Nobody said it was going to be easy to be the only son of “the cute Beatle.”

And 34-year-old James McCartney, who played The Great Hall on Tuesday night in front of a small crowd of 100 people, certainly waited a long time to follow in dad Paul’s enormous footsteps.

Really, not until the last three years has James really pursued his own music.

After playing and composing on a couple of Paul and late mom Linda’s solo albums, and graduating from school in art and sculpture, McCartney started releasing his alt-rock-pop sound via two digitally only available EPs in 2010 (Available Light) and 2011 (Close At Hand), which were eventually combined into The Complete EP Collection that came out as a physical release in 2011 and was co-produced by Paul.

Cautious appears to be the name of the game.

Now he’s on the road with a four-piece band from England and if they’re still rough around the edges in a garage band sort of way, with a horrible sound mix on Tuesday night that did them - and particularly James' powerful vocals - no favours, you’ve got to give McCartney props for bravery.

Comparisons to the old man, who he totally resembles in the face even if he’s got a bigger, taller body, and wispier strawberry blonde hair, are inevitable.

Particularly whenever he shook his head when hitting a high note.

So maybe it was on purpose when James covered Neil Young’s Old Man as in: “Old man, look at my life, I’m a lot like you.”

However, his voice - more nasal and higher than dear old dad’s - resembles John Lennon’s more than anything.

Only when James really let loose with a guttural roar did he become Paul vocally-speaking.

Otherwise, there is definitely promise in his songwriting, like the rawer, Nirvana-like Mix towards the end of the night, even if it’s unpolished and still a work in progress.

I’d say he just needs some time to develop.

Still, I’m not totally convinced he’s comfortable as a front man.

Whenever the shy McCartney spoke during his 15-song, 55-minute set which saw him play electric and acoustic guitar and electric piano, it was quickly and quietly and really only to introduce the title of the next tune, like he couldn’t wait to get back to the music.

It was a bit awkward.

And it was actually McCartney’s lead guitarist who was the first person to say: “Hello Toronto. This is our first week of a six week tour with James. How much do we love James?”

I’d say by the six and seven songs, Fallen Angel and Denial, McCartney finally started to relax and let the performer in him come through.

By song eleven, Else and Else But Dead, he even had his hands in the air over his head and was clapping, encouraging the audience - a mix of twentysomethings and older Beatles fans if I had to guess - to do likewise.

John Lennon's musician son Julian is to feature on Aerosmith's next album.

The British rocker was recruited by Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler to contribute back-up vocals for the Walk This Way hitmakers' forthcoming release.

Lennon has posted a photo of himself in the recording studio with Tyler on his Facebook.com page with a caption promising "more to come".

A source tells Britain's Daily Express, "Julian is a big Aerosmith fan and has been asked to sing backing vocals on the new album by Steven, who loves Julian's voice as it's reminiscent of John's. Julian's been in his element. It's hoped he'll be joining them on tour too."

The one used for the cover has become one of the most famous images in pop and shows the group crossing from left to right.

But the photo that has now emerged has them walking from right to left — and with Paul McCartney wearing leather flipflops.

On the actual album cover he was barefoot.

A white VW Beetle car parked half on the kerb and half on the road remained in the background for all six photos.

The 18in by 18in picture is one of 25 prints made from the original frame and has been owned by a private music memorabilia collector.






He has now decided to sell the print, and London-based Bloomsbury auctions have put a conservative estimate of £10,000 on it.

Sarah Wheeler, a music specialist from Bloomsbury, said: “Iain Macmillan was the chosen photographer for the shot because he was friends with Yoko Ono.

“Paul McCartney drew a sketch of what he wanted the front cover of Abbey Road to look like.

“Macmillan had 10 minutes to do the shoot and he took six photographs of the Beatles walking backwards and forwards across the zebra crossing.

“He was standing up a ladder to take the pictures. In the one we have Paul McCartney is wearing sandals and in the image that was finally used he is barefoot.

“The photo has been called an icon of the 1960s. I think the reason it became so popular is its simplicity. It’s a very simple, stylised shot and is a shot people can relate to.

“The Beatles walked forwards and backwards three times and by pure chance a VW Beetle is in the background. That car is now in a museum.

“Although there were 25 chromogenic prints of frame two made at the time, it is still very rare for one to come on the market.”

The image has been signed by Macmillan, who died in 2006. It has also been editioned three of 25 in silver pen in the margin.

The Abbey Road photos show John Lennon in a white suit leading Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison over the zebra crossing next to the North London recording studios.

The spot in St John’s Wood has become a mecca for Beatles fans and the crossing was given Grade II listed status in 2010 to preserve it for the future.

The auction will take place on May 22.


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The Fab Four guitarist’s widow Olivia Harrison says a number of works-in-progress remain following his death in 2001.

She oversaw the creation of Early Takes, an album of demos and unreleased material, launched to coincide with the DVD publication of Martin Scorcese’s Harrison documentary, Living in the Material World.

She tells Spinner: “There is some more material. There may be a minute of something he was writing and it will never be finished. I had an idea of giving unfinished songs to different people – giving one to Paul, maybe, or giving one to somebody else and saying: ‘Here are the bones of a song, would you like to finished it?’ I think that would be a nice idea.”

Olivia says of her husband’s writing process: “It was an amazing thing to witness. It was just being born right then and there. I’d try not to interrupt – I’d put a pencil and paper by him, just to make sure he had something if he wanted to write something down. I’\d get the tape player and put it there.”

And she believes Harrison didn’t feel stifled in the Beatles, despite being faced with the challenge of writing alongside the Lennon-McCartney hit machine.

“Nobody can stifle you as a writer,” says Olivia. “You can just keep writing. You might not get your song on an album. It seems to be history that he was suppressed or something – but really, he developed later as a songwriter.”

EVERYTHING I have ever been told about the making of the Beatles' Yellow Submarine cartoon says that the film should have been a disaster. You know how your teacher used to tell you not to start an essay until you knew roughly what you wanted to say? Yeah, well they didn't do that.


They sort of started in the middle, making it up as they were going along, hauling in art students in a desperate attempt to hit ridiculous deadlines, and along the way there were financial troubles and lawyers, and sneaking out of the offices with reels of film in the middle of the night. And all the time the Beatles couldn't have cared less. In fact, they were actively hostile to the whole thing.

So it should have been a disaster. But somehow, miraculously, it wasn't. I mean, rather it isn't. Because the reissued Yellow Submarine, digitally remastered and out next month on Blu-ray and DVD, is a Pop Art masterpiece.

The easy way to explain this is that although the Beatles' manager Brian Epstein was a bit of a butterfingers when it came to money, he had excellent taste. He lost a fortune to those he did deals with, but generally the quality of the products did the band proud.