Eleventh Grade is the eleventh, and for some countries final, grade of secondary schools. Students are typically 16 or 17 years of age, depending on the country and the students' birthdays.

Canada[link]

In the Canadian province of Quebec, Grade 11 (sec. 5) is the final year of secondary education, followed by CEGEP. In all other provinces a student continues to Grade 12. In Newfoundland and Labrador, grade 11 was the final year of high school until the introduction of grade 12 by the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Peckford under education minister Lynn Verge.

Colombia[link]

In Colombia, the eleventh grade is the last year in secondary education. In this year, all students are required to do an internship in any subject field. To differentiate from Universities' internships, the practice is called 'alphabetisation'; most of the time is related to community services, such as teaching in schools, or assisting in hospitals or libraries. Students also do the ICFES National Test and they present to the draft for the Colombian Army. By law, the army cannot recruit under-age students; most of eleventh-graders are aged 16–17, and the draft is almost changed for the payment of a monetary fee. This year is called the senior year.

England and Wales[link]

In England and Wales, Year 11 is taken when aged 15–16, and is the main GCSE year and is the final year of mandatory education. Year 12 or Lower Sixth (VI) is comparable to the 11th grade of other systems. It is the sixth and penultimate year of secondary education. It is not compulsory for somebody who entered secondary school before September 2008^{[citation needed]} to attend these last two years. Successful completion generally results in the awarding of A-Level qualifications. During Year 12, two Advanced Supplementary units are completed (either written exams, coursework or a mixture, depending on subject). Usually four subjects are taken with some students taking three or five. Most often three subjects are taken in Year 13 or Upper Sixth (VI); an additional two units must be taken per subject, to complete the A-Levels.

France[link]

In France, the equivalent is the Première, which is the penultimate year of secondary education in that country (followed by the Terminale). Thus, France is similar to English years.

Ireland[link]

In Ireland, it is Fifth year or 'Cúigú Bhlian of Secondary School (for 15-17 year-olds as there is an optional year beforehand). In this year, students prepare for the Leaving Certificate.

Northern Ireland[link]

The Northern Ireland system is similar to the English one at this age. Lower Sixth Form (Year 13), pupils start on a two-year course, at the end of which they will hopefully have gained three 'A' Levels in their chosen subjects.

Mexico[link]

In some parts of Mexico, the eleventh grade is the 2nd year (sophomore) of high school.

Pakistan[link]

In Pakistan, grade eleven is the first of two years in college (grade twelve being the last and final year before postgraduate and university education) and is equivalently referred to as "first year." Students in this year level are sixteen to seventeen years old.

Scotland[link]

In Scotland this Fifth Year (of secondary education) is also optional, but pupils will generally sit Intermediates or Higher - Highers are the entry requirement for university. It will optionally be followed by a final Sixth Year.

Spain[link]

In Spain, the closest equivalent to the eleventh grade is the first year of post-obligatory school, called "Bachillerato". It is not mandatory and it lasts two years between 16 and 18. It is a preparatory period during which students prepare to take the university entrance exam (Prueba de Acceso a la Universidad, PAU) and to go to university.

Sweden[link]

In Sweden, this is the second year of High School.

United States[link]

Juniors are the third year class of high school. In the United States, many students take the SAT Reasoning Test and/or ACT in the second half of their 11th-grade or junior year. Typically during this year, students interested in attending higher education facilities tend to search at around the second part of that year.

In the US, a student at this grade is typically referred to as a junior.

Mathematics students usually take Algebra II, but classes like trigonometry or pre-calculus are sometimes offered for students who wish to take Advanced Placement math classes in their senior year. Depending on the location there may be a combination of any of the listed subjects. They may also take easier courses such as Algebra I and geometry if they do not have the required prerequisites for the more advanced courses that are listed above. Students who are advanced in mathematics often take calculus or statistics.

In science classes, juniors are taught usually Biology, or Chemistry especially Lab Chemistry. Atoms, molecules, and stoichiometry is taught as well.

In English class, a college-preparatory curriculum would also include American literature. Often, English literature (also referred to as British literature) is taught in the junior year of high school. Books and authors learned include The Glass Menagerie, The Scarlet Letter, The Crucible, The Great Gatsby, Jonathan Edwards, Amy Tan, and Lorraine Hansberry.

In a social studies curriculum, eleventh-graders in the United States are usually taught US history or the world from the 1870s to the 21st Century. They may also acquire more advanced world culture and geography knowledge, along with some more-advanced social studies such as psychology and government.

Many eleventh-graders in the United States opt to take a foreign language, even though it is not required in many secondary curricula.

While normally followed by twelfth grade, some colleges will accept excelling students out of this grade as part of an early college entrance program. Alternatively, some students may choose to graduate early through standardized testing or advanced credits.

Tunisia[link]

In Tunisia, the Grade 11 is equal to the Second Year of Secondary Education.

Pupils follow their lessons and courses in a secondary school in which they stay from the age of 15 to the age of 19 (4 School Years).

Before entering to a secondary school, pupils can stay for the Basic Education's End Tunisian National examination.

Laureates of this exam of every governorate access to a regional Pilot Secondary School, formely known as [Lycée Pilote]

See also[link]

• Ninth grade
• Tenth grade
• Twelfth grade

References[link]

Super Junior-M, often referred to as SJ-M, is a Mandopop boy band. Formed in 2008 in Seoul, South Korea, the band is the first international music group in the Chinese music industry to have members of both Chinese and Korean descent,^[1] and is the first group produced by Korea's CT (Culture Technology) organization, created through a comprehensive localization strategy.^[2]

Super Junior-M is the third and most successful subgroup branched off from the Korean boy band Super Junior. The group originally consisted of leader Han Geng, Donghae, Siwon, Ryeowook, Kyuhyun, and two additional members appearing exclusive to the subgroup, Zhou Mi and Henry.^[1] In December 2009, Han Geng filed a lawsuit against their agency SM Entertainment and parted with the group, resulting in the group's temporary disbandment.^[3] Han Geng was later replaced by Super Junior members Eunhyuk and Sungmin, coinciding with the release of the group's second EP Perfection in February 2011.

Background[link]

Name origin[link]

Before the official name of the subgroup was released, they were known by "Super Junior China". On April 3, 2008, SM Entertainment announced their official name to be Super Junior-M, with "M" representing the word "Mandarin".^[4] The "M" can also represent a list of other aspects, such as the first letter of their debut album Me, and also "mi" (Chinese: 迷), the pinyin for "charismatic" and "fan", the latter meaning referring to their desire to connect closer with fans.^[4]

History[link]

2007: Formation and "Only 13" controversies[link]

In October 2007, SM Entertainment announced that a new Super Junior subgroup would debut in China in 2008. Super Junior's original member Han Geng, and a new member Henry Lau, who performed the violin solo of Super Junior's "Don't Don," were announced to be the first two of seven members representing the subgroup.^[5] Some of Super Junior's official fanclub, E.L.F, signed online petitions and held protests to express their dissatisfaction and opposition of adding a fourteenth member to the group, fearing that a new member would mean one of the original lineup would get 'replaced'.^[6] Many fans boycotted Super Junior's products and held silent protests in front of SM Entertainment's main building in Seoul, holding signs of the "Only 13" slogan. ^[7][8]

Over one thousand fans appeared in front of the SM Entertainment building on E.L.F's third protest on November 3, 2007.^[9] Instead of a silent protest, the fans sang various Super Junior songs and shouted "thirteen."^[10] Fans purchased 58,206 stocks of SM Entertainment, holding 0.3% of the company's entire stock.^[11] They released a statement through the media, stating that they would obtain all chances to prevent SM Entertainment from adding new members and to keep Super Junior as only thirteen.^[11] SM Entertainment later announced that they would not add the new subgroup members to the main group.

2008–2009: Debut and commercial success[link]

From April 4 to April 7, 2008 the seven members of Super Junior-M were individually announced to the Chinese media in a chain of short trailer clips. The first member, Han Geng, was announced to be the subgroup leader on April 4.^[12] On April 5, Siwon and Donghae were revealed to be the second and third members.^[13] On April 6, Kyuhyun was announced to be the fourth Super Junior-M member, following the new member, Henry, as the fifth.^[14] Ryeowook and another new member, Zhou Mi, were announced to be the final two members on April 7.^[15] A trailer of all seven members was released on the group's debut day, April 8. Super Junior-M's trailer clips exceeded 1.4 million views in less than four days.^[16]

Super Junior-M debuted in Beijing on April 8, 2008 at the 8th Annual Music Chart Awards, simultaneously with the release of their first music video, "U" on Sohu.com.^[16] They released their debut album Me in selected provinces of China starting April 23, 2008. A Korean version of the album with three bonus Korean-language tracks was released in South Korea on April 30, 2008. A modified version of the album was released in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan on May 2, 2008.^[17] Though a majority of the tracks in the album were Mandarin remakes of Super Junior's previous Korean hits, reviews were generally positive. Hong Kong Cantopop singer, Hins Cheung, critiqued the album favorably, saying that the album contains "international-level music" and that the group is "vocally-talented".^[18]

A month after their debut, Super Junior-M won their first award, Asia's Most Popular New Group, at the 5th annual Music King Awards in Macau on May 25.^[19] They took home another three awards that year. On December 27 and 28, Super Junior-M held their first concert, the Super Junior-M Show, in Hong Kong.^[20]

Following their debut performance in April 2008, the group made a few successful guest appearances in many chains of entertainment variety shows to promote their album. They appeared in an episode of the second season of TVB and HunanTV's collaboration show, Strictly Come Dancing, which made the show's ratings increase to 5.01%, ranking it the third most watched show ever in all of China.^[21] Super Junior-M's appearance in the talk show Behind Story (Chinese: 背後的故事) also increased ratings. The show had the highest ratings during their time slot, with a strong 4.05%.^[22] Separated into several weekly episodes, the group's appearance in their first episode on the challenging game show Bravely Going Forward (Chinese: 勇往直前) in early August gave the show the highest ratings during that time slot as well.^[23] In August 2008, Han was casted in the idol television drama Stage of Youth, a mini-drama dedicated to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Han portrayed Xia Lei, a youth who aspires to be a famous dancer. Other members of Super Junior-M gave cameo appearances in the final episode.^[24]

In September 2009, Super Junior-M released their album album, the EP Super Girl. The album garnered them a nomination for Best Vocal Group at the 21st Golden Melody Awards.^[25] The EP's title single "Super Girl" is Super Junior-M's most critically successful song to date, winning numerous accolades for its composition and performances.

2010–present: Lawsuit and lineup changes[link]

In December 2009, Han filed for contract termination from SM Entertainment, claiming that the provisions of his contract were unlawful, harsh, and against his rights.^[26] Super Junior-M immediately canceled all of their future activities and performances in China and Taiwan. They returned to Korea to begin preparing for Super Junior's fourth studio album. Han, however, stayed in China and signed under a new management, releasing his debut solo album Geng Xin in July 2010.^[27] Although Super Junior-M remained largely inactive for most of 2010, they won several accolades for their song "Super Girl" at China's 2010 MusicRadio TOP Awards, including Most Popular Group, Golden Melody Award (Top 15), and Best Composition.

In December 2010, the Seoul Central District Court ruled in favor of Han. However, SM Entertainment announced that they will file an immediate appeal to reverse the decision. In September 2011, Han and SM Entertainment officially came to a mutual agreement regarding Han's contract, closing the case. Although Han will not continue his exclusive contract with SM Entertainment,^[28] the agency has yet to release an official statement regarding his status in Super Junior and Super Junior-M.

In February 2011, Super Junior-M resumed their activities with two new members from the main group, Eunhyuk and Sungmin, with the release of EP Perfection. A track in the album, "Love Is Sweet" is written by Jay Chou with lyrics penned by Chou's lyricist, Vincent Fang. Perfection was first released in Taiwan on February 25, followed by a Korean release two days later in South Korea. Hong Kong, Singapore, and selected provinces of China released the album on March 4. It debuted at number 2 on Taiwan's G-music chart,^[29] and stayed on the chart for four weeks.^[30] The repackaged version of the album was released on April 29, debuted at number 2, and stayed on the chart for 10 weeks.^[30] In March 2011, Siwon and Donghae were cast as the main leads in the Taiwanese idol television drama Skip Beat!, a live-action adaptation of the manga of the same name. The drama premiered on December 18, 2011 on Formosa TV. In this drama, Super Junior-M performed the drama's opening theme "S.O.L.O.", and Donghae wrote and performed the ending theme, "That's Love", featuring Henry.

Super Junior-M stayed in Taiwan for over two months to promote Perfection. The album won them several awards at the 2010 HK Asian-Pop Music Festival, including Best Song Performance and Best Stage Performance. They won Most Popular Group at the 1st Annual Global Chinese Golden Chart, and Best Group at the 2011 Singapore HIT Awards.

In 2012, Zhou Mi was casted in the drama When Love Walked In. Henry is currently filming an unnamed movie that is to be released in 2013.

Members[link]

Endorsements[link]

Super Junior-M and Taiwanese singer Show Luo replaced Hong Kong entertainers, Nicholas Tse and Twins, for the 2008 summer season endorsement spots of Semir, a Chinese clothing brand.^[31] They were acclaimed to be sunny, young, and passionate; thus their image was suitable to endorse the brand.^[32] They were also the 2009 endorsers of Pepsi and OPPO Mobile.

Discography[link]

Award and nominations[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Super Junior-M Official Korean website

Sir Paul McCartney MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM
McCartney performing in England, 2010
Background information
Birth name	James Paul McCartney
Born	(1942-06-18) 18 June 1942 (age 70) Liverpool, England, UK
Genres	Rock, pop, classical, electronica
Occupations	Musician, composer, music producer, film producer, businessman
Instruments	Vocals, bass guitar, guitar, keyboards, drums, ukulele, mandolin, recorder
Years active	1957–present
Labels	Hear, Apple, Parlophone, Capitol, Columbia, Concord, EMI, One Little Indian, Vee-Jay
Associated acts	The Quarrymen, The Beatles, Wings, The Fireman, Linda McCartney, Denny Laine
Website	www.paulmccartney.com
Notable instruments
Höfner 500/1 Rickenbacker 4001S Epiphone Texan Gibson Les Paul Epiphone Casino Martin D-28

Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM (born 18 June 1942) is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of the Beatles (1960–1970) and Wings (1971–1981), he has been described by Guinness World Records as "The Most Successful Composer and Recording Artist of All Time", with 60 gold discs and sales of over 100 million albums and 100 million singles.^[1] With John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, he gained worldwide fame as a member of the Beatles, and with Lennon formed one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of the 20th century. After leaving the Beatles, he began a solo career and later formed the band Wings with his first wife, Linda Eastman, and singer-songwriter Denny Laine.

According to the BBC, his Beatles song "Yesterday" has been covered by over 2,200 artists—more than any other song. Wings' 1977 release, "Mull of Kintyre", became one of the best-selling singles ever in the UK, and he is "the most successful songwriter" in UK chart history, according to Guinness.^[2] As a songwriter or co-writer, he is included on thirty-one number one titles on the Billboard Hot 100, and as of 2012 he has sold over 15.5 million RIAA certified units in the United States.

He has composed film scores, classical and electronic music, and released a large catalogue of songs as a solo artist. He has taken part in projects to help international charities, and has been an advocate for animal rights, vegetarianism, and music education; he has been active in campaigns against landmines and seal hunting, and supported efforts such as Make Poverty History. His company MPL Communications owns the copyrights to more than 25,000 songs, including those written by Buddy Holly, as well as the publishing rights to the musicals Guys and Dolls, A Chorus Line, and Grease. He is one of the UK's wealthiest people, with an estimated fortune of £475 million in 2010. He has been married three times and is the father of five children.

Childhood[link]

McCartney was born in Walton Hospital in Liverpool England, where his mother, Mary (née Mohin), had twelve years earlier, "satisfied her state registry requirements" for nursing, writes Beatles biographer Bob Spitz.^[3] His father James, or "Jim" McCartney, was absent at his son's birth due to his work as a volunteer fire fighter during World War II.^[3] McCartney has one brother, Michael, born 7 January 1944, and though they were baptised in their mother's Roman Catholic faith, "religion did not play a part in their upbringing" according to biographer Barry Miles, as McCartney's father was a Protestant turned agnostic.^[4]

In 1947 he began attending Stockton Wood Road Primary School, by 1952 Joseph Williams Junior School,^[5] where he passed the 11-plus exam in 1953 with three others out of ninety examinees, thus gaining admission to the Liverpool Institute.^[6] However, when he took his A-level exams at age nineteen, he passed only one subject – Art.^[7] In 1954, while taking the bus from his home in the suburb of Speke to the Institute, he met George Harrison,^[8] who had also passed the exam, meaning they could both go to a grammar school rather than a secondary modern school, which the majority of pupils attended until they were eligible to work.^[9]

20 Forthlin Road now attracts large numbers of tourists.

In 1955 the McCartneys moved to 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton, where they lived through 1964.^[10] Paul was the first member of his family to own a car and his mother rode a bicycle to houses where she worked as a midwife; he describes an early memory of her leaving at "about three in the morning" the "streets ... thick with snow".^[11] On 31 October 1956, when he was fourteen, his mother died of an embolism after a mastectomy operation to stop the spread of her breast cancer.^[12] The loss of his mother at fourteen was later a point of relation with John Lennon, whose mother Julia also died when he was young, after being struck by a car when he was seventeen.^[13]

McCartney's father was a trumpet player and pianist who had led Jim Mac's Jazz Band in the 1920s and encouraged his son to be musical. He kept an upright piano in the front room that he purchased from Epstein's North End Music Stores.^[14] His father, Joe McCartney, played an E-flat tuba.^[15] Jim McCartney used to point out the bass parts in songs on the radio, and often took his son to local brass band concerts.^[16] Jim gave his son a nickel-plated trumpet for his fourteenth birthday,^[17] but when rock and roll became popular on Radio Luxembourg,^[18] Paul traded it for a £15 Framus Zenith (model 17) acoustic guitar, realising it would be too difficult to sing, "with a trumpet stuck in your mouth."^[17] Being left-handed, he found right-handed guitars difficult to play, but when he saw a poster advertising a Slim Whitman concert, he realised that Whitman played left-handed with his right-handed guitar strung the opposite way. He then restrung his guitar and after some adjustments, found it easier to play.^[17] McCartney wrote his first song ("I Lost My Little Girl") on the Zenith, and an early tune which became, "When I'm Sixty-Four", on the piano, for which, despite his father's advice, he took only a couple of lessons for, preferring instead he says, to learn "by ear."^[14] He was heavily influenced by American rhythm and blues music, and has stated that Little Richard was his idol when he was in school. The first song he ever sang on a stage in public was "Long Tall Sally", at a Butlins holiday camp talent competition.^[19]

Musical career[link]

1957–1960: The Quarrymen[link]

McCartney met Lennon and the Quarrymen at the St. Peter's Church Hall fête in Woolton on 6 July 1957, when he was fifteen years old.^[20] He joined the group soon after, and formed a close working relationship with Lennon. Harrison joined in 1958 as lead guitarist, followed in 1960 by Lennon's art school friend, Stuart Sutcliffe on bass.^[21] By May 1960, they had tried several new names, including "Johnny and the Moondogs" and "the Silver Beetles", playing a tour of Scotland under that name with Johnny Gentle. They changed the name of the group to "the Beatles" in mid-August 1960 and recruited Pete Best on drums prior to the first of what would be five engagements in Hamburg, Germany.^[22]

1960–1970: The Beatles[link]

McCartney (left) in 1964 with Beatles bandmates Harrison and Lennon

From August 1960 the Beatles were booked by Allan Williams to perform in Hamburg, and during their extended stays there over the next two years, they performed as the resident group at two of Bruno Koschmider's clubs, the Indra, then the Kaiserkeller, and upon returns to Liverpool, at the Cavern Club.^[23] In 1961 Sutcliffe left the band, and McCartney reluctantly became their bass player.^[24] The Beatles recorded their first published music in Hamburg, performing as the backing band for Tony Sheridan on the single "My Bonnie".^[25] The recording would later bring them to the attention of a key figure in their subsequent development and commercial success, Brian Epstein, who became their manager in January 1962.^[26] Epstein eventually negotiated a record contract for the group with Parlophone in May of that year.^[27] After replacing Best with Ringo Starr in August, they became increasingly popular in the UK during 1963 and in the US in 1964, in a frenzied adolation that became known as "Beatlemania",^[28] during which McCartney was dubbed, "the cute Beatle", according to Miles.^[29] In 1965 they were each appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE).^[30]

After the recording of the Beatles hit "Yesterday" (1965), McCartney contacted the BBC Radiophonic Workshop in Maida Vale London, to ask if they would record an electronic version of the song, but he never followed up.^[31] When visiting artist John Dunbar's flat in London, he would bring along tapes he had compiled at then girlfriend Jane Asher's home,^[32] mixes of various songs, musical pieces and comments made by McCartney that Dick James made into a demo for him.^[33] Heavily influenced by American avant-garde musician John Cage, he made tape loops by recording voices, guitars, and bongos on a Brenell tape recorder, and splicing the various loops together. He reversed the tapes, sped them up, and slowed them down to create the effects he wanted, some of which were later used on Beatles' recordings, such as "Tomorrow Never Knows" (1966). He referred to the tapes as "electronic symphonies".^[34] In 1966 he rented a ground floor and basement flat from Starr at 34 Montagu Square, to be used as a small studio for spoken-word recordings by poets, writers (including William S. Burroughs) and avant-garde musicians.^[35] The Beatles' Apple Records then launched a sub-label, Zapple with Miles as its manager, ostensibly to release recordings of a similar aesthetic, although few releases would ultimately come of the endeavour as Apple and the Beatles slid into business and personal difficulties.^[35] After touring almost non-stop for a period of nearly four years, and giving more than 1,400 live performances internationally,^[36] the group gave their final commercial concert at the end of their 1966 US tour.^[37]

They continued to work in the recording studio and before their break-up in 1970 produced what some critics consider to be their finest material, including the innovative and widely influential albums Revolver (1966), Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), The Beatles (1968) and Abbey Road (1969).^[38] Between 1963 and 1970 the group released twenty-two UK singles and twelve LPs, of which seventeen of the singles and eleven of the LPs became number ones.^[39] The band topped the US Billboard Hot 100 twenty times, and recorded fourteen number one albums.^[40] Lennon and McCartney became one of the most celebrated songwriting partnerships of the 20th century.^[41] McCartney's contributions to the band's hit song's include: "Can't Buy Me Love" (1964), "Yesterday" (1965), Paperback Writer" and "Eleanor Rigby" (1966), "Hello, Goodbye" (1967), "Hey Jude" (1968), "Get Back (1969)", "Let It Be" and "The Long and Winding Road" (1970).^[42]

In March 1969 he married Linda Eastman, whom he first met in May 1967. The couple had their first child together, Mary, named after Paul's late mother, in August 1969.^[43] In October 1969 a rumour surfaced that McCartney had died in a car crash, but it was quickly proven false when a November Life magazine cover featured him and his family with the caption, "Paul is Still With Us."^[44]

1970–1981: Wings[link]

McCartney during a Wings concert, 1976

After the Beatles break-up in 1970 McCartney continued his musical career, releasing his first solo album, McCartney, in 1970, which contained the stand-out track "Maybe I'm Amazed", written for Linda.^[45] With the exception of some vocal contributions from her, it is a "one-man album with Paul playing all the instruments" himself, writes Beatles biographer Bill Harry.^[46] In 1971 Paul collaborated with Linda on a second album, Ram, a UK number one which included the co-written US number one hit song, "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey".^[47] Later that year, the pair were joined by ex-Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine and drummer Denny Seiwell to form the group Wings, and release their first album together, Wild Life. In September 1971 the McCartney family added a second child, Stella, named in honour of Linda's grandmothers.^[48]

In 1973 McCartney wrote Wings' first US number one, "My Love", included on their second LP, Red Rose Speedway, and his collaboration with Linda and former Beatles' producer George Martin resulted in the James Bond theme song and Wings hit, "Live and Let Die", which was nominated for an Oscar, and earned Martin a Grammy for his orchestral arrangement.^[49] In 1974 Paul wrote a second US number one for Wings, "Band on the Run"; the acclaimed album of the same name, Wings' third, was a massive success that became their first platinum LP.^[50] They followed with the chart topping LPs, Venus and Mars (1975) and Wings at the Speed of Sound (1976).^[51] In September 1977 a third child was born to the McCartneys, a son they named James,^[52] and in November, the Wings song "Mull of Kintyre" was fast becoming "the best-selling single in UK history", writes Beatles biographer Peter Doggett.^[53] Achieving double the sales of the previous record holder, "She Loves You", the track would go on to sell 2.5 million copies, and hold the UK sales record until the 1984 charity single, "Do They Know It's Christmas?".^[54] In 1977 he released Thrillington, an orchestral arrangement of Ram, under the pseudonym Percy "Thrills" Thrillington^[55], with a cover designed by Hipgnosis.^[56]

While London Town (1978) and Back to the Egg (1979) passed with little critical or commercial notice,^[57] the latter involved McCartney's collaboration with a rock supergroup dubbed, "the Rockestra", though credited to Wings, that included Pete Townshend, David Gilmour, Gary Brooker, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham.^[58] Active through 1981, Wings produced seven studio albums, five of which topped the US charts,^[59] as well as their live triple LP, Wings over America,^[60] one of few live albums ever to achieve the top spot in America.^[61] They also recorded six US number one singles including, "Listen to What the Man Said", "Silly Love Songs, "With a Little Luck", and "Coming Up".^[62]

1982–1989[link]

In 1980 he released his second solo LP, the self-produced McCartney II, and as with his first, he composed all the music and performed the instrumentation himself. The album contained the hit songs "Coming Up", "Waterfalls", and "Temporary Secretary".^[63] In 1982 he collaborated with Stevie Wonder on the Martin produced number one hit, "Ebony and Ivory", included on McCartney's Tug of War LP, and with Michael Jackson on "The Girl Is Mine" from Thriller.^[64] The following year he worked with Jackson on the US number one, "Say Say Say", and he earned a UK number one with the title track of his LP release that year, "Pipes of Peace".^[65]

In 1984 he wrote, produced, and starred in the feature film Give My Regards to Broad Street, a musical which "was savagely panned by the critics" according to Harry; and described by Variety as: "Characterless, bloodless, and pointless."^[66] Roger Ebert awarded the film a single star and wrote, "you can safely skip the movie and proceed directly to the sound track",^[67] which fared much better, reaching number one in the UK, and producing the hit single, "No More Lonely Nights", featuring Gilmour on lead guitar.^[68]

He collaborated with Eric Stewart on Press to Play (1986), who co-wrote more than half the songs on the LP, and in 1988, McCartney released Снова в СССР, a Russia-only title that contained eighteen covers which he recorded over the course of two days.^[69] In 1989 he joined forces with fellow Merseysiders including Gerry Marsden of Gerry and the Pacemakers and Holly Johnson of Frankie Goes to Hollywood to record a new version of "Ferry Cross the Mersey", originally recorded twenty-five years earlier by Gerry and the Pacemakers, to generate money for the appeal fund of the Hillsborough disaster, which occurred in April that year when ninety-five Liverpool F.C. fans died as a result of their injuries. The recording was a number one hit in the UK.^[70] In 1989 he released Flowers in the Dirt, a collaborative effort with Elvis Costello which included musical contributions from Gilmour and Nicky Hopkins.^[71]

1990–2000[link]

In 1990 he released the triple LP, Tripping the Live Fantastic, which contained select performances from The Paul McCartney World Tour, his first in over a decade.^[72] The following year he ventured into orchestral music, when the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society commissioned a musical piece by him to celebrate its sesquicentennial. He collaborated with Carl Davis to release Liverpool Oratorio; involving opera singers Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Sally Burgess, Jerry Hadley and Willard White, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the choir of Liverpool Cathedral.^[73] The Guardian was critical of the work stating that the music is, "afraid of anything approaching a fast tempo", and the piece has "little awareness of the need for recurrent ideas that will bind the work into a whole".^[74] In response, McCartney wrote a defensive letter to the paper, which they published, where he states: "Happily, history shows that many good pieces of music were not liked by the critics of the time so I am content to ... let people judge for themselves the merits of the work."^[74]

During the 1990s he twice collaborated with Youth of Killing Joke under the alias the Fireman, and released the electronica albums: Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest (1993) and Rushes (1998).^[75] Released in 1993, the rock album Off the Ground was supported by "The New World Tour", which produced the album, Paul Is Live later that year.^[76] Starting in 1994 he took a four-year hiatus from his solo career to work on Apple's the Beatles Anthology project with Harrison, Starr and Martin. He recorded a radio series called "Oobu Joobu" in 1995, for the American network Westwood One, which he described as being "wide-screen radio".^[77] Also in 1995 Prince Charles presented him with an Honorary Fellowship of The Royal College of Music, "kind of amazing for somebody who doesn't read a note of music", commented McCartney,^[78] and in December 1996 he was informed that he was to be named in the 1997 New Year Honours and knighted for services to music; his ceremony took place in March 1997.^[79]

In 1997 he released the rock album Flaming Pie, and the classical work Standing Stone; in 1998 Rushes, his second electronica album as the Fireman.^[80] Run Devil Run (1999), featuring Ian Paice and Gilmour, was primarily an album of covers with three McCartney originals, something he said he had "wanted to do for years", having been previously encouraged to do so by Linda, who had died in April 1998 after losing a seventeen-month battle with cancer.^[81] He contributed a song, "Nova", to a tribute album of choral music dedicated to her called, A Garland for Linda (2000).^[82] He continued his experimentation with orchestral music on Working Classical (1999), and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in March of the same year.^[83] In May 2000 he was awarded a Fellowship by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, and in August he released the electronica album, Liverpool Sound Collage with Super Furry Animals and Youth, utilising the sound collage and musique concrète techniques that fascinated him in the mid-1960s.^[84]

2001–present[link]

In 2001 McCartney released a live album of acoustic-only performances called, Unplugged (The Official Bootleg).^[85] Having witnessed the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks from the JFK airport tarmac, he was inspired to take a lead role in organising The Concert for New York City, and his studio album release that year Driving Rain included the song "Freedom", written for the event as a response to the tragedy.^[86] He toured in support of Driving Rain and in 2002 released the double live album Back in the U.S. (released internationally in 2003 as Back in the World.^[87] In November 2002, on the first anniversary of Harrison's death, McCartney performed at the Concert for George.^[88] He has also participated in the National Football League's Super Bowl, performing "Freedom" in the pre-game show for Super Bowl XXXVI^[89] and headlining the halftime show at Super Bowl XXXIX.^[90]

McCartney and Ringo Starr promoting The Beatles: Rock Band in 2009.

In 2005 he released the rock album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, and the electronica offering, Twin Freaks; a collaborative project with bootleg producer and remixer Freelance Hellraiser, consisting of remixed versions of songs from throughout his solo career.^[91] In 2006 he released the classical work Ecce Cor Meum; the rock album Memory Almost Full followed in 2007, and in 2008, his third Fireman release, Electric Arguments. In 2008 he performed at a concert in Liverpool to celebrate the city's year as European Capital of Culture.^[92] In 2009, more than forty-five years after the Beatles first appeared on American television during The Ed Sullivan Show, he returned to the same New York theatre to perform on Late Show with David Letterman.^[93] In 2010 he was honoured by Barack Obama with the Gershwin Prize for his contributions to popular music in a live show for the White House with performances by Stevie Wonder, Lang Lang and others.^[94] He returned to the White House later that year as a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors.

McCartney's enduring fame has made him a popular choice to open new venues. In 2009 he played three sold out concerts at the newly built Citi Field in Queens, New York, constructed to replace Shea Stadium, and he released a double live album culled from those performances called, Good Evening New York City later that year.^[95] In 2010 he opened the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,^[96] and in 2011 he performed the first concerts at the new Yankee Stadium, and released the classical work, "Ocean's Kingdom". He has been touring since 2001 with guitarists Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray, Paul "Wix" Wickens on keyboards and drummer Abe Laboriel, Jr. An upcoming tribute album is expected in June 2012, to coincide with his 70th birthday, featuring recordings of his songs by Kiss, Garth Brooks, Billy Joel, Brian Wilson, Willie Nelson, Steve Miller, B.B. King and others.^[97] Kisses on the Bottom, a collection of standards, was released in February 2012,^[98] that same month he was honoured as MusiCares Person of the Year, two days prior to his performance at the 54th Grammy Awards.^[99]

Musicianship[link]

As a musician, McCartney was largely self-taught, musicologist Ian MacDonald describes his approach as, "by nature drawn to music's formal aspects yet wholly untutoured ... [He] produced technically 'finished' work almost entirely by instinct, his harmonic judgement based mainly on perfect pitch and an acute pair of ears."^[100]

Bass guitar

He has been acknowledged by a diverse group of bass players including, Sting, long-time Dr. Dre bassist Mike Elizondo, and Colin Moulding of XTC.^[101] McCartney is known to play using a plectrum, or pick almost exclusively, but he occasionally plays fingerstyle as well.^[102] During his early years with the Beatles he primarily used a Höfner 500/1 bass live and when recording, though in 1965 he began using a Rickenbacker 4001s for recording, while consistently using Vox amplifiers.^[103] In recent years he has used Mesa Boogie bass amplifiers live and while recording. McCartney confirms the influence of Motown on his playing, in particular that of James Jamerson, whom he described as a "hero", and included with Brian Wilson as his "two biggest influences".^[104]

Whereas MacDonald identifies "She's a Woman" as the point in time which McCartney's bass playing began to evolve dramatically,^[106] Beatles biographer Chris Ingham singles out Rubber Soul as the time when his bass playing, "began to come into its own", particularly on "The Word".^[105] Authors Tony Bacon and Gareth Morgan agree, calling his "groove" on the track, "a high point in pop bass playing" and "the first proof on a recording of his serious technical ability on the instrument."^[107] MacDonald infers the influence of James Brown's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", and Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour", American soul tracks from which McCartney absorbed elements and drew inspiration as he "delivers his most spontaneous bass-part to date". He also played piano on the recording.^[108]

Bacon and Morgan describe his bassline for the Beatles' song "Rain" as "an astonishing piece of playing ... [McCartney] thinking in terms of both rhythm and 'lead bass' ... [choosing] the area of the neck ... he correctly perceives will give him clarity for melody without rendering his sound too thin for groove."^[109] MacDonald calls it the Beatles "finest B-side", its "clangorously saturated texture resona[ting] around McCartney's bass".^[110] He describes the bassline as "so inventive that it threatens to overwhelm the track", and he draws attention to the influence of Indian classical music in "exotic melismas in the bass part".^[110]

Acoustic guitar

Examples of his acoustic guitar playing on Beatles tracks include: "Yesterday", "I'm Looking Through You", "Michelle", "Blackbird", "I Will", "Mother Nature's Son" and "Rocky Raccoon".^[111] He played an Epiphone Texan on many, if not most of his acoustic recordings, but he has also used a Martin D-28.^[112]

Electric guitar

He played lead electric guitar on several Beatles' recordings, including what MacDonald describes as a "fiercely angular slide guitar solo" on "Drive My Car",^[113] which he played on an Epiphone Casino, about which McCartney said: "If I had to pick one electric guitar it would be this."^[114] He also contributed what MacDonald calls "a startling guitar solo" on the Harrison composition, "Taxman", and the "shrieking" guitar on "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Helter Skelter", as well as "a coruscating pseudo-Indian" solo on "Good Morning Good Morning".^[115] In recent years he has primarily used a Gibson Les Paul for electric work, particularly while performing live.

Piano

He played a piano on many Beatles' songs including, "Every Little Thing", "For No One", "A Day in the Life", "Hello, Goodbye", "Hey Jude", "Lady Madonna", "Let It Be" and "The Long and Winding Road".^[116]

Creative outlets[link]

During the 1960s, McCartney delved into the visual arts, becoming a close friend of leading art dealers and gallery owners, explored experimental film, and regularly attended movie, theatrical and classical music performances. His first contact with the London avant-garde scene was through artist John Dunbar, who introduced him to the art dealer Robert Fraser, who in turn introduced McCartney to an array of writers and artists.^[117] He later became involved in the renovation and publicising of the Indica Gallery in Mason's Yard, London — where Lennon first met Yoko Ono.^[118] The Indica Gallery brought McCartney into contact with Miles, whose underground newspaper, the International Times, McCartney helped to start.^[119] Miles would become de facto manager of Apple's short-lived Zapple Records label,^[120] and he wrote McCartney's official biography, Many Years From Now (1997).^[121]

While living at then girlfriend Jane Asher's parent's house, he took piano lessons arranged by Jane's mother, provided by a teacher from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, a school Beatles' producer Martin had previously attended.^[122] McCartney studied composers such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Luciano Berio.^[123] He later wrote and released several pieces of modern classical music and ambient electronica, as well as writing poetry and painting. He is lead patron of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, an arts school in the building formerly occupied by the Liverpool Institute for Boys. The 1837 building, which he attended during his schooldays, had become derelict by the mid-1980s, however, on 7 June 1996, Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the redeveloped building.^[124]

Painting

In 1966 he met art gallery-owner Robert Fraser, whose flat was visited by many well-known artists, some of which McCartney met, including; Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Peter Blake, and Richard Hamilton, and it was at Fraser's flat where McCartney first learned about art appreciation.^[125] He later started buying paintings by Magritte, using his painting of an apple for the Apple Records logo, and McCartney now owns one of Magritte's easels and a pair of his spectacles.^[126]

McCartney's love of painting surfaced after watching artist Willem de Kooning paint, in Kooning's Long Island studio.^[127] He took up painting in 1983,^[128] and in 1999, he exhibited his paintings (featuring McCartney's portraits of John Lennon, Andy Warhol, and David Bowie) for the first time in Siegen, Germany, and included photographs by Linda. He chose the gallery because Wolfgang Suttner (local events organiser) was genuinely interested in his art, and the positive reaction led to McCartney showing his work in UK galleries.^[129] The first UK exhibition of his work was opened in Bristol, England with more than 50 paintings on display. McCartney had previously believed that "only people that had been to art school were allowed to paint" – as Lennon had.^[129]

In October 2000, Ono and McCartney presented art exhibitions in New York and London. McCartney said, "I've been offered an exhibition of my paintings at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool where John and I used to spend many a pleasant afternoon. So I'm really excited about it. I didn't tell anybody I painted for 15 years but now I'm out of the closet."^[130] McCartney designed a series of six postage stamps issued by the Isle of Man Post in 2002, and according to BBC News, he is the first major rock star in the world to do so.^[131]

Writing and poetry

When he was young, his mother read him poems and encouraged him to read books, and his father was interested in crosswords and invited he and his brother Michael to solve them with him, so as to increase their "word power", says McCartney.^[132] He was later inspired – in his school years – by Alan Durband, an English literature teacher at the Liverpool Institute.^[133] Durband was a co-founder and fund-raiser at the Everyman Theatre in Liverpool, where Willy Russell also worked, and introduced McCartney to Geoffrey Chaucer's works.^[134]

In 2001 he published 'Blackbird Singing', a volume of poems and lyrics to his songs for which he gave readings in Liverpool and New York City.^[135] In the foreword of the book, he explains: "When I was a teenager ... I had an overwhelming desire to have a poem published in the school magazine. I wrote something deep and meaningful——which was promptly rejected——and I suppose I have been trying to get my own back ever since."^[136] Years later, he wrote a poem about the death of his childhood friend, Ivan Vaughan.^[136] In 2005 he collaborated with author Philip Ardagh and animator Geoff Dunbar to write, High in the Clouds: An Urban Furry Tail, which The Guardian labelled an "anti-capitalist children's book".^[137]

Film

He was interested in animated films as a child, and in 1981 he asked Geoff Dunbar to direct a short animated film called Rupert and the Frog Song. McCartney was the writer and producer and he also added some of the character voices.^[138] In 1992 he worked with Dunbar on an animated film about the work of French artist Honoré Daumier, which won both of them a BAFTA award.^[139] In 2004 they worked together on the animated short film, Tropic Island Hum. In 1995 he made a guest appearance in the "Lisa the Vegetarian" episode of The Simpsons, and directed a short documentary about the Grateful Dead.^[140]

In May 2000 he released Wingspan: An Intimate Portrait, a retrospective documentary that features behind-the-scenes film and photographs that he and Linda took of their family and bands.^[141] Interspersed throughout the eighty-eight minute film is an interview by Mary McCartney with her father. Mary was the baby photographed inside McCartney's jacket on the back cover of his first solo album, McCartney, and was one of the producers of the documentary.^[142]

Lifestyle[link]

Drugs

McCartney live in Dublin, Ireland, 2010

McCartney's introduction to drugs started in Hamburg, Germany, when the Beatles would play for long hours and were often using Preludin to maintain energy, sometimes supplied by friend Astrid Kirchherr. According to McCartney, he would usually take only one, but Lennon would often take four or five by the end of a night.^[143] He recalls getting "very high" and "giggling uncontrollably" when the Beatles were introduced to marijuana by Bob Dylan in a New York hotel room in 1964.^[144] His use of which soon after became habitual,^[145] and according to Miles, any future Beatles' lyrics containing the words "high", or "grass" were written specifically as a reference to cannabis, as was the phrase "another kind of mind" in "Got to Get You into My Life".^[146] During the filming of Help!, he claims he occasionally smoked a joint in the car on the way to the studio during filming, which often made him forget his lines.^[147] Director Dick Lester says that he overheard "two beautiful women" trying to cajole McCartney into using heroin, but he refused.^[147] He was introduced to cocaine by art dealer Robert Fraser, and it was readily available during the recording of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.^[148] McCartney admits that he used the drug for about a year but stopped because of his dislike of the unpleasant melancholy he felt after the drug wore off.^[149]

While initially reluctant to try LSD, he eventually did so in the fall of 1966 with friend Tara Browne.^[150] He took his second "acid trip" with Lennon on 21 March 1967 after a Sgt. Pepper studio session.^[151] He later became the first Beatle to discuss the drug publicly, declaring in a magazine interview that "it opened my eyes" and "made me a better, more honest, more tolerant member of society."^[152] His attitude about cannabis was made public in 1967, when he added his name to a 24 July advertisement in The Times which called for its legalisation, the release of all prisoners imprisoned because of possession, and research into marijuana's medical uses. The advertisement was produced by a group called Soma and was signed by sixty-five people, including Members of Parliament, the Beatles, Epstein, RD Laing, Francis Crick, and Graham Greene.^[153]

Though never arrested by Norman Pilcher's Drug Squad, as Lennon, Harrison, and Mick Jagger had been,^[154] in 1972 Swedish police fined him for cannabis possession, and soon after Scottish police found plants growing on his farm.^[155] He was again arrested for marijuana possession in 1975, and in January 1980, when Wings flew to Tokyo for an eleven concert tour of Japan, as McCartney was going through customs, officials found approximately 8 ounces (218.3 g) of cannabis in his luggage, and he was arrested and taken to a local jail while the Japanese government decided what to do. After ten days, he was released without charge and deported.^[156] He was again arrested for possession of marijuana in 1984 and in 1997, he spoke out in support of decriminalisation, stating "People are smoking pot anyway and to make them criminals is wrong."^[157]

Activism

Paul and Linda became outspoken animal rights activists after their vegetarianism was realised when Paul happened to notice through a window, lambs in a field, as they ate a meal of lamb.^[158] He has also credited the 1942 Disney film Bambi, in which the young deer's mother is shot by a hunter, as the original inspiration for him to take an interest in animal rights.^[159] In his first interview after Linda's death, he promised to continue working for animal rights.^[160] In 1999 he spent £3,000,000 to ensure Linda McCartney Foods remained free of genetically engineered ingredients.^[161]

McCartney wearing a shirt that reads "no more land mines"

Following his marriage to Mills, he joined her in a campaign against landmines, becoming patrons of Adopt-A-Minefield.^[162] In 2003 he played a personal concert for the wife of a wealthy banker and donated his one million dollar fee to the charity.^[163] He also wore an anti-landmines t-shirt during the Back in the World tour.^[164] In 2006 the McCartneys travelled to Prince Edward Island to bring international attention to the seal hunt, this would be their final public appearance together. Their arrival sparked attention in Newfoundland and Labrador where the hunt is of economic significance.^[165] The couple also debated with Newfoundland's Premier Danny Williams on the CNN show Larry King Live. They further stated that the fishermen should quit hunting seals and begin a seal watching business.^[166] McCartney has also criticised China's fur trade^[167] and supports the Make Poverty History campaign.^[168]

He has been involved with several charity recordings and performances, such as the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea, Ferry Aid, Band Aid, Live Aid, and the recording of "Ferry Cross the Mersey" (1989) following the Hillsborough disaster.^[169] In 2004 he donated a song to an album to aid the "US Campaign for Burma", in support of Burmese Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi,^[170] and in 2008 he donated a song to Aid Still Required's CD to assist with the restoration of the devastation done to Southeast Asia from the 2004 Tsunami.^[171]

In 2009, he wrote to the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, and asked him why he wasn't a vegetarian, McCartney explains: "He wrote back very kindly, saying, my doctors tell me that I must eat meat. And I wrote back again, saying, you know, I don't think that's right. So we had a little correspondence [and] I think now he's vegetarian most of the time. I think he's now being told ... that he can get his protein somewhere else. It's a little old-fashioned to think that he can only get it from meat [and] It just doesn't seem right – the Dalai Lama, on the one hand, saying, 'Hey guys, don't harm sentient beings ... Oh, and by the way, I'm having a steak.'"^[172]

Football

He attended the 1968 FA Cup Final played by West Bromwich Albion against the Everton Football Club, and after the match, shared cigarettes and whisky with other fans.^[173] Though he has publicly professed support for Everton,^[174] he has also shown support for Liverpool F.C., as in 1968 when he was photographed wearing their rosette.^[175] The ex-Liverpool footballer, Albert Stubbins, was shown on the Sgt. Pepper cover,^[176] and the video for his song "Pipes of Peace" (1983) recreated the 1915 Christmas football game played between German and British troops during World War I.^[177] At the end of "Coming Up (Live at Glasgow)" the crowd chants "Paul McCartney!" until McCartney takes over and changes it to "Kenny Dalglish!", referring to then Liverpool and Scotland striker. At the same concert, Gordon Smith, former football player for the Rangers and Brighton & Hove Albion, met the McCartneys, and later accepted an invitation to visit their home in East Sussex in 1980. Smith later said that McCartney was "thrilled I knew Kenny Dalglish"^[178]

He attended the 1986 FA Cup Final between Liverpool and Everton,^[173] and performed at the Liverpool F.C. Anfield stadium in 2008, as a part of Liverpool's European Capital of Culture year. Dave Grohl from the Foo Fighters sang with McCartney on "Band on the Run", and played drums on "Back in the U.S.S.R.".^[179] Ono and Olivia Harrison attended the concert, along with Ken Dodd, and the former Liverpool F.C. football manager Rafael Benítez.^[180] In 2008 he ended speculation about his allegiance when he said: "Here's the deal: my father was born in Everton, my family are officially Evertonians, so if it comes down to a derby match or an FA Cup final between the two, I would have to support Everton. But after a concert at Wembley Arena I got a bit of a friendship with Kenny Dalglish, who had been to the gig and I thought 'You know what? I am just going to support them both because it's all Liverpool."^[181]

Meditation

On 24 August 1967, McCartney met the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at the London Hilton, and later went to Bangor, in North Wales, to attend a weekend 'initiation' conference, at which time he and the other Beatles learned Transcendental Meditation (TM).^[182] "The whole meditation experience was very good and I still use the mantra ... I find it soothing and I can imagine that the more you were to get into it, the more interesting it would get."^[183] The time McCartney later spent in India at the Maharishi's ashram was highly productive, as nearly all of the songs that would later be recorded for The White Album and Abbey Road were composed there.^[184] Although he was told never to repeat the mantra to anyone else, he admitted he told Linda, and said he meditated a lot while he was in jail in Japan.^[185] In 2009 McCartney and Starr headlined a benefit concert at Radio City Music Hall, raising three million dollars for the David Lynch Foundation to fund instruction in Transcendental Meditation for at-risk youth.^[186]

Personal relationships[link]

Girlfriends[link]

Dot Rhone

McCartney's first serious girlfriend in Liverpool was Dot Rhone, whom he met at the Casbah club in 1959.^[187] According to Spitz, Rhone feels McCartney had a compulsion to control situations, chosing clothes and make-up for Rhone, encouraging her to grow her hair out like Brigitte Bardot's,^[188] and at least once insisting she have it re-styled, to disappointing effect.^[189] When he first went to Hamburg with the Beatles, he wrote to Rhone regularly, and she accompanied Cynthia Lennon to Hamburg when they played there again in 1962.^[190] The couple had a two-and-a-half-year relationship, and were due to marry until Rhone's miscarriage, when according to Spitz, McCartney now "free of obligation", ended the engagement.^[191]

Jane Asher

He first met the British actress Jane Asher on 18 April 1963, when a photographer asked them to pose together at a Beatles performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London.^[192] The two began a relationship and he took up residence with Asher at her parents' house at 57 Wimpole Street London, where he lived for nearly three years before the couple moved to McCartney's own house in St. John's Wood.^[193] He wrote several songs while at the Ashers', including "Yesterday" and several inspired by Asher, among them "And I Love Her", "You Won't See Me", and "I'm Looking Through You".^[194] They had a five-year relationship, and planned to marry, but Asher broke off the engagement after she discovered he had become involved with another woman, Francie Schwartz.^[195]

Wives[link]

Linda Eastman

McCartney performing with wife Linda in 1976.

Linda Eastman was a music fan who once commented: "All my teen years were spent with an ear to the radio", and who would at times be truant from school to instead see artists such as: Fabian, Bobby Darin, and Chuck Berry.^[196] She was a popular photographer with groups such as: the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Grateful Dead, the Doors, and the Beatles, whom she first met at Shea Stadium in 1966, about which she commented: "It was John who interested me at the start. He was my Beatle hero. But when I met him the facination faded fast and I found it was Paul I liked."^[197] The pair first properly met in 1967 at a Georgie Fame concert at The Bag O'Nails club,^[198] during her UK assignment to take photographs of rock musicians in London,^[199] Paul remembers: "The night Linda and I met, I spotted her across a crowded club, and although I would normally have been nervous chatting her up, I realised I had to ... Pushiness worked for me that night!"^[197] Linda said this about their meeting: "I was quite shameless really. I was with somebody else [that night] ... and I saw Paul at the other side of the room. He looked so beautiful that I made up my mind I would have to pick him up."^[197] The pair were married in 1969; he describes their relationship: "We had a lot of fun together ... just the nature of how we are, our favourite thing really is to just hang, to have fun. And Linda's very big on just following the moment."^[200] He also added, "We were crazy. We had a big argument the night before we got married and it was nearly called off ... [its] miraculous that we made it. But we did."^[201]

They collaborated musically after the break-up of the Beatles, and later formed Wings together in 1971, a commercially successful band that was active through 1981.^[202] They were both vegetarian and supported the animal rights organisation PETA.^[203] They had four children – Linda's daughter Heather (legally adopted by Paul), Mary, Stella and James – and remained married until Linda's death from breast cancer in 1998.^[204] After her death, Paul stated in The Daily Mail: "I got a counsellor because I knew that I would need some help. He was great, particularly in helping me get rid of my guilt [about wishing I'd been] perfect all the time ... a real bugger. But then I thought, hang on a minute. We're just human. That was the beautiful thing about our marriage. We were just a boyfriend and girlfriend having babies."^[205]

Heather Mills

In 2002 he married Heather Mills, a former model and anti-landmines campaigner.^[206] In 2003, the couple had a child, Beatrice Milly, the first name in honour of Heather's late mother, the second for one of Paul's aunts.^[207] They separated in April 2006 and were divorced in March 2008.^[208] In 2004 he commented on media animosity toward his partners, "They [the British public] didn't like me giving up on Jane Asher", "I married a New York divorcee with a child, and at the time they didn't like that."^[209]

Nancy Shevell

He married New Yorker Nancy Shevell in a civil ceremony at Old Marylebone Town Hall, London on 9 October 2011. The wedding was a "low-key affair" attended by a group of around 30 family and friends.^[210] The couple had been dating since November 2007.^[211] A breast cancer survivor,^[212] she is a member of the board of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority as well as vice president of a family-owned transportation conglomerate which owns New England Motor Freight.^[213]

Beatles[link]

John Lennon

Despite a strained relationship with Lennon, they briefly became close again in 1974, and played music together on two occasions, the only times since the Beatles break-up in 1970.^[214] In later years however, the two grew apart.^[215] While McCartney would often phone, he was apprehensive about the reception he would receive, as during one call when he was told, "You're all pizza and fairytales!"^[216] In McCartney's effort to avoid talking with him only about business, they often spoke of cats, baking bread, or babies.^[217]