that platform, and now it's a huge voice for animal awareness.

D: When we first started, we were able to take our undercover video to 60 Minutes or 20/20, and they would fight over it and do these thought-provoking exposés. Now that society has become less interested in these programs and more interested in sensationalism and the tabloids, we have to reinvent ourselves to keep our issues on the front burner; we have had to do a lot of theatrical things. It's a statement on our times, but how does that make you feel?

P: I agree with you. I think that's one of the huge dangers of any movement-that it can suddenly seem passé when people think, "We've done that; we've dealt with that issue." Cruelty issues have unfortunately become one of those things where people say, "Vegetarianism was all right, but that was then-Atkins is now." Now, of course, Atkins has run its course, and it's been proved to be wrong, which we could have told them all along. We just have to hold our nerve. I think it is essential to play in the arena you're in. I think that's something PETA is very cool with. You will do the stunts, you will do what people might think are silly things, but in order to get the point across, I think you have to.

D: Much of what we do is geared to kids, who have a great sense of justice. This is the first generation where kids have grown up with this issue. Twenty-five years ago, parents were petrified when their kids went vegetarian-some still are. You have raised some fantastic vegetarian kids; what would you say to anyone who is worried about their kids going vegetarian or vegan?

P: I think you just have to read up on it if you're worried, because the facts are there. Unlike 25 years ago, there is a lot of medical opinion that supports it. I would say quite conclusively that the facts are in favor of vegetarianism. We always say, for cruelty to animals, vegetarianism is the great thing to get rid of that. For the planet, to prevent depleting the water and the land and everything, it's a great idea. And I think it's a great thing for your health, and doctors nowadays agree with that. There are plenty of great books and organizations, so no matter where you are, there is someone to help you. That's your first step, and I think your second step is just look in the supermarket for good vegetarian food, and I think it's so much more readily available now. I think that's what puts a lot of people off, thinking they have to change their whole habits, whereas we don't-we just substitute. So there's this huge range of great products for Christmas dinner or Sunday roast, then there's your roast potatoes and all the great stuff that comes with it. It's very easy to do. Anyone that's worried about it should get the facts, look into it, and go do it.

D: I don't know what people think is going to happen when their kids stop eating meat. You have wonderful kids who don't seem to have missed a thing. In fact, I think they've gained from it.

P: I personally think so. My mother, who was a nurse, would be very worried about protein. Growing up, I thought that's what gives you protein-meat-and I think a lot of people think that. I have a lot in common with Joe Public because that's who I was 'til I got in The Beatles, so I can often understand people's concerns, and protein would be my mother's. But I know it's actually a huge fallacy. You can get your protein from a million other non-animal places, and it's much better for you. Heather and I are raising a baby, and obviously we aren't going to give her bad food; we just make sure she gets the best food, and it is vegetarian. And we know what's what because we look into it instead of just accepting McDonald's and what it throws on your plate. I think the thing is just to ask about it. You look at a film like Super Size Me, and those things come in very strongly on our side.

D: There is some exciting news: The last Pope was the first to say that animals have souls, and now Pope Benedict has come out against factory farming, saying it makes a mockery of God's creatures. As someone who was raised a Catholic, do you have a message for him?

P: God bless him! I think it would be fantastic if someone in his position who's able to reach so many people took a strong stance on that, because one of PETA's strongest points, and one of mine, is compassion. That certainly is a basic tenet of the Catholic religion. I think it would be terrific if he took a strong stance and urged people to come out against that kind of thing.

D: You announced a campaign against KFC a few years ago with us. After hours-long meetings with them, some of KFC's top players agreed to make recommendations for the basic care of chickens to their suppliers, but none of them would be enforced, so it was just a bunch of hot air. Do you have any words for KFC?

P: Get with it. This is a modern age; you can be ... well, actually my message to them would be, "Get lost."

D: The fur trade has fought to bring fur back, especially with the cheap imports from China. There are a few celebrities, such as J. Lo and P. Diddy, who still wear fur and say, "We want to be educated," but we've sent them videos and information over the years, and they still wear fur. What would you say to them?

P: That's the great thing about PETA-you are relentless. I think it's very sad. Look at early pictures of me in Help, and I've got this black fur coat on that Linda liked because it was such a cool coat, or so it seemed at the time. And I remember asking the salesperson, "What is this?" and he said, "It's nutria." I had no idea what he meant. The point I'm making is that I understand all too well the attraction of, when you first earn money, you want to show off. You want the most ridiculous furs, you want chinchilla dripping off you, you want jewelry. The trouble is, the difference between fur and jewelry is fur hurts someone. What PETA and I want to say to them is, "Look at these videos, because you are going to see anal electrocution, you're going to see animals with their throats slit, and you are taking a beautiful animal's coat." I met someone recently who was wearing a polar bear coat, and I said, "Oh, man, why are you doing that?" And he actually listened to me. He was shocked. He was interested. I think hearing it from me, he took a little notice, and I said, "You know, polar bears had to be killed for that. Animals have to be killed and their lives are taken often in the most disgusting ways for you to have your coat, and that's the reason you shouldn't do it." So that's what I would say to P. Diddy. J. Lo-you look good enough anyway, baby!

D: Animal rights people often feel as if we're up against overwhelming odds and that there's so much to address, you know?

P: Remember all the things in the past that seemed insurmountable. Remember Gandhi in India. It seemed like he could never do it-one man in a loin cloth taking on the might of the British Empire-impossible. But he did it. He won. The abolition of slavery, that looked like it would never happen. Civil rights looked like it would never arrive, but it did. South Africa's apartheid looked like it would never end. Mandela being head of a nation like South Africa, which was so white and prejudiced-it would have been unbelievable when I went to school. All of us get a little worn down by it, but the truth is, we are winning. We will win in the same way that people now do have civil rights. We are learning to understand these issues.

The star's former spouse Jo Jo Laine claims he has neglected his daughter Heidi Jo, 30, and son Laine, 31, since 1995 and has never met his grandchildren.

She fumes, "We have a mutual friend who's kept Denny up to date, including the fact Heidi Jo has a four-year-old daughter Jaylie Jo and baby son, Jessie JAY, yet Denny's never picked up the phone to say hello."

Heidi Jo adds, "He doesn't keep in contact. I haven't seen him for about ten years. He's never been much of a father."

The former Beatle wed model Mills in 2002 and has been amazed by the poor treatment she has received in some publications.

And although McCartney experienced similar emotions when he married his first wife Linda in 1969, he decided to take action this time.

He says, "Linda got terrible flak when we got married. It's happened with Heather all over again.

"I tried to let it go over my head, but these columnists got too vindictive. I could see it was hurting Heather. I got a few cuttings together. I couldn't believe it.

"There was one where this woman was saying, 'What is she doing opening a cosmetics company?' And then it went, 'She's not even pretty.'

"I thought, 'Excuse me, I'm ringing her up.' I was like, 'How dare you write all this c**p? I'm her husband. I've seen the picture at the top of your column and you're really not pretty. And then you've got it wrong about the cosmetics company. She's actually doing a cosmetics cover for an artificial leg. She's helping people. Do your b**ody research!'"

The 63-year-old expects his eagerly-awaited album "Chaos And Creation In The Back Yard" to become an instant hit when it's released next month and believes it will stand the test of time.

He says, "It could turn out to be one of the greatest things I've ever done.

"The songs are not over with quickly and I hope it means it's not going to be one of those albums that comes and goes. This one could hang around for a long, long time."

"Twenty years (27 years) ago I was on a beach in East Hampton with my mother and younger sister (we were both in our early to mid-twenties at the time). My mother was debating whether to go into the water and decided to ask a father who was dipping his baby son in the waves. 'You look like an honest person, tell me, is the water cold?'

'Well, if I'm to be honest,' he replied, 'it is a little cold, but quite invigorating.'"

"My sister and I were dying on the blanket, as my mother was completely unaware that she had just been quizzing Paul McCartney, whom no one else on the beach had had the nerve to approach!"

Dog-killing furore

Paul McCartney has been drawn into a row alongside Hollywood actors and pop stars from Gillian Anderson to Moby over their support for an animal rights charity.

McCartney was named as one of 50 celebrities who were instructed to "fire your publicist" in a £11,000 ($14,400) advertisement in the Hollywood magazine Variety because of his support for the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

The advertisement, placed by a pro-animal-testing organisation, was designed to embarrass PETA supporters after two of the organisation's employees were charged with animal cruelty in North Carolina.

The PETA activists were arrested after they allegedly collected dogs and puppies from animal shelters, killed them and threw the bodies into a rubbish bin. Adria Hinkle and Andrew Cook are accused of disposing of 31 animals in this way as part of PETA's program of animal euthanasia for pets that end up in shelters.

The advertisement lists celebrities from Oliver Stone to John McEnroe who, it says, should be ashamed of supporting PETA.

"The alleged discovery of 31 dead dogs and puppies in a dumpster, allegedly killed in a van and tossed by two trusted employees of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, casts serious doubt upon the legitimacy of this ubiquitous animal rights organisation," the advertisement says.

The Foundation for Biomedical Research, which paid for the ad, said there would be a series attacking those who publicly supported PETA.

McCartney's publicist said he was not yet aware of the singer's response.

Ally Sheedy, the actor best known for her performance in The Breakfast Club, said she was not ashamed to have been named in the ad.

"I don't know anything about the case," she told the New York Daily News. "But it's one of those things where this is an organisation that has done so much good for so long."

A spokesman for PETA said that although it advocated euthanasia for neglected dogs and cats in rural US, it did not approve of the methods allegedly used by Ms Hinkle, who has been suspended from PETA, and Mr Cook.

Michael McGraw, director of communications for PETA, said: "Rural America is awash with more dogs and cats than it can handle, and the standard of care is appalling.

"They have mange covering their bodies that causes them to lose their hair, they have parvovirus, they're left tied to trees for months or years on end."

In Virginia last year, PETA killed 2278 animals, sterilised 7641 and found homes for 361.

The foundation said it hoped to show celebrities that their opposition to the use of animals in research contradicted their support for medical charities.

"While these celebrities are well-meaning, their support of PETA is in direct conflict with charities such as AIDS and cancer research charities. Many celebrities on this list also support AIDS charities."

Beatle with Wings Sir Paul McCartney today pumped an undisclosed sum into online payment system supplier Magex.

Macca's investment comes in the same week that major record label Universal is set to begin a trial digital music download service which uses Magex technology. Not that Sir Paul will profit directly - he's with Universal's fellow 'big fiver', EMI.

Magex is a secure online payment service spun off from the UK's National Westminster bank. Digital content bought via Magex is billed to the buyer's credit card by Magex itself, ensuring that none of the users' financial information is sent out across the Web.

Magex also handles the copyright protection side of the equation using InterTrust's encryption and access rights management technology.

Scissor Sisters' Jake Shears has written a song about Sir Paul McCartney after he appeared to him in a dream.

A source told The Star: "Jake had a strong feeling about it and Paul inspired a great track. He was so excited to meet Paul at Live 8 that he told him to listen out for a tune."

Scissor Sisters' eponymous debut album was last year's best seller in the U.K.

The show produced to promote Paul's forthcoming album saw Paul perform solo with a variety of instruments including glasses of water, a mellotron, a stand-up bass (that belonged to Elvis' bass player), drums, acoustic guitar and piano. He was also accompanied by producer Nigel Godrich when recording tracks of drums, bass, guitar and audience percussion and handclaps to produce a 'Jammed Track' based around 'Blue Suede Shoes'.

'Friends To Go'
'In Spite Of All The Danger'
'Twenty Flight Rock'
'Things We Said Today'
'Too Much Rain'
'How Kind Of You'
'Band On The Run'
'Fine Line'
'Lady Madonna'
'English Tea'
'Heartbreak Hotel'
'Jenny Wren'
'I've Got A Feeling'
'Follow Me'
'Blackbird'
Mellotron samples / 'Strawberry Fields Forever'
'Anyway'
'Jammed Track / Blue Suede Shoes'

Bill Bernstein photographed Paul McCartney and Keith Richards for the cover of latest UNCUT Magazine (UK). Bernstein also took photos that appear in the article.

Paul and Keith got together earlier this year when they discovered they where staying at the same resort in the Caribbean.

The 100th Issue Collector's Edition of UNCUT will be on newsstands this month in the UK.

From The Macca Report Archives -- January 29, 2005

Sightings

Here's more about Paul and Heather's vacation (the first week in January) at Parrot Cay in the Turks & Caicos islands.

While sunning themselves at the pool, Paul picked up baby Bea to serenade her and was joined in song by Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones who was also vacationing on the island.

Paul and Keith Richards both feature on the front cover of UNCUT for the main feature - '100 Rock and Movie Icons...on the Music and Films That Changed Our World'. Paul goes on to discuss his love for 'Heartbreak Hotel' by Elvis Presley on page 90 and 91.

Paul also gives UNCUT the 'lowdown' on his "natural and organic" new album on page 14 and 15.

In Q, between the pages 58-62, Paul takes part in 'The Q Interview' and covers a variety of subjects including The Beatles, his lyrics, John Lennon, and journalists, plus answers several questions on his new album 'Chaos and Creation In The Backyard'. The feature also includes a couple of new photos taken by Bill Bernstein.

Also in Q Paul appears on page 17 as part of a 7 page Live 8 special. Paul McCartney and U2's Live 8 'jaw-dropping' opener 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band' is also this month's No.1 essential download, just ahead of 'Helter Skelter' on page 8.

Elsewhere this month Classic Rock (Thin Lizzy cover) gave the 'Paul McCartney In Red Square' DVD an excellent 7/10 review on page 116.

Macca Report Archived News Index

---

RECOMMENDED NEW PAUL BOOKS CD'S AND DVDS
Go to Beatles News!!!
Go to the Macca Report and current Paul News!!!

---

---

Home Page | Wings Tour (photos) | 1989-90 Tour (photos) | 1993 Tour (photos) | Back in the US 2002 (reviews) | 2002 USA Tour (photos) | Driving USA 2002 (reviews) | 2003 Tour (reviews) | 2004 Tour (reviews) | Meet Paul (photos) | Standing Stone (photos) | Macca Report (Paul News) | Archived News Index | Paul Photo Book| Back in the World CD/DVD Detailed info | McCartney Animation DVD | Fab Buys Shop | Beatles News | Ringo News | John News | George News | Bill Bernstein (interview) | Rusty Anderson | Brian Ray | Geoff Dunbar  | Macca-Chat (Internet chat room) | Fan Close Encounter Page | Paul Shop | Message Board | Links | Paul Concert Tickets

Jorie Gracen

GET BACK TO THE TOP