Paul McCartney

Paul was born on June 18, 1942, at Walton Road Hospital, Liverpool, to Mary and James McCartney. His brother Mike (McGear) was born on January 7, 1944, at Walton Hospital.

After passing his 11-Plus examinations Paul entered the Liverpool Institute in 1957 where he met a younger student, George Harrison. It was through another Liverpool Institute pupil, Ivan Vaughan that Paul met John Lennon. Paul’s interest in music was mainly due to the influence of his father, a keen jazz musician.

Paul became an accomplished guitarist at an early age and was able to tune a guitar as well as write down the lyrics in full of popular songs of the time. This impressed the young Lennon who invited Paul to join the Quarry Men.

Initially playing rythtm/lead guitar, Paul became the Beatles’ bassist after Stuart Sutcliffe left the band in 1961 to pursue a career as an artist. Although the majority of songs were credited to Lennon and McCartney, the pair mainly wrote separately with the only true joint compositions being their early numbers.Paul tended to veer towards the more romantic style having introduced such songs as “Besame Mucho” and “Till There Was You” to the Beatles repertoire.

Paul had a five-year relationship with the actress Jane Asher, which came to an end when Paul continued to have affairs. One such affair began in 1968, when he met Linda Eastman, a professional photographer, they married in March 1969. Paul adopted Linda’s daughter, Heather, and they went on to have three children of their own, Mary, Stella, and James.

After the break up of the Beatles, Paul went on to be the most successful solo member of the Beatles forming his own band, Wings. In 1979, Paul was awarded a rhodium-plated disc for his musical achievements having had 43 million-selling singles and gaining 60 Gold Discs. At this time he had sold more records throughout the world than any other artist.

Paul recently suffered the devastating loss of his wife, Linda, who died in 1998 after a long battle against breast cancer, a disease which also killed his mother in 1955.

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