Author appeared as a guest speaker Sunday at the Adelphi Hotel as part of the Liverpool Beatles Convention to talk about his new book on Paul McCartney, “Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney”, which was released last week in England and will be released in the US in October.

Interviewer Spencer Leigh asked Howard about how he went about researching his book on Paul McCartney and Howard said he started his research by reading many of the books written on Paul, and declared, “Most of the books written on Paul except for Barry Miles ‘Many Years From Now’ are just bad.”

Many books don’t start at the very beginning of Paul’s early years, Howard said, while his book starts at the very beginning and covers all of Paul’s life including the disastrous marriage with Heather. He also mentions how central Paul’s mother had been in his life and that she played a critical role throughout his life even after her early death when Paul was just 14.

Howard said one of the first things he did was, “I contacted Paul in writing and let him know about my book project on his life.” Fortunately, to his surprise and great relief, he said that not only got a reply back from Paul but he also received some help with his book, even though Paul doesn’t have control over what he is going to write.

Howard talked at length about the “pact with the devil” that he made with Daily Mail to publish a series of excerpts from his book, but that they have extracted the most sensational bits, sometimes out of context, which he has no control over but ultimately helps publicize his new book.

Surprisingly, he talked about how difficult Paul can be, for example when Paul refuses to hear what is being said to him.

“It’s very hard to tell Paul McCartney anything, especially if you’re in his financial pocket, when he owns the studio, pays for your hotel, airfare… People in the book tell the story about the ‘thumbs up Macca’ vs the ‘prodding thumb Macca’ whereby he’s jabbing his thumb in the center of your chest because he’s unhappy with whatever you did or said.”

Howard says he spoke to many people who knew and worked with Paul, and for those who he was able to interview, he learned that “all found him a handful, difficult. If you cross him, disagree with him, it can mean financial exile.”

He gave the example of what happened to Tony Bramwell when Paul had played a new song “London Town” for him, and Tony gave his opinion that the song needed more work. Paul didn’t like what Tony said, and so he turned into the “prodding thumb Macca” and then launched into a tirade. Tony was shocked that Paul then refused to talk to him for nearly 10 years, until one day showing up at Tony’s door, as if nothing had ever happened. This story was confirmed by Tony at the Liverpool Beatles convention.

Regarding Paul’s ex-girlfriend Jane Asher, Jane turned down Howard’s interview request as she has turned down every interview request regarding Paul for the past 40 plus years. Regarding Linda, Howard said, “I didn’t like Linda. I thought she was gauche and low class,” despite almost everyone who knew Linda saying what a great person she is and everyone saying that they had a fantastically happy marriage.

But, Howard did say that the “contrast between first and second marriage is incredible. Heather was a topless model with a spotted past. The whole thing is amazing.”

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It wasn’t the same scene that greeted him and his fellow Beatles at JFK Airport in 1964, but Paul McCartney still had quite a reception when he and his family touched down in Nashville on June 6, 1974. The music superstar told a crowd of about 50 fans and members of the press that he’d come to Nashville for his three Rs — rehearsing, relating and riding. During his famous six-week stay on a farm just outside of Lebanon, McCartney’s activities would spill over into writing and recording. He crashed the Grand Ole Opry, ventured into Printer’s Alley and laid down a few country-flavored tunes with a group of peerless local players including Chet Atkins.

Some 36 years later, McCartney is finally returning to play his first concert in Nashville on Monday, July 26. The Tennessean photographed and interviewed the McCartneys several times during their stay here in the ’70s, and on the eve of his sold-out show at Bridgestone Arena, we’ve gone into our archives for snapshots of an unforgettable moment in Nashville’s musical history.

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After a couple of post from Larry Kane’s book “Ticket to Ride“… I decided to take a peak at some of the less known of The Beatles.. and where else can you see those but in The Beatles Unseen book by Mark Hayward

The best thing about this book, if you’re a real die hard fan of the fab four, is that obviously this book contains hundreds and hundreds of photos of the boys from fans everywhere. These photos was sold in auctions (and I must say, it probably costs fortunes!).

Another good thing about it is that it’s not a standard book that you read from cover to cover… You don’t even have to read it if you want to.. you can just stare at the pictures.. but in my case, I just flip it wherever (whenever time frame of the Beatles I want to be) and I read along..

And now, for tonight… here are some Beatles quotes from the interview The Beatles made in a press conference in Adelaide…. Page 122-123 of the book, “The Touring Days”

Reporter: Well fellas, tell me, what did you think of the Adelaide reception?
John Lennon: Oh, it was great@ The best ever.
Reporter: Was it like I’d mentioned to you on the plane it would be?
John Lennon: Yeah, it was better!
Reporter: Was it like you’d ever had before?
George Harrison: No, much better.
John Lennon: We’d never done one of those “drives” as well. It was marvelous.
Reporter: How would it compare with the ones in the United States when you arrived there?
Paul McCartney: This was bigger. There was more people there.
Reporter: Do you think it was very well conducted?
John Lennon: Yes. Everybody was well behaved.
Reporter: Did you get a fright at all outside the Town hall?
John Lennon: Not fright. Shock, you know, because there was so many.
George Harrison: I had a feeling we might’ve got shot, ‘cosw it’s the first time we’d been sitting inthe back of a car waving, you know.

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The first even on the Beatles in San Francisco when they arrived on February 7, 1964 was a press conference. Here are some of the less known interview question and answers:

Q: How was your trip?
John Lennon: It was like a plane trip, you know.

Q: How often do you get haircuts?
John Lennon: Uh, about once every three weeks.

Q: Who is your tailer?
Paul McCartney: A fella called Millings.

Q: What did you have to eat today?
John Lennon: Corn flakes with jelly beans and chips

Q: Is your hair real?
Paul McCartney: Is yours?

Read more about the tour in Larry Kane’s Book:

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“I knew Marianne Faithfull so it was natural that I would be asked to write a song at some point. I did write a song but it was not a very good one. It was called ‘Etcetera’ and it’s a bad song. I think it’s a good job that it’s died a death in some tape bin. Even then I seem to remember thinking it wasn’t very good. There was always the temptation to keep your better songs for yourself and then give your next-best songs to other established people, so when it was someone like Marianne, who at that time was a newcomer, those people would tend to end up with fairly dreadful offerings of mine. I suppose, thinking back on it, after ‘As Tears Go By’ maybe they were looking for more sort of a ‘Yesterday’, something more poignant, more baroque. I probably thought, well, this is really all I’ve got at the moment. I’ll send it round and hope it’s all okay, and maybe they’ll put a baroque thing on it and that’ll make it okay. She probably did ‘Yesterday’ because they figured, ‘Well at least it’s better than “Etcetera”‘.”

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