1972 Wings tour bus auctioned

Around 2009, the Wings Tour Bus was found in a neglected condition in Tenerife by Justin James. He bought the bus and brought it back to the UK in 2017 with the intention of restoring it and using it for musical children’s tours. However, his plans didn’t work out and since he was moving to Australia, he auctioned the bus through Omega Auctions in October 2019.

Justin James said he had spent approximately £25,000 on the bus until that point and mentioned that any profit would be donated to the charity he was a trustee of, Arms Around the Child. The bus was auctioned with the owner’s documents but did not have an MoT. It had an estimated selling price of £15,000–£25,000, but there were no bids received for the bus, and it went unsold.

After the failed auction, Justin James privately sold the bus to Tom Jennings in an undisclosed transaction. Tom Jennings managed to restore the bus and paint it in the Wings livery from 1972.

I went to visit [the previous owner] about 10 years ago and saw this thing rotting away in his back garden. I said, ‘I want it.’ I didn’t know what I was going to do with it, I just thought that it should not be rotting away on the wastelands of Tenerife. It took eight years to bring it back [to Oxfordshire] because it was in such a difficult part to get to, how it was buried in this field. We got cranes and I managed to get it back. I reckon someone could get that engine going, but I’m not that person unfortunately.

Justin James – From Paul McCartney’s psychedelic Wings tour bus rediscovered (bbc.com), October 7, 2019

Going further

• https://www.pressreader.com/uk/daily-express/20191007/281797105741789
• https://radiojammor.wordpress.com/2023/10/19/wings-1972-tour-bus-for-sale-again/

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