Beatles (56 page)

During a new album, people are coming and going all the time. Paul is now so much the leader, as he was even before Brian died, in organizing many of their affairs, that most things happen from his house.

Peter Blake, the artist, came to Paul’s house during the discussions for the
Sergeant Pepper
cover. John was usually there as well, and so was Terry Doran. Just after Peter Blake left one afternoon, Paul’s man, the one who was working in the house at the time, came into the living room to say that a parson was at the front gate. They all laughed.

Someone said it must be a gag. Paul looked at John. John obviously didn’t want to see any parson. Paul said to his man to get rid of him. Terry said it was probably a TV actor, dressed up.
They laughed. Paul said perhaps Terry should be the one to go and tell him politely that Paul was out. As Terry was halfway across the room, Paul said no, we’ll let him in, eh? If he looks all right, he might be interesting. Terry came back from the front gate and said, he’s foony, honest. So the electronic gates were allowed to swing open, allowing the parson to enter.

The parson, middle-aged and well scrubbed, entered the living room, very nervously. Everybody smiled politely at him. Paul told him to sit down. He apologized for coming in on them when he knew they must be so busy, so frightfully busy, he knew that. He was already making their excuses for them. He was obviously so surprised to get in. He knew it couldn’t last long and he’d be straight out. Paul asked what he wanted.

The parson turned to face Paul, having realized he must be Mr McCartney. He’d been peering round, trying hard, but obviously unable to recognize anybody. Holding his hands together, he said it was just that they were having a garden fête and he was wondering if Paul could come along, just pop in for a second. Of course he knew how busy they were. It was marvellous, all they had done. They must be very busy people, he knew that.

‘No, I never do that,’ said Paul. ‘Of course, of course,’ said the parson, hurriedly, ‘I couldn’t expect it. You’re so busy. I knew it. So busy …’

‘No we’re not,’ said Paul. ‘It’s not that at all. It just wouldn’t be right, would it, as I don’t believe. You know?’ Paul was smiling. The parson smiled back, not listening, just nodding in agreement with everything Paul said.

‘Why don’t you make the product better,’ said Paul, still smiling kindly, ‘instead of getting gimmicks like us?’ ‘Oh, you’re quite right, quite right. We are trying. We’re trying hard to get all together. We’ve got an interdenominational service next week.’

‘That’ll be good,’ said Paul, ‘for a start. Of course, if we got going on this, we’d be here all night, wouldn’t we?’

‘You’re quite right,’ said the parson. ‘And you’re so busy. I couldn’t expect you to come, you’re so busy …’

Paul didn’t bother to explain again, that that was not the reason. The parson started to get up, smiling, and so did everyone else in the room. He went round them all, smiling earnestly and thanking them for all their time. He stared hard at everyone, trying to place them, knowing they must be placeable. Paul went with him to the door. As he left the room, he turned round again and said to everyone, ‘I suppose you’re
all
world famous.’ Then he left.

When he’d gone, everyone said how nice he was. John particularly was pleased at not being recognized. He said it was funny how people always got worried when they didn’t recognize you straight away, as if you would be hurt, not realizing it was the opposite.

It was about five o’clock. Mrs Mills, Paul’s housekeeper at the time, served breakfast all round. Fried eggs, bacon and black pudding. She brought in a big pile of sliced bread, already buttered, and endless tea. George and Ringo, then Neil and Mal arrived, and they all in turn got a cup of tea. Then they went off to the recording studio.

Apart from Beatle people, or people associated in some way with the record they’re working on, Paul often has a lot of his Liverpool relations staying with him. His dad and stepmother Angie and stepsister Ruth, plus his aunts and uncles, often have a week with him. Paul goes up to Liverpool most of all the Beatles. John doesn’t go at all, since Mimi moved to Bournemouth. George goes up to Warrington quite a lot to see his folks, and so does Ringo. But Paul is always going up for the weekend on a sudden whim, if Jane is away and there’s no work on. Jane often goes with him as well.

Michael McCartney, Paul’s brother, is probably the most frequent Liverpool visitor, especially since his own records and work began to have a London success.

The phone never seems to stop ringing. There are two
numbers, both ex-directory, but no matter how often the numbers are changed, fans still find out. Paul answers the phone himself, always with a funny voice. It’s easy to tell a fan by the frightened silence, in which case he hangs up without speaking.

‘Oh, yeh, hi,’ he said on the phone, still keeping up his funny voice, but admitting who it was by the way he was speaking. It was a well known disc jockey, inviting him to come down on Sunday and do some horse riding. ‘Yeh, I might at that,’ said Paul, politely, but not definitely promising anything. He made faces down the phone as the other person smarmed on about the excellent riding. ‘Yeh, great, yeh. OK, then. I might see you. Cheerio.’

The phone rang again and it was his dad, asking about his proposed trip up to Liverpool at the weekend. ‘What time do you think you’ll be coming, son?’ said Jim. ‘Just so I can get ready.’

‘Ready for what?’ said Paul.

‘Oh you know, just get things ready.’

‘Don’t be so stupid, Dad. I don’t want you to get ready for anything. I’ll arrive when I arrive.’

Astrid in Germany was always a bit suspicious of Paul at first, though his relationship with Stu was also bound up in this. ‘It used to frighten me that someone could be so nice all the time. Which is silly. It’s ridiculous to feel at home with nasty people, just because you feel that at least you know where you are with them. It’s silly to be wary of nice people.’

A lot of Paul’s niceness comes from his dad. His brother Michael has it as well. At 17, when the others were in revolt against their parents, Paul was the only one who listened to his dad and his little homilies, and was mocked by the others for doing so.

Paul is the easiest to get to know for an outsider, but in the end he is the hardest to get to know. There is a feeling that he is holding things back, that he is one jump ahead, aware of the impression he is giving. He is self-conscious, which the others are not. John doesn’t care, either way, what people think. Ringo
is too adult to think about such things, and George in many ways isn’t conscious. He is above it all.

Paul himself has come to terms with himself, having gone through a stage of trying not to be so nice or to appear keen. ‘I do find it more of an effort
not
to make an effort. It’s more false for me not to. So I might as well make the effort.’

Paul’s way of making an effort, by being polite and hard-working, was essential to the group. It was his PR approach that Brian Epstein brought out. Even before that, Paul gave them any gloss they had, writing little handout letters and making little speeches.

His way of making an effort has been especially vital to them since Brian Epstein died. Paul today makes most of the running. This is why it is true to say that, in some ways, Paul is the leader today, not John, though talking seriously about a leader of the Beatles is as pointless as it ever was. Paul is the businessman, he’s the pusher, he gets things done and wheedles the rest along with him. But no big decisions are ever taken unless they all agree.

Once they are taken, Paul starts moving and doesn’t put up with inefficiencies. There was some hold-up over a proof of the
Sergeant Pepper
cover. He hadn’t got one when he should have done, so he rang EMI and went through department after department till he found the person whose fault it was. He told them exactly what he thought of them. It was brought round immediately by car, covered by apologies.

Another time, during some other discussions with EMI, Paul rang up the boss himself, chairman Sir Joseph Lockwood. Sir Joseph told Paul on the phone to sit tight. Then he jumped into his Rolls-Royce and came round to Paul’s house personally to settle everything. He says that Paul has the sort of mind that could have made him a good lawyer.

Paul is keen, he wants things to go well. He also still has a slight residue of resentment, which they all had at one time. This came from being pushed around and looked upon as pretty stupid because they were just beat-group players. He hates any
insinuation that he is thick. He came back from a meeting with the NEMS people one day, after he’d been trying to persuade them what a good idea Apple would be, furious at their attitude. ‘They think we’re all thick,’ he said, walking round and round his living room.

The whole Apple idea and impetus are Paul’s. It got going before Brian died, but it was still all Paul’s creation. John and the others agree with everything and are there for all the big meetings. Paul sees it as a huge corporation, with shops, clubs, studios and the best people in the business, from cameramen and engineers to artists, writers and composers.

‘We want to make it an environment. An umbrella where people can do things in the way they want. There’s thousands and thousands of pounds going through NEMS and not being properly used. They’ve got it all tied up for us in the Bingley Building Society or somewhere.

‘But it’s all just a hobby, really, like our music. We do that with our feet up. When we get Apple going big, we’ll do that with our feet up. You can have business meetings which are an uplift not a bring-down.’

The
Magical Mystery Tour
would never have got off the ground without Paul. He put his whole life into it for the 15 weeks, directing every stage. So it was a disappointment to him at first, when the British reviews were so bad. ‘We knew from the beginning we were just practising. We knew we weren’t taking time or doing things properly, but when you’ve spent a long time on something, even when it’s not good enough, you begin to feel perhaps it is better than you know it is.

‘I’m glad now it was badly received. It would have been bad to have got away with all that. It’s now a challenge to do something properly.’

Paul went straight from
Magical Mystery Tour
into thinking of subjects for full-length films. He and Jane went to see
A Man For All Seasons
and were inspired to do something with a big, lush setting. Then he thought of doing a love story. Why should
they always be expected to always lark around? Then he thought of doing some realism, such as Liverpool during the Depression.

Paul and Jane have more time together, on their own, than probably the other Beatle couples. They do get away together, to places like their Scottish home, thanks to Jane. They were the first to want to move to the country for good, to a quieter smaller house, which John and George now also want to do.

‘I always wanted to beat Jane down,’ says Paul. ‘I wanted her to give up work completely.’

‘I refused. I’ve been brought up to be always doing something. And I enjoy acting. I didn’t want to give that up.’

‘I know now I was just being silly,’ says Paul. ‘It was a game, trying to beat you down.’

At various times, one of them wanted to get married, but the other didn’t. Jane says it was usually something happening with the Beatles, just when it looked all settled, which made her change her mind. Paul says it was her acting, although he agreed when the big tour of America came up, that she had to go on that.

‘When I came back after five months, Paul had changed so much. He was on LSD, which I hadn’t shared. I was jealous of all the spiritual experiences he’d had with John. There were 15 people dropping in all day long. The house had changed and was full of stuff I didn’t know about.’

His life is much quieter and more ordered now. Paul is very communicative about himself, unlike the others. He talks everything over with Jane. She knows what he’s thinking.

‘Another problem,’ says Paul, ‘was that my whole existence for so long centred round a bachelor life. I didn’t treat women as most people do. I’ve always had a lot around, even when I’ve had a steady girl. My life generally has always been very lax, and not normal.

‘I knew it was selfish. It caused a few rows. Jane left me once and went off to Bristol to act. I said OK then, leave, I’ll find someone else. It was shattering to be without her.’

This was when he wrote ‘I’m Looking Through You’. Jane has inspired several of his more beautiful songs, such as ‘And I Love Her’.

When they got engaged, on Christmas Day 1967, all these problems were in the past. Maharishi, for a long time, was the only little point of difference, although it was all amicable. Jane didn’t fall for him when the others did, although she understood the attraction. She would obviously have preferred to try to reach a spiritual state on their own. Paul wasn’t as committed as George and John when he went with Jane to India in 1968, but he felt there was something there that would help him, that might answer his questions. So Jane agreed to go with him. In the end they both had a rewarding and happy time in India.

‘As Beatles, we’ve gone through millions of superficial changes, which mean nothing and haven’t changed us,’ says Paul.

‘It’s like in posh places, you get to like avocado and spinach and other way-out foods, so you have them every time. You learn about wine and that’s the scene for a while. When you’ve done all that, then you can go back. You realize the waiter’s just there to ask you what you want, not what anyone expects you to want. So if you feel like cornflakes for lunch, you ask for them, without feeling like a Northern comedian.

‘These sort of cycles are coming and going all the time. Like the moustache. I had one to amaze people, as a fun thing. I had all the fun, then one day took it off. Now I’m back to where I was. Like food, I got through it and realized what it was and came back.

‘It’s like meeting famous stars. You go through the being amazed stage when you first meet them, then find out he’s just like Harry Bloggs. You knew all the time he was just Harry Bloggs, but you had to go through with it to find out.