Interview for BBC1

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Funnily enough London Town was written in Perth, Australia. It was started in Perth when we went on our Australian tour. Linda and I were sitting in the hotel in Perth, which is a big Sheraton, you know, top floor, Elton John suite. [laughs] I don’t mean that how it sounds, actually! We were in Elton John’s suite! And we started doing this thing, we came up with these opening lyrics, ‘Walking down the sidewalk on a purple afternoon’.

So it got started there, and then it hung around for a little while. I just had that first bit that Linda and I had done, and then I got together with Denny in the summer of ’76 I think it was, in Scotland, and we just sat down and finished it all, arranged it up a bit, and got other little bits and pieces. I wrote another little bit when I was on holiday. I went to Mexico for a holiday, somewhere in between time, and wrote another little bit. So we put it all together and then recorded it in London town.

Paul McCartney – Interview with Paul Gambaccini, BBC1, 1978