Wogan • Friday, November 20, 1987

About

From Wikipedia:

Wogan is a British television talk show which was broadcast on BBC1 from 1982 until 1992, presented by Terry Wogan. The show was generally broadcast live from BBC Television Theatre in Shepherd’s Bush, London until 1991. It was then broadcast from the BBC Television Centre. Some shows were pre-recorded, but broadcast unedited, ‘as live’. Wogan ended its run in July 1992

From Club Sandwich N°47/48, Spring 1988:

“I think it’s pretty clear what this is all about,” said a genial Terry Wogan, gesturing towards the huge portrait of Paul which dominated the studio. And without more ado, McCartney and band launched into ‘Jet’, immaculately reproducing the recorded version with a strong vocal from Paul, who was on bass as for most of his TV spots. Keith Airey (guitar), Gary Barnacle (sax), Chris Whitten (drums), Linda (keyboards) and Nicky Hopkins (piano) completed the line-up. This completed Nicky’s set, as besides playing on the Beatles’ ‘Revolution’ and recording and touring with the Stones, he has graced solo albums by John, George and Ringo. A slightly puffed Paul joined Terry, who started on a dietary note: “Up in hospitality, the entire menu is vegetarian. You didn’t even try the mushroom quiche, did you?” “No, I don’t trust your hospitality.” (Laughter.)

“Now, by a strange, nay wonderful coincidence, I am in a position to present you with a double-platinum disc for All The Best. (Cheers.) It hasn’t been out very long and it’s number two in the album charts and platinum already. Nice to know the old magic is still there. What’s the favourite of all your hits?”

“It’s always the new one, whatever you’ve just been working on. It’s fresh.”

“Do you listen to much new pop?”

“Yes – I’m sweatin’ like a pig ‘ere – I listen to U2…George Harrison.” (Cheers.)

“It’s the 25th anniversary of ‘Love Me Do’. When you listen to these things now, do you feel they’ve stood the test of time?”

“I think as songs and performances they’ve stood the test of time – the problem is the technical thing. Sometimes the drum sound is a bit ‘poop-poop’ – I’ll do that again: ‘poop-poop’.” (Laughter.)

Talk of the Beatles CD’s led to the question of modern studio techniques. Was Paul happy with them? “Myself, I think it’s gonna change. You’ll get the techno business, but you’re starting to find that people want to hear real bands playing. Fashions go in circles.”

“When you were at school, did you say to your careers master, ‘I want to be a singer-songwriter’?”

“No, I wanted to be a teacher. It was the only thing I had the qualifications to be. But I went out to Hamburg and we were earning the princely sum of fifteen pounds, which as you remember Terry was a lot in those days. I was so chuffed that I wrote back to my headmaster -of this very good grammar school in Liverpool-‘Dear Sir, I’m in Hamburg playing with a group, but we’re on fifteen pound a week, so stuff you.‘” (Laughter.)

“Do you wish that you’d become better qualified academically?”

“Not really. At school the only thing I was any good at was English – I had a really good English literature teacher who got me onto that vaguely poetic thing. And funnily enough, working with John, we’ve sort of become known as the poets of our generation. So I got into literature without meaning to.”

“Do you come from a musical family?”

“My father used to play piano – and trumpet, until his teeth gave out.”

“It must be a great regret to you that your mother didn’t live to see you succeed?“

“That is one of the big regrets, and when you have kids – that she didn’t know how the kids turned out. My Dad sort of made up for it: he’d be super-proud. We’d be in a restaurant and he’d say, ‘Don’t look, they’ve spotted you. That table’s got you. Smile over here -go on, son.” (Laughter.)

“When the Beatles finished, it must have been a hard act to follow.”

“If there was any group that you would not want to follow on a bill, it would be the Beatles. So it was really a choice as to whether I would attempt to follow it, or just give up and not be in music any more.”

“People perhaps don’t remember, but Wings were enormously successful.”

“Yes. Because we were in the shadow of the Beatles, we always assumed we weren’t doing well. But you look up in all the charts – we did great.”

After the ‘Once Upon A Long Ago’ video, we returned to the studio to find Linda seated alongside Paul. Terry suggested the Devon scenery in the video was similar to some of her photographs. Linda: “It is. It’s very like Scotland, I must say, which is where that stag -which they say didn’t feel fear – went up on the roof. I would have liked to photograph that.” (A photo of a stag at bay on a cottage roof had just been in the British papers.)

“If you hadn’t taken up photography, you wouldn’t have met Paul?”

“Probably not – you never know. I was in England taking photographs for a book and I thought I’d like to photograph the Beatles and Stevie Winwood, who’s a great favourite of mine, and we happened to meet in a club. I was quite impressed.”

“I think we should look at some of your photographs, because being married to Paul McCartney it’s very easy to live in the shadow. Did you feel the necessity to breakout?”

“No, I’m not really worried about ‘living in the shadow’. I love life and I’ll just have a good time.” Paul: “She’s a really good photographer-one of the best, I reckon.” (Cheers.)

Some of her photos were shown, including studies of Jimi Hendrix (Linda: “My hero – greatest guitar player ever“) and Lucky Spot, her Appaloosa pony, surrounded by wild flowers. Had Linda any tips for other photographers? “Follow your instinct. One thing I never do is crop photographs. When you look through, make sure it’s the picture you want, and just take pictures if there’s enough light or not.” A picture of swans came up. Linda: “This was done near Fairlight, where they were gonna drill for oil. The world needs people to stop ruining it and leave it for our own aesthetics.”

“Can you live on aesthetics?”

“Well, you can live on aesthetics a lot more than on concrete and rubbish. I think people are much happier with nature than they are with the trees being cut down and big trucks moving in.”

“Are you committed to that in the same way, Paul?”

“Yeah. At that particular place, there were gonna be thirty-six of these ‘nodding donkeys’ drilling for oil. I don’t think that really improves the view.”

“Are you a keen photographer?”

“Not really. I leave all that to Linda – she’s much better.”

“He’s good, though,” Linda interjects, “He’s a natural.”

“You stand up for him all the time!”

Paul: “We like each other, Terry.” (Laughter.)

“Do you like each other better now than ten years ago?”

Linda: “About the same.” Paul: “What d’you reckon? Shall we tell him.” Linda: “No way, we’re on telly.”

“You’re both very busy people. Did you get much time to give to your family, as they were growing up?”

Paul: “That’s one of the reasons we don’t tour the world all the time. You’ve gotta give ’em some time. That’s one of the problems with showbiz and politics – politicians are always speaking in the House all the time, not their own house, and get a lot of problems at home. So we do try to be there if possible.”

“Do you have any rules for bringing them up? Do you tell them off?”

Linda: “Not me!” Paul: “You’re telling the kids something and they go ‘Yeah, yeah’…” (mimics children yawning.) Linda: “We love them. My kids are my best friends, really. They’re great.”

“With a name like McCartney, it must have been very tough for them.”

Paul: “There’s nothing you can do about that, but the kids learn to stick up for themselves quite early on. You’ll always get the one feller who goes, ‘Myehh -McCartney, “Mull of Kintyre” – myehh’.”

“It’s a tribute to you both that your family are up there. They didn’t just stay at home and watch it on television. Is there anything specific you’d both like to achieve in the next 20 years?”

Linda: “For me it’s the old things: peace on earth and stop eating animals. I seem a bit cranky, but it’s really what I’m interested in.” Paul: “My ambition’s along the same kind of lines, really. Even with the Beatles, you were always looking for peace on earth and after a while it gets boring – ‘Yeah, peace. I’d rather have war, it’s more exciting.” (Laughter). But that’s what we keep chuntering on about and you get people like Geldof who do great things, you with Children in Need.. .that’s what’s to do in life, I think. And have a bit of a laff and a song along with it.”

Close on a triumphant ‘Listen To What The Man Said’. […]

From Club Sandwich N°47/48, Spring 1988

From Chris Whitten (@chriswhittenmusic) • Instagram photos and videos:

Throughout the second half of 1987 I was hired on a job by job basis by the McCartney organisation (MPL). It was only at the end of the year I was asked, along with Hamish Stuart, to start work on the Flowers In The Dirt album from January 1988 for ‘as long as it took’.

Last updated on November 11, 2022

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