Paul defines the promotion plan for “McCartney”

On the day Phil Spector began work on the “Get Back” tapes and engineer Tony Clark prepared the production masters of Paul McCartney’s debut solo album, “McCartney,“ Paul met Apple managing director Peter Brown at Apple headquarters to discuss the promotional plans for the new release.

Paul was reluctant to hold a press conference or take part in a wide range of interviews. Peter Brown suggested preparing a written Questions & Answers sheet to be included in press kits sent to reviewers. Paul liked the idea and asked Brown to draft the questions, which he answered in a brief and dry manner. When the Q&A was distributed to the UK press on April 9, 1970, Paul’s replies to Beatles-related questions were widely interpreted as the official announcement of the band’s split. Bill Oakes, Brown’s personal assistant, and Derek Taylor, the Beatles’ press officer, also later claimed to have written the Q&A.

For promotion, Paul limited himself to only two interviews: one with Rolling Stone in the United States, and one with Ray Connolly for the Evening Standard in the UK.

Brown also advised Paul to arrange new photographs for publicity and to design advertisements for placement in various music magazines.

I had talked to Peter Brown from Apple and asked him what we were going to do about press on the album. I said, ‘I really don’t feel like doing it, to tell you the truth,’ but he told me that we needed to have something. He said, ‘I’ll give you some questions and you just write out your answers. We’ll put it out as a press release.’ Well of course, the way it came out looked like it was specially engineered by me.

Paul McCartney – Interview with Music Express, April 1982

We decided to write up a list of questions that would be appropriate, which we could feed to the media. And Paul said, ‘Well — you do it.’ So I wrote up a list of questions, and he read it. I think he made some suggestions, though not many, because it wasn’t difficult—it was obvious what kind of questions we wanted to ask.

Peter Brown – Interview with Allan Kozinn, May 2020 – From “The McCartney Legacy: Volume 1: 1969 – 73” by Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair, 2022

[About the “McCartney” Q&A] At the time it just seemed to me that it was answers to questions, and I was being bitchy. That’s for sure. I’ll admit that because we were all being bitchy. And that was my, sort of, weedy way of being bitchy. One of the questions is: What do you think of John and Yoko’s thing? And I said, ‘Well, it doesn’t impress me very much.’ And leave it at that. And it came off very weird.

Paul McCartney – Interview with The Times, December 1981, quoted in “The McCartney Legacy: Volume 1: 1969 – 73” by Allan Kozinn and Adrian Sinclair, 2022

I didn’t want to do a press conference to launch the album because whenever I’d meet a journalist, they always floored me with one question: they’d say, ‘Are you happy?’ and it almost made me cry. I just could not say, “Yes. I’m happy,’ and lie through my teeth, so I stopped doing interviews. Peter Brown, who was at Apple at that time, said, ‘What are you going to do about publicity?’ I said, I don’t really want to do any.’ He said, ‘It’s a new album. You’ll kill it. Nobody’ll even know it’s out at all. You should do something.’ I said ‘Well, how do you suggest we do it?’ He said, ‘Maybe a questionnaire?’ I said, ‘Okay, look, you write some questions that you think the press wants to know. Send ’em over to me and I’ll fill it out but I can’t face a press conference.’ So the questionnaire came, and Peter Brown realised that the big question’ was the Beatles so he put in a couple of loaded questions and rather that just say, ‘I don’t want to answer these,’ I thought, Fuck it. If that’s what he wants to know, I’ll tell him. I felt I’d never be able to start a new life until I’d told people.

Paul McCartney – From “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

We were finishing off Let It Be and I was working on my own album [McCartney]. The problem was that, when I came to release my thing, I suddenly realised I had to do something about publicity. Someone suggested I just fill in a Q&A and send it out with the albums when they went out to the papers. In the Q&A, I just decided to come out and say it. I was pissed off at having to hide from our fans the fact that we weren’t coming back. Maybe what I said was a bit succinct but, what the hell, everyone else was being succinct. There was no point in me beating around the bush. After all, they’d already broken the group up. George and Ringo had left, then come back. John had left and not come back. How fucking succinct is that?

Paul McCartney – Interview with MOJO, 2004

Peter Brown [Paul’s assistant at Apple] said, “You’re putting a record out and you’ll need to do publicity.” Well, there was no way I could sit around and do a press conference. But I recognised the need for some sort of publicity. So I said, “I’ll tell you what, why don’t you do some questions for me, I’ll do a Q&A, and then stick that out, make that into a press release or something.” So he did the questions that are on that sheet, and just sent it round to me with a space.

Paul McCartney, from the “McCartney – Archive Collection” book, 2011

I’ll tell you what happened, from my recollection. Peter Brown said you’re putting a record out, so you’ll need to do publicity. There was no way I could sit around and do a press conference. But I recognised the need for some publicity. So I said, ‘What?’ He said, “Well, press conference, interviews, like you normally do’ I said, ‘I can’t do that. Why don’t you do some questions for me and then stick that out, make that into a press release or something.’

So he did the questions that are on that sheet, and sent it round to me with a space. I just put in, you know: ‘Are the Beatles going to re-form?’ Now, the thing with the Beatles was, we weren’t telling anyone. Because this certain American businessman had said, “Don’t tell anyone, because I’m gonna renegotiate the contracts with Capitol, et cetera, and they don’t need to know you’ve broken up. That would make it difficult for me to renegotiate a new deal’

So we were all keeping schtum. But I was pissed with that idea, because I thought the Beatles have always been about honesty, and here we are skulking round like a bunch of wimps, not telling anyone. But we’d broken up. And believe me, I went back and George went back and we all went back and said, ‘Hey, shall we not break up?’ But it was like, “No, we’re breaking up.

So when the question came up in the questionnaire, I said, ‘No, we’re not re-forming.” Or whatever. I dropped the truth into that interview.

The idea came up. Just slip it in the press releases. You don’t need to do a publicity thing; all the people in the press would get free copies, as they always did and still do. So it was a press release. But it looked like it was part of the album. I don’t think people got it in the shops, to my recollection. It was just the press copies, and I thought, well, that’ll do it. If the Evening Standard wants to know what’s going on, there’s my press release.

So that was that. But the perception of it looked cold and calculating. ‘He’s just stuck this in. What is the guy on? And he’s suing the Beatles! What a bastard’ I caught it in the neck for that. I had to ride that wave of antagonism, knowing what I had done was right. And that in a way, I was just answering the questions that this guy had set me, like an exam.

Paul McCartney – 2010 interview – From “Conversations with McCartney” by Paul du Noyer, 2016

I remember the interview that Paul had me do which was then quoted around the world as ‘Paul quits the Beatles.’ Although Derek has been taking credit for it, I did that interview. Paul didn’t want to talk to anybody, but he wanted to get it out in the air and he wanted the information available to everyone. So he asked me to write down twelve questions that I would consider key if I was a journalist. Then he gave me the answers and wanted them printed up and included with every promotional copy of the McCartney album. So I told Derek that we would have to handle it quite carefully as the answers were quite incendiary, so Derek said, ‘Let me handle it,’ but I told him, ‘No, you don’t get it. He wants this printed up and sent out to every journalist who is reviewing the album.’

Bill Oakes – From “Those Were The Days 2.0: The Beatles And Apple“, 2021

For the release of Paul’s solo album we did a Questionnaire in the press office, a general issue thing-. ‘Will you ever appear with The Beatles? Do you believe in this? What are your plans?’ etc. I thought he very generously answered — in an uptight way, but nevertheless answered – the questions, more or less ruling out reunion or working with The Beatles: ‘And I’m now working with Linda and this is the way I want it to be…’ That was a very unhappy time. That was the pits.

Derek Taylor – Apple press officer – From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000

Publicity photos taken in March 1970

Going further

The McCartney Legacy: Volume 1: 1969 – 73

In this first of a groundbreaking multivolume set, THE MCCARTNEY LEGACY, VOL 1: 1969-73 captures the life of Paul McCartney in the years immediately following the dissolution of the Beatles, a period in which McCartney recreated himself as both a man and a musician. Informed by hundreds of interviews, extensive ground up research, and thousands of never-before-seen documents THE MCCARTNEY LEGACY, VOL 1 is an in depth, revealing exploration of McCartney’s creative and personal lives beyond the Beatles.

Buy on Amazon

The Beatles Diary Volume 1: The Beatles Years

With greatly expanded text, this is the most revealing and frank personal 30-year chronicle of the group ever written. Insider Barry Miles covers the Beatles story from childhood to the break-up of the group.

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The Beatles Diary Volume 2: After The Break-Up 1970-2001

An updated edition of the best-seller. The story of what happened to the band members, their families and friends after the 1970 break-up is brought right up to date. A fascinating and meticulous piece of Beatles scholarship.

Buy on Amazon