WW L L INTERVIEW
AN INTERVIEW WITH MIKE McCARTNEY
Wirral ’ s Mike McCartney known professionally as Mike McGear is a performing artist , writer and photographer who was a member of the satirical humour trio Scaffold and is the younger brother of Paul McCartney . Here he talks to Wirral Life in an exclusive and revealing interview .
Born on 7th January 1944 at the end of World War 2 and brought up in Liverpool , Mike McCartney was educated at the Liverpool Institute High School for boys . He tried to get into next doors art college but lack of GCE ’ s meant that he ended up a lady ’ s hairdresser . From here he entered ‘ show biz ’ in the Liverpool One Fat Lady None Electric Show , which eventually became Scaffold . Because of the sheer enormity of Beatle mania , Mike , not wanting to appear to be cashing in , changed his name to McGear . He was an integral part of the 60 ’ s Merseybeat era but Scaffold were mainly a theatre , university , satirical comedy act . In 1967 , Mike got them into the pop world by writing their first top five single ‘ Thank U Very Much ’ incidentally it became the Queen Mother ’ s and Prime Minister Harold Wilson ’ s favourite record . In 1968 , their huge hit Lily the Pink reached the top of the charts ( here and abroad ) and stayed number one for four weeks .
You are a notable Musician , Photographer and Author . But what did you want to be as a kid ? A big kid .
Is it quite surreal that your original 2 up - 2 down family home has been bought by the National Trust ? It is surreal . We had lived in the property from when I was 11 years old and I have some great memories from there . The new owner Mrs Jones had shown the National Trust around the property but they weren ’ t remotely interested because it was now a modern two up two down . It was only when they looked at my photographs they said if we can have the photographs we ’ ll buy it ... and they did .
Did you really whistle the theme tune to the Liver Birds TV Show ? ( Mike answers by whistling the theme tune ) Yes I did for 20 years . It brightened up the life of the wonderful actor Alan Cumming no end , in fact he had to shake my hand . We were at Panoramic , Liverpool doing an interview for Sky TV ’ s Urban Secrets . I whistled for him and he shook my hand and said “ I can now tell my Mum in Scotland that I ’ ve shaken the hand of the man who whistled the Liver Bird theme tune .” So yes , that was me .
Didn ’ t the legendary Jimi Hendrix , Elton John , Graeme Nash and Sir Tim Rice play as session musicians for your first album ? Unbelievably , yes . Jimi was a charming gentleman . He came to the studio and played guitar on my McGough McGear album , I was expecting an enormous entourage with all his press people , photographer , groupies , drug administrators etc ., but when he arrived at De Lane Lea Studios London he was just on his tod with a guitar . I said that we were actually working on a track with our kid ( Paul ) who was the producer of the album . Paul was working on another track in the studio so I offered Jimi a drink . He said “ No that ’ s cool , I ’ ll just go into the studio and rehearse stuff ”. Paul and I came to the track called ‘ So Much In Love ’ so we sent it to him in the studio where he sat on the floor and started playing . Paul and I were listening and there was a bit in it were Jimi was to come in for the solo . And so it goes ‘ So Much In Love … do be do be ’ etc ... then suddenly Jimi rips into a totally mind blowing solo which was amazing ! Our kid who had just finished Pepper , turned to me smiling and said “ So what do you think ?” When I looked concerned Paul said “ that was extraordinary … what ’ s wrong ?” I said “ well he didn ’ t come in at the right place !” Paul said “ So do you want to tell him ?” I didn ’ t mind so went into the studio and said “ Jimi , that was brilliant but the thing is you didn ’ t know when to come in did you ?” He said “ No sorry , I just went for it , can you tell me when to come in ?” So Jimi and I sat on the floor waiting with me till I tapped his knee … “ NOW Jimi !” We did a couple of takes till it was ‘ perfect ’. I then played the tape back with Paul and he said “ Now do you understand what you ’ ve done ? Do you remember the first one when it was wild and electric , well this one is now modified , cooled down , perfect but no balls in it .” I agreed that he was absolutely right . So Paul said to the tape operator “ sorry can we have the first take ?” The tape operator said “ what do you mean the first take , there ’ s no room left on the tape . We ’ ve been wiping everything as we go ”!! So that ’ s lesson number one in recording .
Elton John was our backing singer for Scaffold . I was at the in the bathroom at the Wings launch in London and this young lad came in . He said “ They were great days weren ’ t they Mike ”, I said “ Hello Reg ( that was his name at the time ). He said “ Oh no I ’ m not Reg anymore , I changed my name to Elton … Elton John ”. I said “ That ’ s nice but what do you mean , they were great days ?” He explained “ We used to come to Abbey Road to do backing vocals for your Scaffold , they were the best gigs we ever did , laughed all day and still got paid ”. Scaffold couldn ’ t sing so were needed someone to do harmonies . In fact , if you listen to the old Scaffold songs , you can clearly hear Elton ’ s voice on them .
Graham Nash was in the Hollies , whenever you hear Lily the Pink , our number one record listen to the Jennifer Eccles verse . The Hollies had a big hit called Jennifer Eccles , so I rang Graham and said “ Look , we ’ re doing this daft song called Lily the Pink and there ’ s a verse in there about Jennifer Eccles do you want to come to Abbey Road and sing it ?” and he did , so if you ever hear the song on the radio it is not Roger McGough singing that verse … it is so obviously Graham Nash . By the way Tim Rice was our coffee boy on Lily the Pink and I ’ ll be working with him next year on something special . wirrallife . com 21