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October 2007 (Page 1)

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October 19, 2007 -- Radio Times

Wind Beneath His Wings

Interview and article by Mark Ellen, Word magazine, published in Radio Times, 20-26 October 2007.

Sir Paul

He's the star whose name's on everybody's lips and probably Britains most famous musician ever. He's none other than Paul McCartney, and this week he's talking exclusively to us!

"I've got a lot of time for the Queen. She's fun, she's funny, she's amazing. The queen's a babe!" This doesn't sound strange coming from Paul McCartney, perched upon a sofa in his London office in his pencil-thin grey suit and trainers, as he looks like a perfectly preserved teenager.

He's recalling the most impressive people he's ever met. Bob Dylan gets a mention. And Elvis Presley. And now Her Majesty, the "pretty nice girl" celebrated at the end of Abbey Road who "doesn't have a lot to say". Does she know about this song?

"Well, I played it at her garden party [in June 2002], so she must know. But it's amazing meeting her and thinking she's cool, instead of thinking 'What a disappointment!' I know what fame is, but she knows what real fame is. I remember when we were touring Britain - about '64, I suppose - and we were in one of those line-ups and she was staying at Windsor. And she said [posh voice] 'Where are you playing tomorrow evening?' And I said, 'Slough, ma'am' And she said [claps hands excitedly] 'Oh, that's just near us!'"

If our beloved monarch is at Buckingham Palace on 25 October she could always hop on a 29 bus to Camden to see the great man's latest performance. McCartney is taking his solo show to the Roundhouse, the refurbished former engine-shed that's hosting another series of the BBC-funded Electric Proms. He hasn't been there for 40 years, not since the days when Jimi Hendrix and the Doors would entertain and the place was rammed with starry-eyed party animals and exotic cigarettes.

"Yes, there were 'clouds in the air', allegedly," he grins. "It was 'a happening' - you know, back-projections and light shows. The stage was in the centre and you'd walk round it incessantly. A fantastic place, a very free atmosphere."

That last occasion, back in 1967, was A Million Volt Light and Sound Rave, for which the Beatles recorded a piece they've never released, a 13-minute improvisation called Carnival of Light - spontaneous drums, organ, guitars and singing, with John Lennon, for some reason, repeatedly shouting the word "Barcelona". Why don't you play it before you come on?

"That's a good idea. That 'is' a good idea, actually. I haven't got a clue what I'm going to do yet, but I'll probably come up with some harebrained schemes. One of which Radio Times has now just given me."

Is there anyone you'd like to bring on stage with you?

"I don't really have the urge to collaborate, but there are a lot of people whose stuff I like. My iPod moves from Kaiser Chiefs to Neil Young to Guillemots to Bob Dylan to Radiohead to Bob Marley. And if you want to get a dancefloor moving, it's I Will Survive. Mix that with Foo Fighters, throw in a bit of Fred Astaire, KC and the Sunshine Band, maybe Flatboy Slim, and
we've got it!"

It took McCartney years of playing moist basements full of drunken sailors in Hamburg and Liverpool before he got even the faintest slice of recognition; now you can get instant worldwide exposure through the internet. Is that a good or a bad thing?

"That's just another place to be seen, but I don't think it's where bands live. They live on the road still. They play. All good bands can play. Even the troubadours - Jack Johnson, James Blunt - they can actually sit down and play you something. I always say to kids: 'Don't just make a CD; learn it. Be able to sit down and play the record, in their face, live'. Because that's still the heart of it all."

If you go to the You Tube website and type in practically any Paul McCartney song, you'll find countless versions by the man himself, and even more by adoring fans with acoustic guitars, sitting in their kitchens in Tokyo or Arkansas. Have you ever looked at this stuff?

"To tell the truth, I did the other day. My son [James, 30] and I were looking up something and we went onto YouTube and hit... me! I couldn't get off it for half an hour. It was actually very cool, as there was a bonus track on my last album called 222 and someone had made a video for it, using pictures of Brigitte Bardot in her heyday (when we fancied her like sliced bread). She was just such a babe. The way I imagined this song was like a mobile phone ad that hasn't been made yet: big, modern buildings and a concourse and this girl with a pencil-thin skirt and legs that go on for ever, and these heels, walking through it, turning every head. And the tag for this imagined ad would be : 'The phone that turns every head'. And it's strange - it's fantastic, actually - that someone's done something very similar.

"But YouTube is like seeing the fans you knew were there but never reached. And here they are. You can see them in their own homes. Which is great. I love it. Such feedback!"

Bands like Led Zeppelin and the Police are feeling the force of "fans they knew were there but never reached" by reuniting and going back on tour.

"Exactly. The people who didn't see you the first time, they want to be among the people who did. I think that's actually cool, as long as the reunion isn't a disaster - mentioning no names. I saw Cream and I thought they were really good. I'm going to see the Zeppelin. I hear the Police thing was very good. I must admit, I think, cynically, it's for the money. That's got to be a big factor. Then again, when we started in the business, it was for money and the fame. For the ones who can pull it off, a reunion's a fine idea."

It's not widely known that even the Beatles considered giving it one more roll of the dice back in 1976.

"There were phenomenal amounts of money being offered," he recalls. "Millions by Sid Bernstein, this New York promoter. But it just went round and round. There might be three of us thinking, 'You know, it might not be a bad idea,' but the other one would go,'Nah, I don't think so', and sort of veto it."

So was there ever a time when both you and John Lennon wanted to reform the Beatles?

"There was a time ... let's put it this way: there was never a time when all four of us wanted to do it. And each time it was always someone different who didn't fancy it And I'm actually glad of that now. Because the Beatles' work is a body of work. There's nothing to be ashamed of there. In the end we decided we should leave well enough alone. The potential disappointment of coming on and not being as good as the Beatles had been ... that was a risk we shouldn't take."

But let's imagine it anyway, all four Beatles reunited in 2007!

"That's the 'what if' syndrome and I don't go there ... but since you're leading me down that flowery path, we could imagine that John would be a fantastic elder statesman, very much in command of his lifestyle; I'd be alongside him singing magnificently; George would be playing like an angel on his guitar; we'd be gelling, sounding like nothing anyone's ever heard of before with all the power of modern amplification. And, behind us, would be the world's greatest drummer. Ant it'd be fandabadozi! (We could be introduced by the Krankies.) Unfortunately, this is just pure imagination. But then, what's wrong with that?"

This beaming, fantasising McCartney cuts a very different figure from the one making all the headlines last year in the most public divorce since Diana vs the Prince of Wales. Are there any regrets about the Heather Mills chapter of your life?

"Going through a divorce is a very painful thing. As Winston Churchill once said, 'If you're going through hell, keep going!' The only solution is to remain dignified. If I don't keep a silence about it, I lose this idea of being dignified. But I've a wonderful baby. She's a great joy to me, as are my older children, so I'm a lucky man."

What are we supposed to make of these rumours of your dating Renée Zellweger, Rosanna Arquette or Christie Brinkley?

"Well, I went on holiday in America," he shrugs, "and went to concerts - James Taylor, Tom Petty - and there were lots of well-known people. And I stopped to say 'hi' to Christie Brinkley and, unbeknownst to me, someone took a picture. And suddenly, everybody's going. 'Ooooh Paul, I don't know if you should marry her!' I went on holiday. I met a lot of nice people. I started a lot of rumours. But there's no truth in any of them.

It's been a difficult time," he adds, "but music is a great healer. Music is therapy for me. In fact, going through difficulties has only concentrated my desire to make good music. And I'm still very glad to be a part of it. I enjoy what I do. I really do. I used to work as a coil-winder, making coils for electric motors in this factory in Liverpool. I wasn't very good at it. They checked them at the end of the line and mine didn't always work. So I thought it was time to get out. One day George and John showed up over the factory wall and someone said, 'Hey, a couple of mates are asking for you', and they said, 'We've got a gig at the Cavern'. And that was it.

"So I know what I could have been doing and I know what I am doing. And I feel very privileged to be still doing it. So yeah. Thank you, Lord!"

Heather Mills to undergo surgery

Heather Mills, estranged wife of British music icon Paul McCartney, could be facing surgery to repair a broken plate in her pelvis, the Mirror said Thursday.

The former model and mother of McCartney's 4-year-old daughter, Beatrice, had her leg amputated when she was hit by a police motorcycle 14 years ago.

A friend told the newspaper Mills is in "absolute agony" after a metal plate in her pelvis broke.

"It separated after a screw came out. Two weeks ago, the joint moved and is out of line -- it's not stable. She could face a serious operation."

It could take Mills up to six months to recovery from the surgery, the friend told the Mirror.

Earlier this week, media reports said McCartney offered to pay Mills a divorce settlement of $51 million.

Mills' legal team is said to be urging her to accept the deal.

McCartney initially offered to pay Mills between $6.1 million and $10.2 million.

As part of the newly proposed pact, Mills would get $51 million, but be required to keep quiet about her relationship with the former Beatle.

Pay me £50m by Friday or I'll see you in court, Heather tells Macca

Heather Mills has given Sir Paul McCartney until Friday to settle their divorce or risk being publicly destroyed by her in court.

Miss Mills wants her estranged husband to agree a £50 million ($95 million) settlement by her deadline and has made it clear what will happen if he fails.

She had hoped to resolve the long and acrimonious divorce between the couple, who have a three-year-old daughter called Beatrice, in front of a High Court judge at a Financial Dispute Resolution hearing in London last Thursday.

She left the hearing so 'quietly confident' of a satisfactory result that she told friends 'this is the first day of the rest of my life'.

But when Sir Paul's legal team had still not agreed to the settlement five days later, Miss Mills went on the warpath and issued her ultimatum.

'Heather has demanded that her lawyers contact Paul's legal team to say they have a deadline of Friday,' said a source.

'If they do not come back saying we're in general agreement to the settlement as thrashed out in court last week by then, she will give the green light to slug it out very publicly in court.'

A friend said: 'Heather has been putting the word out - saying very specifically that it is not in Paul's best interest to go to court by reminding him of the cards she is holding.

'She has started making worrying noises about the custody of Beatrice, suggesting she might perhaps take her to America for long periods of time.

'She has been saying that if they go to court, the judge will not pay any interest to what she calls "the catalogue of lies" that have been said about her in the Press.'

'She is saying that if this goes to court, she will get awarded more money, that it will be worst for Beatrice to have her parents publicly warring.

'His legal team has been reminded that Heather could argue that she put him back on track emotionally and with his career after Linda, his first wife, died.

'And perhaps then if she goes to court she should then fight for some of his future earnings. Heather has also been talking again about her personal security and that of Beatrice.

'She is saying the longer this all drags on and the more public it gets, the more worried she is that she will become public enemy No 1. And greater security for them all is something Paul will have to pay for.'

The friend added: 'She has also been speaking of there now being unprecedented offers coming in from the U.S. to go on shows like Oprah.

'Paul is getting all this nudging encouragement to do the deal right away. And the longer it has taken for Paul's team to come back to them with a settlement, the more frenzied it has become.

'Her side are now saying that if Paul wants public war, he can have it. But as Heather has pointed out, a lot could come out in court.

'And Paul should remember that after what has been said about her over the years - truth or lie - she does not have much reputation left to defend.

'But she wants him to know that if she is forced into a corner, she could very publicly destroy his reputation.'

Spokesmen for Sir Paul, 65, and 39-year-old Miss Mills, who married in 2002, would not comment on the progress of the divorce last night.

But a source close to Miss Mills said: 'Friday is the cutoff. And Paul must remember that if it goes to court, then that is a whole new ball game. It could all get very messy again very quickly.'

Hear Music announced today that it will release a CD/DVD Deluxe Edition of Paul McCartney's "Memory Almost Full" at traditional music retail outlets on November 6, 2007 and at Starbucks Company-operated locations in the U.S. and Canada on November 8, 2007. Just in time for the holidays, the CD/DVD Deluxe Edition features three bonus tracks, exclusive live performance footage, and music videos for "Ever Present Past" and "Dance Tonight." In addition, CD/DVD Deluxe Editions of "Memory Almost Full" sold at Starbucks locations will feature a pre-loaded $5 limited edition Paul McCartney Starbucks card as part of a gift set.

The CD/DVD Deluxe Edition features three bonus audio tracks on the CD: "In Private," "Why So Blue," and "222." In addition, the package includes a DVD that features never-before-released footage from McCartney's "secret show" at the Electric Ballroom in London in June, 2007. The video portion of the package includes live performances of material from "Memory Almost Full" including "Dance Tonight," "Nod Your Head," "House of Wax" and "Only Mama Knows," as well as a live performance of "Drive My Car."

Also included in the package are the music videos for the singles "Ever Present Past," directed by Phil Griffin and "Dance Tonight," directed by Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and starring Natalie Portman.

"Memory Almost Full," was released on Hear Music in June, 2007, is certified Gold in the U.S., and has sold more than one million copies worldwide. One of the most celebrated albums of the year, Newsweek calls the album, "His most vibrant record in years."

About Hear Music

Hear Music is an innovative record label and partnership between Starbucks Entertainment and Concord Music Group. Rooted in quality, authenticity and passion, Hear Music works directly with artists, both emerging and established, to bring quality music to the widest possible audience, in both Starbucks locations and traditional music retailers worldwide.

For official Paul McCartney news and information go to www.paulmccartney.com.

Former Beatle Paul McCartney has offered his estranged wife Heather Mills a divorce settlement of £25 million ($47 million), the Daily Mirror reported on Wednesday.

Quoting unnamed sources, the tabloid said that McCartney initially offered Mills between three and five million pounds, but Mills's legal team had negotiated that up to the current offer, with one source saying "it's the closest they have been" on settlement sums.

"There has been serious wrangling going on behind the scenes for months and months and months and he (Mills's lawyer Anthony Julius) has finally managed to get them to hike the package up to about £25 million," a well-placed source told the Mirror.

"There is no guarantee they will settle but it's the closest they have been."

According to the Mirror, the pair's respective legal teams were still negotiating the details of the deal, including a potential confidentiality clause that the Mirror said McCartney had insisted Mills sign.

Media reports have suggested that Mills, 39, was seeking up to £60 million ($114 million) from McCartney's reported £825 million ($1.5 billion) fortune to end their marriage, which collapsed last year.

McCartney, 65, and Mills, a former model who lost a leg in a 1993 road accident, married in 2002, four years after the musician's first wife Linda died of breast cancer.

Since they split last year, the couple's divorce has been played out acrimoniously in the public eye, with Mills saying in March that securing a divorce deal was like "getting blood out of a stone."

On the 25-million-pound offer, an unidentified source close to McCartney told the Mirror: "His (McCartney's) legal team knows a judge is unlikely to award Heather a package of much more than about 25 million pounds so he has offered that and now all he has to do is sit and wait."

"It's now in Heather's hands. Paul has always been prepared to go all the way, but if it can be sorted out before then, he's not going to stand in the way."

Macca speaks out

Sir Paul McCartney has told of the anguish he is enduring over the bitter wrangling surrounding his split from Heather Mills.

Macca, 65, said: "Going through a divorce is a very painful thing.

"But as Winston Churchill once said, 'If you're going through hell, keep going!' The only solution is to remain dignified. If I don't keep a silence about it, I lose this idea of being dignified."

In a wide-ranging interview Macca told how he dotes on his and Heather's daughter Beatrice, laughed off reports of romances with stars Renee Zellweger and Christie Brinkley - and revealed the ultimate babe in his eyes is the Queen.

He said of Beatrice, who is four later this month: "I have a wonderful baby. She is a great joy to me, as are my elder children, so I'm a lucky man."

The ex-Beatle insisted stories of his relationships with Renee and Christie had been blown out of all proportion.

He added: "I went on holiday in America and went to concerts - James Taylor and Tom Petty - where there were lots of wellknown people.

"I stopped by to say 'Hi' to Christie Brinkley and, unbeknownst to me, someone took a picture.

"And suddenly everybody's going, 'Ooooh Paul, I don't know if you should marry her!'

"I went on holiday, I met a lot of nice people and I started a lot of rumours. But there's no truth to any of them."

But he did admit to secretly being an admirer of the Queen.

Sir Paul told Radio Times: "I've got a lot of time for the Queen.

"She's fun, she's funny, she's amazing. The Queen's a babe!

"It's amazing meeting her and thinking she's cool, instead of thinking 'What a disappointment!' "I know what fame is - but she knows what real fame is. I remember when we were touring Britain, about '64, I suppose, and we were in one of those line-ups and she was staying at Windsor.

"And she said, 'Where are you playing tomorrow evening?' I said, 'Slough, ma'am.' And she said 'Oh, that's just near us!'"

Macca said he still thanked God for his music, adding: "It's been a difficult time but music is a great healer. Music is the therapy for me.

"In fact, going through difficulties has only concentrated my desire to make good music. And I'm still very glad to be a part of it all. I used to work as a coil-winder, making coils for electric motors in this factory in Liverpool. I wasn't very good at it.

"They checked them at the end of the line and mine didn't always work. So I thought it was time to get out.

"One day George and John showed up over the factory wall and someone said, 'Hey, a couple of mates of yours are asking for you.' And they said, 'We've got a gig at the Cavern'. And that was it. So I know what I could have been doing and I know what I am doing.

"And I feel very privileged to be still doing it. So yeah. Thank you, Lord!" Sir Paul said he's still a fan as well as a musician - and has a string of hits by both old stars and new on his iPod.

He added: "My iPod moves from Kaiser Chiefs to Neil Young to Guillemots to Bob Dylan to Radiohead to Bob Marley. And if you want to get a dancefloor moving, it's I Will Survive.

"Mix that with Foo Fighters, throw in a bit of Fred Astaire, KC and the Sunshine Band, maybe Fatboy Slim and we've got it!"

Macca also revealed that the Beatles had briefly considered a comeback in 1976 - six years after they split.

He said: "There were phenomenal amounts of money being offered.

Millions by Sid Bernstein, this New York promoter. But it just went round and round. There might be three of us thinking 'You know, it might not be a bad idea' - but the other one would go, 'Nah, I don't think so' and sort of veto it. Let's put it this way, there was never a time when all four of us wanted to do it.

"And each time it was always someone different who didn't fancy it.

"And I'm actually glad of that now because the Beatles' work is a body of work. There's nothing to be ashamed of there.

"In the end we decided we should leave well enough alone.

"The potential disappointment of coming on and not being as good as The Beatles had been, that was a risk we shouldn't take."

But with the current trend for reunions among bands such as The Police and Led Zeppelin, Macca was asked to imagine what things would be like if The Beatles could be reunited now.

He said: "That's the 'what if' syndrome and I don't go there.

"But since you're leading me down that flowery path, we could imagine that John would be this fantastic elder statesman, very much in command of his lifestyle. I'd be alongside him singing magnificently.

George would be playing like an angel on his guitar.

"We'd be gelling, sounding like nothing anyone's ever heard before with all the power of modern amplification.

"And, behind us, would be the world's greatest drummer. And it'd be fandabidozi! We could be introduced by the Krankies. Unfortunately, this is just pure imagination. But then what's wrong with that?"

Sir Paul gave the interview to promote an upcoming gig at London's Roundhouse as part of the BBC-funded Electric Proms. The full interview is in this week's Radio Times, out now.

WHAT'S ON MACCA'S IPOD

Kaiser Chiefs

Bob Dylan

Neil Young

Guillemots

Radiohead

Bob Marley

Fred Astaire

Fatboy Slim

The great mystery of whether Paul McCartney was in town last week has been solved.

It was not the 65-year-old former Beatle who dined at 2510 Restaurant on Wednesday night. Rather, it was professional look-a-like Mike Oltersdorf, a 57-year-old from West Dundee, Ill.

"The only difference between Paul and I is a galaxy of talent and billions of dollars," Oltersdorf said.

Oltersdorf was hired by Delco Estate Planning Services, an Elkhorn-based financial planning company with an office in Wausau, to perform at the company's annual appreciation dinner for its senior clients. Oltersdorf was joined by Dean Martin and Elvis Presley, played by Todd Eckart, and Ann-Margret, played by Laura DeWitt.

"I might have dropped a little leak that someone famous would be at 2510," Delco president Mike O'Dell said with a laugh. "We never said he was Paul McCartney. Before we knew it, people were looking through the windows, pounding on the doors and chasing us when we left."

And what do all those who swore they saw Sir Paul at the restaurant say now that the truth is out?

"I'm disappointed," said Wausau resident Colette Krahn, who dined at the table next to Oltersdorf's closed-off room. "It sure was an interesting diversion."

Tate Baumer, owner of Baumer Limousine and son of 2510 owner Pat Baumer, could only laugh.

"I was about 90/10 (percent sure) that it was him when I first heard it, but then over the weekend I thought about it and was 50/50," he said. "It sure was an elaborate ruse."

Paul McCartney tells of divorce 'hell'

Sir Paul McCartney has told how music and his children help to keep him going through the "hell" of his divorce.

"It's been a difficult time. But music is a great healer. Music is the therapy for me. In fact, going through difficulties has only concentrated my desire to make good music," he told the Radio Times magazine.

"Going through a divorce is a very painful thing," the former Beatle said in the interview to be published tomorrow. "As Winston Churchill once said, 'If you're going through hell, keep going!' The only solution is to remain dignified. If I don't keep a silence about it, I lose this idea of being dignified.

"But I've a wonderful baby. She's a great joy to me, as are my elder children, so I'm a lucky man."

Sir Paul, 65, has been unable to reach a settlement his wife of four years Heather Mills, reportedly over her refusal to sign a confidentiality agreement.

The couple separated in 2006.

In his wide-ranging interview, Sir Paul went on to describe the Queen as a "babe", saying: "I've got a lot of time for the Queen. She's fun, she's funny, she's amazing."

He added: "I know what fame is. But she knows what real fame is. I remember when we were touring Britain - about '64, I suppose - and we were in one of those line-ups and she was staying at Windsor.

"And she said 'Where are you playing tomorrow evening?' And I said 'Slough, ma'am'. And she said (claps hands excitedly) 'Oh, that's just near us!"'

Sir Paul, who admitted to looking himself up on the internet, said he was glad The Beatles had never reunited, adding: "The potential disappointment of coming on and not being as good as The Beatles had been... that was a risk we shouldn't take."

October 14, 2007 -- Observer Music Monthly (Audio: When Pete met Macca)

Pete Doherty meets Paul McCartney

Just who would Paul McCartney choose for a chat about fashion, favourite bands and the cost of infamy?

The idea has been put to Sir Paul McCartney and out of everyone he could have picked to interview him, he's chosen the Babyshambles singer and tabloid fixture Peter Doherty. Only trouble is, Pete is currently in rehab, but after some tactful negotiations, he is allowed out of his clinic for the afternoon. So it is, with only OMM otherwise present in the hotel suite, that the two sit down to talk one recent Thursday afternoon. But first, Pete wants to give Sir Paul a present

Sir Paul: Wow! I'm terrible like that. People are really sort of nice at bringing me things. So someone said: 'Would you like to do an interview? And who would you like to do, and I said: 'Pete'. 'Cause otherwise it's just some real boring person who you're not interested in.

We've met briefly once before, backstage at a Little Britain show, and I'd seen you on the Jonathan Ross Show, which I thought was very cool. To me, there was all the newspaper stuff saying, 'He's out, he's out of it,' so I was like, 'He's going to miss a few notes here,' but you were spot-on; really nailed the piece you were playing.

Pete: Yeah, I remember asking you on the stairs at Little Britain about [the Beatles song] 'I Will'. I just love that. A minor, D minor.

Sir Paul: That's great. I do a lot of Beatles stuff now, and revisiting it is really interesting - just looking at what chords you were using and revisiting the lyrics, you know, 'cause some of them back then you thought, 'Well you're just writing a song of straight love lyrics maybe.' But playing them now, some of them have a different significance for me, you know, they just seem a bit deeper. I was just some young guy and, you know, pretty hot, pretty on the ball. It's nice to do the songs for that reason. 'That was good, did I say that? Yes, you did.'

Pete: I wanted to ask about some of your old clobber ...

Sir Paul: My what?

Pete: Your clothes ...

Sir Paul: Well, we started off in Hamburg. Before that it was, like, teddy boys, you know. Then Hamburg, it was leathers. That was after Gene Vincent really, we were just mini Gene Vincents. That was one of the great things about Hamburg, you would get these guys coming through - Little Richard, Gene - and you'd be hanging with them, instead of just buying their records. That was cool. Gene was a nutter. A beautiful nutter.

Pete: I heard you wrote 'Michelle' to pull girls ...

Sir Paul: Yeah, we used to go to these art school parties because John was at art school and me and George were at the school next door, which is now a performing arts school. John was that little bit older than us, which at that age is impressive. He was a year-and-a-half older than me and you really look up to people like that. But it's funny because I don't think I had that same feeling with Ringo, who I think was a few months older than John.

John was a pretty impressive cat - being a year-and-a-half older and going to art school, all that was a pretty cool combination for us. So we'd tag along to these parties, and it was at the time of people like Juliette Greco, the French bohemian thing. They'd all wear black turtleneck sweaters, it's kind of where we got all that from, and we fancied Juliette like mad. Have you ever seen her? Dark hair, real chanteuse, really happening. So I used to pretend to be French, and I had this song that turned out later to be 'Michelle'. It was just an instrumental, but years later John said: 'You remember that thing you wrote about the French?' I said: 'Yeah.' He said: 'That wasn't a bad song, that. You should do that, y'know.'

Pete: When I first met Carl [Barat, co-founder of the Libertines], I was 17 and he was about a year-and-a-half older than me. We had this song called 'France', a jazzy little number. I couldn't really play guitar then, not properly. I was convinced I was going to be the singer and he was going to be the guitarist, like Morrissey and Marr, but a few years in, he was convinced that he was going to sing as well so I had to learn the guitar.

Sir Paul: Like me being a bass player. Which now I'm very proud of, it's my role and I'm happy with it. But at first it was the loser role in the group. It's usually the fat guy who stands at the back. So I was a bit unhappy when I got that job, I wanted to be up front with the guitar. But I had such a crappy little guitar, a Rosetti Lucky 7, and it was cheap. My Dad was very against the never-never hire purchase, and was like, 'Pay your way, lad. Never be under an obligation to anyone.' Which was good advice. But the others - John's Auntie Mimi and George's Dad - didn't have that problem - so they would get their guitars. I had this crappy thing which was really just a piece of wood with a pick-up on it. It looked quite glamorous, but we took it over to Hamburg and I think someone smashed it - like early Pete Townshend. F*k!

Pete: I had this guitar which was £20. It was a big old thing, and I think it came from India. The make was the same font as Gibson, so I doctored it with a little bit of marker pen.

OMM: How did you both handle, at different points, the adjustment from writing with a partner to writing on your own?

Sir Paul: The good thing for me was that we hadn't always written as a partnership. I mean, we were a partnership on the road, when we had twin beds. But then when we actually got houses, I would write something on a day when I wouldn't see him. I had kind of done 'Penny Lane' and 'Yesterday', when he'd done 'Strawberry Fields' at his place. We'd get together and polish them, but we had established this thing of writing separately. It took the edge off it when we had to completely write separately I still miss not having someone to check things with, though.

Pete: Well, I'm probably more in a writer partnership now than at the Libertines stage. Writing with Mick Whitnall on the latest Babyshambles album was pretty much 50-50, or 40-60 maybe. We were bouncing off each other.

Carl was always quite tight with quality control, like I had this line in my head for years that I always wanted to put it in a song, and he used to go cold when I said it. I can't remember the name of the poet now, but he became resident poet of Barnsley football club [it was Ian McMillan, poet, playwright and regular Newsnight Review contributor] ... [Pete sings] 'It's a charmed life, double as a poet for your favourite team' and every song we would write I would try and get that in.

Sir Paul: ...and always get blown out. Have you got it in anything yet?

Pete: No. Maybe next time.

Sir Paul: Our first little cool bit of collaboration came when ... I'd met John and he said: 'What do you do?' And I said: 'I play guitar and I really like rock'n'roll and Eddie Cochran.' And he said: 'Ah, well, I've written a couple of songs.' And I said: 'So have I.' They weren't really anything, but we had independently tried to write. So we used to go to my house, when my dad was at work. I can see us in the front living room and in the parlour - this little house that is now national bloody heritage [Sir Paul's boyhood home was acquired by the National Trust in 1998] - just standing there, singing. I mean those early days were really cool, just sussing each other out, and realising that we were good. You just realise from what he was feeding back. Often it was your song or his song, it didn't always just start from nothing. Someone would always have a little germ of an idea. So I'd start off with [singing] 'She was just 17, she'd never been a beauty queen' and he'd be like, 'Oh no, that's useless' and 'You're right, that's bad, we've got to change that.' Then changing it into a really cool line: 'You know what I mean.' 'Yeah, that works.' We'd have individual bits of paper. I have fond flashbacks of John writing - he'd scribble it down real quick, desperate to get back to the guitar. But I knew at that moment that this was going to be a good collaboration. Like when I did 'Hey Jude'. I was going through it for him and Yoko when I was living in London. I had a music room at the top of the house and I was playing 'Hey Jude' when I got to the line 'the movement you need is on your shoulder' and I turned round to John and said: 'I'll fix that if you want.' And he said: 'You won't, you know, that's a f*king great line, that's the best line in it.' Now that's the other side of a great collaborator - don't touch it, man, that's OK.

Pete: Did you see they were giving out these supplements of great interviews with the Guardian over the past couple of months - Fidel Castro and Mae West, people like that. And they had an interview with John Lennon [with Jann Wenner, editor of Rolling Stone, from December 1970]. I'd never seen it before but it struck me as quite interesting, him saying that your tours had been like Satyricon.

Sir Paul: Like what?

Pete: Like Fellini's [1969 film] Satyricon.

Sir Paul: Not really. I mean, it's a bit of an exaggeration. It was definitely quite decadent. The whole thing about getting into a band was to get girls, basically. Money and girls. Probably girls first. So when you are on the road, and there was time for a party, we had a bunch of those. There was an element of Satyricon, although that overstates the case a bit. But there were certainly some elements that you wouldn't talk about in the newspapers. Privately, I could tell a tale or two [laughs]. The funny thing is when later the rumour came out that John was gay, I said: 'I don't think so.' I mean, I don't know what he did when he went to New York, but certainly not in any of my experiences. We used to sleep together, top and tail it, you know. I always used to say: 'Come on, I would have spotted something here.' But what I spotted was completely the opposite. It was just chicks, chicks, chicks.

OMM: It must have been very different to today, when everywhere you go someone has a camera phone, and you can't even go out of the house without someone reporting what you are doing.

Sir Paul: Yeah, that's a bit of a hassle, isn't it? No there was none of that really, no cameras. There was no reportage or paparazzi.

Pete: Really? If you look on YouTube there's something called the 'Egg of Kerbibble'. I filmed my mate getting hold of a paparazzi through some railings and he's got an egg cracked right on his head, and if you look closely you'll see another couple of eggs come flying across and catch him. Small compensation, do you know what I mean?

This bloke in Rome once took his camera off and cracked me round the head with it, and I'm bleeding. He was a bit bigger than me, the Italian photographer, but I thought I can't back down now, so I sort of squared up to him. Luckily my mate jumped round and bit him on the neck.

Sir Paul: [looking mildly taken aback] And all you're trying to do is ...

Pete: Get into your hotel.

Sir Paul: Just trying to, you know, write some songs, and sing, and all this stuff comes with it. In truth, thinking back, it really didn't exist like that. It was much easier to get around. I used to go to gigs on the tube, all those Odeons that were out in Walthamstow or wherever. I'd just go and walk into the gig, even at the height of the Beatles thing. It was just cool. You knew you could control it. All these girls going 'Heeyy Paul! We love you!' 'All right, we'll walk slowly towards the gig and I'll do the autographs, but any shouting and I'm not going in.' I kind of liked it then, me and my harem.

Pete: How old were you when you first had kids?

Sir Paul: 28.

Pete: That must have settled you down?

Sir Paul: We were quite sort of hippie about it though, me and Linda. We had a laid-back attitude. There's a picture that I could not imagine being involved in now, but it was a real summery day and we were coming through Dublin airport and I'm carrying my daughter, Mary - who's now got two of her own kids - and she's completely naked.

Pete: Where were you when punk kicked off?

Sir Paul: At first, it was a bit of a shock. Heather [McCartney, Paul's stepdaughter and Linda's daughter from her previous marriage] was a punk, so she sort of brought it home and me and Linda were like, 'You've cut all your hair off, darling.' She used to have this long blonde hair and then suddenly it was spikey; tartan, pins, plastic bags and everything. And it was like, 'Whoa!' But she took us through it, and educated us. Played us the Damned and the Clash and the Sex Pistols and stuff, and so you gradually got it. Realised it was time for a shake-up. It was good. Like a mirror they put on you: 'Oh yeah, we're pretty boring, and these kids aren't.' The other thing is that it looked quite aggressive but it was a lot of image, which it had been for us. We were pussycats in leather, it's not like we were big hard guys, and it was the same for a lot of our friends. Heather had dyed her hair and I remember one of her boyfriends had an 'A' on his jacket [the 'A' indicated 'anarchy']. And I was like, 'What's that stand for?', and he said: 'I don't know.' It's a look, you know, and it looks good [laughs]. I remember being in traffic, in London, and when you're famous you try really hard not to get noticed so much, especially if you're in a traffic jam, and suddenly there was a bunch of punk kids, and I'm like, 'Oh no, how is this going to work out? What's the attitude going to be?' and you're vaguely apprehensive, and they were great, they came up: 'Paul!' 'Love that "Mull of Kintyre", Paul!' So you realised it wasn't as one-sided as you thought everything was. It was a shake-up.

Pete: What about the Smiths?

Sir Paul: Yeah, I like them. Linda was into Morrissey; they wrote to each other a lot. Big fans. I played with Johnny [Marr] a bit. It was original.

Pete: Falling guitar lines where there's no chords and you spend three weeks trying to work out what he's really playing.

Sir Paul: You could tell it was Morrissey. It was like his paint palette ... [Pete starts singing the Smiths song 'Still Ill'.]

Sir Paul: [appreciatively] Have you ever covered that?

Pete: No.

Sir Paul: It's obviously a song you love. It's in your blood.

Pete: I got it as a seven-inch from a second-hand shop in Nuneaton. It was on the wall, and I thought I was being clever, 'cause I nicked it - but I'd only nicked the sleeve. So I had to go back and pay for the record. As soon as the guitar started, I didn't even listen to the rest of it, I just wanted to play it again and again. I didn't want it to end ...

Sir Paul: The nice thing about having kids is that you get a lot of that through them. You get the next wave of musical education coming off them. Heather particularly - she's a big music buff, she went to all the shows. But for me, someone like Ray Davies and the Kinks would be like that for my generation.

Pete: I've got this image of you coming to London to live for the first time, going up some wooden stairs, into a room with a typewriter on the top floor of a Victorian house. Is that right?

Sir Paul: Well, I used to live in Wimpole Street, in Jane Asher's house, which has great, great memories. In the early days we used to come down to London and then drive back up to Liverpool, but then we were working in London too much to just go back, so Brian Epstein, our manager, arranged for us to rent a flat in Mayfair, on Green Street.

Pete: Did you ever bump into Tony Hancock?

Sir Paul: Once, at Twickenham Film Studios. We'd finished the day and he'd finished. So it was: 'We're big fans of yours, Tone. We think you're great.' You could never think of anything else to say.

Pete: Have you read Hancock's biography, When the Wind Changed? It's got a really awful photo on the front of him! He's all bloated at the bottom of these stairs. I don't know if it's supposed to be symbolic or something. How about Wilfred Bramble [Steptoe actor who appeared in A Hard day's Night]?

Sir Paul: Dear old Wilfred. Later you start to realise he's an actor, but to us he's like a magic person. Now I can see that he actually got up in the morning, shaved and did stuff, but then he was just this magic guy. Wilfred was a fantastic actor but he would forget his lines sometimes. To us he was a God, and it was sort of embarrassing for him, but in a way it was fascinating.

We'd be in a lot of shows, but we'd be the only rock'n'roll band in them. Dances, comedians ... it was a nice world for me.

Pete: In the early days of the Libertines we used to put on Arcadian cabaret nights. There'd be some girl climbing out of an egg, we'd try and get a couple of mates to tell a few jokes, performance poets, and then we'd play in the middle of it all. More people were on stage than in the crowd.

Paul McCartney: tall and effortless

1. He never learnt to read music; instead he writes and plays all his songs by ear.

2. Beating George Harrison by roughly half an inch, he was the tallest Beatle.

3. He is probably the richest rock star in the world. His personal wealth in 2006 was estimated to exceed £500m. 'Let's write a swimming pool,' he once said to John Lennon.

4. He reportedly turned down a part in Franco Zefferelli's 1968 film of Romeo and Juliet. McCartney didn't believe he would be good enough and the Beatles were recording Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band at the time.

5. One of his greatest admirers is Bob Dylan. While he heaped praise on Lennon and Harrison in a 2007 interview with Rolling Stone, the best was saved for Paul. 'I'm in awe of McCartney. He's about the only one that I am in awe of. He can do it all. And he's never let up ... He's just so damn effortless.'

. Paul McCartney plays the Roundhouse, Camden as part of the BBC Electric Proms on 25 October. A retrospective DVD, The McCartney Years, is out on 12 November. Babyshambles' new album, Shotter's Nation, is out now.

Singer says that role is for the 'fat guy who stands at the back'

Paul McCartney has said that when he joined the Beatles he was unhappy with his role as a bassist in the group.

Speaking in an interview in the Observer newspaper, McCartney admitted he thought that the role is traditionally for the loser in the group.

He said: "At first it was the loser role in the group. It's usually the fat guy who stands at the back. So I was a bit unhappy when I got that job. I wanted to be upfront with the guitar."

Elsewhere in the interview, which was conducted by Babyshambles frontman Pete Doherty, McCartney reveals that when he first met John Lennon the slight age difference between the two made him look up and respect his Beatles bandmate.

He continued: "He was a year and a half older than me and you really look up to people like that. But it's funny because I don't think I had that same feeling with Ringo, who I think was a few months older than John. John was a pretty impressive cat. Being a year and a half older and going to art school, all that was a pretty cool combination for us."

Paul McCartney is to play a rare live show at the London Roundhouse later this month (October 25) as part of the BBC Elecrtic Proms.

Friends of Sir Paul McCartney have dismissed reports of a divorce deadlock as "ludicrous", insisting there will be a deal done by Christmas.

Despite reports talks reached an impasse over Heather Mills' refusal to sign a gagging order during their High Court meeting on Thursday, McCartney's pal instead claims "great progress has been made".

They tell the Mirror, "Many of these claims about a deadlock are ludicrous. They are the closest they have been for years - and both delighted the end is now in sight.

"They are both going to be at Bea's birthday party at the end of October - and want to have good news for everyone.

"Then it should just be a formality of signing the papers the lawyers are preparing."

Sir Paul McCartney dipped his shoulders, yawed his knees, and mock-staggered into the High Court last week, while his wife went around the back in a wheelchair. As grand entrances go, those of the McCartneys spoke of the pain and weariness of their long divorce battle, but the day ended without the expected deal, and when Paul left, after eight hours of talks, he looked crocked for real.

He returned home, in his baggy grey suit and sneakers, to a life he no longer much likes; one without companionship or the presence of a woman. "I think he hates being alone," says Wendy Cook, ex-wife of the late comedian Peter Cook, and a friend of the former Beatle since the 1960s. "He's one of those men who can't cope with being on their own. They'll do anything to avoid it, and it's probably why he married Heather in the first place."

It is no secret that Paul blames himself for the breakdown of the marriage. Or, at least, for believing, against the advice of almost everyone he trusts ­ especially his children ­ that it could work.

The glamorous, cosmopolitan lifestyle imagined by Heather Mills when she married Paul five years ago turned out not to exist, and the absence of it created, perhaps, the biggest problem of their time together. "She could never understand why he wouldn't have a social life," says a source close to both McCartneys. "She complained about it all the time. She would say: 'He's got no friends, it drives me mad. The only thing he ever does is go to the pub with his roadie'."

Heather should have done her homework. For all his wealth and fame, Paul, 65, is, at heart, a modest, conservative soul, steeped in the reassurances of domesticity. The signs were all there in his twenties when he wrote, beautifully, of the fireside comforts of slipping into old age surrounded by grandchildren. Such were the preoccupations of the working-class Scouser of his era; you spent 40 years on the Liverpool docks, and the rest, if you were lucky, growing roses on the Wirral.

Parties tend to leave him cold, the attention of fans to unsettle him, and he bears the world's enduring fascination with the Beatles badly. Yet with John Lennon and George Harrison dead, and Ringo Starr all but invisible, Paul finds himself, more than ever the primary guardian of the band's great legacy. "He accepts it," says a former aide, "but it's tough for him, too. He feels as though everything he's done on his own doesn't count." Happiness for him is a day spent quietly at his 160-acre country estate in Surrey or his island retreat in Scotland.

"So what if he lives a simple life," says Hunter Davies, the Beatles' official biographer. "Just because you're famous doesn't mean you have to be doing exciting things all the time. You choose the kind of life that suits you.

"My impression of Paul is that he's very clever, astute, calculating, healthily suspicious by nature, and pretty good at sussing people out. Which, I suppose, raises the question of how he's got himself into this situation."

It is a situation complicated by the question of Paul's attitude to women ­ one that has evolved from the conditioned masculinity of his Northern childhood into a form of reverence verging on dependency. "When I first got to know the Beatles he was going out with Jane Asher," says Wendy, "and it was striking to see, when they came to our house, how deferential he was to her, while John Lennon more or less ignored his wife, Cynthia. All right, Paul could be tough; I remember one night some drunk turned up on the doorstep, and we all, in our terribly nice Hampstead way, couldn't decided what to do about it, so Paul just walked out and thumped him, but of all the Beatles he was the one with the real social graces, and a sensitive side, and I think he very much needs people around him and a woman to look after him."

Hunter Davies broadly agrees: "I think he has a strong sense of things like love and loneliness. He is close to his family, and he is passionate about what he believes in."

No one really knows, and we probably shouldn't ask, what goes on inside other people's marriages. The forces that create relationships are as varied and mysterious as those that cause them to unravel. Yet it sometimes happens, when famous people fall in love, that the rest of us form a hunch about the likely outcome, and this was the case six years ago when McCartney announced his engagement to Heather, a one-legged former glamour model, and much of the world winced, and murmured something along the lines of: "Disaster."

The sense that Heather was obsessed with money and fame was compounded by a series of unsavoury revelations about her alleged past as a call girl that seemed only to confirm the impression of a woman on the make. The chef, Marco Pierre White, who once shared (platonically) a flat with her, offers in his autobiography a telling illustration of why so many people find her hard to take: "On the day of Diana, Princess of Wales's death, she phoned a friend of mine. He came off the phone and said: 'Heather thinks that she could take Diana's role on that landmine charity'."

Yet it was Paul - having met Heather at a charity event, a year after the death of his first wife, Linda - who launched the pursuit, seeming enraptured by her high-spiritedness and sexual possibility. "It evolved very slowly," Heather said later, "I was properly wooed and properly dated. I had flowers sent to me, I was sung to down the telephone, and I thought: 'This is just too good to be true'." So it was.

"I don't think either of them ever really worked out what they were getting married for," says a former McCartney aide. "They never had much in common, and their expectations of how it would play out clashed at such an early stage that they spent almost all their time together trying to shore up their own positions."

Paul was always the nice Beatle. Whatever his faults, he still is. Forget the music for a moment; he helps remind us of an England that has mostly vanished ­ wholesome, unthreatening, cheeky, sometimes uppity, but essentially respectful. His best songs are some of the best ever, even if it is possible to scoff, as the Beatle chronicler Philip Norman does, that "the young Picasso later turned into a middle-aged Mabel Lucie Attwell".

He has established the foundations of a talented dynasty. His eldest daughter, Mary, (Webmaster's Note: Heather is his eldest daughter) is a successful photographer, her sister, Stella, an even more successful fashion designer, and his son, James, has tentatively followed his father into the music business.

In Paul's journey from the back streets of Liverpool to a knighthood and great riches can be seen many of the social and cultural shifts that have shaped modern Britain ­ upward mobility, the end of deference, and the de-mystification of the working class. McCartney was in on these trends early, he wears his fame and fortune easily, and he has never really minded being thought of as nice.

"Look," he says. "Most people want to be liked. I don't crave it. I just prefer it." Don't expect him to stay single for long.

Sir Paul McCartneyhas boasted of his "decadent" womanising years in The Beatles , during a candid interview with troubled rocker Pete Doherty. McCartney requested Doherty interview him for a British newspaper, after watching his band Babyshambles perform on TV.

During the quiz, which will appear in Sunday's edition of The Observer, McCartney says, "The whole thing about getting into a band was to get girls, basically. Money and girls. Probably girls first. So when you are on the road and there was time for a party, we had a bunch of those."

Sir Paul McCartney has slammed rumours his Beatles bandmate John Lennon was secretly gay. Lennon is claimed to have had affairs with men as well as women, before and during his marriages to Cynthia Lennon and Yoko Ono - but McCartney only saw him with women.

He tells rocker Pete Doherty during an interview for British newspaper The Observer, "What I spotted was the opposite. It was just chicks, chicks, chicks."

Sir Paul, 65, believes a court date will allow him to demolish Heather's allegations of domestic violence. Thursday's talks stalled over his insistence on a confidentiality clause.

Battling Sir Paul McCartney is prepared for a public scrap with Heather Mills after refusing to budge during divorce negotiations.

The gruelling talks collapsed when Macca, 65, insisted there could be no deal unless Heather agreed to sign a confidentiality cause banning her from talking about their four-year marriage.

Sources said yesterday that Sir Paul was not prepared to "roll over or be held to ransom" by Heather, who is demanding the freedom to discuss their relationship when they finally divorce.

And they claim the ex-Beatle now actually wants a public divorce hearing so he can challenge Heather's claims he ill-treated her.

One well-placed insider said: "Paul is a highly principled man and he is not afraid to go to court. It's a case of 'Bring it on'.

"He may be digging his heels in - but don't mistake that for stubbornness. There is a real difference.

"He wants to clear up the allegations about domestic violence and thinks a public hearing may be the only way to do that.

"It's not ideal but Paul is not afraid to take their divorce to open court.

"He believes he will come out of it better than Heather ever could."

The source said 39-year-old Heather is also now resigned to a court hearing, adding: "She believes this will go all the way too.

But for different reasons.

"She feels he wants a full hearing because every day this drags on paints her as a gold-digger pushing for more money while he is seen as Saint Paul."

Paul is said to want a confidentiality clause mainly to protect his and Heather's three-year-old daughter Beatrice.

The insider added: "His first and foremost concern is Beatrice - and that means stopping her mother from talking publicly about their marriage.

"But Heather believes it's all because he wants to maintain control. He holds all the cards. She doesn't feel she should be banned from talking about their relationship.

"It was part of her life and she can't just pretend it never happened."

One report claimed Heather was offered £50 million ($95 million) plus an annual income for Beatrice as long as she signed the gagging clause. It said she then offered to take £15 million ($28 million) less as long as the gagging clause was dropped.

Thursday's eight-hours of negotiations, held behind closed doors in a London courtroom in the presence of both sides' legal teams, were marked by bitter accusation and counter-accusation.

The insider said: "It was a battleground and the accusations were flying. They maintain friendly relations for the sake of their daughter Beatrice outside the courtroom.

But it was a different story inside the court."

Divorce experts said Mr Justice Coleridge, who acted as mediator during Thursday's Financial Dispute Resolution hearing, would have given direction on a possible compromise.

But now negotiations between the couple have seemingly broken down, their case will be listed for court next year.

A five-day hearing has been pencilled in for February. But if that is not long enough to hear from all the witnesses, the case will be adjourned until later in the year.

Macca is said to be unconcerned that the divorce saga might rumble on for months - while Heather wants to get things settled as soon as possible.

The insider said: "He has no pressing desire to hurry this along. He has an £825 million ($1.5 billion) fortune so money isn't an issue to him.

"She wants to get it sorted out quickly but she's not a pushover. She believes he won't let her move on. It's not impossible that they may be able to sort things out between now and next year but don't hold your breath.

"They have not been able to reach an agreement so far so it's unlikely they'll come to a compromise in the next few months. It's a case of 'See you in court'."

Divorce lawyer Vanessa Lloyd-Platt said: "Before this final hearing, Heather could ask for some of Sir Paul's assets to be valued, for example the full extent of his income, including his royalties. Specialists could even be brought in to try and value his albums.

"It will not be hugely relevant to the final financial settlement but they may also want to include issues of behaviour in the divorce. If so, they would have to get permission to file statements."

In his divorce petition, Macca accused his estranged wife of being "argumentative" and "rude to staff".

Sir Paul looked cheerful and relaxed as he left his North London home yesterday.

He strolled out of the St John's Wood house just after 10 am and grinned broadly at waiting photographers.

When asked what happened in court on Thursday, he simply said: "No comment."

Sir Paul McCartney has thrown his support behind a new charity set up in memory of his cousin, who died from an eye disease. The Eye Fund (www.eye-psi.com)was created by the family and friends of designer Simon Sherry who died from retinal cone dystrophy in 2005 at the age of 39.

McCartney has written a foreword for a calendar of Sherry's designs, which reads "This Calendar celebrates the life of my second cousin Simon. Every time we met each other, I recall his infectious smile and great sense of humour and will always have fond memories of his lovely personality.

"He was an extremely talented guy as this calendar proves and his talents extended beyond art to music, where he was an accomplished bassist and keyboardist.

"At an early age, he was influenced strongly by Linda and myself and became a committed vegetarian with a great love of nature and all its miraculous creations.

"He is sorely missed by all of us who knew and loved him but I for one will never forget his smiling face and all of us in the family will cherish his memory forever."

October 13, 2007 -- PM.com

PAUL INTERVIEWED BY PETE DOHERTY IN OBSERVER

OBSERVER MUSIC MONTHLY: EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS WITH LEGEND OF THE SIXTIES

The Observer Music Monthly this Sunday, October 14, features exclusive interviews with icons of the sixties by contemporary musicians. Babyshambles singer Pete Doherty is allowed out of rehab for the afternoon to interview Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney, William Orbit talks to Sir Michael Caine about his recent chill-out album Cained and Beth Ditto interviews her all-time heroine, Yoko Ono.

Pete Doherty talks to Sir Paul McCartney about the punk movement. "I remember being in traffic, in London, and when you're famous you try really hard not to get noticed so much, especially if you're in a traffic jam, and suddenly there was a bunch of punk kids, and I'm like, 'Oh no how's this going to work out?' What's the attitude going to be? and you're vaguely apprehensive, and they were great, they came up: 'Paul!' 'Love that "Mull of Kintyre," Paul!' So you realised it wasn't as one-sided as you thought everything was. It was a shake-up."

The release date of "Ever Present Past", the second single from Paul's album 'Memory Almost Full' has now moved to Monday November 5th (UK).

Watch the full length video of "Ever Present Past" at www.memoryalmostfull.com in the 'View' section.

Formats:
CD Single
1. Ever Present Past
2. Only Mama Knows (Live from Amoeba)
3. Dance Tonight (Live from Amoeba)

7" Vinyl
Side A Ever Present Past
Side B House Of Wax (Live from Amoeba)

Digital Bundle (Download)
1. Ever Present Past
2. Only Mama Knows (Live From Amoeba)
3. That Was Me (Live From Amoeba)

PR Release
"Ever Present Past" by Paul McCartney
The new single out Monday November 5th 2007
Taken from the album, "Memory Almost Full"

Sometimes I just sit down and try and write a pop song. I've done it throughout my life and it's an interesting thing to try and do, make something kind of catchy that might be attractive on the radio or whatever. So I was just going over personal feelings, it starts off 'I've got too much on my plate" and then the way I write I just follow that thought and think, 'what did I mean by that? Explain yourself!' So then I think 'well what I meant was' and then it eventually just panned out that after I'd got the verse it just became this idea of my past, my "Ever Present Past".

No deep meaning in it. I think what happens with me is, I just write a thing and people read more into it and I kind of like that because I think often you do things in a subliminal way, you don't actually realise what you are doing. So something that I might think is quite a simple statement, somebody might go, 'yeah but it means that!' So I like that, I like there to be multiple meanings to these things even though I often just started off as a phrase that's really just to help me write the song and get me onto the next bit.

So really it's just basically a pop song and I recorded it with David (Kahne) and we just treated it that way, bit of guitar, bit of bass drum, bit of this, that and the other.

Couple fail to reach private agreement

Paul McCartney and Heather Mills are set to take their divorce to the open court next February, having failed to reach a private settlement.

Despite rumours that the two would reach a settlement of £60 million ($113 million), a source said that the five day hearing has been scheduled with a fall back date later in 2008 if the February hearing fails to produce an agreement.

The stumbling block is believed to be Mills' refusal to accept a gagging order as part of the deal.

Her spokesman declined to comment and no one was immediately available to comment from the McCartney camp, reports Reuters.

The couple are now heading for a full-blown public divorce hearing after the breakdown of negotiations over his £825 million ($1.5 billion) fortune.

Sources close to the case said a date has now been set for a five-day trial, adding: "It is finished. There are no more talks planned.

"The whole thing broke down without agreement. A trial date has been set for February next year and that is where we are heading."

A major sticking point is said to be Sir Paul's demand that Ms Mills, 39, promised not to speak about their four-year marriage.

It is understood McCartney, 65, offered her £50 million ($95 million), including a lump sum of as much as £30 million ($57 million), plus an annual income for their daughter Beatrice.

But Ms Mills, it is thought, was willing to accept as much as £15 million ($28 million) less - provided she was free to discuss their relationship.

Sources confirmed the confidentiality clause was a major problem during yesterday's eight hours of legal talks at the Royal Courts of Justice.

There now seems little chance of a deal between now and a five-day, public divorce hearing in front of Mr Justice Bennett, a High Court judge.

The legal fees for that hearing alone are likely to cost the couple more than £1million ($1.9 million) while the total legal bills are likely to make it the most lucrative case for lawyers in history.

A source said: "They are just not agreeing. Obviously there were other factors but confidentiality is one of the big problems."

Following a gruelling day of discussions the pair emerged from Court 16 at the Royal Courts of Justice in Holborn at around 6.30pm but both declined to comment.

Sir Paul flashed his usual "V" for victory sign while Ms Mills shielded her face from the throng of waiting cameramen and reporters.

McCartney was later seen at a gallery launch in the West End with daughters Stella and Mary. Also present were Thandie Newton and Gwyneth Paltrow.

The McCartney divorce should have been straightforward because the relatively short length of the marriage meant Ms Mills is not likely to be awarded anything more than a small proportion of his fortune, estimated at £825 million.

Ms Mills, 39, a former topless model who lost a leg in a road crash, has been depicted as a golddigger, only out for the former Beatles' money.

But it has also been suggested that what she really craves is publicity and her apparent willingness to forgo many millions, allowing her - if she wants - to write a book and enter the US chat show circuit, appears to be evidence of that.

She has already hosted Larry King Live in the presenter's absence - removing her artificial limb on air - and recently entered the US equivalent of Strictly Come Dancing (Dancing With The Stars).

In May last year the couple announced their plans for an amicable divorce but it seems certain now to be settled in the most bitter circumstances.

The split has already been played out to a large extent in public with extraordinary details leaked to newspapers of Ms Mills' s divorce counter petition.

In the court document, now subject to a legal battle, she accused Sir Paul of assaulting her on four separate occasions, including stabbing her in the arm with the stem of a broken wine glass.

She also accused McCartney of refusing to allow her to have a bedpan beneath the marital bed, leaving her to crawl to the bathroom at night.

He vehemently denies the claims but will not relish having such accusations aired in court next February.

Sir Paul McCartney, James McCartney, Mary McCartney and Stella McCartney attended the gallery opening party of Established and Sons, on Thursday, October 11 in London.

Also at the party was Dhani Harrison and Stella's husband Alasdhair Willis who is one of the owners of Established and Sons.

Divorce talks stall over Heather's right to speak about life as Mrs McCartney

Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills last night ended eight hours of intense legal argument without reaching a deal on what could be the costliest divorce on record.

The Daily Mail has learned that the former model was ready to give up £14 million ($26.6 million) of her payout to win the freedom to write her life story and to appear on U.S. chat shows.

But a hearing behind closed doors at the Royal Courts of Justice failed to convince Sir Paul and his legal team to agree.

The warring couple had spent all day before Mr Justice Coleridge hammering out a settlement which would make Miss Mills richer by between £50 million ($95 million) and £64 million ($212 million).

But as the pair left in separate cars without comment, a friend revealed two sticking points: a privacy clause preventing 39-year-old Miss Mills discussing the marriage and her annual income from the ex-Beatle's £825 million (1.5 billion) fortune.

The judge's role was to advise what the court would consider a fair settlement and if Sir Paul and Miss Mills do accept his advice there will be no need for a public High Court hearing next year.

The couple arrived separately for the hearing. Miss Mills, in a wheelchair because of problems with her prosthetic leg, was hidden behind a black blanket by bodyguards. Sir Paul, 65, strolled in, waving to photographers.

The door of the sixth floor court remained barred by four chairs (even a spyhole was taped over) throughout the hearing. Discussions were interrupted only for a vegetarian takeaway for the McCartneys.

The Daily Mail has learned that the basis of the deal is a lump sum of £15 million ($28.5 million) for Miss Mills plus annual payments of £3.5 million ($6.5 million) until their four-year-old daughter Beatrice reaches 18.

But it is understood she is willing to receive smaller annual payments - of between £1.75 million($3.3 million) and £2.5 million ($4.7 million) - in addition to the £15 million ($28.5 million), if the gagging order is eased.

A close friend of Miss Mills said: "Contrary to popular belief it has not been all about the money for her.

"The custody access rights to Beatrice have been the subject of much debate. She wants to be able to travel extensively with her daughter and has even entertained the possibility of living abroad.

"Most important has been the gagging order. She wants to be able to talk, she wants to be able to cash in - and her marriage to Paul is a golden ticket which will ensure an income for her long after Beatrice has turned 18."

The friend added: "The compromise is that she will be able to talk about the marriage but only in positive and unspecific terms. She can never do a confessional warts and all chat."

The cost of this freedom is put at around £14million, according to the friend, who added: "The lump sum will stick at £15million so she knows she will never have to work again."

The Mail understands that Miss Mills has also agreed to be provided with a substantial and secure London property for herself and Beatrice.

Miss Mills's friend claimed last night that she even wanted a family holiday with Sir Paul and their daughter once a deal was done.

"She wants to have this New Year break and even feels that in the future they might get back together.

"Heather feels she has this power over men - and Paul has certainly been a victim of that before with her."

Soon after leaving court, Sir Paul met his daughters, Mary and Stella, at the opening of a new art gallery in Piccadilly.

'Deal struck' in Heather Mills-Paul McCartney divorce case

Flashing a 'V' for victory, or maybe it was for peace, Sir Paul McCartney tonight left a marathon divorce hearing with his ex-wife Heather Mills after hammering out a deal which could become one of the costliest in British legal history.

While Mills avoided the media, entering the court under a blanket and leaving with her head covered in the back of a car, a seemingly jovial McCartney took time out from the eight-hour hearing and joked around with reporters.

Sir Paul, 65, briefly left the room this afternoon and stopped to chat to female reporters, asking them if they were enjoying themselves. He then reportedly returned to the court, slumping his shoulders, raising his eyebrows and staggering back into the room in a mocking gesture.

The estranged couple had arrived separately at 10am this morning. By mid-afternoon they had reportedly made a deal, when laughter could be heard inside the room where they and their lawyers had spent the morning arguing over Sir Paul's estimated £825 million ($1.5 billion) fortune.

The former Beatle was the first to leave the hearing, which was held in the family division of the High Court in central London. He was driven out in a black Lexus at 6.40pm, flashing his traditional 'V' for victory sign to photographers.

A few minutes later, Ms Mills left in the back of a Ford Mondeo with her head covered.

The hearing was a reconciliation meeting to sort out the finances of the pair's split and the deal is believed to be a 'no squeal deal' in which both parties will be banned from talking in public about it.

There had been widespread rumours that McCartney had offered his ex-wife £20 million ($38 million) but that she had asked for £50 million ($95 million).

Meanwhile today some divorce lawyers estimated that a more realistic settlement would be a £15 million ($28.5 million) lump sum with a £3 million ($5.7 million) annual 'top up' for the maintenance of Mills' lifestyle and the couple's four-year-old daughter Beatrice.

Mills, 39, was the first to arrive for the 10.30am hearing at an annexe of the Royal Courts of Justice away from the public gaze of the courts' main entrance, keeping a low profile in the back of her car.

The former model and charity campaigner, who has waged a war on the paparazzi since her split from McCartney while simultaneously trying to launch a showbiz career, was shielded by a large blanket in a bid to block the assembled media from taking her photo.

An aide later carried a wheelchair from the back of a car for Mills, who lost a leg in a motorcycle accident in 1993.

Sir Paul arrived shortly afterwards, dressed in a sombre grey suit and peering out at photographers from the passenger seat of his car.

The pair entered the court by the judge's stairs, a completely separate route within the public Family Arbitration building, to reach Court 16 for the hearing, which was listed discreetly under "Unassigned Cases".

Once the celebrity ex-couple were inside, the spy hole in the court door was covered and a row of chairs placed across the corridor. All that could be seen of the crucial hearing was a strip-light framed by the steel windows visible from the back of the building.

The judge who oversaw the hearing is Mr Justice Coleridge, who will disqualify himself from the case if it is unresolved. If that happens it will then go to costly public trial in March.

Sir Paul was previously married for 29 years to Linda McCartney, who died of cancer in 1998.

He met Mills at a charity event in 1999 and they became engaged in 2001. They married the following year in a castle in Ireland, but separated in May last year.

October 11, 2007 -- Daily Mail

Paul McCartney and Heather Mills locked in £825m divorce war

Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills met in court today as their lawyers tried to hammer out potentially the most costly divorce deal in British legal history.

Ms Mills, 39, appeared close to a record £5 0million ($95 million) share of his £825 million ($1.5 billion) fortune. They parted in May last year after four years of marriage .

To ensure secrecy in Court 16 on the sixth floor of the Royal Courts of Justice in Holborn, the spyhole on the door was covered from the inside.

Sir Paul McCartney looks relaxed as he enjoys a leisurely breakfast before leaving for court

A barricade of office chairs prevented access and the hearing was listed discreetly by just its case number.

Ms Mills arrived first for the private hearing in which the two sides will try to thrash out a settlement with a judge present to offer guidance.

Ms Mills was driven in via a back entrance in a black Mondeo accompanied by a minder and a companion, believed to be her sister Fiona.

The car's rear window was obscured with a mat while a blanket was held up to shield her. Ms Mills, holding on to crutches, was helped from the car and into a wheelchair before being pushed inside.

Sir Paul, 65, arrived half an hour later, having stopped off for a cup of tea at a café close to his home in St John's Wood.

He was driven to the same back entrance in a Lexus at about 10am.

Wearing a dark blue suit, the former Beatle cheerfully acknowledged journalists but said nothing.

The pair were later taken up to Court 16 using the judge's back staircase, avoiding all public spaces in the courthouse.

The discussions between the couple and their expensively assembled legal team are expected to last all day.

Ms Mills's lawyer Anthony Julius, who also acted for Princess Diana in her divorce, was at her side.

One lawyer turned up late and found himself locked outside but court staff finally agreed to carry in his documents after a series of frantic phone calls.

The hearing, called a financial dispute resolution (FDR), is designed to sort out a settlement without the couple going to a full-blown divorce case.

If it comes to that it is unlikely to be held until next year at the earliest as the court calendar is extremely busy, suggest sources.

McCartney will be anxious to avoid publicity with Ms Mills, in leaked divorce papers, accusing him of assaulting her on four occasions during their marriage, a claim he vehemently denies.

For today's hearing all court listings had been taken down but it is thought the hearing was taking place in front of Mr Justice Coleridge, whose job is to "knock heads together" and reach a settlement.

Ms Mills's spokesman Phil Hall, a former editor of the News Of The World, explained that his client needed a wheelchair because of recent problems she was suffering with her prosthetic limb.

He said: "Heather has been having problems with her leg lately. It's been swelling up and she's had difficulties getting her prosthetic on, which is not uncommon. So that could be the reason she's been taken into the court in a wheelchair.

"But it could also be because the last time she faced the press on crutches, she was knocked over, so the wheelchair could be a precaution."

He said that reports Ms Mills could be awarded a £50 million settlement was just speculation but added that it seemed a reasonable figure in a case such as this.

One lawyer told said that around eight out of 10 cases taken to FDR are settled at that stage.
During the meeting, the judge will hear all evidence on the case and all offers and demands made so far in a divorce battle that has so far run for well over a year.

He will then indicate what a court would order - within a range of figures - with expectation on Sir Paul and Ms Mills to reach agreement.

A spokeswoman for Mishcon de Reya, the law firm representing Ms Mills, said: "The hearing happens before any divorce trial takes place. It is in front of a completely separate judge to see if it can be mediated there and then."

Reports today claim Sir Paul may offer his estranged wife a lump sum of £15 million ($28.5 million) with an additional £3 million ($5.7 million) a year until their Beatrice, who is four at the end of this month, reaches her 18th birthday.

That would dwarf the current record of £48 million ($91 million) awarded to Beverley Charman in her bitterly contested divorce from insurance broker John Charman in May.

Mr Justice Coleridge presided over that case, the most generous ever awarded, and has recently been described as the "friend of the reticent housewife".

October 11, 2007 -- BBC News

McCartney divorce back in court

Sir Paul and Heather Mills McCartney have been at the High Court in London to try to reach a settlement in their high-profile divorce proceedings.

Lady McCartney arrived first, entering the Royal Courts of Justice with a blanket over her head.

Sir Paul arrived shortly afterwards. Both used judges' entrances to get to court, avoiding contact with the media.

Press reports suggest the immediate issue is likely to be the size of the divorce settlement.

As the time approached for the beginning of the hearing, officials barricaded the entrance to court 16 with four office chairs.

Even the small spy hole in the door of the court had been covered to stop prying eyes.

Estimated fortune

Sir Paul and Lady McCartney, who have a three-year-old daughter named Beatrice, announced in May 2006 that they were ending their four-year marriage.

With the former Beatle's fortune estimated at £825 million ($1.5 billion), it has the potential to be the most costly divorce in British legal history.

Press speculation has suggested the settlement could reach £60m, exceeding the record £48m businessman John Charman was told to pay his former wife in May this year.

In January, Lady McCartney's lawyers denied she had agreed to a financial settlement worth £32 million ($60.8 million)

The couple were last at the High Court in March for a preliminary hearing.

More

October 11, 2007 -- Yahoo News

McCartney in court for divorce hearing

Paul McCartney and Heather Mills appeared in court Thursday as British media reported they may be nearing a settlement in their high-profile divorce.

McCartney and Mills arrived separately at London's Royal Courts of Justice. Bodyguards shielded Mills from view with a dark blanket as she made her way into the neo-Gothic courthouse.

A Mills aide later carried a wheelchair from the back of a car for the former model, who lost a leg in a motorcycle accident in 1993.

McCartney arrived minutes later, wearing a dark gray suit.

The hearing is listed discreetly on the daily court lists only by its case number, one of two cases not listed as assigned to a particular judge or courtroom. Even a small security viewing hole in the door of the court room was covered to stop prying eyes.

News reports say the immediate issue is likely to be the size of Mills' divorce settlement from the wealthy former Beatle. Press speculation has recently put the size of the settlement between $40 million and $100 million.

McCartney and Mills, who have a 3-year-old daughter, announced in May of last year that they were splitting up after four years of marriage.

They married in June 2002, four years after McCartney's first wife, Linda, died of breast cancer.

McCartney and Mills have a 3-year-old daughter, Beatrice.

Mills, 39, recently appeared as a contestant on the U.S. television network's "Dancing With the Stars" program. She was the first contestant to compete on the show with an artificial limb.

The estranged couple and their lawyers will attend a one-day hearing schemed either to take place tomorrow or Thursday at a location unusually moved out of the Royal Courts of Justice to avoid media attention.

At the hearing - thought to be before Mr Justice Coleridge - the pair are looking to agree a financial settlement and avoid the dispute going to a costly and public hearing.

Ex factor: Heather Mills could secure a pay out from Sir Paul McCartney estimated to be between £30 million ($57 million) to £50 million ($95 million), the pair are pictured leaving a court hearing in March

At such hearings, all offers already made are laid on the table and the judge then indicates what he thinks a court would order, within a range of figures, were the couple not to reach agreement between themselves.

The deal the pair are circling is based on a report first revealed by this paper in July of this year.

That agreement, which has been tinkered with in recent weeks, is that Miss Mills should receive a lump sum of around £15 million ($28 million).

For the remaining 14 years until their daughter Beatrice, who turns four at the end of this month, reaches her 18th birthday, Heather will in addition receive annually between £3 million($6 million) and £3.5 million ($7 million).

The total eventual payout is therefore estimated to be between £57 million ($108 million) and £64 million ($121 million).

Family lawyers have speculated that Heather's payout should be a lot less - as little as half that amount.

But Sir Paul may be willing to pay out considerably more to prevent Heather airing the reasons for the split in public.

Commentators believe that the plan to stagger the bulk of the payment reflects Sir Paul's concern that Miss Mills, who has courted the media as a reality TV star in the U.S. since the split, should maintain a dignified silence.

In divorce papers leaked last October, Miss Mills accused Sir Paul of assaulting her at least four times, once slashing her arm with a broken wine glass.

She also said he was drunk regularly and smoked cannabis during their marriage and that he prevented her from breast-feeding Beatrice.

Miss Mills will not, it is understood, get any property in the agreement. She already has a seaside home in Hove, East Sussex, and recently bought a £400,000 ($756,341) house in Slovenia as well as a large property in the Home Counties.

She will not, as has been suggested, get Sir Paul's £10 million ($19 million) London home in St John's Wood, which he has had since the 1970s. Though it was recently reported that she was househunting in that area.

Sir Paul, 65, will also pay for all of Beatrice's living expenses including her schooling, travel, nannies and security. He and Miss Mills will continue to share joint access to their daughter.

The divorce settlement - which is set to be the largest in British legal history - will include a clause ensuring that neither party ever speaks publicly about what led to the breakdown of their marriage.

In recent months there has been frenzied to-ing and fro-ing between lawyers for both sides.

Miss Mills, 39, is understood to have been pushing for a larger interim payment equivalent to £15 million ($28 million) after tax. The annual payment has also wavered.

The agreement is being seen as a happy outcome, financially at least, for both parties.

Sir Paul is paying a smaller lump sum than Miss Mills feels she deserves. But she will still end up with a very large total for someone whose marriage broke up after only four years.

By staggering the amount over the next 14 years - by which time Sir Paul will be 80 - he will get his wish that Miss Mills should not speak about the marriage publicly.

In recent months there has been much speculation as to the nature of the deal, with estimates varying wildly.

Some reports suggested the rather unlikely situation in which Miss Mills would get nothing - since Sir Paul apparently increased his wealth by very little during their marriage. Other reports claimed she would receive £200 million ($378 million) of his reported £825 million ($1.5 billion) fortune.

Even at £57 million ($108 million), the settlement would still overshadow the £48 million ($90 million) insurance broker John Charman, 53, was ordered to give his former wife Beverley in May in Britain's biggest contested divorce settlement.

Neither spokesmen for Mills nor McCartney were willing to comment on the progress of the divorce.

The estranged couple and their lawyers will attend a one-day hearing at a location that has been moved out of the Royal Courts of Justice to avoid the media.

The aim of the hearing before Mr Justice Coleridge ? on Wednesday or Thursday ? is to agree a financial settlement and avoid the dispute going to a costly and public hearing. The venue is thought to be within a mile of the Royal Courts of Justice in The Strand.

If successful, Ms Mills could walk away with a settlement worth somewhere between £30 million ($57 million) to £50 million ($95 million), made up of a lump sum plus annual payments for the couple's daughter, Beatrice. The hearing involves a special procedure that has applied to all disputes over money arising from divorce since 2004.

All offers already made are laid on the table and the judge then indicates what he thinks a court would order, within a range of figures, were the couple not to reach agreement between themselves. It is believed that Sir Paul has offered in the region of £20 million and that Ms Mills is insisting on a figure of nearer £50 million.

Family lawyers speculate that the appropriate settlement range in this case is £25 million ($47.5 million) to £30 million ($57 million). But Sir Paul may pay much more to avoid the unpleasantness of allegations being aired in public.

One source said: "This case ought to settle. It is absolutely straightforward."

October 8, 2007 -- Breitbart.com

McCartney Honored at Q Music Awards

Paul McCartney and Kylie Minogue were among the honorees Monday at the Q music awards.

McCartney paid tribute to his late wife, Linda, as he was awarded the title of "Q Icon" at the annual ceremony. He thanked his children and his former bandmates in The Beatles, but didn't mention his second wife, Heather Mills. The pair are divorcing.

"I thank Linda for seeing me through some real tough periods," McCartney said.

McCartney, 65, said he still loves the music business.

"I've been doing this since I was just a little bairn and it's still the same for me now-still the same magic, still the same emotion, still the same thrill," he said.

Minogue received a "Q Idol" award.

"Just don't ask me what it means, but I'm very grateful and honored to be receiving this," the 39-year-old Australian pop diva told the audience at London's Grosvenor House Hotel.

Honorees were chosen by readers of music magazine Q.

Arctic Monkeys were named "best act in the world today," while Kate Nash was named best breakthrough artist. Amy Winehouse, who has been in and out of headlines and rehab in recent months, won the best album prize for "Back to Black," but didn't attend the ceremony.

Go back in time to the 1960s where every girls dream was to meet one of the fab four. In 1964, unassuming local girl, Jenny Lamb lived this dream when she was lucky enough to snare the opportunity to join Paul McCartney at his 21st (?) birthday party.

Jenny is immortalised in photos from the night, which were on display at the Beatles memorabilia display at Belmont Library, where last week ABC Newcastle presenter Simone Thurtell broadcast on location.

The question on everyone's lips was: how did she do it? How on earth did Jenny get the chance to be part of a famous Beatles legend's 21st birthday party?

"When I was young and living in Sydney, we knew a lot of people, and there was always a lot of celebrities coming into town," Jenny says. "I think that the media at the time realised that Paul was having his birthday, and thought they better get some people together."

"They didn't want to have it go crazy, so they decided to get some sensible people who weren't going to go loco - I don't know how I got in there - so a few of us were chosen," she says.

The party was organised through the a daily Sydney newspaper, with guests transported from the company's building, to the a hotel where the Beatles were staying, in hire cars.

"I was about 17 years old, so I was pretty naïve, but the party was fairly relaxed," Jenny recalls. "(It was) just like a drinks party, where you could mingle and chat with the Beatles.

"I particularly remember talking with George - I really liked him - he was just a gentle guy and a bit more down to earth."

Incredibly, Jenny met Paul McCartney again in 1975, when he returned to Australia to tour with his band Wings. A photo was among a large collection of Beatles fans collectibles on display, at the Beatles Memorabilia event, Belmont Library.

"He came out with Wings and I think he was married to Linda; she was certainly with him," she says.

"There were a few other girls in the photograph from the 21st birthday, and they found us - I don't know how because I was married then and had changed my name -and asked us to come back again and meet Paul."

"We went backstage at the Horden Pavilion and Linda was there, arms crossed, like "Ok, how well do you know him?" It was funny," Jenny says.

Sir Paul McCartney's former bandmember Denny Laine has reunited with his estranged children after 11 years. Denny, who formed Wings in the early 1970s with McCartney, gradually lost contact with his two children - son Laine, 34, and singer daughter Heidi, 33 - after he divorced his wife Jo-Jo in 1980. But just before Jo-Jo died last October, after a long battle with liver cancer, she expressed her wish for her ex-husband to reunite with his children. And Denny met his daughter recently.

Heidi says, "Dad came over to Liverpool to play at the Cavern Club and we went to see him. It had been 11 years since we last met but it felt exciting and comfortable, like it was meant to be. "Unfortunately, earlier that day Dad found out his brother had just died, so we all kind of came together to support each other. It makes a person realise life is too short not to be together."

Stella McCartney is fast becoming fashion's 'super-mum'.

With the birth of her third child only a couple of months away, the Beatles' daughter was all smiles and all-action in Paris this morning (Thursday) as she delivered her latest 'fashion baby' ­ her spring/summer 2008 collection.

"It's all down to my fantastic team," Stella said backstage, as she simultaneously cradled 10-month-old daughter, Bailey Linda, in her arms; assured two-and-half-year-old son, Miller, that "yes, there is going to be a fashion show"; and made last-minute adjustments to the models' clothes.

Sir Paul McCartney, looking fit and trim in a Dior Homme black suit and trainers, led a contingent of Stella's family and friends, including brother, James and sister, Mary; Twiggy and her husband Leigh Lawson, whose 27-year-old daughter, Carly, is doing a six-month internship with the designer; the singer, Lily Allen; and the American record producer and rapper, Kanye West.

The collection was shown against a backdrop of a vertical flower garden, designed in collaboration with the French botanist, Patrick Blanc, which will be recreated at a low-income housing project in the city of Boulogne.

Stella revisited the lingerie theme which was a feature of her student collection when she graduated from Central Saint Martins fashion college in London, twelve years ago, in 1995.

Delicate, white, silk voile camisoles and floor-length petticoat-dresses were embellished with embroidery, tiny pintucks and faggotting details. Graceful smocks and dresses in multi-coloured, floral chiffon featured flounced, rise-and-fall hemlines, mid-calf in front and dropping to the ankle at the back.

The same floral print was used for cheeky playsuits with corset-lacing at the sides. But, mindful of 'post-baby tummy", there were many variations on loose-fitting, wide-legged dungarees and all-in-ones in paisley and floral cottons.

Easy separates included safari-style jackets, softly-tailored blazers and shorts in delphinium-blue, shirts and flared trousers in a brown and white foliage-pattern and funky twinsets, shorts and swimsuits, knitted in a shark motif and trimmed with faded-blue denim.

For evening, Stella showed corset-dresses in hand-quilted silk and chiffon, and barely-there slip-dresses with frothy tiers of flounces, juxtaposed with cream tuxedo jackets and flared, tailored trousers.

Accessories included hand-carved wooden clogs, some featuring multi-coloured glass beads or diamanté and lace decoration, with matching bags.

Sir Paul McCartney has donated $40,000 (£20.000) to comedy writer Carla Lane to help keep his pal's animal sanctuary in West Sussex, England, open.

(Webmaster's Note: Both Paul and Linda appeared on Carla Lane's TV sitcom "Bread" back in the '80s.)

For most pop legends, life beyond bus-pass age remains uncharted territory. It's a betrayal of the rock'n'roll ethos to live that long in the first place. What you're supposed to do and how you're meant to behave is anybody's guess.

So it is not a simple matter to tell Sir Paul McCartney, the 65-year-old knight of the realm, seller of 100m singles and the man you need to see about the publishing rights to, among other things, Guys and Dolls and Grease, that he ought to act his age. In this area, as in so many others, he is a pioneer. We should regard his newly reclaimed chestnut mop-top, unveiled at the press conference announcing the line-up for Liverpool's Capital of Culture celebrations, as a bold step forward, if not an obvious improvement. In any case, he cheerfully admits he's been colouring his hair for years. He may have got old before he died, but he dyed before he got old.

Since his split from Heather Mills, Sir Paul appears to have been revitalised to the point of giddiness: he's been photographed in the company of Renée Zellweger; in March he left EMI and signed with a new music label owned by Starbucks. Recently he's been dabbling in the sort of viral entertainment so beloved of the young people of today, posting little homemade-looking videos on YouTube and letting them spread and mutate. Some feature him strumming selections from his new album on an acoustic guitar and ad-libbing with toe-curling confidence. One in particular, a video for the single Nod Your Head, in which McCartney and a bunch of his mates (you can spot Kate Moss's ex Jefferson Hack in there somewhere) nod their heads in time to the music, has spawned dozens of spoofs and imitations.

Whether he is desperately trying to be down with the kids or whether he's just doing exactly what he likes, Sir Paul seems slightly beyond the reach of criticism at this point. Perhaps he's just past caring.

When Sir Paul McCartney headlined at Live8 two years ago, he cold-shouldered his fellow Beatle, Ringo Starr.

"I was never asked to do it, he didn't ask me," said Ringo at the time. "It's too late now ­ it's very disappointing."

Now, Starr has been similarly shunned by his former bandmate for next year's celebrations which mark Liverpool's year as the European Capital of Culture.

Although Starr will be attending the launch event in January, I'm told he definitely won't be performing alongside McCartney when he plays a sell-out show at Anfield stadium six months later. It's a blow to organisers, since the celebrations seemed like the most fitting event for the two surviving members of the city's most celebrated cultural export to perform. It's now thought that they will not appear together at all during what's meant to be one of the proudest years in their home city's history. Relations between the two surviving band members have been rickety in recent years, notably when Starr was openly critical of McCartney's decision to reverse the Lennon-McCartney songwriting credits on a live album, describing it as "underhanded".

When I ask whether there was any possibility the pair might still be persuaded to appear together in 2008, a spokesman for the event (in slightly poor taste) responds: "We don't know what will happen, but I can confirm we definitely won't be getting John Lennon or George Harrison."

Budding rockers can now play bass with Sir Paul McCartney after the star signed up to become a video tutor on a music website that won an important award last night.

NowPlayIt, a downloadable video training service featuring a course by Sir Paul, won Best Digital Service at the BT Digital Music Awards.

Other famous names to contibute tutorials to the site include Blur, KT Tunstall, Placebo and Athlete, producing 30-minute lessons in which they guide amateurs through their hits.

The videos, which include chord patterns and drum charts, cost £4 ($8) each and can be viewed on video-enabled digital music players. Artists describe their songwriting process and explain how to master tricky riffs, in a modern equivalent of Bert Weedon's famous Play in a Day tutorial book.

Outside Line, the company behind Now Play It, is in talks to offer its 400 lessons free to schools. The Times has learnt that Sir Paul recorded his first video tutorial last week, choosing "Ever Present Past," a song from his album of this year, "Memory Almost Full".

A Now Play It spokesman said: "Sir Paul recorded lessons for bass, drums and guitar all inside one hour. He hopes to record further tutorials from his classic back catalogue."

The tutorials also count towards Top 40 chart sales and give record companies, decimated by downloading, a valuable new income stream.

With Radiohead announcing that fans can name the price of their new website-only album, the Digital Music Awards offered further evidence of the diverse new challenges facing the traditional recording industry.

SO WHAT'S THE NEWS?

First we would like to tell you about what must be one of the greatest tutorials we've ever shot with someone who needs no introduction.

Just cast your gaze over some of the visuals - No your eyes do not deceive you! We were honoured and privileged to film Sir Paul McCartney last week for NowPlayIt.

Knowing what a busy man he is, we originally asked him if he would do a guitar tutorial. But, not one to do things by halves, Sir Paul came back and offered to do an acoustic guitar, electric guitar, drums and bass tutorial taking you through all the parts for his latest single, "Ever Present Past".

In the lessons Paul not only takes you through all the parts to the song but actually records each part live before adding the next, gradually building the track up layer by layer, track by track.

This is going to be a bumper lesson that will contain tutorials for all the instruments mentioned above - with a final play through featuring Paul playing, well - everything!

Channel 4 came down to the shoot with Alex Zane to film the whole thing. If you were watching C4 on Sunday (30th Sept.) you may have seen the piece.

The full tutorial for Paul McCartney, "Ever Present Past" will be live on the site in the next week, but if you can't wait that long and fancy a quick peak CLICK for the preview.

The CD portion of the album will feature the songs "In Private," "Why So Blue" and "222," while the DVD rounds up five tracks from McCartney's intimate June concert at London's Electric Ballroom. The DVD also boasts videos for the "Memory Almost Full" singles "Dance Tonight" and "Ever Present Past."

McCartney has no touring plans at the moment, but will play a one-off Oct. 22 show at the Olympia in Paris and has also confirmed a June 1, 2008, gig in his Liverpool, England, hometown as part of the city's year as European Capital of Culture. (Webmaster's Note: He's also doing a gig at the Roundhouse in Camden (England) on October 25th)

The former Beatle will headline the Liverpool Sound Concert at Liverpool Football Club's Anfield soccer stadium. Fans can register for a ballot for tickets at liverpool08.com until Oct. 7.

There are several other balloted events during the program, including the opening of "Liverpool the Musical" on Jan. 12 at the newly built 10,600-capacity Liverpool Echo Arena, where McCartney's former Beatles bandmate Ringo Starr will perform alongside the Eurythmics' Dave Stewart, Echo & the Bunnymen and the Lightning Seeds' Ian Broudie.

Former Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr will arrive in Iceland October 5 and are scheduled to attend the Unveiling of Yoko Ono's Imagine Peace Tower on Videy Island off Reykjavík October 9, on her late husband's John Lennon's birthday.

According to mbl.is, the Beatles will stay at Hótel Borg with a team of bodyguards and assistants.

Both McCartney and Starr have visited Iceland before, McCartney in 2000 with his former wife Heather Mills, and Starr in 1984 when he played with local band Studmenn.

The Imagine Peace Tower is a powerful beacon of light representing people's wishes for peace, set to shine every year between October 9, Lennon's birthday, and December 8, the anniversary of his death. Lennon would have turned 67 next October 9.

Paul McCartney's "Ecce Cor Meum" DVD (US & Canada)

To be released in 2008 (US)

DVD recorded at London's Royal Albert Hall on November 3, 2006

CLICK TO PRE-ORDER

Paul McCartney's recent "classical" oratorio is called Ecce Cor Meum, which translates as "Behold My Heart." The idealistic texts, also by McCartney, are meditations on goodness, spirituality, peace, and love, and are well served by the pretty, Romantic melodies; the long choral and orchestral sections flow one into the next. The Interlude (composed after the death of his wife, Linda), with its lovely oboe solo, is simple and moving. The music builds throughout to an emotional climax and the entrance of the organ later in the work--beautifully played and handsomely recorded--is quite remarkable. This is a far more advanced work than 1991's Liverpool Oratorio: better orchestrated, more through-composed. No, it's not the last word in compositional sophistication, but it has many beautiful moments, and McCartney's legions of fans will need to own it.

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