Paul McCartney and that bizarre revenge against a journalist

A poisonous review, signed by a dishonest journalistpushed Paul McCartney to respond with a gesture as ironic as it was surprising, sending it personally a small “souvenir” designed to return the insult received with elegant sarcasm. Is this one anecdoteat the same time grotesque and irresistible, which resurfaces today from the pages of “Wings: the story of a band on the run“the new book dedicated to the history of Wingsthe band founded by the former Beatles, together with his wife Linda and others Denny Laine in 1971, after the adventure of the Fab Four.

The volume, published yesterday November 4, collects over 150 photographs, diaries, autograph texts and memories of legendary figures such as John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, George Martin, Sean Ono Lennon, Chrissie Hynde, Dustin Hoffman, Twiggy and all the members of Wings. And he’s one of them, drummer Denny Seiwellto bring to light an episode that perfectly reflects the climate of distrustand sometimes sarcasm, which McCartney certainly dealt with British press in the early seventies.

During a tourSeiwell said, had welcomed the band on board a journalist who claimed he wanted to write not a review, but a story about the family lives of touring musicians. At the time Paul and Linda already had three children: Heather, Mary and Stella. The couple would later give birth to another son, James, and after Linda’s death in 1998, Paul would become a parent to Beatrice again in 2003, with his second wife Heather Mills.
The journalist was then invited by McCartney and his team at soundchecks, on the bus and was given the opportunity to browse behind the scenes. The man, however, whose name is not mentioned in the extract reported by the NME, he never attended the concert and flew home before the show. A week later, one appeared in the pages of his newspaper detailed and fiercely negative review of a concert he had never seen.

Paul and Linda’s indignation it then transformed into an act of revenge as childish as it was brilliant: “At the time Stella was still a newborn”, Seiwell recalls in “Wings: the story of a band on the run”: “So, Paul and Linda took one of his poopsthey put it in a plastic hotel soap dish which they carefully packaged and they sent it to him“. A small provocation that the drummer defined in his story as “the perfect response to a crude British journalist”.