Mike McCartney
Encyclopedia
Mike McCartney known professionally as Mike McGear, is a British
performing artist and rock
photographer and the younger brother of Paul McCartney
. He attended the Liverpool Institute two years behind his brother.
, had previously worked as a nursing sister in charge of the maternity ward. Michael was not enrolled in a Catholic school as his father, Jim McCartney
, believed that they leaned too much towards religion instead of education. At age 17, McCartney started his first job at 'Jackson's the Tailors' in Ranelagh Street, Liverpool. The year after he took an apprenticeship at 'Andre Bernard', a hairdresser for ladies in the same street.
At the time the Beatles became successful, Mike McCartney was working as an apprentice hairdresser. However, he was also a member of the Liverpool comedy-poetry-music group The Scaffold
, which included Roger McGough
and John Gorman and had formed in 1962 (the year of The Beatles
' first hit). McCartney decided to use a stage name
, so as not to capitalize on his family connections to the Fab Four. After first dubbing himself "Mike Blank", he settled on "Mike McGear", using the Liverpudlian equivalent of "Fab". The band was subsequently signed to Parlophone
.
The Scaffold recorded a number of UK
hit singles
between 1966 and 1974, the most successful being the 1968 Christmas number one single
, "Lily the Pink
". McCartney composed the band's next biggest hit, 1967's "Thank U Very Much". In 1968, he and McGough released a "duo" album (McGough & McGear) that included the usual Scaffold mix of lyrics
, poems, and comedy
. The Scaffold ended up hosting a TV program, which limited the musical portion of their career, and they were dropped by Parlophone. McCartney then signed to Island Records
and released a solo
musical album
entitled Woman
in 1972, which again included many tracks co-written with McGough, and The Scaffold subsequently released their own album on the label, Fresh Liver.
The Scaffold then added several other members and released two albums on Island in 1973 as Grimms
(an acronym for Gorman-Roberts-Innes-McGear-McGough-Stanshall). However, McCartney quit Grimms after the second album due to tension between himself and one of the poets added to the group.
McCartney then signed to Warner Bros. Records
and in 1974 released his second "serious" musical album, McGear
, in which he collaborated with his brother Paul and Paul's band Wings
. Although four singles were released from these sessions, only "Leave It" enjoyed any moderate chart success (#36 UK). However, also recorded during McCartney's sessions with Wings was a Scaffold "reunion" song, "Liverpool Lou", which became The Scaffold's last top-ten hit. This led to the group's re-formation in 1974, and they recorded and performed together through 1977.
Individually, McCartney released a few more singles. His final release, while still using the name Mike McGear, was the 1981 release, "No Lar Di Dar (Is Lady Di)." This was a satirical tribute to Lady Diana Spencer, released at the time of her wedding to Prince Charles.
In the 1980s, after retiring from music, Mike McCartney decided to end his use of the "McGear" pseudonym
and revert to use of his family name.
McCartney was a photographer
during his entire musical career, and has continued with photography since then. Beatles' manager Brian Epstein
nicknamed him "Flash Harry" in the early 1960s because he was always taking pictures with a flash gun.
He has published books of pictures that he took of The Beatles backstage and on tour, and he recently brought out a limited edition book
of photos
he took spontaneously backstage at Live8. In 2005, McCartney premiered and exhibited a collection of photographs that he had taken in the 1960s, called "Mike McCartney's Liverpool Life", both in Liverpool and other venues, such as The Provincial Museum of Alberta. In addition, an exhibition book was published of the collection.
He also took the cover photograph for Paul McCartney's 2005 solo album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard
.
(in 1968) and later divorce
d Angela Fishwick. He later married Rowena Horne. McCartney has six child
ren between his marriages, three from each, including Josh McCartney, who was the drummer
in the band
The Famous Last Words (formerly known as Trilby).
US Release
US Releases
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
performing artist and rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
photographer and the younger brother of Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
. He attended the Liverpool Institute two years behind his brother.
Early years
Michael and his brother Paul (born 18 June 1942) were both born in the Walton General Hospital in Liverpool, where their mother, Mary McCartneyJim and Mary McCartney
James "Jim" McCartney and Mary Patricia McCartney were the parents of musician, author and artist Paul McCartney of The Beatles and Wings, and photographer and musician Mike McCartney, who worked with The Scaffold.Like many families in Liverpool, the McCartney and Mohin families are of...
, had previously worked as a nursing sister in charge of the maternity ward. Michael was not enrolled in a Catholic school as his father, Jim McCartney
Jim and Mary McCartney
James "Jim" McCartney and Mary Patricia McCartney were the parents of musician, author and artist Paul McCartney of The Beatles and Wings, and photographer and musician Mike McCartney, who worked with The Scaffold.Like many families in Liverpool, the McCartney and Mohin families are of...
, believed that they leaned too much towards religion instead of education. At age 17, McCartney started his first job at 'Jackson's the Tailors' in Ranelagh Street, Liverpool. The year after he took an apprenticeship at 'Andre Bernard', a hairdresser for ladies in the same street.
Musical career
The Scaffold
The Scaffold were a comedy, poetry and music trio from Liverpool, England, consisting of Mike McGear , Roger McGough and John Gorman.-Career:...
, which included Roger McGough
Roger McGough
Roger Joseph McGough CBE is a well-known English performance poet. He presents the BBC Radio 4 programme Poetry Please and records voice-overs for commercials, as well as performing his own poetry regularly...
and John Gorman and had formed in 1962 (the year of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' first hit). McCartney decided to use a stage name
Stage name
A stage name, also called a showbiz name or screen name, is a pseudonym used by performers and entertainers such as actors, wrestlers, comedians, and musicians.-Motivation to use a stage name:...
, so as not to capitalize on his family connections to the Fab Four. After first dubbing himself "Mike Blank", he settled on "Mike McGear", using the Liverpudlian equivalent of "Fab". The band was subsequently signed to Parlophone
Parlophone
Parlophone is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone" which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. It was acquired in 1927 by the Columbia Graphophone Company which...
.
The Scaffold recorded a number of UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
hit singles
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
between 1966 and 1974, the most successful being the 1968 Christmas number one single
Christmas number one single
The Christmas number one single is a single that reaches number one on the national pop music charts in the week immediately prior to Christmas. It is primarily a pop culture phenomenon in the United Kingdom and in the neighboring Republic of Ireland....
, "Lily the Pink
Lily the Pink (song)
"Lily the Pink" is a modification of the older folk song "The Ballad of Lydia Pinkham", and the modifications were not extensively due to The Scaffold - for example a similar version was the unofficial regimental song of the Royal Tank Corps, at the end of World War II."Lily the Pink" was a...
". McCartney composed the band's next biggest hit, 1967's "Thank U Very Much". In 1968, he and McGough released a "duo" album (McGough & McGear) that included the usual Scaffold mix of lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
, poems, and comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
. The Scaffold ended up hosting a TV program, which limited the musical portion of their career, and they were dropped by Parlophone. McCartney then signed to Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
and released a solo
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
musical album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
entitled Woman
Woman (Mike McGear album)
Woman is the first solo album by British musician Mike McGear , brother of ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, who also co-wrote a song, but is credited as a "friend".Roger McGough produced and co-wrote some songs with McGear....
in 1972, which again included many tracks co-written with McGough, and The Scaffold subsequently released their own album on the label, Fresh Liver.
The Scaffold then added several other members and released two albums on Island in 1973 as Grimms
Grimms
GRIMMS was an English pop rock, skit and poetry group, originally formed as a merger of The Scaffold, the Bonzo Dog Band, and the Liverpool Scene for two concerts in 1971 at the suggestion of John Gorman...
(an acronym for Gorman-Roberts-Innes-McGear-McGough-Stanshall). However, McCartney quit Grimms after the second album due to tension between himself and one of the poets added to the group.
McCartney then signed to Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records
Warner Bros. Records Inc. is an American record label. It was the foundation label of the present-day Warner Music Group, and now operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of that corporation. It maintains a close relationship with its former parent, Warner Bros. Pictures, although the two companies...
and in 1974 released his second "serious" musical album, McGear
McGear (album)
McGear is the second solo album by English singer Mike McGear, released in 1974.The album was a collaboration between McGear and his older brother Paul McCartney, who produced the record. All tracks on the album are performed by McCartney's band Wings, although all lead vocals are sung by McGear...
, in which he collaborated with his brother Paul and Paul's band Wings
Wings (band)
Wings were a British-American rock group formed in 1971 by Paul McCartney, Denny Laine and Linda McCartney that remained active until 1981....
. Although four singles were released from these sessions, only "Leave It" enjoyed any moderate chart success (#36 UK). However, also recorded during McCartney's sessions with Wings was a Scaffold "reunion" song, "Liverpool Lou", which became The Scaffold's last top-ten hit. This led to the group's re-formation in 1974, and they recorded and performed together through 1977.
Individually, McCartney released a few more singles. His final release, while still using the name Mike McGear, was the 1981 release, "No Lar Di Dar (Is Lady Di)." This was a satirical tribute to Lady Diana Spencer, released at the time of her wedding to Prince Charles.
In the 1980s, after retiring from music, Mike McCartney decided to end his use of the "McGear" pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
and revert to use of his family name.
Photographic career
Photography
Photography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film...
during his entire musical career, and has continued with photography since then. Beatles' manager Brian Epstein
Brian Epstein
Brian Samuel Epstein , was an English music entrepreneur, and is best known for being the manager of The Beatles up until his death. He also managed several other musical artists such as Gerry & the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Cilla Black, The Remo Four & The Cyrkle...
nicknamed him "Flash Harry" in the early 1960s because he was always taking pictures with a flash gun.
He has published books of pictures that he took of The Beatles backstage and on tour, and he recently brought out a limited edition book
Book
A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of hot lava, paper, parchment, or other materials, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf or leaflet, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
of photos
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
he took spontaneously backstage at Live8. In 2005, McCartney premiered and exhibited a collection of photographs that he had taken in the 1960s, called "Mike McCartney's Liverpool Life", both in Liverpool and other venues, such as The Provincial Museum of Alberta. In addition, an exhibition book was published of the collection.
He also took the cover photograph for Paul McCartney's 2005 solo album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard is the thirteenth solo studio album by Paul McCartney released in 2005. A long time in the making, the set was produced by Radiohead and Beck collaborator Nigel Godrich at George Martin's suggestion....
.
Personal life
McCartney marriedMarriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
(in 1968) and later divorce
Divorce
Divorce is the final termination of a marital union, canceling the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage and dissolving the bonds of matrimony between the parties...
d Angela Fishwick. He later married Rowena Horne. McCartney has six child
Child
Biologically, a child is generally a human between the stages of birth and puberty. Some vernacular definitions of a child include the fetus, as being an unborn child. The legal definition of "child" generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority...
ren between his marriages, three from each, including Josh McCartney, who was the drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
in the band
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
The Famous Last Words (formerly known as Trilby).
Singles
UK Releases- "Woman" / "Kill" (Island WIP 6131) April 1972
- "Leave It" / "Sweet Baby" (Warner Bros K 16446) September 1974 - UKUK Singles ChartThe UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ...
#36 - "Sea Breezes" / "Giving Grease a Ride" (Warner Bros K 16520) February 1975
- "Dance the Do" / "Norton" (Warner Bros K16573) July 1975
- "Simply Love You" / "What Do We Really Know" (Warner Bros K 16658) November 1975
- "Do Nothing All Day" / "A to Z" (EMI 2485) June 1976
- "All The Whales In The Ocean" / "I Juz Want What You Got - Money!" (Carrere CAR 144) May 1980
- "No Lar Di Dar (Is Lady Di)" / "God Bless Our Gracious Queen" (Conn CONN 29781) July 1981
US Release
- "Leave It" / "Sweet Baby" (Warner Bros WBS 8037) October 1974
Albums
UK Releases- McGough and McGear (Parlophone PMC 7047 [mono], PCS 7047 [stereo]) May 1968
- WomanWoman (Mike McGear album)Woman is the first solo album by British musician Mike McGear , brother of ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, who also co-wrote a song, but is credited as a "friend".Roger McGough produced and co-wrote some songs with McGear....
(Island ILPS 9191) April 1972 - McGearMcGear (album)McGear is the second solo album by English singer Mike McGear, released in 1974.The album was a collaboration between McGear and his older brother Paul McCartney, who produced the record. All tracks on the album are performed by McCartney's band Wings, although all lead vocals are sung by McGear...
(Warner Bros K 56051) September 1974 - McGough and McGear (Parlophone PCS 7332) April 1989 [Reissue of the 1968 album]
- McGough and McGear (EMI CDP 7 91877 2) April 1989 [Reissue of the 1968 album on CDCompact DiscThe Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
- McGearMcGear (album)McGear is the second solo album by English singer Mike McGear, released in 1974.The album was a collaboration between McGear and his older brother Paul McCartney, who produced the record. All tracks on the album are performed by McCartney's band Wings, although all lead vocals are sung by McGear...
(See For Miles SEECD 339) April 1992 [Reissue of the 1974 album, with two additional tracks] - WomanWoman (Mike McGear album)Woman is the first solo album by British musician Mike McGear , brother of ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, who also co-wrote a song, but is credited as a "friend".Roger McGough produced and co-wrote some songs with McGear....
(Edsel EDCD 507) February 1997 [Reissue of the 1972 album, with four short tracks omitted] - A Collection of Songs for the Young Homeless of Merseyside (Merseyside Accommodation Project) December 1996 [Multi-artist commemorative release, including one newly-recorded track by McGear]
US Releases
- McGearMcGear (album)McGear is the second solo album by English singer Mike McGear, released in 1974.The album was a collaboration between McGear and his older brother Paul McCartney, who produced the record. All tracks on the album are performed by McCartney's band Wings, although all lead vocals are sung by McGear...
(Warner Bros BS 2825) October 1974 - McGearMcGear (album)McGear is the second solo album by English singer Mike McGear, released in 1974.The album was a collaboration between McGear and his older brother Paul McCartney, who produced the record. All tracks on the album are performed by McCartney's band Wings, although all lead vocals are sung by McGear...
(Rykodisc RCD 10192) September 1990 [Reissue of the 1974 album, with one additional track]
Discography notes
- The album, McGough and McGear was by Roger McGough and Mike McGear.
- The single, "No Lar Di Dar (Is Lady Di)", is by Mike McGear (McCartney) and The Monarchists.
- The track "Take It Into Your Hearts," on the Merseyside Accommodation Project release, is billed as by Mike McCartney.
- All other releases billed as by Mike McGear.
- See also The Scaffold Discography.
- See also Grimms Discography.
External links
- Mike McCartney Website
- Michael's solo albums
- Mike McCartney’s Liverpool Life
- Michael McCartney's 'beatleireland' biog
- Honorary Fellowships awarded 2005
- National Gallery portraits
- McCartney's Live 8 book
- Liverpool Echo tags
- BBC tags
- Mike McCartney To Open Chambré Hardman's Home
- Save Woolton cinema
- Scaffold and the Grimms history