Listening party for “The Boys Of Dungeon Lane” in London

From The Independent, May 5, 2026:

Paul McCartney reflected on his childhood, young love, and memories of his late Beatles bandmates John Lennon and George Harrison during a secret event at Abbey Road studios on Tuesday. […]

There was a hushed reverence amid the 50-strong crowd as they waited patiently, not certain but perhaps having guessed that McCartney himself might make a surprise appearance at the event. As a familiar voice could be heard from a booth upstairs, heads whipped round as though watching match point at Wimbledon: “That was Paul!” […]

One song, he revealed, was inspired by his childhood crush on a girl who lived nearby. Unfortunately, McCartney shared, when she did eventually knock at his door, he had been “on the loo” and they missed their moment.

In another incident, McCartney recalled being mugged for his watch while walking down a dodgy lane in Liverpool. “I reported it and they caught him,” he said, “but after that I thought, I’ll learn karate so I can beat the s*** out of him next time. I never did, of course.”

Occasionally he picked up the guitar to demonstrate how he came up with a chord, at one point muttering “oh s***” when he got it wrong – a moment of loose-lipped candour that prompted laughter from his fans.

Elsewhere, he told his audience – among them his “lovely boy”, 48-year-old son James – that the album’s artwork was inspired by his love of birdwatching on the Mersey in his youth, and challenged listeners to identify all of the birds that featured.

Another track, the trippy and psychedelic-themed “Mountain Top”, was partly written in response to his headline slot at Glastonbury Festival in 2022, which put him in a “hippie mood”. The rollicking “Down South”, meanwhile, was influenced by his adventures hitchhiking with Harrison.

“I still get a little bit emotional talking about John and George,” he admitted, looking around the studio. “This is where we worked!”

The fans themselves became emotional when McCartney spoke about collaborating with Starr on the album, after the drummer spent some time with Watt at his LA studio. “A Paul and Ringo duet – something we’d never done!” said the musician, who noted that “quite a few of the songs on this album go back in time… that’s what you draw from”.

In an afternoon soaked through with nostalgia, McCartney did take a moment to acknowledge the present-day. He addressed “all this turbulence in the world” as he spoke about a song inspired by his parents, who raised him during World War Two. “Imagine we’re in here,” he told the audience, “and any minute now you’re expecting bombs to fall… I wondered what that [feeling] would do to you.”

He then paid tribute to human resilience, referencing conflict in Ukraine and Gaza: “They’re going through these terrible things, but they keep on.”

From The Independent, May 5, 2026

From The Mirror, May 5, 2026:

[Paul] said some strings and woodwind parts of the LP had even been recorded at Abbey Road recently and then looking back to the Beatles days said: “We were here forever, we spent days and days in this studio. We used the tradesman’s entrance, up the stairs is the posh entrance for people like George Martin!” […]

After playing the single Days We Left Behind, which was released in March he said: “It is a little emotional because I’m talking about John and George and Ringo. It is a story about memories, various bits and pieces from my childhood. The great thing about memory songs is you get to relive the memory. You are lucky if you get songs like this one, they spill out of you. My missus Nancy loves this song.” […]

One story which did not make the song Days We Left Behind was when he was once down by the Mersey shore near Dungeon Lane bird watching and he had seen “two older boys” coming along and feared the worst. Sure enough they stole his watch.

Paul recalled: “But I called the police and they found them so I got my watch back! After that I vowed I was going to learn Karate so if it happened again I could kick them, but I never got round to it.” […]

New album track Down South refers to when he would hitchhike with George to places like Wales with their guitars as they began to learn and write songs. Paul laughed describing when they once got a very slow lift from a milk float.

“I got the passenger seat and George was sitting on the battery, all of a sudden he jumped up screaming. His metal zip had connected with the battery and he got burned. He had a zip burn.” […]

For the love song Ripples In A Pond he said he thought he would test Watt and asked him to make the song “sound like Justin Bieber” and the result is a track more like pop than anything else on the album.

Paul, 83, has also written songs about his parents for the first time, and in Salesman Saint he does that in part inspired by the present.

He said: “Quite a few of the songs go back in time, I have never really written about my mum and dad and with all the turbulence going on now it got me thinking. I was born in the war. My dad was a fireman and he had to put out the bombs. And my mum was a nurse and a midwife and did a lot during the war. But they carried on. People in places like Gaza are going through these terrible times now, but they are just having to carry on.” […]

Referring to First Star Of The Night, Paul told how the song was first recorded on his iPhone.

He added: “I put it down on my phone. It’s terrible though cos you put lots of things down but you never finish it. Well this one I did! My phone has thousands of little ideas, one of Steve’s(McCartney’s engineer) jobs is going through my phone to see if there is anything good or if it is a load of you know what.”

He later added: “I don’t work, I play, it’s my hobby. I do it anyway.” […]

From The Mirror, May 5, 2026