Interview for Melody Maker

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Linda McCartney was interviewed by a Melody Maker journalist after Wings’ show in Lancaster, on February 14, 1972. Her interview was published in the February 26 edition of the magazine.

WHEN Linda McCartney was asked last week if she felt she was musically capable of playing with Wings and accompanying her accomplished husband, she replied: “Well, that’s just what I’m doing, isn’t it?“

Linda is constantly at McCartney’s side and their relationship is following closely the saga of Johnandyoko Lennon, to whom separation is a possibility as remote as Lennon and McCartney writing together again.

While the Lennons have sought the headlines, the McCartneys have been particularly quiet. Linda has remained in the background, rarely contributing to McCartney’s occasional interviews. At Lancaster University last week, however, she spoke to the MM about Wings and her place in the band

How did she feel the band was working out following their live debut last week. . . .

“Really well. We’ve only been playing together for five days and already I have confidence in the band. So far audience response has been good,” she said.

“Surprisingly perhaps I am enjoying these one-night appearances. It is like a touring holiday! And the children love it too.

“We gave our elder child the choice of school or coming with us, and she chose the latter. Her teacher in London doesn’t mind a bit. I mean this is an education in itself, isn’t it?

“The children are in bed now, although they wanted to come and see us. I don’t feel that they are missing-out on anything. It all depends on what you think of education!

“You ask why the surprise gigs? Well we just don’t like to be tied down. If we wake up one morning and decide that we don’t want to go to say Hull, we don’t have to! With an organised tour your freedom is limited, this is the only way to do it!

“Eric Clapton once said that he would like to play from the back of a caravan, but he never got around to doing it. Well we have! We’ve no manager or agents Just we five and the roadies. We’re just a gang of musicians touring around.“

The question arose of the BBC ban on Paul’s “Give Ireland Back To The Irish.”

Banned

“They’ve been banning good records for years. Look at ‘Mr Tambourine Man’ and ‘Eight Miles High’. It’s exactly the same. It is symptomatic of Britain at this moment, what with the miners’ strike, Ireland and Rhodesia!

“Look – in Ireland, the IRA was forced into existence by the fact that Britain took over the country more than 800 years ago, or whenever it was. Therefore if the British got out of Ireland there’d be no need for the IRA and it would just dissolve.

“Did you see that Frost programme on Rhodesia? It really did have Smith going at times his shifty eyes moving back and forth. But people are being oppressed all over the world, Ireland, Rhodesia, Vietnam.

“When I was young, I used to think that Britain was just great, and didn’t realise what the Empire meant. People are only just waking up to the fact that MP’s and such, don’t represent their interests. I think they ought to be told. People from the slums have a lot of practical common sense. They need it to live, they are very wise in a way.”

Following these comments, it was natural to ask Linda if she would be prepared to join a Protest March on any of these issues as have John and Yoko in the US.

“No, I don’t think so. But then I’m doing a lot of things now that I never thought I would do. Such as this tour. I’m generally sympathetic to marches, but I doubt if they do any good.

“We shall probably continue making these unexpected appearances, but may also do arranged tours. In a way, these are practice gigs, although every date is special. But obviously, we couldn’t do an American tour without agents and managers.

“Our next date? No idea, have we Paul? If we don’t feel like playing tomorrow we won’t. We have someone looking after the farm, so we can either stay away, or go back right now!”

So Linda Eastman, the brilliant New York photographer who first met Paul on a Beatles American tour, and the girl millions of teenyboppers once envied, is now the musical accompanist of a star she watched from the front row.

It’s been a long and winding road from Beatle photo sessions to playing keyboards on the stage of British university halls.

But as a close friend of Linda’s commented last week: “Few girls in New York had that sort of determination and application as Linda had in 1966. She’s a great photographer, too.“

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