Mike McCartney | |
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Born | Peter Michael McCartney 7 January 1944 Liverpool, Lancashire, England |
Other names | Mike McGear |
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Years active | 1966–1981 (musician) 1966–present (photographer) |
Children | 6 |
Relatives | Paul McCartney (brother) |
Musical career | |
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Formerly of | |
Peter Michael McCartney BEM (born 7 January 1944), [1] also known by the stage name Mike McGear, is an English performing artist and photographer who was a member of the groups the Scaffold and Grimms. He is the younger brother of former Beatle Paul McCartney.
Michael and his brother Paul were both born in the Walton Centre in Walton, Liverpool, England, where their mother, Mary McCartney, had previously worked as a nursing sister in charge of the maternity ward. [2] [3] Michael was not enrolled in a Catholic school because his father, Jim McCartney, believed that they leaned too much towards religion instead of education. [2] At age 17, McCartney started his first job at Jackson's the Tailors in Ranelagh Street, Liverpool. The year after, he took an apprenticeship at Andre Bernard, a ladies' hairdresser in the same street. [4]
At the time the Beatles became successful, Mike McCartney was working as an apprentice at a ladies’ hairdresser, [5] where the staff included future actor Lewis Collins and budding comedian Jimmy Tarbuck. [6] Simultaneously, he was a member of the Liverpool comedy-poetry-music group The Scaffold (along with Roger McGough and John Gorman). The group formed in 1962 (the year of the Beatles' first hit). Mike decided to use a stage name, so as not to appear to be riding his brother's coattails. After first dubbing himself "Mike Blank", [7] he settled on "Mike McGear", "gear" being the Liverpudlian equivalent of "fab". [5] The band was subsequently signed to Parlophone.
The Scaffold recorded a number of UK hit singles between 1966 and 1974, the most successful being the 1968 Christmas number one single, "Lily the Pink". McGear composed the band's next biggest hit, 1967's "Thank U Very Much". In 1968, he and McGough released a "duo" album (McGough & McGear) that included the usual Scaffold mix of lyrics, poems, and comedy. The Scaffold ended up hosting a TV programme, Score with the Scaffold , which limited the musical portion of their career, and they were dropped by Parlophone. McGear then signed to Island Records and released a solo musical album entitled Woman in 1972, which again included many tracks co-written with McGough, and The Scaffold subsequently released their own album on the label, Fresh Liver.
The Scaffold then added several other members and released two albums on Island in 1973 as GRIMMS (an acronym for Gorman-Roberts-Innes-McGear-McGough-Stanshall). [5] However, McGear quit GRIMMS after the second album out of tension between himself and one of the poets added to the group.
McGear then signed to Warner Bros. Records and in 1974 released his second non-comedy musical album, McGear , in which he collaborated with his brother Paul and his band Wings. [6] Although four singles were released from these sessions, only "Leave It" enjoyed any moderate chart success (No. 36 UK). However, also recorded during McCartney's sessions with Wings was a Scaffold "reunion" song, "Liverpool Lou", which became The Scaffold's last top-ten hit. This led to the group's re-formation in 1974, and they recorded and performed together through to 1977.
Individually, McGear released a few more singles. His final release, while still using the name Mike McGear, was the 1981 release "No Lar Di Dar (Is Lady Di)". This was a satirical tribute to Lady Diana Spencer, released at the time of her wedding to Prince Charles. [6]
In the 1980s, after retiring from music, Mike McCartney decided to end his use of the "McGear" pseudonym and revert to using his family name.
McCartney was a photographer during his entire musical career, and has continued with photography since then. Beatles' manager Brian Epstein nicknamed him "Flash Harry" in the early 1960s because he was always taking pictures with a flash gun. [8] He has published books of pictures that he took of the Beatles backstage and on tour and, in 2008, brought out a limited edition book of photos that he had taken spontaneously backstage at Live8. [5] In 2005, McCartney premiered and exhibited a collection of photographs that he had taken in the 1960s, called "Mike McCartney's Liverpool Life", both in Liverpool [8] and other venues, such as the Provincial Museum of Alberta. [9] In addition, an exhibition book of the collection was published. [10] He also took the cover photograph for Paul McCartney's 2005 solo album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard . [7] Mike McCartney's North Highlands, a collection of his photographs taken in the Scottish Highlands, was published in 2009, with a foreword by Charles, Prince of Wales. [11]
The McCartney brothers also have a sister named Ruth whom their father Jim adopted in 1964 when he married her mother, Angela Williams. Mike McCartney married Angela Fishwick on 7 June 1968 [12] and they had three daughters: Benna, Theran, and Abigail Faith; they later divorced. He married Rowena Horne on 29 May 1982 and they have three sons: Joshua, Max, and Sonny. [13]
In 2019, McCartney was awarded the British Empire Medal in the Queen's Birthday Honours for "services to the community in Merseyside". [14]
UK releases
US releases
UK releases
US release
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: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)Please Please Me is the debut studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. Produced by George Martin, it was released in the UK on EMI's Parlophone label on 22 March 1963. The album is 14 songs in length, and contains a mixture of cover songs and original material written by the partnership of band members John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Apple Records is a British record label founded by the Beatles in 1968 as a division of Apple Corps Ltd. It was initially intended as a creative outlet for the Beatles, both as a group and individually, plus a selection of other artists including Mary Hopkin, James Taylor, Badfinger and Billy Preston. In practice, the roster had become dominated by the mid-1970s with releases of the former Beatles as solo artists. Allen Klein managed the label from 1969 to 1973, then it was managed by Neil Aspinall on behalf of the Beatles and their heirs. Aspinall retired in 2007 and was replaced by Jeff Jones.
Paul McCartney and Wings, often billed simply as Wings, were an English-American rock band formed in 1971 in London by former Beatles songwriter, bassist, guitarist, and singer Paul McCartney; his wife Linda McCartney on keyboards; session drummer Denny Seiwell; and former Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine. They were noted for their commercial successes, musical eclecticism, and frequent personnel changes. They went through three lead guitarists and four drummers. The core trio of the McCartneys and Laine, however, remained intact throughout the group's existence.
This is the discography of Apple Records, a record label formed by the Beatles in 1968. During its early years, the label enjoyed a fair degree of commercial success, most notably with Mary Hopkin and Badfinger, as well as discovering acts such as James Taylor and Billy Preston who would go on to greater success with other labels. However, by the mid-1970s, Apple had become little more than an outlet for the Beatles' solo recordings. After EMI's contract with the Beatles ended in 1976, the Apple label was finally wound up. The label was reactivated in the 1990s with many of the original Apple albums being reissued on compact disc, and the company now oversees new Beatles releases such as the Anthology and 1 albums as well as the 2009 Beatles remastering programme. In 2010, Apple set about remastering and reissuing its back catalogue for a second time.
The Scaffold are a comedy, poetry and music trio from Liverpool, England, consisting of musical performer Mike McGear, poet Roger McGough and comic entertainer John Gorman. They are perhaps most notable for their successful singles "Thank U Very Much" (1967) and the UK number 1 "Lily the Pink" (1968). Since initially disbanding in 1977, the group have occasionally re-formed for performances and projects.
Roger Joseph McGough is an English poet, performance poet, broadcaster, children's author and playwright. He presents the BBC Radio 4 programme Poetry Please, as well as performing his own poetry. McGough was one of the leading members of the Liverpool poets, a group of young poets influenced by Beat poetry and the popular music and culture of 1960s Liverpool. He is an honorary fellow of Liverpool John Moores University, a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and President of the Poetry Society.
John Gorman is an English comedian, vocalist and comedy musician.
GRIMMS were an English pop rock, comedy, and poetry group, originally formed as a merger of The Scaffold with two members of the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and the Liverpool Scene for two concerts in 1971 at the suggestion of John Gorman.
The Liverpool poets are a number of influential 1960s poets from Liverpool, England, influenced by 1950s Beat poetry.
Wings over America is a triple live album by the British–American rock band Wings, released in December 1976. The album was recorded during the American leg of the band's 1975–76 Wings Over the World tour. It peaked at number 8 on the UK Albums Chart and reached number 1 on the US Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart.
"Lady Madonna" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written primarily by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. In March 1968 it was released as a mono non-album single, backed with "The Inner Light". The song was recorded on 3 and 6 February 1968, before the Beatles left for India, and its boogie-woogie style signalled a more conventional approach to writing and recording for the group following the psychedelic experimentation of the previous two years.
"Words of Love" is a song written by Buddy Holly and released as a single in 1957.
"I Saw Her Standing There" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. It is the opening track on the band's 1963 debut UK album Please Please Me and their debut US album Introducing... The Beatles.
McGear is the second and final solo album by English singer Mike McGear, released in 1974. The album is a collaboration between McGear and his brother Paul McCartney, who co-wrote and produced the record. All backing tracks on the album are performed by McCartney and his band Wings, occasionally accompanied by guest artists. Lead vocals are sung by McGear.
Andrew Jonathan Roberts is an English musician, guitarist and singer-songwriter, perhaps best known for his 37-year partnership with singer Iain Matthews in the English folk rock band, Plainsong.
The Rutles is a soundtrack album to the 1978 telemovie All You Need Is Cash. The album contains 14 of the tongue-in-cheek pastiches of Beatles songs that were featured in the film.
The relationships of the English musician Paul McCartney include engagements to Dot Rhone and actress Jane Asher, and marriages to Linda Eastman, Heather Mills, and Nancy Shevell.
Calderstone Productions is the London-based subsidiary of Universal Music Group that administers the Beatles' recorded music output that was originally owned by EMI. These works were released on EMI's Parlophone label in the United Kingdom and by Capitol Records in the United States, from 1962 to 1968; and then by the Beatles' own EMI-distributed Apple Records label from 1968 to 1970.
"Thank U Very Much" is a song by Liverpudlian comedy trio the Scaffold, released as a single in November 1967. It became their first hit, entering the top ten in the UK.