Thank U Very Much for helping the NHS
Nick Dalton
THERE was never a more unlikely band.the brother of a Beatle, a tousle-haired poet and a curious comic actor chanting pepped-up traditional Liverpudlian tunes on Top Of The Pops.yet the Scaffold hit No1 with Lily The Pink and came close with Thank U Very Much. Fifty-three years on, the latter, rewritten and complete with touching video, is helping our NHS heroes.
The trio – Mike Mcgear (now back to his real name, Mccartney), Roger Mcgough and John Gorman – saw the single enter the itunes chart while thousands have watched the video on Youtube.
Proceeds go to NHS Charities Together, an umbrella organisation for hundreds of NHS charities, and its Covid-19 Urgent Appeal.
The NHS has been central to the life of Mccartney – at 76, Paul’s junior by 18 months. “The NHS have been in my family all my life because our mum, Mary, was a nurse, a sister, a midwife, a health visitor, all the 12 years I knew her,” he says.
“She’d go out into Speke in the middle of the night, snow or rain, putting on her blue mac, belting it, putting on her hat, getting on her bike. On the back was a box strapped on, on the front was a basket, whatever she needed to deliver a baby.
“Now, following on in the tradition, my daughter,theran, is a nurse on the frontline in Sheffield.”
From the start of the crisis Mike signed off his regular Tweets with Thank U Very Much for the NHS and then BBC Radio Kent suggested the single. “Let’s do it!” was the cry, says award-winning poet Mcgough. “The next question was, ‘How?’ ” Mcgough, at 82, isn’t even the oldest of the band, none of whom should go out – and studios are closed anyway.
“It was all emails and then we did it down the phone,” says the man with an OBE and a CBE for his work. “I’m not a natural singer but it used to be a joy to go into studios like Abbey Road. Now I’m doing it by phone!”
Gorman, 84, famed for his appearances on ITV’S Saturday morning show Tiswas, says: “I owe my health to the NHS – I had my first operation at two, I’ve had scarlet fever, diphtheria, whooping cough, chickenpox, my gallbladder removed...”
Mike, who had been searching his loft for tapes for a Scaffold set of CDS, DVDS and book, out later this year, found the original backing track. Even the video was a family affair, created by his son Josh, who’s worked in TV and film on both sides of the Atlantic.
So how have the trio (who also performed the theme to the long-running BBC One sitcom The Liver Birds and had a children’s TV series, Score With The Scaffold) filled their years since their early 70s split?
Mccartney made a solo album in 1972, before the band’s demise, but the follow-up, Mcgear, took him close to solo stardom. Created with brother Paul, Linda Mccartney and Wings, there was a Beatles-like magic. “Our kid” andwings were also central to the Scaffold’s final hit, Liverpool Lou, in 1974 – the last time Mccartney, Mcgough and Gorman recorded together until now.
Scaffold drifted apart and Mike’s solo career drifted away. “I got busy, our kid got busy, being a world superstar,” he says. “And being Mike Mccartney was like being Mike Presley or Mike Sinatra...”
And yet he quickly found himself as a successful photographer. “I hadn’t thought about it,” he says. “But then divorce, and I was bringing up three girls, and I could do it at the same time, be independent.”
His portraits of the early Beatles were catching people’s eyes “and then the National Portrait Gallery bought 11 of them”. He also become known for evocative photos of Liverpool and has had exhibitions in places such as the Museum of Liverpool.
Mcgough has also had an illustrious career. “I’ve always liked being on stage but I don’t like people looking at me, which is a bit of a drawback,” he says. “I was always a poet, so the poetry continued.”
The 1967 book The Mersey Sound, with fellow poets Adrian Henri and Brian Patten, has sold 500,000 copies.that led to more than 50 poetry books, most recently Joinedupwriting, wickedly funny yet moving too. He’s hosted BBC Radio 4’s Sunday show Poetry Please for more than a quarter of a century (“I started thinking, oh, can I do this? Then it’s suddenly 28 years later”), and was called “the patron saint of poetry” by former poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy for his playful yet profound body of work.
He’s also a children’s favourite – his jolly tale The Money-go-round has just been published. “Then there’s the show, Sky In The Pie, based on my children’s poems, with the Feathers Of Daedalus Circus – juggling, unicycling,” he says. It started at an arts centre near his home in Barnes, southwest London, but, like so many shows, is mothballed until a 2021 tour.
“There’ll be so much on next year they’ll have to build more theatres,” he says drily.
Gorman is, perhaps, the face remembered most. In 1979 Jasper Carrott asked whether he’d like to take his place on a regional ITV children’s Saturday morning show.when it was networked, Chris Tarrant at the helm,
John found himself “talent spotter, creative consultant and writer-presenter”.tiswas, which also starred Sally James and Lenny Henry, was famed for its anarchic humour. ITV found most viewers were over 18 and launched a late-night version, O.T.T., also with Alexei Sayle, which ran for one series.
John moved to France but wrote for Tarrant’s Capital Radio breakfast show which won a Sony award for radio comedy in 1992. Moving home in 1996 he worked non-stop in the arts.the lockdown is giving him time to reflect. “I’ve got time to write my autobiography,” he muses. “But first I’m going to sort out the tool cupboard.”
He’s also working to make Liverpool a centre for new plays, and to have the city declared a peace capital, a step on from the John Lennon Peace Monument.
Meanwhile, the Scaffold are considering a reunion to celebrate their new collection, and Thank U Very Much still enchants.
“It was the Queen Mum’s favourite,” grins Mike, who found out when he was commissioned to photograph her former Scottish getaway, the Castle of Mey.
“One of the majors who looked after the place came over and said, ‘Your song was a favourite with Her Majesty the Queen Mother.at Christmas we had to have singalongs. She’d sing with her daughters but she’d insist on taking one line... ‘Thank U very much for our gracious Queen’.”
● Thank Uvery Much Forthe NHS is available as a 99p download from itunes and Amazon. The Scaffold box set is out later this year on Cherry Red Records, which also has a 2CD plus DVD box of the Mcgear album. Roger Mcgough’s Joinedupwriting (Penguin, £12.99)