New album makes up for cancelled gigs: Sir Paul
SIR Paul Mccartney has said recording his new album was a good “substitute” for his cancelled tour and headline slot at Glastonbury.
The former Beatle (78) was due to embark on a series of European concerts this year, including a Saturday night performance at the festival’s Pyramid Stage.
Instead, he spent lockdown on his farm in East Sussex with his daughter Mary and four grandchildren, recording the solo album Mccartney III.
“We were looking forward to touring around Europe and then finishing in Glastonbury, big festival, 50th anniversary,” he said.
“Then suddenly Covid struck and nobody could do anything, so the tour was cancelled and Glastonbury was cancelled.
“The only thing that was good about it was it meant I had a lot of time to do other things.
“I got into the studio and there were some songs I had meant to record, some songs that I was meant to finish up.
“I did that and I found I was really enjoying it. It was a good substitute for kind of the disappointment of the tour.
“I ended it up doing it and it ended up as an album. It’s surprised me.”
Mccartney III, which is on course to top the albums chart, follows on from 1970’s Mccartney and 1980’s Mccartney II.
The veteran musician said the record “snuck up” on him and that he had not been intending to record a follow-up. “Well, I hadn’t thought about making Mccartney III, no,” he explained.
“These things are just kind of... you don’t always think about them and you don’t plan them.
“I didn’t plan Mccartney I or II, so this was the same.
“This was me just making a bunch of recordings, really, for my own enjoyment.
“So, it wasn’t supposed to be an album, but then as I played it to people — I played it to my family and stuff — I suddenly thought, ‘Well, it is an album’, so it snuck up on me’.”
Sir Paul said working with his photographer daughter Mary on the album images reminded him of her mother and his late wife Linda, who died of breast cancer in 1998 aged 56.
He said: “It’s always great being photographed by Mary because obviously we’re really comfortable with each other and her style is like her mum’s, Linda, which is to make whoever’s being photographed feel comfortable.
“She’ll just chat and then she’ll just start taking photos and then she’ll boss me around.
“Now you know, normally, with anyone else I’d go, ‘Woah, woah, woah’.
“But I’m just dad (to her) and you know you can boss your dad around, (saying) ‘ Don’t do that, don’t do that’.
“I’m going, ‘Wahey, don’t do that, stop it, look serious or whatever’.
“Anyway, we had a great time. it was a laugh.”