#mike mccartney

[harrisonarchive]

Photo by Mike McCartney:

“On board the Royal Iris just before the boys performed on the all-night Riverboat Shuffle [presumably on July 6, 1962]. They’re in the second-best dressing room — Acker Bilk had the star’s room — behind the captain’s bridge. We’d heard of something called an ouija board. We knew you turned a glass upside down on a table and somehow it would connect you to the supernatural. So the boys held each other’s wrists to create a magic circle. The only thing we didn’t know was that you had to put your hand on the glass!” - Mike McCartney, Remember: The Recollections and Photographs of Michael McCartney (1992) “We once did a Ouija board thing when we were kids, it was just me, George… and John, I think… So we weren’t really into all that, but somebody just said, ‘Let’s do it.’ So we’re touching the glass, you know, saying ‘OK, nobody push it, OK?’ So then, suddenly… whoa, it’s moving! Now, my mum had died a couple of years before and it says, ‘Congratulations… son…’ And we’re going, ‘NO!’ ‘Congratulations… son… number one… In NME!’ And so we were all, ‘Oh, f**k off! There’s no way she would know what NME was’. And there’s George, you know (laughing). He’d been pushing it all the time! Bad boy!” - Paul McCartney, NME, October 2010 (x)

#George Harrison #Paul McCartney #John Lennon #Mike McCartney #The Beatles #George and Paul #George and John #fits queue like a glove

[kinsfaun]

Paul McCartney getting ready for a gig, 1962. Forthlin Road, Allerton, Liverpool.

#paul mccartney #1962 #mike mccartney #forthlin road #the beatles

[crepesuzette2023]

photo by Mike McCartney showing Paul after a Cavern All-Nighter, 1961.

"I mainly watch Lennon. He's like a caged animal, never mind a Beatle. Not that I've got anything against my brother, but he's just a brother (you know, the one who picks his nose and won't come off the toilet 'cos he's playing his guitar or reading those nudy books). Lennon just stands there, legs apart, defying you to come up an' hit him, with the odd, razor sharp intro and mongol movement, but Paul gets the girls (and some of the musical lads) going with Till there was you. It' s a most unusual, Dad orientated, melodic song in the middle of all the rock 'n' roll screamers. Then he finishes 'em off with a more than passable Long Tall Sally.

         When it's all over and the magic Sesame Street door to the drezy finally opens and SLAMS behind me (to keep out the fans), the inevitable 'the Coke's warm' follows . . . usually from George. After stripping off the dripping black T-shirts and leathers and towelling down their sweat saturated bodies, they dress in blue jeans and black polos. Then the 'Cavern Conga' snakes back through the girls once more and down to the pints of bitter. This procedure continues ad infinitum till the pubs close and then we all sit it out in the drezy till morning.

         At daybreak Paul and I climb our weary legs out of the all night cave and headed, tireder but somehow wiser (and certainly happier) for the number 86 bus stop, where we look at the latest winkle pickers in shoe shop windows or sit on pillar-boxes with the wind whipping up from the Mersey, and wait for the first bus home... magic days." from: Mike McCartney, "The Macs: Mike McCartney's family album" (1981)

#paul mccartney #mike mccartney #the beatles #the cavern #early beatles

[eppysboys]

“Paul then got a bug about tadpoles. “Is it possible to make a pond, Dad?” he asked one day.

“What for, son?” asked Dad.

“To raise tadpoles,” replied Paul.

Dad was always very good at trying to supply anything we wanted – particularly if he thought it would be of an informative or educative nature. A few days later he dug a big hole in the back garden and sank a beer barrel in the space. Then he left us to fill it with water.

Paul got a lot of frog-spawn from somewhere and dumped all this into the barrel. For weeks he lived for nothing else but that spawn. The moment he came home from school, he’d be out into the garden, stuffing his face down into that spawn to see how it was getting on.

“They’re getting tails!” he’d yell at me and then I’d go and look at the messy stuff. I couldn’t understand what was exciting him.

“Look, there’s one with a body!” he’d point. All I could see was stuff that looked like a whole lot of dirty marmalade.

Then one day he ran into the house yelling blue murder.

“They’re getting away!” he was shouting. “They’re running off into the fields!”

Mum and I ran out and there was a horde of frogs jumping and leaping about all over the place. We managed to grab one or two and hold on to them for a moment or so but the minute we set them down again, off they went, into the bushes and hedges. In a very short time, Paul’s pond was completely empty! You should have seen his face! It would have made you laugh and cry at the same time. He had never counted on his spawn turning into real live frogs – neither had the frogs!”

Mike McCartney for Woman Magazine, Saturday, August 21, 1965.

#don't make a Paul + frogs joke don't make a Paul + frogs joke... #Paul McCartney #Mike McCartney #Paul #Mike #early years #quotes #family #the beatles + animals #'I couldn’t understand what was exciting him.' 🥰 #Mother Mary #Woman Magazine #the origin story... #Jim McCartney #Jim

[franklyimissparis]

who’s who in “let ‘em in” by wings (1976)

and some other thoughts on the song

prefacing this by saying that paul himself has changed his own interpretations and offered many explanations up for each name mentioned in the song! i don't necessarily think there's one right answer about what's about who - paul is known for writing about multiple things at once and having many layers of inspiration behind his lyrics. i will mostly be focusing on the names paul lists off within the song, in the order they appear, starting with:

- sister suzy: suzy was linda mccartney's alter ego within her own band, suzy and the red stripes which was active at the time this song was written. paul has stated on many occasions, including in “the lyrics”, that sister suzy is a reference to linda.

- brother john: a lot of articles reference brother john as being john eastman, linda's brother, while others reference john lennon. paul himself said it could be either. but if we're being honest, the first person paul's gonna think of when someone says “john” is lennon, hands down.

it's worth noting the use of sister when describing linda, paul's wife. while it could make sense in the context of the line brother john being john eastman (john and linda being actual brother and sister to one another), i think it's valid to examine the other potential meanings as well, particularly if we think of brother john as john lennon. it places paul's relation to them both as, firstly, familial and implies an equality in the roles they've served within paul's life. starting the list of people with linda (placing her as the most important as the lot) and then john second is interesting as well. we've seen countless examples of paul and john both comparing their relationships with their wives to their relationships with each other and i think it's striking that paul does this here, whether consciously or not.

(nowadays, paul's brother and sister in law via his wife nancy are actually named jon and susie, coincidentally enough.)

- martin luther: paul writes in "the lyrics" that this is about MLK which i'm sure it partially is but also there is an account of the other three beatles jokingly calling john "john martin luther lennon" in the early days though i couldn't find a solid source for this. there is the infamous 1985 hunter davies quote from paul's off the record phone call with him where he called john “martin luther lennon" but that was obviously years after let 'em in and in a massively different context (though potentially this could suggest that it’s a comparison he’s mentally made before but that’s a bit of a stretch, evidence wise lol). i’ve also heard people say martin luther could potentially be a reference to george martin as well, which is possible. others have speculated that this is a reference specifically to martin luther and the 95 theses (“knocking on the door" i.e. nailing the theses to the door) which paul says may have been true on an unconscious level but wasn't purposeful.

- phil and don: the everly brothers, one of paul and john's earliest and biggest influences as young lads. they were heavily inspired by the everly brothers when they performed as their duo, the nerk twins. they also referred to themselves as the foreverly brothers on other occasions.

- brother michael: paul's brother mike, unsurprisingly. though paul also states in “the lyrics” that this might have been a reference to michael jackson as the timing works with paul and linda meeting the jackson 5 around the same time as well but i think realistically he probably mostly had mike mccartney in mind with this one.

- auntie jin: paul’s real and favourite auntie from liverpool. saw one very rogue take that it’s meant to sound like ‘antigen’ but, quite frankly, i think that’s a bit horseshite.

- uncle ernie: in “the lyrics”, paul mentions that he has a cousin called ian who was sometimes referred to as "ern". but also states that at this point he was just playing with words and sounds and this probably wasn't his intention. previously, paul has attributed the line as a reference to keith moon, who was close to the mccartneys in the 70s prior to his death and played the character of uncle ernie in the film tommy (1975). it also could refer to ringo starr as well, as he voiced uncle ernie in the LSO's recording of tommy. ringo himself referenced let 'em in ("someone's knocking on the door/someone's ringing my bell") in 2003 in the song "english garden" which suggests that, at the very least, he felt as though there was some connection to him there.

- uncle ian: like previously stated, paul has mentioned his cousin ian as potentially inspiring this line but personally i think uncle ian could be a reference to paul himself. "ian iachimoe" (meant to phonetically sound out "paul mccartney" backwards) is one of paul's many pseudonyms, thought to have been created around 1966. he signed the lyrics of paperback writer with "yours sincerely, ian iachimoe" and it is also said that in order to distinguish themselves from the rest of his mail, paul would tell his close friends and family to address letters to ian iachimoe so he would know to read them.

paul referred to "let 'em in" as the musical equivalent of a "stocking stuffer" in “the lyrics” which i'm sure it was in his mind but me and my tin hat will be reading deeper into it as usual! this song reminds me quite a lot of “call me back again" in the sense that i think (subconsciously) it may be a bit of a poke at john to get in contact with him.

it's important to note that the album was written/recorded/released around the time of the infamous “it isn't 1956 anymore” incident where, according to john, paul kept showing up at the dakota with his guitar after sean was born without calling ahead. john would let him in but would be a bit put off about it until one day he gave paul a bit of shite for it and paul took it quite personally. while the actual incident is noted as happening in april of 1976 (according to the beatles bible) if it's true that, as john says, this happened a few times there could have also been some tension with paul appearing at john's in the prior months before paul recorded the song in february of 1976.

paul has spoken of the song as reminiscent of a typical party in liverpool where there's sort of a constant stream of family and friends coming through the door - this could be something paul is nudging john to remember (especially with the references to their teenage musical influences and acquaintances and paul's family members that john himself once knew personally.) something along the lines of "oh come on, john, you've gotta just let people into your life, you can't shut out the people who love and miss you. this is how it used to be with us, don't you remember those days?" ... but that's just my interpretation. anyway sorry this was so long but i just thought i'd share in case some of you hadn't heard all the possible interpretations of the lines :))

#think this is my longest post to date #all right time to go to bed seeing as it’s SIX and i’ve spent the past two hours compiling this 😭😭 #paul’s gay subconscious #< my new favourite tag #paul mccartney #wings #wings at the speed of sound #john lennon #mclennon #john and paul #linda mccartney #ringo starr #the beatles #keith moon #mike mccartney

[javelinbk]

From ‘Hidden Treasures of the National Trust’ - Mike McCartney sees his parents’ newly restored bedroom, after he and Paul decided to open it up to the public. They had previously decided to keep it closed out of respect for their mother, who died in that room.

#protect mikey at all costs #hidden treasure of the national trust #forthlin road #mike mccartney #paul mccartney

[groovybananastarfish]

Paul & Mike McCartney with their Auntie Jin

#paul mccartney #mike mccartney

[beatsfornone]

#paul mccartney #mike mccartney

[beatlepaul4ever]

None of them look like Paul, but Mike rocks that statesman-like pose and suit.

#mike mccartney #Twitter

[harrisonarchive]

Scan - George in Liverpool, late 1950s:

“A young George Harrison with his Tony Curtis haircut, bright fluorescent green wasitcoat (under the towel), and skintight jeans. He’s carrying flippers, so he must be off to the swimming pool or the sea. This would be around 1958 or ‘59, when George, Paul, and John were in the Quarrymen skiffle group. I though I’d taken this photograph, but Paul rang up to complain, ‘Hey you bugger lugs! I took that one!’” - Mike McCartney, Remember: The Recollections and Photographs of Michael McCartney (1992) “When we lived in 12 Ardwick Road I vaguely remember a lad who lived in Upton Green, a couple of roads away from us. The next time I saw the same lad was in and around the ‘Inny,’ but as he was a year ahead of me, he was immediately classified as one of the ‘big lads’ and therefore unapproachable. He was obviously one of those working class rebel chaps and toward the end of our school days together he got more and more outrageous. The compulsory school uniform was outvoted by his extrovert dress sense and his hair was the longest anyone could possibly get away with in the Inny, all ‘Tony Curtis’d back,’ with a school cap perched on the top rear like a rabbi’s skull cap. When his guitar playing affinity with Paul was established in the end of term skewl koncerts, he’d visit our new Forthlin home […]. His dress by this time was even more interesting… full length, skin-tight drainies down to his bright fluorescent socks, even brighter lime (Upton) green waistcoat under his blazer which he would flash at me in the school corridors (followed by a wink). He had the first blue suede, winkle picker shoes which together with incessant chewing of gum all became his trade marks. My Sweet Lord knows who he was, but his Mum must have loved him.” - Mike McCartney (writing about “George Handsome”), Thank U Very Much: Mike McCartney’s Family Album (1981) (x)

#George Harrison #harrisonarchive scans #quote #quotes about George #1950s #Paul McCartney #Mike McCartney #George and Paul #The Beatles #fits queue like a glove

[i-am-the-oyster]

Here's a YouTube video of someone unboxing the Mike McCartney Early Liverpool book. You can see the Paul photo wedged between other photos that are known to be taken in 1962 (like the Gene Vincent Cavern Club photos i.e.). So I think the date is right.

Wonderful! Thank you <3

The photo in question is visible at 3:14 for those playing along. I guess the bracelet does pre-date Paul's 21st then!

#the bracelet #mike mccartney #international treasure #i wish i could afford that book #side note: it includes a facsimile of the picasso article paul is reading in the observer in that other mike photo

[crepesuzette2023]

Let's worship at the church of Paul's private grief, feat. the McCartney brothers, fathers and sons

About 10 years ago Paul released the ‘Chaos and Creation in the Backyard’ album. The cover was one of the evocative photos that you did in the early 60s. For me it’s the composition of the photo that makes it, taking it behind the window frames. Mike: It’s through me mum’s net curtains. She made them. She died when we were in Forthlin Road when I was 12 years of age. They are very important to me and our family. So my mum had died and there’s our kid sitting on the deck chair in our back garden with his guitar. He used to get lost in his guitar and there he is, miles away, sitting on a deck chair with the washing above his head. It’s such a lovely picture. I took it through the gap in the curtains.

In fact years later, James, our kid’s son. He’s a great musician and singer. He was up and said “Uncle Mike, can I see your’s and dad’s old house?” So I took him and there is the photograph on the wall. They’d put a deck chair in the yard and the washing on the line so you can look out and imagine our kid in the deck chair. I said to the guy running the house “Have you got a guitar?” He said “It’s an old one upstairs. It’s all out of tune.” Eventually he brought it down. I said “Here you are James. Look at the picture. See the way he’s holding it and looking.” You go be your dad.” So I sent him outside and took his picture, exactly the same way all those years later. I gave it to him and our kid as a present, the two of them together.

(Mike McCartney on the Strange Brew Podcast)

(photograph by Mike McCartney)

#It's that they recreated the scene of young Paul's grief and depression and invite people to re-imagine it #as an important part of his and the Beatles' becoming #and Mike going 'go sit in your father's deck chair James' #mike mccartney #paul mccartney #James McCartney #20 Forthlin Rd #the beatles

[eppysboys]

Sam Leach and Joan McEvoy's Engagement Party, 17th March 1962 🕺💃

Earlier in the evening, The Beatles performed at the Village Hall in Knotty Ash, Liverpool. The evening was billed as a "St. Patrick's Night Rock Gala". Sam Leach, (Liverpool concert booker) booked The Beatles and Rory Storm and The Hurricanes to draw a big crowd so that he could make enough profits to pay for his engagement party, scheduled to follow the night's show. Both bands attended Leach's party, which didn't end until the following afternoon. Also present at the party was Mike McCartney, Paul's girlfriend Dorothy 'Dot' Rhone, Brian Epstein, Bob Wooler and Ted 'Kingsize' Taylor.

In his book Sam Leach has a distinct memory of 'a gang of us' (presumably including Beatles and Hurricanes) travelling to the party from Knotty Ash in a van. Their driver (not Neil Aspinall) pulled out from the Village Hall into the path of a speeding articulated lorry which seemed to have appeared from nowhere. Everyone braced themselves for the inevitable impact but miraculously the lorry, its brakes screeching hysterically, managed to stop less than a foot from the side of the van. Shocked, stunned, shaken and stirred, everyone in the van travelled the 1.5 miles to the party in complete silence. 

Hurricane Johnny 'Guitar' Byrne diary entry for 1962 mentions the party:

"Bought Zodiac. Knotty Ash, Orrell, then Sam Leach's engagement party. Had row with Eileen. Got home 6."

The party was at the family house in Huyton, thrown by Dolly, mother of Vera and Joan McEvoy.

"I can vouch for the fact that Brian fell in love with Vera and pursued her all night. In fact after the party he wrote more than one letter to Dolly asking her could she help him fix a date with Vera. Unfortunately for Brian she wasn't interested." Sam Leach (She seemed a little interested, as displayed below)

"Brown, who was married (but separated) at the time of her liaison with Epstein in 1962, describes him as "...very emotional. He always gave the impression of being cold and icy, but he was very softhearted, very tender, very gentle, and he had a lot of feelings. And he was all man, I don't care what they say." (Ray Coleman, The Man Who Made The Beatles)

"We’d been to the Knotty Ash Club for my sister’s engagement. The Beatles had played there, as did Rory [Storm] and a few other groups. Afterwards, as usual, we all went back to the house and Brian came along.

If you saw the Beatles in my mother’s they were just a scruffy bunch of boys. And who’d look at them? I wouldn’t bother with them but then Brian stood out and Brian looked like the real thing. He was handsome. He was tall. He was immaculate. That’s why I let Brian get behind the bar with me and help me serve the drinks. He was the best of the bunch.

So we were just behind the bar when Elvis came on, 'Heartbreak Hotel’. He loved it, I loved it, and we started dancing. There wasn’t much room. You know, you could go two steps forward, three steps back and that was it. So we sort of got a bit close and everyone was laughing at us, saying, like, 'What’s going on?’ But if you moved sideways you fell over the crates. There were crates of beer in there and everybody’s coats. We ended up on top of the coats or on top of the crates if we just moved the wrong way. And we got pretty close but I wasn’t surprised by the way he was acting towards me.

We were dancing and kissing at the same time. He was probably one of the sexiest fellas I had ever met. People say, 'Oh well, Brian was gay.’ but he wasn’t very gay with me. He was just like any other man and more. He was very easy-going and casual and funny. He’d make you laugh and he could dance. You know he could move. He said to me, 'I’ve seen you in different places and I thought you were stuck up.’ And I said, 'Well, I thought you were stuck up because I remember being in your shop and you were like the big boss.’

I think he was pretty fresh. In a house where people are looking at you it’s not like a club with all the lights out and people tend to be aware of others but Brian wasn’t that bothered. He was interested and he showed it. Maybe he’d had a bit too much to drink. I don’t know. But I can’t say that because I met Brian afterwards and he was still interested.

The next day he called round to the house. I wasn’t there so he talked to my mother about poetry. I don’t know how they got talking about poems but Brian came the following day with a book of poems for my mother with a little letter. He also gave her a letter thanking her for having the party because everyone had made such a terrible mess of the house. It was full of eggs and rubbish and bottles everywhere and he apologized for the actions of everybody else at the party.

Well, my mother just thought he was the most wonderful person in the world. At last a gentleman has come through this door and not Teddy boys and hooligans and all the rest of it. In the first letter he said he’d enjoyed meeting her, loved coming to the house, felt so welcome and would she mind if he came around again to see me. I said to my mum, 'Well, that’s impossible. How can I see him? You know I can’t go out with Brian.’ She said, 'You will have to’.

My mother was in love with Brian: 'He’s beautiful. He’s wonderful.’ So she sort of arranged it. I didn’t want him to come and pick me up at the house because I didn’t want people to see us going out. I arranged to meet him in a little cafe in Bold Street. We had a coffee and a chat and then I can’t really remember where we went. We went somewhere for a drink around Bold Street where there were all these little dives at the time. But I had to be back for nine o'clock. Another time I met him in the Tower and we had a little chat. We met in the back office and had a talk.

I liked Brian as a man and I think Brian liked me. But then he suggested if we were to go out we’d have to go to Southport or Manchester - anywhere out of Liverpool because he didn’t want to walk into my husband in Liverpool. We were separated at the time but it was a little bit awkward, you know.

It’s hard for me to believe Brian was gay. I think if I had been free and if I’d seen more of Brian I think we could have got serious. I think he was all man. I just can’t accept that he was gay.

In the shop Brian seemed like a man, like your dad shouting at you and superior. He had an attitude of superiority. But later on I discovered he was just like any other man. I thought he was a very passionate, loving person. He was like two different people. So if there’s a third person involved - this gay person - I just say he’s one hell of a man to be able to please everybody. You know, he was just unique. That’s all I can say." Vera Brown, In His Life, The Brian Epstein Story.

"George always fancied Joan and when I began dating her, he asked her to let him know when she finished seeing me. 'But don't tell Sam', he added. 'He’d batter me!' Today she probably feels like battering me for spoiling her chances." Sam Leach, The Rocking City

"Later in the evening, Joan had a headache and said she was going upstairs for a lie down. I went to fetch a couple of aspirins from the kitchen and said I'd follow her. Bob Wooler then made a typically cheap remark about pre-marital sex. Before I had a chance to sort him out, Paul and George grabbed him and made him personally apologise to Joan." Sam Leach, The Rocking City

"Rory Storm was lying on the floor hopelessly drunk. He shouted up to Paul, 'I wanna be in the picture'. So, as you can see, Paul bent down and lifted his foot into the shot." Sam Leach

"The night rolled on and I found Lennon, completely sloshed, sitting in the kitchen rolling raw eggs down Ann Barton's birds-nest hairstyle. Each time one broke, he gave a gasp of astonishment at the gooey yellow mess spreading across the tiled floor. Dolly found out and gave him a severe rollicking, which sobered him up enough to utter a sincere, 'Sorry, Mrs Mac'. Everyone liked and respected Dolly McEvoy and that was the only time I ever saw Lennon genuinely humbled. He disappeared for a while after that and was found later fast asleep in the bath.

When he finally came downstairs, he once again started to apologise. Dolly had forgotten all about it, but he was still apologising as he left at nine the next morning. As we stood outside, he shook my hand gravely. 'That was the very best party I've ever been to . . . honest,' he croaked. I was pleased everyone had enjoyed themselves, but when John started thanking me for a third time, I put him in a taxi and packed him off home. As he left, I slipped an egg into his pocket. He never did tell me how that hatched out." Sam Leach, The Rocking City

#Paul McCartney #George Harrison #John Lennon #Pete Best #Sam Leach #photos by Sam Leach #quotes #Rory Storm #Joan McEvoy #Brian Epstein #Mike McCartney #Dot Rhone #Bob Wooler #Vera Brown #Ted Taylor #The Hurricanes #Paul #John #George #Brian

[mydaroga]

The first time John turned up at 20 Forthlin Road, his new friend’s younger brother happened to be gazing out of the window. As Mike McCartney would recall:  

By a million to one chance I’m in the front parlour and I just looked up and saw this Teddy Boy. ‘Wow, he looks good!’ He had sidies and drainies, and ‘Hold on…he’s coming down our path’–past me dad’s lavender bush. ‘He looks good!’

The Day John Met Paul, BBC Radio 2, 26 June 2007, quoted in Tune In by Mark Lewisohn.

Tell us, Mike... Did he look good? It's not clear.

#we don't deserve Mike McGear #Mike McCartney #John Lennon #Kris reads tune in #mark lewisohn

[underthecitysky]

New photo, I think. Paul, Mike and Mary

(Credit to Phillip Jones on Facebook)

#paul McCartney #Mike McCartney #mary mohin mccartney

[kinsfaun]

Paul McCartney by Mike McCartney

#the beatles #paul mccartney #early days #mike mccartney #Forthlin Road #liverpool