Paul McCartney in concert (Photo: Paul Bachmann for Live4ever Media)
Paul McCartney has gone deep into the troubled end of The Beatles, its effect on his relationship with John Lennon and how it made him contemplate giving up music altogether.
Sir Paul’s in depth, candid interview took place as he became the latest subject of BBC Radio 4’s Mastertapes series at Maida Vale studios, when in the presence of famous fans including Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher he gave an honest account on the turbulent end of the greatest band of them all in 1970.
“You were faced with the end of the Beatles and all these heavy business negotiations which we never really had to face and this charming guy Allen Klein,” he said. “I didn’t like him, to put it mildly.”
“He was gonna screw us and take all the Beatles stuff, and he has actually took a bunch of Stones stuff that they don’t own to this day because he took it. So these meetings were heavy because I was trying to resist and I had to resist the other guys which is the worst bit.”
“Y’know it was very depressing because you were breaking from your lifelong friends and we used to liken it to the army, when have been army buddies for a few years and now you are not going to see them again,” he said of the aftermath.
“I took to the bevvies, I took to a wee dram. It was great at first but then after a while I was bit a bit ‘oh oh oh’ getting up in the morning. I was a bit far gone.”
If you’re in the right area you can watch the full show on iPlayer right here, where McCartney also reflects on Wings and his songwriting past, as well as fielding questions from Weller and Gallagher.