Ic too much stopping...’

had rung Laine and asked enny replied, ‘Nothing’, I Seiwell had auditioned in a York Bronx and given Paul sion, “hard snare, funky rim

-basics approach to Wings. recorded quickly, their first hey travelled from town to n a transit van. short, Paul laughs: “We had lie that they were requests!” pening chords to Wild Life. expression on her face. I go, o to the keyboard, and I’ve wasn’t a desire to make things mean something.” The conciliatory Dear Friend was aimed at defusing his feud with former songwriting partner John Lennon which had been festering in words and songs like Lennon’s How Do You Sleep? since the Beatles’ acrimonious breakup in 1970.

In January 1972, Wings added second guitarist Henry McCullough and set off on the college tour driving in an old van “like the old days”. Weeks of small European venues followed. Their first hit, the controversial Give Ireland Back To The Irish, was banned by the BBC.

In March, they began recording second album Red Rose Speedway which spawned the global hit My Love, McCartney’s first US chart-topper since Uncle Albert/ Admiral Halsey.

Their Wings Over Europe summer tour followed in an open-topped Routemaster bus. Paul got busted for possessing cannabis in Gothenburg but convinced Swedish police that he and Linda were virtually addicted to dope and a fan had sent it to him.

Months later he was fined for growing cannabis at his Scottish retreat High Cross Farm in Kintyre. He told the court: “I’m against hard drugs, but I don’t think cannabis is as dangerous as drink. It should be like homosexuality, legal amongst consenting adults.”

Bigger hits would follow – Live & Let Die, Jet, Silly Love Songs and Mull Of Kintyre. But Seiwell and McCullough quit before Wings’ third album Band On

The Run was recorded.

Paul’s reaction was typically rose-tinted. “Great,” he said. “That means I can play the drums myself.” Wings folded in 1981, shortly after Lennon’s assassination, although no official explanation was given. Paul said: “We dissolved like sugar in tea.” Linda died in 1998.

cannabis is us as drink’

Wild Life is re-released as a limited deluxe 3CD, 1DVD edition. Red Rose Speedway is a six-disc (3CD, 2DVD + Blu-ray) numbered limited deluxe edition

The 11-disc Paul McCartney And Wings 1971–73 contains the above plus live album, Wings Over Europe