Happy birthday Michael, Paul McCartney’s younger brother

He was born in Liverpool on 7 January 1944, and is therefore the younger brother of Paul McCartney, who is almost two years older than him, having been born on 16 June 1942. He never pushed himself to be noticed, nor did he ever try to take advantage of his brother’s celebrity, so much so that when he began to move in the artistic world he hid behind the pseudonym of Mike McGear.

He joined the Scaffold trio in the 1960s: more than a band, a cultural experiment, between poetry, performance and music. Made up of Roger McGough, John Gorman and, indeed, Michael “Mike McGear” McCartney, they managed to get noticed with the 45 rpm single “Thank U very much”, which reached fourth place in the charts in November 1967

The sequel, “Do you remember?”, was less successful, but in April 1968 it rose to number 34.

while the big success came in November of the same year with a “fake” traditional pub song, “Lily the Pink”, which reached number one in the British charts

and it also has some results abroad: in Italy the Owls recorded it with the title “La sbornia”

followed the following year by “Gin gan goolie”

while five years had to pass before the 1974 reunion, which saw them return to the charts with “Liverpool Lou”

In May 1978 McGough and McGear released an album as a duo under their own name, the main title of which was “So Much”, on which Paul McCartney (production and vocals), Graham Nash (vocals), Jane Asher (vocals), Jimi Hendrix (guitar), Spencer Davis (guitar), Noel Redding (bass), Mitch Mitchell (drums) collaborated, uncredited.

Meanwhile, Scaffold expand their lineup and change their name to GRIMMS (Gorman-Roberts-THEnnes-McGear-McGough-Stanshall) and released two albums, after the second of which McCartney/McGear left the group.

As a soloist, under the name Mike McGear, he made his debut with the album “Woman”; on the cover there is a photograph of Michael and Paul’s mother, in a nurse’s uniform (she was a midwife), who passed away on 31 October 1956 at the age of 47, when her children were still little more than boys.

One of the songs on the album, “Bored as Butterscotch”is credited as being written by Mike McGear, Roger McGough and “a friend” who is almost certainly Paul McCartney himself.

Mike McGear’s second and last solo album, and his best, was released in 1974: it is called “McGear” (it is the one whose cover illustrates this article) and is a collaboration between Michael and Paul McCartney, who is co-author, with his wife Linda, and producer of the album, as well as playing on all the songs together with his Wings, while the lead vocals are by Mike (there is also a participation of Brian Jones on saxophone). The single taken from the album is “Leave it”, which enters the charts at number 36 and is Mike McGear’s only presence as a soloist in the sales charts.

After the relative failure of “McGear”, Michael returns to dedicate himself to his youthful passion, photography (many shots of the very first Beatles are his). It is not an artistic photograph, but a documentary one, almost like a reporter: this is demonstrated by some books such as “Mike McCartney’s Early Liverpool”, a visual story of pre-Beatles Liverpool, “Thank You Very Much – Mike McCartney’s Family Album”, “Remember: The Recollections and Photographs of the Beatles”, “Mike McCartney’s North Highlands” (with a preface by the then Prince, now King Charles). He is also the cover photograph of Paul McCartney’s album “Chaos and creation in the backyard”.

McGear’s latest and impromptu excursion into music, again with the complicity of Roger McGough, is a 1981 single credited to Mike McGear & The Monarchists: “No Lar Di Dar (Tribute to Diana, Princess Of Wales)”.