Newspapers announce that Paul McCartney has quit the Beatles

Paul McCartney has quit the Beatles. The shock news must mean the end of Britain’s most famous pop group, which has been idolised by millions the world over for nearly ten years.

Today 27-year-old McCartney will announce his decision, and the reasons for it, in a no-holds-barred statement. It follows months of strife over policy in Apple, the Beatles’ controlling organisation and an ever-growing rift between McCartney and his song-writing partner, John Lennon. In his statement, which consists of a series of answers to questions, McCartney says:

I have no future plans to record or appear with the Beatles again. Or to write any more music with John.

Last night the statement was locked up in a safe at Apple headquarters in Savile Row, Mayfair – in the very rooms where the Beatles’ break-up began. The Beatles decided to appoint a “business adviser.” Eventually, they settled for American Allen Klein. His appointment was strongly resisted by Paul who sought the job for his father-in-law, American attorney Lee Eastman. After a meeting in London Paul was out-voted 3-1 by John, and the other Beatles, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Since the Klein appointment, Paul has refused to go to the Apple offices to work daily. He kept silent and stayed at his St. John’s Wood home with his photographer wife Linda, her daughter Heather and their own baby, Mary. Close friends tried to pacify John and Paul. But August last year was the last time they were to work together – when they collaborated on the “Abbey Road” album.

There were other elements that hastened Paul’s decision to quit. John Lennon, on his marriage to Yoko Ono, set out on projects of his own. Ringo went into films, and George stepped in as a record producer. Today McCartney will reveal his own plans for a solo programme.

Early today an Apple spokesman denied reports that Paul McCartney had left the Beatles. But he said that there were no plans “at the moment” for any more recordings.

Don Short

McCartney split with Beatles denied

The Apple organization this morning denied reports that Paul McCartney had left The Beatles. Mrs. Mavis Smith, of the company’s public relations department, said: “This is just not true.“

But she agreed that there were no plans at the moment for more recordings: “This is quite normal. Next month their new LP will be issued. It has already been recorded, so consequently as there is already material about, there are no plans.“

She knew that Mr. McCartney intended issuing a statement today on the release of a new recording, but denied that any critical statements meant a red break up of the group. She said she hoped that the group would get together for another recording after the summer.

Although Mr, McCartney had not been to the Apple headquarters since before Christmas, “he communicates by telephone and, as he has got recording studios at his own home and all facilities, it is not necessary for him to come in“.

From The Times, April 10, 1970

Mystery of Paul’s ‘split’ with the Beatles

There was confusion last night over Paul McCartney’s future with the Beatles. Today Paul is due to issue a statement coinciding with the release ot his first solo record album, called “McCartney.” The statement says Paul has no immediate plans to record with the group. And it also hints at disapproval of John Lennon’s current interests – while affirming a personal liking for Lennon. But last night a spokesman for Apple, the Beatles company, said Paul was not planning to quit the group.

“All that Paul has said is that he has got no plans to record with the Beatles until summer,” said the spokesman.

YES – OR NO

Another Beatles spokesman was vaguer: “Paul and the Beatles could work together soon -or they won’t.”

Ringo Starr, who has also just released a solo album of old standards, expressed surprise at the report that Paul was supposed to be drifting away from the Beatles. “It’s news to me,” he said last night.

Lennon and McCartney usually compose separately now, though their names appear on record labels as joint composers. They have seen little of each other this year.

And McCartney, once the Beatles most fervently interested in Apple has not visited the company’s headquarters in London’s Savile Row since the appointment of Allen Klein as business manager.

From Daily Express, April 10, 1970

Let Him Be!

Paul McCartney, who fled London last Friday, leaving behind him furors of doubt and rumour about his future following his “Quit The Beatles” bombshell, was back from a secret hideaway in the country on Sunday – ready to work the first project for his new company.

Paul, wife Linda, and children Heather and Mary, left their Cavendish Avenue, St. John’s Wood, house in the early hours of Friday – the day the world learned, via Paul’s specially – prepared handout, of the Beatle’s decision to split from John, George and Ringo.

A close friend of Paul’s told Disc: “He’s not giving ANY interviews at the moment. In fact, fans and other people have been making his life a bit of a misery lately by ‘picketing’ his pad. I wish they’d let him alone to live his own life now.”

Paul has – through his American lawyers, led by father-in-law Lee Eastman – bought exclusive rights to “Rupert Bear”, the traditional children’s story, for his newly-formed McCartney Productions. Paul plans to produce and write the music for a full-length animated cartoon film titled “Rupert”.

But an Apple office spokesman told Disc: “At the moment Paul and ‘Rupert’ are still only in the planning stages. We have no further details.”

“McCartney”, Paul’s first solo LP, is officially released tomorrow (Friday) and has a 19,000 advance order.

From Disc and Music Echo April 18 1970 British Pop Newspaper Paul | Etsy France

Stocks React To McCartney Split

NEW YORK – The world or the Beatles themselves are unsure whether the Beatles will again perform as a team, but Paul McCartney’s stated departure from the group was taking its toll in the stock market last week.

Capitol Industries whose Capitol label distributes Beatles product through Apple Records in the U.S., was losing ground as a result of the McCartney press-conference announcement in London. By week’s end, the firm’s common stock, traded on the American Exchange, had dropped more than 4 points. Shares of ABKCO Industries, representing three of the Beatles and their Apple Records (Paul McCartney is represented by Eastman & Eastman) was being quoted at lower prices on the Over-the-Counter market.

To clear the air over its stake in Beatles works as a group and on an individual basis — Sal Iannucci, president of the label, issued a statement early last week noting that Capitol’s recording contract with the Beatles, through EMI, has till years to run, and it covers all recorded performances, “not only by the group as a whole, but by any of its individual members,” Iannucci noted that the “McCartney” album had a pre-release order of over $2 million (the set was released last Fri.). He also said that Ringo Starr’s first solo LP — featuring the Beatles drummer-singer on a set of pop standards — was being rushed into release following its availability in England through EMI.

Adding to this new Beatlemania was United Artists announcement that it would release “Let It Be,” the Beatles latest (and last?) feature film on May 27. While UA will market the soundtrack LP, it will bear a Red Apple England, the news hardly surprised the music industry here, although it provided an overnight sensation for the national press and radio and TV, which put the Apple headquarters under siege for two days.

It has been common knowledge that McCartney and indeed all the individual Beatles have been drifting off to do their own personal things during the past year or more. In McCartney’s case the clinching factor was the naming of Allen Klein as the group’s business manager, a move McCartney opposed until outvoted by the other three Beatles.

McCartney’s candidate for the job was his father-in-law, American attorney Lee Eastman, and the setback caused by Klein’s appointment has rankled since with Eastman’s son-in-law. McCartney has not visited the Apple headquarters for months now.

Songwise John Lennon and McCartney have been writing separately for a considerable time, although compositions bear the Lennon-McCartney tag in line with a policy decision from the early Beatle days. Their widely divergent interests in music and life generally have been obviously apparent of late.

The Beat To Continue?

The Beatle recording agreement with EMI via Apple runs until 1974, and individually the Beatles are understood to be contracted to Apple until 1977. Although some cynics have noted that McCartney’s departure from the group coincided with the release of its first solo LP, it seems irrefutable that the Liverpool foursome is now a threesome, and the chances of future disks and appearances as a foursome are very remote.

Yet, McCartney and Starr offered some glimmer of hope of a reconciliation. In a “self-interview” released by Capitol, McCartney asks himself if the break is temporary or permanent. “I don’t know,” he replies in part. And Starr was quoted with more flair. “The world is still spinning and so are you…. when the spinning stops, that’ll be the time to worry, not before. Until then, the Beatles are alive and well and the beat goes on, the beat goes on.”

From Cashbox Magazine, April 25, 1970