title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: In January 2021, May Calamawy was cast in the "key role" of Layla El-Faouly, and Ethan Hawke was cast as Arthur Harrow, the series' main villain. Goher had approached Calamawy on social media to convince her to audition, and had included Calamawy in her and Diab's pitch presentation for the series. Isaac had initially approached Hawke about joining the series, and Diab asked Hawke not to read the scripts before signing on because he wanted to develop the character with the actor. Diab was thankful that Hawke trusted him and Isaac enough to join them without seeing the scripts, which Hawke said he had not done in 35 years. He explained that he joined the series because of Isaac, Diab, and where he felt he was in his acting career, and he enjoyed the creative freedom that came with the series telling a lesser-known story. Gaspard Ulliel joined the cast by July 2021 as Anton Mogart, in one of his last roles before his death in January 2022. F. Murray Abraham was revealed to be voicing Khonshu in February 2022, having been approached for the role; Karim El Hakim provided the on-set performance of the character. Ann Akinjirin and David Ganly also star as police officers and Harrow's followers Bobbi Kennedy and Billy Fitzgerald, respectively, while Khalid Abdalla stars as Osiris' avatar Selim, and Antonia Salib stars as the Egyptian goddess Taweret. Sofia Danu and Saba Mubarak were the on-set performer and voice of the Egyptian goddess Ammit, respectively.


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: Lucy Thackeray was revealed to be portraying Donna in the series' trailer, released in January 2022. Additional castings were revealed ahead of the series' premiere in March, including Rey Lucas as Marc's and Steven's father Elias Spector, Fernanda Andrade as Wendy Spector, Marc's mother, Saffron Hocking as Dylan, Shaun Scott as Crawley, and Díana Bermudez as Yatzil. Other guest stars included Alexander Cobb as J.B., Declan Hannigan as the avatar of Horus, Hayley Konadu as the avatar of Tefnut, Nagisa Morimoto as the avatar of Isis, Loic Mabanza as Bek, Joseph Millson as Dr. Steven Grant, Bill Bekele as Rosser, Claudio Fabian Contreras as Spector's younger brother Randall, and Usama Soliman as Layla's father Abdallah El-Faouly. The majority of smaller Egyptian roles went to Egyptian actors, including those living in Budapest, such as Ahmed Dash, Hazem Ehab, Amr Elkady, and Zizi Dagher.


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: Stefania Cella serves as the production designer, working with Egyptologists and an Egyptian supervising art director to ensure historical accuracy in her sets. She meticulously worked on details to bring realism to the sets. Her Chamber of the Gods set was three stories tall and decorated with yellow hieroglyphs related to divinity. The Burial Chamber set featured hieroglyphs and water and reflective surfaces to represent the series's themes of duality and identity. Grant's attic apartment was constructed to resemble the pyramids, while Harrow's residence was made to be commune-style in the Spitalfields/dockyard part of London. The Mogart's Mansion set included two Louvre-inspired glass pyramids that were built for filming. Two Egyptian housing block sets were also built. The hospital in the Duat was designed based on the combination of the iconography of hospitals and Harrow's private space in the second episode. The same set was used, with its set dressings for the commune removed and then painted white as Cella thought it the best way to represent Spector's perception of reality was by using the same location and instead making it a part of the hospital in Spector's consciousness. She used the color white because she felt it was associated with "hygiene and operation and gowns" and also thought that it "is the color of, 'Am I there or I'm not there?' Because it sometimes is the white space and then it's paradise", which she thought helped contribute to the story.


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: Meghan Kasperlik serves as the costume designer. Diab wanted the costumes to have a lot of Egyptian symbols and iconography, with Kasperlik finding ways to include "those subtleties but still representing Egyptian culture today and also Ancient Egyptians symbols from the past". She also worked with Cella to ensure the same symbols on the sets were incorporated into the costumes.


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: Grant's costumes were meant to evoke the "coolness" of Brixton but with some elements "off", with Kasperlik finding vintage shirts in New York for the character, and later incorporating a "clunkier shoe to weigh this character down" and a Chore coat. Spector has a "desert look with a tactical, utilitarian and lighter costume". He also has a hoodie and vest with multiple functions which was foreshadowing for Moon Knight's cape effect. Arthur Harrow's costumes are "monk-like" inspired by real-life cult leaders, while El-Faouly has a more athletic look with Cairo and London influences. Harrow has Ammit's death prayer inscribed on his bracelet, while El-Faouly's Egyptian touches are subtlety featured in her jewelry. El-Faouly also has teases throughout the series hinting at her becoming the Scarlet Scarab, such as her pants being the same print as when she is in the Scarlet Scarab suit. Most of El-Faouly's costumes were custom-made, despite their contemporary appearance.


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: Moon Knight's costume consists of armor and Ancient Egyptian bandages, with hieroglyphic-like symbols on his cape, which feature Khonshu's oath and are in a repeating pattern on the underlining in a foil-like fabric. The moon crest on his chest, from which he spawns his crescent darts, also contains the oath of Khonshu, while additional hieroglyphs on his pants that state "Rise and live again as my fist of vengeance. My Moon Knight." His mummy bandage design is based on the "Universe X" version of the character from the comics, and was designed to conjure around Spector, giving it a supernatural quality and helping to differentiate it from similarly forming hero suits in the MCU that use nanotech. Feige suggested taking the bandage design and combining it with the character's more modern design in the comics. She ultimately chose to separate the costume into many layers and not turn it into a molded piece with the piece and texture on top, as she wanted to incorporate symbolism of Khonshu into her design. The Moon Knight suit was created by FBFX in London, and consisted of over 803 different pieces. It was created out of a flexible "Euro jersey" material, and featured 3D printed textures and colors to give it depth and texture.


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: For Mr. Knight, Kasperlik created a three-piece suit based on his design in the comics, with various homages to Khonshu in the design. She added designed sneakers to modernize the look. The buttons on his waistcoat feature Khonshu's symbols. She also wanted to pick a fabric that would not be flat white, would have a texture, and would not get "blown out" during nighttime filming and look like "a white marshmallow running across the screen", choosing a white-on-white textured fabric with a silver lame in it. The logic behind the designs of the Moon Knight and Mr. Knight suits was inspired by who each identity was, what they love, and their imagination. With Grant "completely away from the superhero world", he summons a costume that resembles a suit as Mr. Knight. Both the Moon Knight and Mr. Knight suits contained Khonshu's symbol.


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: Khonshu, Taweret, and Ammit's costumes were made for each character, despite each being CGI characters. To create Khonshu's costume, Kasperlik read previous comics and researched various types of fabrics and how she could make it tattered. She used six different types of fabrics that were all hand-sewn and stretched so the actor could wear it comfortably. A custom leather collar and leather strips were added over the chest area to emphasize his symbol, while a belt, which was sculpted and molded, also goes around his waist. The practical costume pieces for Taweret consisted of a scarab, breastplate, gold bracelets, "several layers of feathers that plumed out", and hieroglyphs carved into various elements, with Salib calling Taweret "a very fashionable goddess". Salib also wore platform shoes to mimic hippo feet as well as a motion capture pole to aid in the extra height of the character. Given Taweret is the goddess of childbirth and fertility, her headpiece features the birthing dance and prayer of ancient Egypt, which was a replica of a piece of Egyptian artwork. Much of her costume was constructed by in-house leather works and metalsmiths. Both Khonshu and Taweret had their prayers and oaths incorporated into the various symbolisms on their costumes.


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: The series' main-on-end title sequence was designed by Perception. The company sought inspiration from ancient Egyptian artifacts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, working with Curtis in crafting a sequence which focused on the series' dark and mysterious tone. Reflections serve as recurring imagery in the sequence, and Perception also included several Easter eggs referencing certain elements of the series. Each episode's end credits feature a new phase of the moon, starting with a crescent moon in the first episode.


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: Filming was expected to begin in March 2021, and was confirmed to be underway by the end of April in Hungary. The series was filmed under the working title "Good Faith", with Diab directing the first, third, and final two episodes and Benson and Moorhead directing the second and fourth. Moorhead explained that he and Benson were "handed" the second and fourth episodes to direct, in part because of logistical reasons, but also because each of the episodes were designed to have "its own voice", though the first two episodes connect a little more closer to each other because the creatives were still "figuring out the production" then. He continued that the location of the fourth episode was "very much its own thing", allowing the duo to "cordon off a little bit", while the final two episodes are "their own voice from each other and from the rest of the episodes". Gregory Middleton was the cinematographer for Diab and Andrew Droz Palermo served the role for Benson and Moorhead. Soundstage work occurred at Origo Studios in Budapest. The series was previously expected to begin filming on November 16, 2020, to last for 26 weeks, but this was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Filming occurred at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest in April, which served as exteriors for London's National Gallery, and in Szentendre at the beginning of May. In early June, outdoor night scenes were filmed at Madách Square in Budapest. Various exterior locations in Budapest were found to stand-in for London, particularly the Brixton and Soho areas.


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: Filming also occurred in Slovenia, for one week in Wadi Rum, Jordan, and concluded in Budapest and Jordan by the beginning of October, at which point production moved to Atlanta, Georgia. It had wrapped by October 14. Isaac said filming felt "handmade", with Diab bringing local authenticity and attention to the smallest details such as including the correct text of a prayer over a shop. Hawke was appreciative of the Egyptian Diab for leading the series, since he did not approach the series "with the eyes of an American", but as someone who had grown up in the country. The production had hoped to film the series in Egypt but were unable to in part because of the country's political climate and censorship issues; Hollywood production had not been able to shoot in the country for some time.


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: Additional photography was completed by mid-November, and Diab said there was much less reshooting required for the series than on other Marvel Studios projects, occurring over four days. He, Isaac, and Hawke attributed this to the large amount of rehearsing and discussing that they did before filming each episode, including regular Sunday brunches with the main cast and crew. Hawke said these meetings helped form a "collective imagination" for the series that made it easier to switch between Diab's episodes and those directed by Benson and Moorhead, since the "imaginative force behind it was the same".


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: Abraham joined the series later in the process and had multiple recording sessions where he was encouraged to provide different takes and ideas for the material. He came up with various vocal options, ultimately settling on the one he enjoyed and was the best fit for the character. Cedric Nairn-Smith serves as an editor on the series for the first and sixth episodes, Joan Sobel for the second and fifth episodes, and Ahmed Hafez for the third and fourth episodes, while Sean Andrew Faden serves as the visual effects supervisor. Visual effects for the series were created by Framestore, Image Engine, Mammal Studios, WetaFX, and Zoic Studios. A large portion of Cairo was digitally created by Weta, who found the Giza pyramid complex particularly difficult to recreate.


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: Egyptian composer Hesham Nazih had composed the score for the series by early March 2022 in his first major English language project. He utilized an orchestra of 62 musicians and 36 singers, which recorded in Vienna, while soloists playing Egyptian folk instruments such as the arghul, mizmar, and rebab were recorded in Cairo. Nazih felt the folk instruments had a "prominent presence and sonority" within the score and did not work against the "texture" of the classical orchestra. Diab was drawn to Nazih to score the series because his work "encompasses authentic Egyptian elements in a very contemporary way", with the music helping to break Egyptian stereotypes by revealing some of the country's lesser-known contemporary art to international audiences; Diab described it as a "beautiful score that is Egyptian, but it's international at its core, it's universal". Nazih's themes for Moon Knight and Harrow "chase[d] one another and sometimes collided".


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: The series' soundtrack used a mixture of older and newer songs as a way to showcase Cairo's music scene, which has similar sensibilities to the West, without resorting to songs that would feel like they were from the Middle Ages. Marvel Music and Hollywood Records released the first episode's end-credit track from Nazih, "Moon Knight", as a digital single on March 30, 2022, followed by the series' soundtrack album on April 27.


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: The first footage of the series debuted on Disney+ Day on November 12, 2021. A trailer was then released on January 17, 2022, during the 2021–22 NFL playoffs, with James Whitbrook at "Gizmodo" noting that it gave a full look at the character following the brief Disney+ Day footage. He said the costume was faithful to the comic book version, "albeit more textured-looking". Daniel Chin from "The Ringer" highlighted the use of the song "Day 'n' Nite" by Kid Cudi, and felt that "Moon Knight" was "shaping up to be one of [Marvel's] darkest and most distinctive projects to date", due to its darker tone, incorporation of horror elements, depiction of violence, and how the series introduced a new character into the MCU rather than focus on previously established characters. Richard Newby at "The Hollywood Reporter" felt the trailer was "relish[ing]" in the general audience's lack of knowledge about the character by maintaining a sense of mystery. He also felt the series looked like it would be one of the darkest and most original projects from Marvel Studios, which was echoed by his colleagues Aaron Couch and Borys Kit, who said the trailer suggested "something unlike any other Marvel show". Isaac's British accent for the Steven Grant identity received mixed responses from viewers, and Isaac himself made fun of it in a video where he and Hawke reacted to the trailer. Isaac later said the accent was intentionally unconvincing. The trailer was viewed over 75 million times in 24 hours, which was better than trailers for Marvel Studios' other Disney+ series, except "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier" Super Bowl LV trailer which had 125 million views. Additionally, its social engagement of 263,000 mentions were the highest of any Disney+ Marvel series for their first content release. An additional trailer aired during Super Bowl LVI on February 13, which continued to keep the series mysterious while depicting its "darker sensibilities", according to "Screen Rant" Rachel Labonte. Ben F. Silverio of "/Film" said the shots of Moon Knight's cape "flung out into the shape of a crescent moon" and the character catching his moon-shaped weapons were the "coolest". RelishMix reported the trailer had 9.49 million views in 24 hours across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: The "Marvel Must Haves" merchandise program, which reveals new toys, games, books, apparel, home decor, and other merchandise related to each episode of "Moon Knight" following an episode's release, started for the episodes on April 1 and concluded on May 5, 2022. Also in April, Marvel and National Geographic released a featurette exploring how the series approached and researched all of the Ancient Egyptian iconography for the sets and story.


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: QR codes were included in the first two and final two episodes linking viewers to a website to access free digital comics featuring Moon Knight that updated weekly. The comics released for the six episodes, in order, were "Werewolf by Night" #32 and #33, "Moon Knight" vol. 1 #3, "Universe X" #6, "Moon Knight" vol. 1 #1, and "Moon Knight Annual" vol. 2 #1. Each had a connection to a character or visual reference that appeared in that week's episode. By the release of the finale, Disney announced the site was visited over 1.5 million times, with 500,000 full comics read. Adam B. Vary of "Variety" called the initiative "a savvy way to expand viewers' comic book knowledge" for the more obscure character of Moon Knight. Curtis explained that he had been fascinated with the engagement the animated series "Bob's Burgers" had with their gags in the opening and closing credits and their "burger of the week", and believed that interactivity could be brought to "Moon Knight" to "help educate viewers on Moon Knight's comic book history". When filming at the storage locker facility in "Summon the Suit", which already had existing QR codes on their doors, Curtis realized that would be the way to "organically incorporate QR codes into the environment". He had originally thought of another idea for the engagement that Marvel was unable to execute technologically. The visual effects team then inserted the live QR codes with CGI into the episodes where codes could naturally be found, which was why codes were not included in the third, fourth, and sixth episodes (outside of one in its post-credits scene) as they would "stick out as a gimmick" in those environments. Curtis was hopeful the project would continue for other MCU films and series. Viewers who scanned the code were also sent an exclusive, digital poster after the series finale of the "SPKTR" license plate.


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: "Moon Knight" debuted on Disney+ on March 30, 2022. It consists of six episodes, releasing weekly until May 4. A special screening occurred on March 16 at Cine Capitol in Madrid, and on March 17 at the British Museum in London, with the red carpet premiere on March 22 at El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles. It is part of of the MCU.


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: Parrot Analytics, which looks at consumer engagement in consumer research, streaming, downloads, and on social media, reported that "Moon Knight" had the most in-demand United States series premiere in the first quarter of 2022. It had 33.4 times the average demand of all other series in the U.S. during its first 30 days.


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported an 86% approval rating with an average rating of 7.65/10, based on 238 reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Its entertainment value may wax and wane a bit, but "Moon Knight" ultimately settles into a mostly enjoyable—and refreshingly weird—spot in the MCU firmament." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 69 out of 100 based on 27 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: Matt Webb Mitovich at "TVLine" gave the series' first four episodes an "A−", saying it "subvert[s] and perhaps wildly exceed[s] any tempered expectations", enjoying the unpredictability the series brought compared to Marvel Studios' other Disney+ series centered on established characters. Mitovich also praised the visuals of "Moon Knight" and the acting, particularly that from Isaac. "Variety" Daniel D'Addario praised the show's "high-stepping riskiness" and "freshness ... that’s enticing even for those outside the fandom". Giving the first four episodes of the series four out of five stars, James Dyer wrote in his review for "Empire" that "Moon Knight" was "a boldly bonkers affair that manages to capture the same giddy joy imbued in "Hawkeye" and "Loki"", delivering "something that feels genuinely different from any corner of the MCU yet explored". He added, however, that "the larger narrative is at times less compelling than the quirky character work".


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: Daniel Fienberg of "The Hollywood Reporter" was more critical of the series, thinking the series was "more successful as an Oscar Isaac acting exercise than a superhero thrill-ride". Fienberg was frustrated by the lack of Moon Knight and clarity to his skill set and stated the series "feels intended less as a TV show and more as an explanation for why viewers would want to watch the character eventually" join up with other MCU characters. He did appreciate Diab's culturally-appropriate depictions of Egypt. "Rolling Stone" Alan Sepinwall gave the series 3 out of 5 stars, enjoying Isaac's performance as both Grant and Spector, but feeling there was "precious little to feel excited about" in the series beyond that. Though Sepinwall became more engaged by the conclusion of the fourth episode since the story pivots "more into the darkness inherent in the character", he did not have high hopes for the series conclusion given past MCU Disney+ series faltered in their finales and the character's history of "being more exciting in theory than reality".


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: With the series' conclusion, Richard Newby also of "The Hollywood Reporter", believed the series felt "the most unfinished in terms of completing the story setup" of any of the MCU properties and called the "lacking sense of narrative completion" puzzling. He continued that despite the uncertainty of additional seasons or if Isaac would return to the role, the final episode left viewers wanting more, especially with multiple story points still able to be explored further, and Newby wondered if "Moon Knight" would have been better served with more episodes to reach a more satisfying conclusion and give more depth to the character and his part of the MCU.


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: By April 2022, Marvel Studios and Disney planned to submit "Moon Knight" in the various limited series categories for the Primetime Emmy Awards, along with "Hawkeye". However, by the final episode's release in May, a promotional tweet for the episode initially called it a "series finale", before being deleted and shared calling it a "season finale", despite no indication of any further seasons. Clayton Davis at "Variety" noted that this change could force the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences to reject "Moon Knight" in the limited series categories given their rules and use of past social media and interviews in determining eligibility, necessitating the studios to submit the series in the drama categories, along with "Loki". Despite this, Davis noted "Moon Knight" was still planned to be submitted in the limited series categories, which Disney and Marvel ultimately did.


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: In February 2021, the documentary series "Marvel Studios: Assembled" was announced. The specials go behind the scenes of the MCU films and television series with cast members and additional creatives. The special of this series, "Assembled: The Making of Moon Knight", featured Isaac, and was released on Disney+ on May 25, 2022.


title: Moon Knight (TV series)

text: In November 2019, Feige stated that after introducing Moon Knight in the series, the character would cross over to the MCU films. Diab stated in March 2022 that he felt the character would be part of the MCU for the next ten years, and expressed his hope that Moon Knight would eventually get his own feature film. At the time of the series' premiere, Isaac had not signed on to return as the character in future projects, and by the finale, Diab and Curtis were unsure of the character's future, be it in a second season, feature film, or part of another character's property. Diab hoped a potential second season would be able to film in Egypt. Isaac was open to returning "if there was a story that really made sense", with Calamawy and Hawke also expressing interest in returning. In August, Isaac stated that he was grateful for being able to explore the character and tell the story of this series without the burden of being locked in to future projects, adding there was an option to do more but it was not "imperative". In October, Isaac confirmed that he had begun having conversations with Marvel Studios to reprise the role of Moon Knight, be it in a second season or another project. Isaac was concerned about having another story for the character that was "worth telling" and "interesting".


title: Paul McCartney

text: Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One of the most successful composers and performers of all time, McCartney is known for his melodic approach to bass-playing, versatile and wide tenor vocal range, and musical eclecticism, exploring styles ranging from pre–rock and roll pop to classical and electronica. His songwriting partnership with Lennon remains the most successful in history.


title: Paul McCartney

text: Born in Liverpool, McCartney taught himself piano, guitar and songwriting as a teenager, having been influenced by his father, a jazz player, and rock and roll performers such as Little Richard and Buddy Holly. He began his career when he joined Lennon's skiffle group, the Quarrymen, in 1957, which evolved into the Beatles in 1960. Sometimes called "the cute Beatle", McCartney later involved himself with the London avant-garde and spearheaded the incorporation of experimental aesthetics into the Beatles' studio productions. Starting with the 1967 album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", he gradually became the band's "de facto" leader, providing the creative impetus for most of their music and film projects. Many of his Beatles songs, including "And I Love Her", "Yesterday", "Eleanor Rigby", and "Blackbird", rank among the most covered songs in history. While primarily a bassist with the Beatles, in various songs he played a number of other instruments, including keyboards, guitars, and drums.


title: Paul McCartney

text: After the Beatles disbanded, he debuted as a solo artist with the 1970 album "McCartney" and formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda, and Denny Laine. Led by McCartney, Wings was one of the most successful bands of the 1970s, and he wrote or co-wrote their US or UK number-one hits "My Love", "Band on the Run", "Listen to What the Man Said", "Silly Love Songs", and "Mull of Kintyre". He resumed his solo career in 1980 and has toured as a solo artist since 1989. Without Wings, his UK or US number-one hits have included "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" (with Linda), "Coming Up", "Pipes of Peace", "Ebony and Ivory" (with Stevie Wonder), and "Say Say Say" (with Michael Jackson). Beyond music, he has taken part in projects to promote international charities related to such subjects as animal rights, seal hunting, land mines, vegetarianism, poverty, and music education.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney has written or co-written a record 32 songs that have topped the "Billboard" Hot 100, and, , had sales of 25.5 million RIAA-certified units in the US. His honours include two inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as a member of the Beatles in 1988 and as a solo artist in 1999), an Academy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, 18 Grammy Awards, an appointment as a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1965 and a knighthood in 1997 for services to music. As of 2020, he is one of the wealthiest musicians in the world, with an estimated fortune of £800 million.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney was born on 18 June 1942 at Walton Hospital in the Walton area of Liverpool, where his mother, Mary Patricia (née Mohin), had qualified to practise as a nurse. His father, James ("Jim") McCartney, was absent from his son's birth, due to his work as a volunteer firefighter during World War II. Both of his parents were of Irish descent. McCartney has a younger brother, Peter Michael, and a younger stepsister, Ruth, born to his father's second wife Angie during her first marriage. Paul and Michael were baptised in their mother's Catholic faith, even though their father was a former Protestant who had turned agnostic. Religion was not emphasised in the household.


title: Paul McCartney

text: According to his biographer Peter Ames Carlin, McCartney's parents came from the "lowest rungs of the working class", but had experienced some upward social mobility during their lifetimes. Before the war, Jim had worked as a salesman for the cotton merchants A. Hannay and Co., having been promoted from his job as a sample boy in their warehouse; when the war broke out, Hannay's was shuttered and Jim was employed as a lathe turner at Napier's defence engineering works, volunteering for the fire brigade at night. The growing family was rehoused at a flat in Knowsley in 1944 and then in a council housing development in Speke in 1946. After the war, Jim returned to his job at the cotton merchants though with a reduced income. Mary's work as a visiting midwife was much more remunerative.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney attended Stockton Wood Road Primary School in Speke from 1947 until 1949, when he transferred to Joseph Williams Junior School in Belle Vale because of overcrowding at Stockton. In 1953, he was one of only three students out of 90 to pass the 11-Plus exam, meaning he could attend the Liverpool Institute, a grammar school rather than a secondary modern school. In 1954, he met schoolmate George Harrison on the bus from his suburban home in Speke. The two quickly became friends; McCartney later admitted: "I tended to talk down to him because he was a year younger."


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney's mother, Mary, was a midwife and the family's primary wage earner; her earnings enabled them to move into 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton, where they lived until 1964. She rode a bicycle to her patients; McCartney described an early memory of her leaving at "about three in the morning [the] streets ... thick with snow". On 31 October 1956, when McCartney was 14, his mother died of an embolism as a complication of surgery for breast cancer. McCartney's loss later became a connection with John Lennon, whose mother, Julia, had died when he was 17.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney's father was a trumpet player and pianist who led Jim Mac's Jazz Band in the 1920s. He kept an upright piano in the front room, encouraged his sons to be musical and advised McCartney to take piano lessons. However, McCartney preferred to learn by ear. When McCartney was 11, his father encouraged him to audition for the Liverpool Cathedral choir, but he was not accepted. McCartney then joined the choir at St Barnabas' Church, Mossley Hill. McCartney received a nickel-plated trumpet from his father for his fourteenth birthday, but when rock and roll became popular on Radio Luxembourg, McCartney traded it for a £15 Framus Zenith (model 17) acoustic guitar, since he wanted to be able to sing while playing. He found it difficult to play guitar right-handed, but after noticing a poster advertising a Slim Whitman concert and realising that Whitman played left-handed, he reversed the order of the strings. McCartney wrote his first song, "I Lost My Little Girl", on the Zenith, and composed another early tune that would become "When I'm Sixty-Four" on the piano. American rhythm and blues influenced him, and Little Richard was his schoolboy idol; "Long Tall Sally" was the first song McCartney performed in public, at a Butlin's Filey holiday camp talent competition.


title: Paul McCartney

text: At the age of fifteen on 6 July 1957, McCartney met John Lennon and his band, the Quarrymen, at the St Peter's Church Hall fête in Woolton. The Quarrymen played a mix of rock and roll and skiffle, a type of popular music with jazz, blues and folk influences. Soon afterwards, the members of the band invited McCartney to join as a rhythm guitarist, and he formed a close working relationship with Lennon. Harrison joined in 1958 as lead guitarist, followed by Lennon's art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe on bass, in 1960. By May 1960, the band had tried several names, including "Johnny and the Moondogs", "Beatals" and "the Silver Beetles". They adopted the name "the Beatles" in August 1960 and recruited drummer Pete Best shortly before a five-engagement residency in Hamburg.


title: Paul McCartney

text: In 1961, Sutcliffe left the band and McCartney reluctantly became their bass player. While in Hamburg, they recorded professionally for the first time and were credited as the Beat Brothers, who were the backing band for English singer Tony Sheridan on the single "My Bonnie". This resulted in attention from Brian Epstein, who was a key figure in their subsequent development and success. He became their manager in January 1962. Ringo Starr replaced Best in August, and the band had their first hit, "Love Me Do", in October, becoming popular in the UK in 1963, and in the US a year later. The fan hysteria became known as "Beatlemania", and the press sometimes referred to McCartney as the "cute Beatle". McCartney co-wrote (with Lennon) several of their early hits, including "I Saw Her Standing There", "She Loves You", "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (1963) and "Can't Buy Me Love" (1964).


title: Paul McCartney

text: In August 1965, the Beatles released the McCartney composition "Yesterday", featuring a string quartet. Included on the "Help!" LP, the song was the group's first recorded use of classical music elements and their first recording that involved only a single band member. "Yesterday" became one of the most covered songs in popular music history. Later that year, during recording sessions for the album "Rubber Soul", McCartney began to supplant Lennon as the dominant musical force in the band. Musicologist Ian MacDonald wrote, "from [1965] ... [McCartney] would be in the ascendant not only as a songwriter, but also as instrumentalist, arranger, producer, and "de facto" musical director of the Beatles." Critics described "Rubber Soul" as a significant advance in the refinement and profundity of the band's music and lyrics. Considered a high point in the Beatles catalogue, both Lennon and McCartney said they had written the music for the song "In My Life". McCartney said of the album, "we'd had our cute period, and now it was time to expand." Recording engineer Norman Smith stated that the "Rubber Soul" sessions exposed indications of increasing contention within the band: "the clash between John and Paul was becoming obvious ... [and] as far as Paul was concerned, George [Harrison] could do no right—Paul was absolutely finicky."


title: Paul McCartney

text: In 1966, the Beatles released the album "Revolver". Featuring sophisticated lyrics, studio experimentation, and an expanded repertoire of musical genres ranging from innovative string arrangements to psychedelic rock, the album marked an artistic leap for the Beatles. The first of three consecutive McCartney A-sides, the single "Paperback Writer" preceded the LP's release. The Beatles produced a short promotional film for the song, and another for its B-side, "Rain". The films, described by Harrison as "the forerunner of videos", aired on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "Top of the Pops" in June 1966. "Revolver" also included McCartney's "Eleanor Rigby", which featured a string octet. According to Gould, the song is "a neoclassical tour de force ... a true hybrid, conforming to no recognizable style or genre of song". Except for some backing vocals, the song included only McCartney's lead vocal and the strings arranged by producer George Martin.


title: Paul McCartney

text: The band gave their final commercial concert at the end of their 1966 US tour. Later that year, McCartney completed his first musical project independent of the group—a film score for the UK production "The Family Way". The score was a collaboration with Martin, who used two McCartney themes to write thirteen variations. The soundtrack failed to chart, but it won McCartney an Ivor Novello Award for Best Instrumental Theme.


title: Paul McCartney

text: Upon the end of the Beatles' performing career, McCartney sensed unease in the band and wanted them to maintain creative productivity. He pressed them to start a new project, which became "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", widely regarded as rock's first concept album. McCartney was inspired to create a new persona for the group, to serve as a vehicle for experimentation and to demonstrate to their fans that they had musically matured. He invented the fictional band of the album's title track. As McCartney explained, "We were fed up with being the Beatles. We really hated that fucking four little mop-top approach. We were not boys we were men ... and [we] thought of ourselves as artists rather than just performers."


title: Paul McCartney

text: Starting in November 1966, the band adopted an experimental attitude during recording sessions for the album. Their recording of "A Day in the Life" required a forty-piece orchestra, which Martin and McCartney took turns conducting. The sessions produced the double A-side single "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" in February 1967, and the LP followed in June. Based on an ink drawing by McCartney, the LP's cover included a collage designed by pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth, featuring the Beatles in costume as the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, standing with a host of celebrities. The cover piqued a frenzy of analysis.


title: Paul McCartney

text: Epstein's death in August 1967 created a void, which left the Beatles perplexed and concerned about their future. McCartney stepped in to fill that void and gradually became the "de facto" leader and business manager of the group that Lennon had once led. In his first creative suggestion after this change of leadership, McCartney proposed that the band move forward on their plans to produce a film for television, which was to become "Magical Mystery Tour". According to Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn, the project was "an administrative nightmare throughout". McCartney largely directed the film, which brought the group their first unfavourable critical response. However, the film's soundtrack was more successful. It was released in the UK as a six-track double extended play disc (EP), and as an identically titled LP in the US, filled out with five songs from the band's recent singles. The only Capitol compilation later included in the group's official canon of studio albums, the "Magical Mystery Tour" LP achieved $8 million in sales within three weeks of its release, higher initial sales than any other Capitol LP up to that point.


title: Paul McCartney

text: The Beatles' animated film "Yellow Submarine", loosely based on the imaginary world evoked by McCartney's 1966 composition, premiered in July 1968. Though critics admired the film for its visual style, humour and music, the soundtrack album issued six months later received a less enthusiastic response. By late 1968, relations within the band were deteriorating. The tension grew during the recording of their eponymous double album, also known as the "White Album". Matters worsened the following year during the "Let It Be" sessions, when a camera crew filmed McCartney lecturing the group: "We've been very negative since Mr. Epstein passed away ... we were always fighting [his] discipline a bit, but it's silly to fight that discipline if it's our own".


title: Paul McCartney

text: In March 1969, McCartney married his first wife, Linda Eastman, and in August, the couple had their first child, Mary, named after his late mother. "Abbey Road" was the band's last recorded album, and Martin suggested "a continuously moving piece of music", urging the group to think symphonically. McCartney agreed, but Lennon did not. They eventually compromised, agreeing to McCartney's suggestion: an LP featuring individual songs on side one, and a long medley on side two. In October 1969, a rumour surfaced that McCartney had died in a car crash in 1966 and was replaced by a lookalike, but this was quickly refuted when a November "Life" magazine cover featured him and his family, accompanied by the caption "Paul is still with us".


title: Paul McCartney

text: John Lennon privately left the Beatles in September 1969, though agreed to not go public with the information so as to not jeopardize ongoing business negotiations. McCartney was in the midst of business disagreements with his bandmates, largely concerning Allen Klein's management of the group, when he announced his own departure from the group on 10 April 1970. He filed a suit for the band's formal dissolution on 31 December 1970, and in March 1971 the court appointed a receiver to oversee the finances of the Beatles' company Apple Corps. An English court legally dissolved the Beatles' partnership on 9 January 1975, though sporadic lawsuits against their record company EMI, Klein, and each other persisted until 1989.


title: Paul McCartney

text: As the Beatles were breaking up in 1969–70, McCartney fell into a depression. His wife helped him pull out of that condition by praising his work as a songwriter and convincing him to continue writing and recording. In her honour, he wrote "Maybe I'm Amazed", explaining that with the Beatles breaking up, "that was my feeling: Maybe I'm amazed at what's going on ... Maybe I'm a man and maybe you're the only woman who could ever help me; Baby won't you help me understand ... Maybe I'm amazed at the way you pulled me out of time, hung me on the line, Maybe I'm amazed at the way I really need you." He added that "every love song I write is for Linda."


title: Paul McCartney

text: In 1970, McCartney continued his musical career with his first solo release, "McCartney", a US number-one album. Apart from some vocal contributions from Linda, "McCartney" is a one-man album, with McCartney providing compositions, instrumentation and vocals. In 1971, he collaborated with Linda and drummer Denny Seiwell on a second album, "Ram". A UK number one and a US top five, "Ram" included the co-written US number-one hit single "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey". Later that year, ex-Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine joined the McCartneys and Seiwell to form the band Wings. McCartney had this to say on the group's formation: "Wings were always a difficult idea ... any group having to follow [the Beatles'] success would have a hard job ... I found myself in that very position. However, it was a choice between going on or finishing, and I loved music too much to think of stopping." In September 1971, the McCartneys' daughter Stella was born, named in honour of Linda's grandmothers, both of whom were named Stella.


title: Paul McCartney

text: Following the addition of guitarist Henry McCullough, Wings' first concert tour began in 1972 with a debut performance in front of an audience of seven hundred at the University of Nottingham. Ten more gigs followed as they travelled across the UK in a van during an unannounced tour of universities, during which the band stayed in modest accommodation and received pay in coinage collected from students, while avoiding Beatles songs during their performances. McCartney later said, "The main thing I didn't want was to come on stage, faced with the whole torment of five rows of press people with little pads, all looking at me and saying, 'Oh well, he is not as good as he was.' So we decided to go out on that university tour which made me less nervous ... by the end of that tour I felt ready for something else, so we went into Europe." During the seven-week, 25-show Wings Over Europe Tour, the band played almost solely Wings and McCartney solo material: the Little Richard cover "Long Tall Sally" was the only song that had previously been recorded by the Beatles. McCartney wanted the tour to avoid large venues; most of the small halls they played had capacities of fewer than 3,000 people.


title: Paul McCartney

text: In March 1973, Wings achieved their first US number-one single, "My Love", included on their second LP, "Red Rose Speedway", a US number one and UK top five. McCartney's collaboration with Linda and former Beatles producer Martin resulted in the song "Live and Let Die", which was the theme song for the James Bond film of the same name. Nominated for an Academy Award, the song reached number two in the US and number nine in the UK. It also earned Martin a Grammy for his orchestral arrangement. Music professor and author Vincent Benitez described the track as "symphonic rock at its best".


title: Paul McCartney

text: After the departure of McCullough and Seiwell in 1973, the McCartneys and Laine recorded "Band on the Run". The album was the first of seven platinum Wings LPs. It was a US and UK number one, the band's first to top the charts in both countries and the first ever to reach "Billboard" magazine's charts on three separate occasions. One of the best-selling releases of the decade, it remained on the UK charts for 124 weeks. "Rolling Stone" named it one of the Best Albums of the Year for 1973, and in 1975, Paul McCartney and Wings won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance for the song "Band on the Run" and Geoff Emerick won the Grammy for Best Engineered Recording for the album. In 1974, Wings achieved a second US number-one single with the title track. The album also included the top-ten hits "Jet" and "Helen Wheels", and earned the 418th spot on "Rolling Stone's" list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In 1974, McCartney hired guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and drummer Geoff Britton to replace McCullough and Seiwell. Britton subsequently quit during recording sessions in 1975 and was replaced by Joe English.


title: Paul McCartney

text: Wings followed "Band on the Run" with the chart-topping albums "Venus and Mars" (1975) and "Wings at the Speed of Sound" (1976). In 1975, they began the fourteen-month Wings Over the World Tour, which included stops in the UK, Australia, Europe and the US. The tour marked the first time McCartney performed Beatles songs live with Wings, with five in the two-hour set list: "I've Just Seen a Face", "Yesterday", "Blackbird", "Lady Madonna" and "The Long and Winding Road". Following the second European leg of the tour and extensive rehearsals in London, the group undertook an ambitious US arena tour that yielded the US number-one live triple LP "Wings over America".


title: Paul McCartney

text: In September 1977, the McCartneys had a third child, a son they named James. In November, the Wings song "Mull of Kintyre", co-written with Laine, was quickly becoming one of the best-selling singles in UK chart history. The most successful single of McCartney's solo career, it achieved double the sales of the previous record holder, "She Loves You", and went on to sell 2.5 million copies and hold the UK sales record until the 1984 charity single, "Do They Know It's Christmas?"


title: Paul McCartney

text: "London Town" (1978) spawned a US number-one single ("With a Little Luck"), and continued Wings' string of commercial successes, making the top five in both the US and the UK. Critical reception was unfavourable, and McCartney expressed disappointment with the album. "Back to the Egg" (1979) featured McCartney's assemblage of a rock supergroup dubbed "Rockestra" on two tracks. The band included Wings along with Pete Townshend, David Gilmour, Gary Brooker, John Paul Jones, John Bonham and others. Though certified platinum, critics panned the album. Wings completed their final concert tour in 1979, with twenty shows in the UK that included the live debut of the Beatles songs "Got to Get You into My Life", "The Fool on the Hill" and "Let It Be".


title: Paul McCartney

text: In 1980, McCartney released his second solo LP, the self-produced "McCartney II", which peaked at number one in the UK and number three in the US. As with his first album, he composed and performed it alone. The album contained the song "Coming Up", the live version of which, recorded in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1979 by Wings, became the group's last number-one hit. By 1981, McCartney felt he had accomplished all he could creatively with Wings and decided he needed a change. The group discontinued in April 1981 after Laine quit following disagreements over royalties and salaries.


title: Paul McCartney

text: In 1982, McCartney collaborated with Stevie Wonder on the Martin-produced number-one hit "Ebony and Ivory", included on McCartney's "Tug of War" LP, and with Michael Jackson on "The Girl Is Mine" from "Thriller". "Ebony and Ivory" was McCartney's record 28th single to hit number one on the "Billboard" 100. The following year, he and Jackson worked on "Say Say Say", McCartney's most recent US number one . McCartney earned his latest UK number one with the title track of his LP release that year, "Pipes of Peace".


title: Paul McCartney

text: In 1984, McCartney starred in the musical "Give My Regards to Broad Street", a feature film he also wrote and produced which included Starr in an acting role. It was disparaged by critics: "Variety" described the film as "characterless, bloodless, and pointless"; while Roger Ebert awarded it a single star, writing, "you can safely skip the movie and proceed directly to the soundtrack". The album fared much better, reaching number one in the UK and producing the US top-ten hit single "No More Lonely Nights", featuring David Gilmour on lead guitar. In 1985, Warner Brothers commissioned McCartney to write a song for the comedic feature film "Spies Like Us". He composed and recorded the track in four days, with Phil Ramone co-producing. McCartney participated in Live Aid, performing "Let it Be", but technical difficulties rendered his vocals and piano barely audible for the first two verses, punctuated by squeals of feedback. Equipment technicians resolved the problems and David Bowie, Alison Moyet, Pete Townshend and Bob Geldof joined McCartney on stage, receiving an enthusiastic crowd reaction.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney collaborated with Eric Stewart on "Press to Play" (1986), with Stewart co-writing more than half the songs on the LP. In 1988, McCartney released "Снова в СССР", initially available only in the Soviet Union, which contained eighteen covers; recorded over the course of two days. In 1989, he joined forces with fellow Merseysiders Gerry Marsden and Holly Johnson to record an updated version of "Ferry Cross the Mersey", for the Hillsborough disaster appeal fund. That same year, he released "Flowers in the Dirt"; a collaborative effort with Elvis Costello that included musical contributions from Gilmour and Nicky Hopkins.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney then formed a band consisting of himself and Linda, with Hamish Stuart and Robbie McIntosh on guitars, Paul "Wix" Wickens on keyboards and Chris Whitten on drums. In September 1989, they launched the Paul McCartney World Tour, his first in over a decade. During the tour, McCartney performed for the largest paying stadium audience in history on 21 April 1990, when 184,000 people attended his concert at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. That year, he released the triple album "Tripping the Live Fantastic", which contained selected performances from the tour.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney ventured into orchestral music in 1991 when the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society commissioned a musical piece by him to celebrate its sesquicentennial. He collaborated with composer Carl Davis, producing "Liverpool Oratorio". The performance featured opera singers Kiri Te Kanawa, Sally Burgess, Jerry Hadley and Willard White with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the choir of Liverpool Cathedral. Reviews were negative. "The Guardian" was especially critical, describing the music as "afraid of anything approaching a fast tempo", and adding that the piece has "little awareness of the need for recurrent ideas that will bind the work into a whole". The paper published a letter McCartney submitted in response in which he noted several of the work's faster tempos and added, "happily, history shows that many good pieces of music were not liked by the critics of the time so I am content to ... let people judge for themselves the merits of the work." "The New York Times" was slightly more generous, stating, "There are moments of beauty and pleasure in this dramatic miscellany ... the music's innocent sincerity makes it difficult to be put off by its ambitions". Performed around the world after its London premiere, the "Liverpool Oratorio" reached number one on the UK classical chart, "Music Week".


title: Paul McCartney

text: In 1991, McCartney performed a selection of acoustic-only songs on "MTV Unplugged" and released a live album of the performance titled "Unplugged (The Official Bootleg)". During the 1990s, McCartney collaborated twice with Youth of Killing Joke as the musical duo "the Fireman". The two released their first electronica album together, "Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest", in 1993. McCartney released the rock album "Off the Ground" in 1993. The subsequent New World Tour followed, which led to the release of the "Paul Is Live" album later that year.


title: Paul McCartney

text: Starting in 1994, McCartney took a four-year break from his solo career to work on Apple's "Beatles Anthology" project with Harrison, Starr and Martin. He recorded a radio series called "Oobu Joobu" in 1995 for the American network Westwood One, which he described as "widescreen radio". Also in 1995, Prince Charles presented him with an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Music—"kind of amazing for somebody who doesn't read a note of music", commented McCartney.


title: Paul McCartney

text: In 1997, McCartney released the rock album "Flaming Pie". Starr appeared on drums and backing vocals in "Beautiful Night". Later that year, he released the classical work "Standing Stone", which topped the UK and US classical charts. In 1998, he released "Rushes", the second electronica album by the Fireman. In 1999, McCartney released "Run Devil Run". Recorded in one week, and featuring Ian Paice and David Gilmour, it was primarily an album of covers with three McCartney originals. He had been planning such an album for years, having been previously encouraged to do so by Linda, who had died of cancer in April 1998.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney did an unannounced performance at the benefit tribute, "Concert for Linda", his wife of 29 years who died a year earlier. It was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 10 April 1999, and was organised by two of her close friends, Chrissie Hynde and Carla Lane. Also during 1999, he continued his experimentation with orchestral music on "Working Classical".


title: Paul McCartney

text: In 2000, he released the electronica album "Liverpool Sound Collage" with Super Furry Animals and Youth, using the sound collage and musique concrète techniques that had fascinated him in the mid-1960s. He contributed the song "Nova" to a tribute album of classical, choral music called "A Garland for Linda" (2000), dedicated to his late wife.


title: Paul McCartney

text: Having witnessed the September 11 attacks from the JFK airport tarmac, McCartney was inspired to take a leading role in organising the Concert for New York City. His studio album release in November that year, "Driving Rain", included the song "Freedom", written in response to the attacks. The following year, McCartney went out on tour with a new band that included guitarists Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray, accompanied by Paul "Wix" Wickens on keyboards and Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums. They began the Driving World Tour in April 2002, which included stops in the US, Mexico and Japan. The tour resulted in the double live album "Back in the US", released internationally in 2003 as "Back in the World". The tour earned a reported $126.2 million, an average of over $2 million per night, and "Billboard" named it the top tour of the year. The group continues to play together; McCartney has played live with Ray, Anderson, Laboriel, and Wickens longer than he played live with the Beatles or Wings.


title: Paul McCartney

text: In July 2002, McCartney married Heather Mills. In November, on the first anniversary of George Harrison's death, McCartney performed at the Concert for George. He participated in the National Football League's Super Bowl, performing "Freedom" during the pre-game show for Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002 and headlining the halftime show at Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005. The English College of Arms honoured McCartney in 2002 by granting him a coat of arms. His crest, featuring a Liver bird holding an acoustic guitar in its claw, reflects his background in Liverpool and his musical career. The shield includes four curved emblems which resemble beetles' backs. The arms' motto is "Ecce Cor Meum", Latin for "Behold My Heart". In 2003, the McCartneys had a child, Beatrice Milly.


title: Paul McCartney

text: In July 2005, he performed at the Live 8 event in Hyde Park, London, opening the show with "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (with U2) and closing it with "Drive My Car" (with George Michael), "Helter Skelter", and "The Long and Winding Road". In September, he released the rock album "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard", for which he provided most of the instrumentation. In 2006, McCartney released the classical work "Ecce Cor Meum". The rock album "Memory Almost Full" followed in 2007. In 2008, he released his third Fireman album, "Electric Arguments". Also in 2008, he performed at a concert in Liverpool to celebrate the city's year as European Capital of Culture. In 2009, after a four-year break, he returned to touring and has since performed over 80 shows. More than forty-five years after the Beatles first appeared on American television during "The Ed Sullivan Show", he returned to the same New York theatre to perform on "Late Show with David Letterman". On 9 September 2009, EMI reissued the Beatles catalogue following a four-year digital remastering effort, releasing a music video game called "" the same day.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney's enduring fame has made him a popular choice to open new venues. In 2009, he performed three sold-out concerts at the newly built Citi Field, a venue constructed to replace Shea Stadium in Queens, New York. These performances yielded the double live album "Good Evening New York City" later that year.


title: Paul McCartney

text: In 2010, McCartney opened the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; it was his first concert in Pittsburgh since 1990 due to the old Civic Arena being deemed unsuitable for McCartney's logistical needs. In July 2011, McCartney performed at two sold-out concerts at the new Yankee Stadium. A "New York Times" review of the first concert reported that McCartney was "not saying goodbye but touring stadiums and playing marathon concerts". McCartney was commissioned by the New York City Ballet, and in September 2011, he released his first score for dance, a collaboration with Peter Martins called "Ocean's Kingdom". Also in 2011, McCartney married Nancy Shevell. He released "Kisses on the Bottom", a collection of standards, in February 2012, the same month that the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences honoured him as the MusiCares Person of the Year, two days prior to his performance at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney remains one of the world's top draws. He played to over 100,000 people during two performances in Mexico City in May, with the shows grossing nearly $6 million. In June 2012, McCartney closed Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee Concert held outside Buckingham Palace, performing a set that included "Let It Be" and "Live and Let Die". He closed the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London on 27 July, singing "The End" and "Hey Jude" and inviting the audience to join in on the coda. Having donated his time, he received £1 from the Olympic organisers.


title: Paul McCartney

text: On 12 December 2012, McCartney performed with three former members of Nirvana (Krist Novoselic, Dave Grohl, and guest member Pat Smear) during the closing act of , seen by approximately two billion people worldwide. On 28 August 2013, McCartney released the title track of his upcoming studio album "New", which came out in October 2013. A primetime entertainment special was taped on 27 January 2014 at the Ed Sullivan Theater with a 9 February 2014 CBS airing. The show featured McCartney and Ringo Starr, and celebrated the legacy of the Beatles and their groundbreaking 1964 performance on "The Ed Sullivan Show". The show, titled "", featured 22 classic Beatles songs as performed by various artists, including McCartney and Starr.


title: Paul McCartney

text: In May 2014, McCartney cancelled a sold-out tour of Japan and postponed a US tour to October due to begin that month after he contracted a virus. He resumed the tour with a high-energy three-hour appearance in Albany, New York on 5 July 2014. On 14 August 2014, McCartney performed in the final concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California before its demolition; this was the same venue at which the Beatles played their final concert in 1966. In 2014, McCartney wrote and performed "Hope for the Future", the ending song for the video game "Destiny". In November 2014, a 42-song tribute album titled "The Art of McCartney" was released, which features a wide range of artists covering McCartney's solo and Beatles work. Also that year, McCartney collaborated with American rapper Kanye West on the single "Only One", released on 31 December. In January 2015, McCartney collaborated with West and Barbadian singer Rihanna on the single "FourFiveSeconds". They released a music video for the song in January and performed it live at the 57th Annual Grammy Awards on 8 February 2015. McCartney featured on West's 2015 single "All Day", which also features Theophilus London and Allan Kingdom.


title: Paul McCartney

text: In February 2015, McCartney performed with Paul Simon for the "Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special". McCartney and Simon performed the first verse of "I've Just Seen a Face" on acoustic guitars, and McCartney later performed "Maybe I'm Amazed". McCartney shared lead vocals on the Alice Cooper-led "Hollywood Vampires" supergroup's cover of his song "Come and Get It", which appears on their debut album, released on 11 September 2015. On 10 June 2016, McCartney released the career-spanning collection "Pure McCartney". The set includes songs from throughout McCartney's solo career and his work with Wings and the Fireman, and is available in three different formats (2-CD, 4-CD, 4-LP and Digital). The 4-CD version includes 67 tracks, most of which were top-40 hits. McCartney appeared in the 2017 adventure film "", in a cameo role as Uncle Jack.


title: Paul McCartney

text: In January 2017, McCartney filed a suit in United States district court against Sony/ATV Music Publishing seeking to reclaim ownership of his share of the Lennon–McCartney song catalogue beginning in 2018. Under US copyright law, for works published before 1978 the author can reclaim copyrights assigned to a publisher after 56 years. McCartney and Sony agreed to a confidential settlement in June 2017. On 20 June 2018, McCartney released "I Don't Know" and "Come On to Me" from his album "Egypt Station", which was released on 7 September through Capitol Records. "Egypt Station" became McCartney's first album in 36 years to top the "Billboard" 200, and his first to debut at number one. On 26 July 2018 McCartney played at The Cavern Club, with his regular band of Anderson, Ray, Wickens and Abe Laboriel Jr. The gig was filmed and later broadcast by BBC, on Christmas Day 2020, as "Paul McCartney at the Cavern Club."


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney's 18th solo album, "McCartney III", was released on 18 December 2020, via Capitol Records. An album of "reinterpretations, remixes, and covers" titled "McCartney III Imagined" was released on 16 April 2021.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney's book "" was released in November 2021. Described as a "self-portrait in 154 songs", the book is based on conversations McCartney had with the Irish poet Paul Muldoon. "The Lyrics" was named Book of the Year by both Barnes & Noble and Waterstones.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney's "Got Back" tour ran from 28 April 2022 to 16 June 2022 in the United States, his first in the country since 2019. The tour concluded on 25 June 2022 when McCartney headlined Glastonbury Festival, a week after his 80th birthday. Performing on the Pyramid Stage, he became the oldest solo headliner at the festival. Special guests were Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen. In 2022, he received the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series at the 74th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, as a producer for the documentary "".


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney is a largely self-taught musician, and his approach was described by musicologist Ian MacDonald as "by nature drawn to music's formal aspects yet wholly untutored ... [he] produced technically 'finished' work almost entirely by instinct, his harmonic judgement based mainly on perfect pitch and an acute pair of ears ... [A] natural melodist—a creator of tunes capable of existing apart from their harmony." McCartney likened his approach to "the primitive cave artists, who drew without training".


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney's earliest musical influences include Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Carl Perkins, and Chuck Berry. When asked why the Beatles did not include Presley on the "Sgt. Pepper" cover, McCartney replied, "Elvis was too important and too far above the rest even to mention ... so we didn't put him on the list because he was more than merely a ... pop singer, he was Elvis the King." McCartney stated that for his bassline for "I Saw Her Standing There", he directly quoted Berry's "I'm Talking About You".


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney called Little Richard an idol, whose falsetto vocalisations inspired McCartney's own vocal technique. McCartney said he wrote "I'm Down" as a vehicle for his Little Richard impersonation. In 1971, McCartney bought the publishing rights to Holly's catalogue, and in 1976, on the fortieth anniversary of Holly's birth, McCartney inaugurated the annual "Buddy Holly Week" in England. The festival has included guest performances by famous musicians, songwriting competitions, drawing contests and special events featuring performances by the Crickets.


title: Paul McCartney

text: Best known for primarily using a plectrum or pick, McCartney occasionally plays fingerstyle. He was strongly influenced by Motown artists, in particular James Jamerson, whom McCartney called a hero for his melodic style. He was also influenced by Brian Wilson, as he commented: "because he went to very unusual places". Another favourite bassist of his is Stanley Clarke. McCartney's skill as a bass player has been acknowledged by bassists including Sting, Dr. Dre bassist Mike Elizondo, and Colin Moulding of XTC.


title: Paul McCartney

text: During McCartney's early years with the Beatles, he primarily used a Höfner 500/1 bass, although from 1965, he favoured his Rickenbacker 4001S for recording. While typically using Vox amplifiers, by 1967, he had also begun using a Fender Bassman for amplification. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, he used a Wal 5-String, which he said made him play more thick-sounding basslines, in contrast to the much lighter Höfner, which inspired him to play more sensitively, something he considers fundamental to his playing style. He changed back to the Höfner around 1990 for that reason. He uses Mesa Boogie bass amplifiers while performing live.


title: Paul McCartney

text: MacDonald identified "She's a Woman" as the turning point when McCartney's bass playing began to evolve dramatically, and Beatles biographer Chris Ingham singled out "Rubber Soul" as the moment when McCartney's playing exhibited significant progress, particularly on "The Word". Bacon and Morgan agreed, calling McCartney's groove on the track "a high point in pop bass playing and ... the first proof on a recording of his serious technical ability on the instrument." MacDonald inferred the influence of James Brown's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and Wilson Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour", American soul tracks from which McCartney absorbed elements and drew inspiration as he "delivered his most spontaneous bass-part to date".


title: Paul McCartney

text: Bacon and Morgan described his bassline for the Beatles song "Rain" as "an astonishing piece of playing ... [McCartney] thinking in terms of both rhythm and 'lead bass' ... [choosing] the area of the neck ... he correctly perceives will give him clarity for melody without rendering his sound too thin for groove." MacDonald identified the influence of Indian classical music in "exotic melismas in the bass part" on "Rain" and described the playing as "so inventive that it threatens to overwhelm the track". By contrast, he recognised McCartney's bass part on the Harrison-composed "Something" as creative but overly busy and "too fussily extemporised". McCartney identified "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" as containing his strongest and most inventive bass playing, particularly on "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds".


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney primarily flatpicks while playing acoustic guitar, though he also uses elements of fingerpicking. Examples of his acoustic guitar playing on Beatles tracks include "Yesterday", "Michelle", "Blackbird", "I Will", "Mother Nature's Son" and "Rocky Raccoon". McCartney singled out "Blackbird" as a personal favourite and described his technique for the guitar part in the following way: "I got my own little sort of cheating way of [fingerpicking] ... I'm actually sort of pulling two strings at a time ... I was trying to emulate those folk players." He employed a similar technique for "Jenny Wren". He played an Epiphone Texan on many of his acoustic recordings, but also used a Martin D-28.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney played lead guitar on several Beatles recordings, including what MacDonald described as a "fiercely angular slide guitar solo" on "Drive My Car", which McCartney played on an Epiphone Casino. McCartney said of the instrument: "if I had to pick one electric guitar it would be this." McCartney bought the Casino in 1964, on the knowledge that the guitar's hollow body would produce more feedback. He has retained that original guitar to the present day. He contributed what MacDonald described as "a startling guitar solo" on the Harrison composition "Taxman" and the "shrieking" guitar on "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Helter Skelter". MacDonald also praised McCartney's "coruscating pseudo-Indian" guitar solo on "Good Morning Good Morning". McCartney also played lead guitar on "Another Girl".


title: Paul McCartney

text: During his years with Wings, McCartney tended to leave electric guitar work to other group members, though he played most of the lead guitar on "Band on the Run". In 1990, when asked who his favourite guitar players were he included Eddie Van Halen, Eric Clapton and David Gilmour, stating, "but I still like Hendrix the best". He has primarily used a Gibson Les Paul for electric work, particularly during live performances.


title: Paul McCartney

text: In addition to these guitars, McCartney is known to use and own a range of other electric guitars, usually favouring the Fender Esquire and its subsequent incarnation, the Fender Telecaster, using the latter with a sunburst finish on Wings' tours in the 1970s. He also owns a rare Ampeg Dan Armstrong Plexi guitar, the only left handed one known to be in existence, which appeared in the Wings video for "Helen Wheels".


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney is known for his belting power, versatility and wide tenor vocal range, spanning over four octaves. He was ranked the 11th greatest singer of all time by "Rolling Stone", voted the 8th greatest singer ever by "NME" readers and number 10 by "Music Radar" readers in the list of "the 30 greatest lead singers of all time". Over the years, McCartney has been named a significant vocal influence by Chris Cornell, Billy Joel, Steven Tyler, Brad Delp, and Axl Rose.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney's vocals have crossed several music genres throughout his career. On "Call Me Back Again", according to Benitez, "McCartney shines as a bluesy solo vocalist", while MacDonald called "I'm Down" "a rock-and-roll classic" that "illustrates McCartney's vocal and stylistic versatility". MacDonald described "Helter Skelter" as an early attempt at heavy metal, and "Hey Jude" as a "pop/rock hybrid", pointing out McCartney's "use of gospel-style melismas" in the song and his "pseudo-soul shrieking in the fade-out". Benitez identified "Hope of Deliverance" and "Put It There" as examples of McCartney's folk music efforts while musicologist Walter Everett considered "When I'm Sixty-Four" and "Honey Pie" attempts at vaudeville. MacDonald praised the "swinging beat" of the Beatles' twenty-four bar blues song, "She's a Woman" as "the most extreme sound they had manufactured to date", with McCartney's voice "at the edge, squeezed to the upper limit of his chest register and threatening to crack at any moment." MacDonald described "I've Got a Feeling" as a "raunchy, mid-tempo rocker" with a "robust and soulful" vocal performance and "Back in the U.S.S.R." as "the last of [the Beatles'] up-tempo rockers", McCartney's "belting" vocals among his best since "Drive My Car", recorded three years earlier.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney also teasingly tried out classical singing, namely singing various renditions of "Besame Mucho" with the Beatles. He continued experimenting with various musical and vocal styles throughout his post-Beatles career. "Monkberry Moon Delight" was described by "Pitchfork"s Jayson Greene as "an absolutely unhinged vocal take, Paul gulping and sobbing right next to your inner ear", adding that "it could be a latter-day Tom Waits performance".


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney played piano on several Beatles songs, including "She's a Woman", "For No One", "A Day in the Life", "Hello, Goodbye", "Lady Madonna", "Hey Jude", "Martha My Dear", "Let It Be" and "The Long and Winding Road". MacDonald considered the piano part in "Lady Madonna" as reminiscent of Fats Domino, and "Let It Be" as having a gospel rhythm. MacDonald called McCartney's Mellotron intro on "Strawberry Fields Forever" an integral feature of the song's character. McCartney played a Moog synthesizer on the Beatles song "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" and the Wings track "Loup (1st Indian on the Moon)". Ingham described the Wings songs "With a Little Luck" and "London Town" as being "full of the most sensitive pop synthesizer touches".


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney played drums on the Beatles' songs "Back in the U.S.S.R.", "Dear Prudence", "Martha My Dear", "Wild Honey Pie" and "The Ballad of John and Yoko". He also played all the drum parts on his albums "McCartney", "McCartney II" and "McCartney III", as well as on Wings' "Band on the Run", and most of the drums on his solo LP "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard". His other drumming contributions include Paul Jones' rendition of "And the Sun Will Shine" (1968), Steve Miller Band's 1969 tracks "Celebration Song" and "My Dark Hour", and "Sunday Rain" from the Foo Fighters' 2017 album "Concrete and Gold".


title: Paul McCartney

text: In the mid-1960s, when visiting artist friend John Dunbar's flat in London, McCartney brought tapes he had compiled at then-girlfriend Jane Asher's home. They included mixes of various songs, musical pieces and comments made by McCartney that Dick James made into a demo for him. Heavily influenced by American avant-garde musician John Cage, McCartney made tape loops by recording voices, guitars and bongos on a Brenell tape recorder and splicing the various loops. He referred to the finished product as "electronic symphonies". He reversed the tapes, sped them up, and slowed them down to create the desired effects, some of which the Beatles later used on the songs "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "The Fool on the Hill".


title: Paul McCartney

text: While at school during the 1950s, McCartney thrived at art assignments, often earning top accolades for his visual work. However, his lack of discipline negatively affected his academic grades, preventing him from earning admission to art college. During the 1960s, he delved into the visual arts, explored experimental cinema, and regularly attended film, theatrical and classical music performances. His first contact with the London avant-garde scene was through artist John Dunbar, who introduced McCartney to art dealer Robert Fraser. At Fraser's flat he first learned about art appreciation and met Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Peter Blake, and Richard Hamilton. McCartney later purchased works by Magritte, whose painting of an apple had inspired the Apple Records logo. McCartney became involved in the renovation and publicising of the Indica Gallery in Mason's Yard, London, which Barry Miles had co-founded and where Lennon first met Yoko Ono. Miles also co-founded "International Times", an underground paper that McCartney helped to start with direct financial support and by providing interviews to attract advertiser income. Miles later wrote McCartney's official biography, "Many Years from Now" (1997).


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney became interested in painting after watching artist Willem de Kooning work in de Kooning's Long Island studio. McCartney took up painting in 1983, and he first exhibited his work in Siegen, Germany, in 1999. The 70-painting show featured portraits of Lennon, Andy Warhol, and David Bowie. Though initially reluctant to display his paintings publicly, McCartney chose the gallery because events organiser Wolfgang Suttner showed genuine interest in McCartney's art. In September 2000, the first UK exhibition of McCartney's paintings opened, featuring 500 canvases at the Arnolfini Gallery in Bristol, England. In October 2000, McCartney's art debuted in his hometown of Liverpool. McCartney said, "I've been offered an exhibition of my paintings at the Walker Art Gallery ... where John and I used to spend many a pleasant afternoon. So I'm really excited about it. I didn't tell anybody I painted for 15 years but now I'm out of the closet". McCartney is lead patron of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, a school in the building formerly occupied by the Liverpool Institute for Boys.


title: Paul McCartney

text: When McCartney was a child, his mother read him poems and encouraged him to read books. His father invited Paul and his brother Michael to solve crosswords with him, to increase their "word power", as McCartney said. In 2001, McCartney published "Blackbird Singing", a volume of poems and lyrics to his songs for which he gave readings in Liverpool and New York City. In the foreword of the book, he explains: "When I was a teenager ... I had an overwhelming desire to have a poem published in the school magazine. I wrote something deep and meaningful—which was promptly rejected—and I suppose I have been trying to get my own back ever since". His first children's book was published by Faber & Faber in 2005, "High in the Clouds: An Urban Furry Tail", a collaboration with writer Philip Ardagh and animator Geoff Dunbar. Featuring a squirrel whose woodland home is razed by developers, it had been scripted and sketched by McCartney and Dunbar over several years, as an animated film. "The Observer" labelled it an "anti-capitalist children's book". In 2018, he wrote the children's book "Hey Grandude!" together with illustrator Kathryn Durst, which was published by Random House Books in September 2019. The book is about a grandpa and his three grandchildren with a magic compass on an adventure. A follow-up, titled "Grandude's Green Submarine", was released in September 2021.


title: Paul McCartney

text: In 1981, McCartney asked Geoff Dunbar to direct a short animated film called "Rupert and the Frog Song"; McCartney was the writer and producer, and he also added some of the character voices. His song "We All Stand Together" from the film's soundtrack reached No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart. In 1992, he worked with Dunbar on an animated film about the work of French artist Honoré Daumier, which won them a BAFTA award. In 2004, they worked together on the animated short film "Tropic Island Hum". The accompanying single, "Tropic Island Hum"/"We All Stand Together", reached number 21 in the UK.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney also produced and hosted "The Real Buddy Holly Story", a 1985 documentary featuring interviews with Keith Richards, Phil and Don Everly, the Holly family, and others. In 1995, he made a guest appearance on the "Simpsons" episode "Lisa the Vegetarian" and directed a short documentary about the Grateful Dead.


title: Paul McCartney

text: Since the Rich List began in 1989, McCartney has been the UK's wealthiest musician, with an estimated fortune of £730 million in 2015. In addition to an interest in Apple Corps and MPL Communications, an umbrella company for his business interests, he owns a significant music publishing catalogue, with access to over 25,000 copyrights, including the publishing rights to the musicals "Guys and Dolls", "A Chorus Line", "Annie" and "Grease". He earned £40 million in 2003, the highest income that year within media professions in the UK. This rose to £48.5 million by 2005. McCartney's 18-date On the Run Tour grossed £37 million in 2012.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney signed his first recording contract, as a member of the Beatles, with Parlophone Records, an EMI subsidiary, in June 1962. In the United States, the Beatles recordings were distributed by EMI subsidiary Capitol Records. The Beatles re-signed with EMI for another nine years in 1967. After forming their own record label, Apple Records, in 1968, the Beatles' recordings would be released through Apple although the masters were still owned by EMI. Following the break-up of the Beatles, McCartney's music continued to be released by Apple Records under the Beatles' 1967 recording contract with EMI which ran until 1976. Following the formal dissolution of the Beatles' partnership in 1975, McCartney re-signed with EMI worldwide and Capitol in the US, Canada and Japan, acquiring ownership of his solo catalogue from EMI as part of the deal. In 1979, McCartney signed with Columbia Records in the US and Canada—reportedly receiving the industry's most lucrative recording contract to date, while remaining with EMI for distribution throughout the rest of the world. As part of the deal, CBS offered McCartney ownership of Frank Music, publisher of the catalogue of American songwriter Frank Loesser. McCartney's album sales were below CBS' expectations and reportedly the company lost at least $9 million on the contract. McCartney returned to Capitol in the US in 1985, remaining with EMI until 2006. In 2007, McCartney signed with Hear Music, becoming the label's first artist. He returned to Capitol for 2018's "Egypt Station".


title: Paul McCartney

text: In 1963, Dick James established Northern Songs to publish the songs of Lennon–McCartney. McCartney initially owned 20% of Northern Songs, which became 15% after a public stock offering in 1965. In 1969, James sold a controlling interest in Northern Songs to Lew Grade's Associated Television (ATV) after which McCartney and John Lennon sold their remaining shares although they remained under contract to ATV until 1973. In 1972, McCartney re-signed with ATV for seven years in a joint publishing agreement between ATV and McCartney Music. Since 1979, MPL Communications has published McCartney's songs.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney and Yoko Ono attempted to purchase the Northern Songs catalogue in 1981, but Grade declined their offer. Soon afterward, ATV Music's parent company, Associated Communications Corp., was acquired in a takeover by businessman Robert Holmes à Court, who later sold ATV Music to Michael Jackson in 1985. McCartney has criticised Jackson's purchase and handling of Northern Songs over the years. In 1995, Jackson merged his catalogue with Sony for a reported £59,052,000 ($95 million), establishing Sony/ATV Music Publishing, in which he retained half-ownership. Northern Songs was formally dissolved in 1995, and absorbed into the Sony/ATV catalogue. McCartney receives writers' royalties which together are percent of total commercial proceeds in the US, and which vary elsewhere between 50 and 55 percent. Two of the Beatles' earliest songs—"Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You"—were published by an EMI subsidiary, Ardmore & Beechwood, before signing with James. McCartney acquired their publishing rights from Ardmore in 1978, and they are the only two Beatles songs owned by MPL Communications.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney first used drugs in the Beatles' Hamburg days when they often used Preludin to maintain their energy while performing for long periods. Bob Dylan introduced them to marijuana in a New York hotel room in 1964; McCartney recalls getting "very high" and "giggling uncontrollably". His use of the drug soon became habitual, and according to Miles, McCartney wrote the lyrics "another kind of mind" in "Got to Get You into My Life" specifically as a reference to cannabis. During the filming of "Help!", McCartney occasionally smoked a joint in the car on the way to the studio during filming, and often forgot his lines. Director Richard Lester overheard two physically attractive women trying to persuade McCartney to use heroin, but he refused. Introduced to cocaine by Robert Fraser, McCartney used the drug regularly during the recording of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", and for about a year in total but stopped because of his dislike of the unpleasant melancholy he felt afterwards.


title: Paul McCartney

text: Initially reluctant to try LSD, McCartney eventually did so in late 1966, and took his second "acid trip" in March 1967 with Lennon after a "Sgt. Pepper" studio session. He later became the first Beatle to discuss the drug publicly, declaring: "It opened my eyes ... [and] made me a better, more honest, more tolerant member of society."


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney made his attitude about cannabis public in 1967, when he, along with the other Beatles and Epstein, added his name to a July advertisement in "The Times", which called for its legalisation, the release of those imprisoned for possession, and research into marijuana's medical uses.


title: Paul McCartney

text: In 1972, a Swedish court fined McCartney £1,000 for cannabis possession. Soon after, Scottish police found marijuana plants growing on his farm, leading to his 1973 conviction for illegal cultivation and a £100 fine.


title: Paul McCartney

text: As a result of his drug convictions, the US government repeatedly denied him a visa until December 1973. Arrested again for marijuana possession in 1975 in Los Angeles, Linda took the blame, and the court soon dismissed the charges.


title: Paul McCartney

text: In January 1980, when Wings flew to Tokyo for a tour of Japan, customs officials found approximately of cannabis in his luggage. Years later, McCartney said, "I don't know what possessed me to just stick this bloody great bag of grass in my suitcase. Thinking back on it, it almost makes me shudder." They arrested McCartney and brought him to a local jail while the Japanese government decided what to do. After ten days, they released and deported him without charge.


title: Paul McCartney

text: In 1984, while McCartney was on holiday in Barbados, authorities arrested him for possession of marijuana and fined him $200. Upon his return to England, he stated that cannabis was less harmful than the legal substances alcohol, tobacco and glue, and that he had done no harm to anyone.


title: Paul McCartney

text: In 1997, he spoke out in support of decriminalisation of cannabis: "People are smoking pot anyway and to make them criminals is wrong." McCartney quit cannabis in 2015, citing a desire to set a good example for his grandchildren.


title: Paul McCartney

text: Since 1975, McCartney has been a vegetarian. He and his wife Linda were vegetarians for most of their 29-year marriage. They decided to stop consuming meat after Paul saw lambs in a field as they were eating a meal of lamb. Soon after, the couple became outspoken animal rights activists. In his first interview after Linda's death, he promised to continue working for animal rights, and in 1999, he spent £3,000,000 to ensure Linda McCartney Foods remained free of genetically engineered ingredients. In 1995, he narrated the documentary "Devour the Earth", written by Tony Wardle. McCartney is a supporter of the animal-rights organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. He has appeared in the group's campaigns, and in 2009, McCartney narrated a video for them titled "Glass Walls", which was harshly critical of slaughterhouses, the meat industry, and their effect on animal welfare. McCartney has also supported campaigns headed by the Humane Society of the United States, Humane Society International, World Animal Protection, and the David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation.


title: Paul McCartney

text: Following McCartney's marriage to Mills, he joined her in a campaign against land mines, becoming a patron of Adopt-A-Minefield. In a 2003 meeting at the Kremlin with Vladimir Putin, ahead of a concert in Red Square, McCartney and Mills urged Russia to join the anti-landmine campaign. In 2006, the McCartneys travelled to Prince Edward Island to raise international awareness of seal hunting. The couple debated with Danny Williams, Newfoundland's then Premier, on "Larry King Live", stating that fishermen should stop hunting seals and start seal-watching businesses instead. McCartney also supports the Make Poverty History campaign.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney has participated in several charity recordings and performances, including the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea, Ferry Aid, Band Aid, Live Aid, Live 8, and the recording of "Ferry Cross the Mersey". In 2004, he donated a song to an album to aid the "US Campaign for Burma", in support of Burmese Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. In 2008, he donated a song to Aid Still Required's CD, organised as an effort to raise funds to assist with the recovery from the devastation caused in Southeast Asia by the 2004 tsunami.


title: Paul McCartney

text: In 2009, McCartney wrote to Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, asking him why he was not a vegetarian. As McCartney explained, "He wrote back very kindly, saying, 'my doctors tell me that I must eat meat'. And I wrote back again, saying, you know, I don't think that's right ... I think he's now being told ... that he can get his protein somewhere else ... It just doesn't seem right—the Dalai Lama, on the one hand, saying, 'Hey guys, don't harm sentient beings ... Oh, and by the way, I'm having a steak.


title: Paul McCartney

text: Save the Arctic is a campaign to protect the Arctic and an international outcry and a renewed focus concern on oil development in the Arctic, attracting the support of more than five million people. This includes McCartney, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and 11 Nobel Peace Prize winners.


title: Paul McCartney

text: In 2015, following British prime minister David Cameron's decision to give Members of Parliament a free vote on amending the law against fox hunting, McCartney was quoted: "The people of Britain are behind this Tory government on many things but the vast majority of us will be against them if hunting is reintroduced. It is cruel and unnecessary and will lose them support from ordinary people and animal lovers like myself."


title: Paul McCartney

text: After the 2016 Orlando shooting, McCartney expressed his solidarity for the victims during a concert in Berlin.


title: Paul McCartney

text: During the COVID-19 pandemic, McCartney called for Chinese wet markets (which sell live animals, including wild ones) to be banned. He expressed concern over both the health impacts of the practice as well as its cruelty to animals.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney is one of the 100 contributors to the book "Dear NHS: 100 Stories to Say Thank You", of which all proceeds go to NHS Charities Together and The Lullaby Trust.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney has publicly professed support for Everton F.C. and has also shown favour for Liverpool F.C. In 2008, he ended speculation about his allegiance when he said: "Here's the deal: my father was born in Everton, my family are officially Evertonians, so if it comes down to a derby match or an FA Cup final between the two, I would have to support Everton. But after a concert at Wembley Arena I got a bit of a friendship with Kenny Dalglish, who had been to the gig and I thought 'You know what? I am just going to support them both because it's all Liverpool.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney's first serious girlfriend in Liverpool was Dorothy "Dot" Rhone, whom he met at the Casbah club in 1959. According to Spitz, Rhone felt that McCartney had a compulsion to control situations. He often chose clothes and makeup for her, encouraging her to grow her blonde hair to simulate Brigitte Bardot's hairstyle, and at least once insisting she have her hair restyled, to disappointing effect. When McCartney first went to Hamburg with the Beatles, he wrote to Rhone regularly, and she accompanied Cynthia Lennon to Hamburg when they played there again in 1962. The couple had a two-and-a-half-year relationship, and were due to marry until Rhone's miscarriage. According to Spitz, McCartney, now "free of obligation", ended the engagement.


title: Paul McCartney

text: McCartney first met British actress Jane Asher on 18 April 1963 when a photographer asked them to pose at a Beatles performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The two began a relationship, and in November of that year he took up residence with Asher at her parents' home at 57 Wimpole Street in Marylebone, central London. They had lived there for more than two years before the couple moved to McCartney's own home in St John's Wood in March 1966. He wrote several songs while living with the Ashers, including "Yesterday", "And I Love Her", "You Won't See Me" and "I'm Looking Through You", the latter three having been inspired by their romance. They had a five-year relationship and planned to marry, but Asher broke off the engagement after she discovered he had become involved with Francie Schwartz, an American screenwriter who moved to London at age 23 thinking she could sell a script to the Beatles. She met McCartney and he invited her to move into his London house, where events ensued that possibly broke up his relationship with Asher.


title: Paul McCartney

text: Linda Eastman was a music fan who once commented, "all my teen years were spent with an ear to the radio." At times, she skipped school to see artists such as Fabian, Bobby Darin and Chuck Berry. She became a popular photographer with several rock groups, including the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Grateful Dead, the Doors and the Beatles, whom she first met at Shea Stadium in 1966. She commented, "It was John who interested me at the start. He was my Beatle hero. But when I met him the fascination faded fast, and I found it was Paul I liked." The pair first became properly acquainted on 15 May 1967 at a Georgie Fame concert at The Bag O'Nails club, during her UK assignment to photograph rock musicians in London. As Paul remembers, "The night Linda and I met, I spotted her across a crowded club, and although I would normally have been nervous chatting her up, I realised I had to ... Pushiness worked for me that night!"


title: Paul McCartney

text: Linda said this about their meeting: "I was quite shameless really. I was with somebody else [that night] ... and I saw Paul at the other side of the room. He looked so beautiful that I made up my mind I would have to pick him up." The pair married in March 1969. About their relationship, Paul said, "We had a lot of fun together ... just the nature of how we aren't, our favourite thing really is to just hang, to have fun. And Linda's very big on just following the moment." He added, "We were crazy. We had a big argument the night before we got married, and it was nearly called off ... [it's] miraculous that we made it. But we did."