‘I’m proud of Our Kid, he’s done very well for himself’
SHORTLY before his acclaimed performance at Glastonbury in June, Paul Mccartney made an important phone call.
Sir Paul, 80, rang his only sibling, Mike, a 78-year-old photographer and singer/songwriter with The Scaffold, who are celebrating their 60th anniversary in October.
Mike was in hospital near their native Liverpool recovering from pneumonia and a badly injured right leg.
Mike, who endearingly refers to Paul as “our kid” recalls: “In his dressing room just as he was about to go on stage, our kid rang to ask how I was. I said, ‘You better be quick cos they’re about to put the ward lights out!’ The next morning I texted him to say ‘I just heard you did rather well.when you brought Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen on for your finale, I was fast asleep!’”
That’s typical of the Scouse humour, love and support the Mccartney brothers have always shared. Despite enjoying a distinguished career in his own right, Mike has been in Paul’s shadow most of his life.
But you won’t hear a tinge of resentment or envy from him...just great pride.
“I am related to a member of the best group in the world. Always have been and always will be. He’s done very well for himself, he’s a lovely lad, and he’s my brother! We still get on and couldn’t be much closer.”
Key to their relationship was the way they were raised in working-class Liverpool by their father Jim, who was in the cotton trade, and their mother Mary, a nurse.
“We were [treated] exactly equal,” says Mike. “I remember they gave us a Rupert The Bear annual – we were so poor they couldn’t afford two – and signed it to us both ‘To Paul and Michael, Happy Christmas, from Mum & Dad’. That’s how scrupulously fair they were.
“One theory is that before we are born we are all floating round in the Infinite and then we look down and choose our parents. My brother and I chose very well.we were normal. Sometimes we got in mischief together, though I got in more than him.”
Aged 14 and 12 when their mother died from breast cancer, Paul went on to immortalise her in The Beatles’ classic Let It Be.
Mike (himself referenced by Paul in the Wings hit Let ’Em In) made her the cover picture on his debut solo albumwoman. But stardom didn’t even enter the heads of the Mccartney boys at their childhood home from 1955 – 20 Forthlin Road, L18.
“I was learning photography in one room, my brother was learning music in the other,” said Mike. “Neither of us had a future.we didn’t have a chance in hell.
“The world at that time had a class system which was totally in control.
“If our mum had lived she’d have made sure her two sons went into the professions.
“You’d now be talking to Dr Mccartney, Prof Mccartney or Father Mccartney!”
Is Mike seriously suggesting Paul would not have become a Beatle had their mother survived? “I can assure you. And nor me a member of The Scaffold.
“Only after Mum died, Dad bought my brother a Spanish guitar and me a banjo.
“And then a drum kit fell off the back of a lorry and ended up in our house.”
Mike played drums for The Quarrymen, the skiffle band formed by John Lennon in 1956 and later joined by Paul Mccartney and George Harrison.
Referring to the Beatles’ original official drummer Pete Best, Mike claims: “Pete got the job simply because I broke my left arm
at Scout camp.” Has Mike ever wished he’d been the Beatles’ drummer? “I could well have because I was good before I broke my arm, and it would have been John, Paul, George and Mike!
“But, apart from being mega-rich and famous, you’ve got the reality of two brothers in a group – there were two in Oasis and look what happened to them!”
Recalling how impressed their father was with public school-educated Brian Epstein, who became manager of the Beatles as well as other artists like Cilla Black and Gerry And The Pacemakers, Mike recalls: “Can you imagine my dad hearing Brian’s upper class velvety voice when he was seeking permission for our kid to go to Hamburg or to sign him up….he’d have b **** y given him our toenails!
“Brian Epstein once asked me, ‘Do you want to be a pop star like your brother?’, and I said, ‘Gotta be honest with you…no. I’m not a singer – we’ve already got one of those in the family and he does it rather well! I’m gonna be different’.”
Instead Mike started work in a tailor’s shop then became an apprentice at a ladies’ hairdressers where future stars Jimmy Tarbuck and Lewis Collins also worked.
“I remember Cilla coming up to me in the street, giving me a big hug and saying, ‘Eh Mick, Eppy has just signed me up!’”
That year, 1963, the Mccartneys fled their home: “Beatlemania was getting a bit
heavy, fans were coming to Forthlin Road every day and it wasn’t fair on the neighbours, so we had to move. Dad left at midnight and we went over the water to The Wirral, the Beverly Hills of Liverpool.”
Mike’s photos of their time at No.20 helped the National Trust recreate the correct look after it took ownership in 1995.
Mike got into showbusiness in 1962 as part of the satirical revue group One Fat Ladyall Electric Show with Roger Mcgough and John Gorman. They eventually became The Scaffold and Mike Mccartney became Mike Mcgear. “Our kid was big and getting bigger and I didn’t wanna appear to be cashing in,” he explained.
Although John, Paul, George and Ringo
were reportedly experimenting with drugs by then, Mike insists he kept clean. “At the wedding of one of the Average White Band someone said, ‘Do you want some cocaine?’ and I said, ‘No thanks’. I have never taken cocaine or any big drug. Our kid did.”
But he recalled: “We had a children’s TV series called Score With The Scaffold.
“The BBC didn’t know that ‘score’ was drug terminology.we were satirists and had badges saying Score Now Kids!”
The Scaffold wrote and sang the theme tune to hit BBC sitcom The Liver Birds.
In 1972 they made a 30-minute movie musical called Plod, and Mike made his first solo album Woman. “That people actually liked my singing always amused me” he confides. “Our kid was the singer in the family – I was never gonna beat him.”
Mike’s second album Mcgear was cowritten and produced by Paul, who also played on it with other members of Wings.
Mike has had the same house in Heswall for over half a century. He has three daughters by his first wife Angela and three sons by his present wife Rowena, a dressmaker who used to live next to Penny Lane and worked for the BBC wardrobe department.
How often does Mike see his Sussexbased brother? “We see each other far too much. He’s just been up. My wife did him a couple of magnificent vegetarian dishes.”
Two years from becoming an octogenarian, Mike Mccartney is as busy as ever.
His photographs and drawings will be exhibited at The Atlas Gallery in London and a 60th anniversary reunion with The Scaffold takes place at The Everyman (where they started out) in Liverpool.
“We’re getting old. With a lot of old bands, half are ill or dead, half hate each other. The Scaffold are three original members all still alive and talking to each other.
“That’s why we’re doing this. We’re not dead yet so we’re not saying farewell.”
So what has it been like for Mike being the closest relative of megastar Macca all these decades? “Great,” he says. “I’ve nothing but pride for him. But he’s not a megastar. He’s me brother, that’s all.”
Exhibition of Mike Mccartney’s photos at the Atlas Gallery in Dorset Street, Londonw1, September 24 to October 1
Two performances of An Audience With The Scaffold will be held at The Everyman in Liverpool on Saturday, October 29