Paul and Heather Mills news

30 July 2005
MY MUSIC IS BAD.. AND I DYE MY HAIR
SIR PAUL COMES CLEAN..
Exclusive By Fiona Cummins Showbiz Reporter

SIR Paul McCartney has admitted that many of his songs are "rubbish".

The former Beatle said: "Some of my albums ... I can't believe what I was on."

Referring to his 1986 collection Press To Play, he confessed: "I read the tracklist and I think, 'Wonder how that goes?'"

The 63-year-old singer and composer, who is married to second wife Heather Mills, also said he was aware of his advancing years.

"Seeing my image looking older hits me," he said. "I just have to come to terms with it."

But he has at last admitted that he keeps looking youthful by using hair dye - although not on the orders of his missus. Sir Paul said: "Ten years before I met her I was thinking about dyeing my hair.

"I tried it in Australia ... looked cool until I went on stage. Then this blue liquid poured down my forehead. Highly embarrassing."

He also hit out at critics who attacked him for wanting to alter the order of the writing credit on a new version of Yesterday to put his name before John Lennon's.

The request was rebuffed. But Macca insisted: "It was a misconception that I was trying to walk on a dead man's grave ... now I couldn't care less where my effing name is."

He also denied his new album Chaos and Creation In The Back Yard, due out in September, is about first wife Linda's death,

In his Q magazine interview, he said: "It wasn't in my mind. After Linda died, a lot of people related everything I said to that. But most of my songs are not specific."

Asked what drives him now, Macca replied: "The son of a friend was asked how he felt on his birthday and he said, 'Like I'm walking along the same street but in new shoes'. That's how I feel about it all. I hope to continue walking in new shoes."

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=15798214&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=my-...

Model determination
By Toby Moore
Published: July 29 2005 14:48 | Last updated: July 29 2005 14:48

Heather Mills McCartney is telling us about waking up to the smell of a tramp urinating a few feet from her head and about the time she found a friend at the fairground where she once worked, “lying there with a needle in his arm, just dead from a heroin overdose”.


At this harrowing juncture in her address to the London Business Forum, just behind Oxford Street, we are still some way from her 15th birthday, her experience as a young adult in the early stages of Yugoslavia’s civil war and the modelling career that ended when she was 25, after her left leg was scythed off in an accident with a police motorcyclist on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Not surprisingly, the audience is still as she speaks; her measured voice delivering a dramatic life story with self-deprecating humour, never mentioning, for example, being nominated for the Nobel peace prize for her anti-landmine work in 1996.

The wife of Sir Paul McCartney has lived with extremes - from begging to billionaires - and experiences that resemble cliffhanger episodes in daytime soap operas. At one point, she says, as if to herself: “It’s just, like, amazing to think how my life has changed so much.”

Like all opera, this one also has improbable coincidences. For instance: “My mother lost her leg [in a car accident] at the same age as me and in the same place,” though it was reattached.

And there was the dinner party eight years after Mills McCartney lost her leg, where a man began staring at her across the table. “’We’ve met before,’ he said. ‘Have we?’ ‘Yes, I’ve seen you naked.’ I’m thinking, ‘How can he say that in front of his wife? I don’t remember this one.’ And he said, ‘I was the doctor on call and was asked to get the death certificate because they thought you weren’t going to live.’”

There are plenty of mordantly comic interludes, notably when the artificial leg fails to behave, falling off in expensive restaurants, on a ski lift and while she is rollerblading around Hyde Park.

Mills McCartney was a doughty campaigner for refugees in Slovenia long before she met her famous future husband. Nowadays, she is patron of Adopt-A-Minefield, which campaigns for a worldwide ban on the use of landmines and gives prosthetic limbs to victims.

She gets to the subject of her leg almost immediately, drawing attention to what lies beneath an elegant, fitted lime-green dress. “It looks good doesn’t it?” Later she says that if cancer swooped down, “I’d cope.” And you believe her. “Injustice, unfairness, that’s what affects me the most, and will probably be what kills me in the end - the way that people treat each other in this world.”

Her tone shows she’s not too keen on the way “the press” treat people, either. Journalists were circling the hospital when she came out of intensive care after her crash in August 1993. She asked for money, drawing on her experience of running a modelling agency. “They didn’t know that side of me, they just knew dumb-blonde-model-in-hospital-loses-leg.” The result was £180,000 and the start of an affectionless respect, the sort that professional poker players have for each other. “I built up a great relationship with these editors for quite a number of years, until I met my husband. But Mother Teresa couldn’t have had a good relationship with them if she’d married my husband.”

This is her only hint of a soured relationship with the press and one of only two references to her husband.

Mills McCartney, now 37, is the daughter of a theatre impresario, from whom she is estranged. He is the same age as Sir Paul, and there are no tender words for him. Born in Tyne and Wear, she seems to have had a short-lived childhood and learned an early self-reliance. Her mother had a bad relationship with her father. “It was all horrific,” she says. Her mother eventually ran away with an actor, and Heather, her younger brother and her sister were left with their father, but not for long. He was jailed for fraud and the children headed for London, where their mother was embroiled in another damaging relationship, “the next best rung up the ladder, which was just a mentally abusive man”. Heather left and found work among the dispossessed in a travelling fairground - on Clapham Common.

The next few years of her life involved moments of happiness punctured by indignity and misery, notably grinding poverty and the loss of her close friend at the fair to heroin. Eventually, she discovered modelling, which she quickly excelled at and which introduced her to accomplished men, including a ski instructor, with whom she lived in Slovenia, and a “snooty” Italian who tried, unsuccessfully, to teach her not to say “cheers” when raising a drink.

The word “survival” crops up several times during the hour, providing a steady backbeat to the score, although less often than “boobs” (her own three times).

When she leaves the room, you notice instantly that she walks without a limp. She seems balanced, in control and steely, the artificial limb and its owner utterly indistinguishable.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/f78295a8-ff17-11d9-94b4-00000e2511c8.html

My steady career, by Beatles classmate Jul 29 2005
By Fiona Scott

A man who went to school with Paul McCartney has just retired as chief executive of Warwickshire County Council.

Ian Caulfield was a classmate of Paul's while George Harrison was in a year above at Liverpool Institute High School for Boys.

But while his two contemporaries went on to find fame with The Beatles, the young Ian took a very different career path - in local government.

Mr Caulfield remembers well his reaction and that of his friends when Paul skipped an exam to pursue his musical dreams abroad.

Mr Caulfield, aged 62, said: "I can remember one of the A-levels he took was art and it was in two parts. He took one part and for the next part he'd disappeared - he'd gone off to Germany, playing with his group.

"The conventional wisdom among my classmates was what a stupid idiot he was, ruining his career . . . now he makes more in a year than most of us make in a lifetime." Mr Caulfield, aged 62, who was the top official at the county council for 18 years, was inspired by postwar town planning to go into local government.

He said: "I was being slightly idealistic - it was a time when in the 60s the public sector was probably more valued than it is now. It was a career to be aspired to.

"It was an exciting time in town planning, with the stuff they were doing in Coventry, and it was the time of the 'white hot technological revolution' of Harold Wilson."

He is bowing out on a high - Warwickshire was rated as one of the country's top authorities last year, achieving an excellent rating in town hall league tables.

Mr Caulfield now intends to enjoy a holiday before taking up two part-time posts - as a governor of Coventry University and as chairman of community development organisation ContinYou, based in Coventry.

He is also looking forward to a family wedding. The last of his three sons to get married, Mark, is getting married in the south of France this summer.

http://iccoventry.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100localnews/tm_objectid=15796052&method=fu...

Animal rights row

Sir Paul McCartney has been drawn into a row over an advert placed in Variety by an organisation in favour of animal testing. He was told to “fire your publicist” after two activists for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an animal rights group, were arrested after allegedly killing 31 dogs and throwing their bodies into a rubbish bin.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-1716180,00.html

Macca Fingers Ash Man And Bee Gee
8/1/2005

As reported by Gigwise in June Ash’s Tim Wheeler, Robin Gibb of The Bee Gees and Guy Chambers have all been awarded honorary degrees by the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts.

Now if that wasn’t enough for you we have a lovely picture of the trio at the ceremony with none other than Paul McCartney, doing customary cheesy pose for the camera.

They were all present at the graduation ceremony which took place on Friday at the Liverpool based performing arts university.

http://gigwise.com/news.asp?contentid=7672

August 1, 2005 -- PaulMcCartney.com

STUDIO 2 GIG SET LIST

Below is the set list for last week's special TV and Radio 2 performance that Paul gave in Studio 2 at Abbey Road in front of just 50 people.

The show produced to promote Paul's forthcoming album saw Paul perform solo with a variety of instruments including glasses of water, a mellotron, a stand-up bass (that belonged to Elvis' bass player), drums, acoustic guitar and piano. He was also accompanied by producer Nigel Godrich when recording tracks of drums, bass, guitar and audience percussion and handclaps to produce a 'Jammed Track' based around 'Blue Suede Shoes'.

'Friends To Go'
'In Spite Of All The Danger'
'Twenty Flight Rock'
'Things We Said Today'
'Too Much Rain'
'How Kind Of You'
'Band On The Run'
'Fine Line'
'Lady Madonna'
'English Tea'
'Heartbreak Hotel'
'Jenny Wren'
'I've Got A Feeling'
'Follow Me'
'Blackbird'
Mellotron samples / 'Strawberry Fields Forever'
'Anyway'
'Jammed Track / Blue Suede Shoes'

LIPA Graduation Day - July 29, 2005 - Liverpool, England

Sir Paul arrived accompanied only by his driver at the side entrance of Liverpool's Philharmonic Hall to perform his annual presentation to graduates of LIPA. He was late, and showed a worried look on his face as he quickly made his way through the doorway as fans closed in.

LIPA is now ten years old and was Paul's former school, The Liverpool Institute. Paul made a speech at the graduation praising the work of the students, teachers and staff for making the school a success and turning his old school into something worthwhile.

"I am very proud of what we managed to do," said Sir Paul . "The original Liverpool Institute was in danger of collapse. It was going to be pulled down. I can"t believe it. The dream we had to save this old building and turn it into something really worth while has happened. I find it very moving... One of the guys who came up on stage said, 'You've done a great thing here' and I said, 'It's my pleasure' and that's the truth. '"

Earlier, Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees arrived to receive an Honorary Companionship Degree - the equivalent of an honorary degree. He seemed reluctant to enter the hall spending almost ten minutes posing with fans and signing autographs. He didn't say much, but appeared to be enjoying himself.

If you're reading this Robin, thanks very much! Your attention to the fans was the main topic among fans waiting three hours for Paul to arrive.

Macca's brother, Mike McCartney arrived next and as usual spent quality time with he crowd.

Last year Paul and Heather entered the Philharmonic at the speed of light and left almost as fast. Paul told the crowd then waiting for autographs, "I can' t sign them all! Luv Ya! " So he signed none.

This year Paul signed as many autographs as he could and twenty lucky people where rewarded. He looked happy, relaxed, and finished signing by throwing the marker pen across the street. A friend of mine who was one of the lucky ones, later sat on the sidewalk and found her own pen at her feet. SPOOKY!

So what a difference a year makes. Maybe Paul noted Robin and Mike's treatment of the fans or maybe it's the company that you keep.

Thanks Paul it was much appreciated.

Mike McCartney

Robin Gibb

Beatle juices Magex
By Tony Smith

Published Thursday 3rd August 2000 11:04 GMT

Beatle with Wings Sir Paul McCartney today pumped an undisclosed sum into online payment system supplier Magex.

Macca's investment comes in the same week that major record label Universal is set to begin a trial digital music download service which uses Magex technology. Not that Sir Paul will profit directly - he's with Universal's fellow 'big fiver', EMI.

Magex is a secure online payment service spun off from the UK's National Westminster bank. Digital content bought via Magex is billed to the buyer's credit card by Magex itself, ensuring that none of the users' financial information is sent out across the Web.

Magex also handles the copyright protection side of the equation using InterTrust's encryption and access rights management technology.

Yesterday, the company announced the appointment of ex-Columbia Tristar Picture home video unit president W. Patrick Campbell as its chairman and CEO. Campbell's role will be to drive the UK company's push into the US, the territory that has the most active digital content download market.

Magex's success depends on winning the support of companies like Universal - in other words, the big names with the most digital content to offer - to become sufficiently ubiquitous for users to sign up, doubly so since they're now getting pretty much used to the idea of keying in credit card details online. ®

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2000/08/03/beatle_juices_magex/

August 2, 2005 -- The Times in London

Dog-killing furore

Paul McCartney has been drawn into a row alongside Hollywood actors and pop stars from Gillian Anderson to Moby over their support for an animal rights charity.

McCartney was named as one of 50 celebrities who were instructed to "fire your publicist" in a $US11,000 ($14,400) advertisement in the Hollywood magazine Variety because of his support for the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

The advertisement, placed by a pro-animal-testing organisation, was designed to embarrass PETA supporters after two of the organisation's employees were charged with animal cruelty in North Carolina.

The PETA activists were arrested after they allegedly collected dogs and puppies from animal shelters, killed them and threw the bodies into a rubbish bin. Adria Hinkle and Andrew Cook are accused of disposing of 31 animals in this way as part of PETA's program of animal euthanasia for pets that end up in shelters.

The advertisement lists celebrities from Oliver Stone to John McEnroe who, it says, should be ashamed of supporting PETA.

"The alleged discovery of 31 dead dogs and puppies in a dumpster, allegedly killed in a van and tossed by two trusted employees of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, casts serious doubt upon the legitimacy of this ubiquitous animal rights organisation," the advertisement says.

The Foundation for Biomedical Research, which paid for the ad, said there would be a series attacking those who publicly supported PETA.

McCartney's publicist said he was not yet aware of the singer's response.

Ally Sheedy, the actor best known for her performance in The Breakfast Club, said she was not ashamed to have been named in the ad.

"I don't know anything about the case," she told the New York Daily News. "But it's one of those things where this is an organisation that has done so much good for so long."

A spokesman for PETA said that although it advocated euthanasia for neglected dogs and cats in rural US, it did not approve of the methods allegedly used by Ms Hinkle, who has been suspended from PETA, and Mr Cook.

Michael McGraw, director of communications for PETA, said: "Rural America is awash with more dogs and cats than it can handle, and the standard of care is appalling.

"They have mange covering their bodies that causes them to lose their hair, they have parvovirus, they're left tied to trees for months or years on end."

In Virginia last year, PETA killed 2278 animals, sterilised 7641 and found homes for 361.

The foundation said it hoped to show celebrities that their opposition to the use of animals in research contradicted their support for medical charities.

"While these celebrities are well-meaning, their support of PETA is in direct conflict with charities such as AIDS and cancer research charities. Many celebrities on this list also support AIDS charities."

Paul McCartney calls writers who criticise wife
Aug 4, 2005

Sir Paul McCartney gets so incensed when tabloid newspapers criticise his model wife Heather Mills, he phones writers up and tells them what he thinks of them.

The former Beatle wed model Mills in 2002 and has been amazed by the poor treatment she has received in some publications.

And although McCartney experienced similar emotions when he married his first wife Linda in 1969, he decided to take action this time.

He says, "Linda got terrible flak when we got married. It's happened with Heather all over again.

"I tried to let it go over my head, but these columnists got too vindictive. I could see it was hurting Heather. I got a few cuttings together. I couldn't believe it.

"There was one where this woman was saying, 'What is she doing opening a cosmetics company?' And then it went, 'She's not even pretty.'

"I thought, 'Excuse me, I'm ringing her up.' I was like, 'How dare you write all this c**p? I'm her husband. I've seen the picture at the top of your column and you're really not pretty. And then you've got it wrong about the cosmetics company. She's actually doing a cosmetics cover for an artificial leg. She's helping people. Do your b**ody research.'"

http://people.monstersandcritics.com/article_1038883.php/Paul_McCartney_calls_writers_w...

August 4, 2005 -- PETA

Paul and Heather to attend the Peta Gala, September 10th in Los angeles.

PETA's 25th Anniversary Gala and Humanitarian Awards Show, celebrating 25 years of protecting the rights of animals, will take place at the world-famous Paramount Pictures in Hollywood on Saturday, September 10, 2005. The event, hosted by Pamela Anderson, will begin at 6 p.m. with a star-studded "red carpet" arrivals area and an awards ceremony recognizing the entertainment industry's most visible and active animal advocates, as well as musical and comedy performances by well-known performing artists.

Award recipients and celebrities appearing at the gala will include Casey Affleck, Gillian Anderson, Pamela Anderson, Rosanna Arquette, Bea Arthur, Alec Baldwin, Hilly Beavan and Anthony Lawrence, Marc Bouwer, Atom Cianfarani and Genevieve Gaelyn, James Cromwell, Jeanne Daniels, Andy Dick, Lauren Shuler Donner and Richard Donner, John Feldmann, Heather Mills McCartney, Moby, Morrissey, Kathy Najimy, Martina Navratilova, Sharon Osbourne, P!nk, Dennis Rodman, The Rev. Al Sharpton, Martin Sheen, and Persia White. This list is growing every day.

The awards ceremony and show will be followed by an exciting "after-party" with live music, dancing, and more celebrity entertainment under the stars on the spectacular "New York Street" movie and TV set, the backdrop for Breakfast at Tiffany's, Forrest Gump, Friends, and Seinfeld.

Tickets start at $500 each.

http://www.peta25.com/gala-artists.asp

August 4, 2005 -- PETA

"We Will Win!"

Recently, PETA Vice President Dan Mathews sat down with his longtime friend Paul McCartney to reflect on their two decades of work in behalf of animals.

Dan: What would you say about how things have changed since PETA's been on the scene?

Paul: Twenty years ago when you talked about animal rights, people didn't know what you were talking about. But with the help of PETA, people have been exposed to knowledge over the years and have learned what it's about-just how cruel we as a species are to our fellow inhabitants of the Earth. When I first heard of PETA, the idea that it would be called People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals appealed to me because it was elegant and gentle about the idea that we simply just need to treat them ethically. I think the idea has grown from that platform, and now it's a huge voice for animal awareness.

D: When we first started, we were able to take our undercover video to 60 Minutes or 20/20, and they would fight over it and do these thought-provoking exposés. Now that society has become less interested in these programs and more interested in sensationalism and the tabloids, we have to reinvent ourselves to keep our issues on the front burner; we have had to do a lot of theatrical things. It's a statement on our times, but how does that make you feel?

P: I agree with you. I think that's one of the huge dangers of any movement-that it can suddenly seem passé when people think, "We've done that; we've dealt with that issue." Cruelty issues have unfortunately become one of those things where people say, "Vegetarianism was all right, but that was then-Atkins is now." Now, of course, Atkins has run its course, and it's been proved to be wrong, which we could have told them all along. We just have to hold our nerve. I think it is essential to play in the arena you're in. I think that's something PETA is very cool with. You will do the stunts, you will do what people might think are silly things, but in order to get the point across, I think you have to.

D: Much of what we do is geared to kids, who have a great sense of justice. This is the first generation where kids have grown up with this issue. Twenty-five years ago, parents were petrified when their kids went vegetarian-some still are. You have raised some fantastic vegetarian kids; what would you say to anyone who is worried about their kids going vegetarian or vegan?

P: I think you just have to read up on it if you're worried, because the facts are there. Unlike 25 years ago, there is a lot of medical opinion that supports it. I would say quite conclusively that the facts are in favor of vegetarianism. We always say, for cruelty to animals, vegetarianism is the great thing to get rid of that. For the planet, to prevent depleting the water and the land and everything, it's a great idea. And I think it's a great thing for your health, and doctors nowadays agree with that. There are plenty of great books and organizations, so no matter where you are, there is someone to help you. That's your first step, and I think your second step is just look in the supermarket for good vegetarian food, and I think it's so much more readily available now. I think that's what puts a lot of people off, thinking they have to change their whole habits, whereas we don't-we just substitute. So there's this huge range of great products for Christmas dinner or Sunday roast, then there's your roast potatoes and all the great stuff that comes with it. It's very easy to do. Anyone that's worried about it should get the facts, look into it, and go do it.

D: I don't know what people think is going to happen when their kids stop eating meat. You have wonderful kids who don't seem to have missed a thing. In fact, I think they've gained from it.

P: I personally think so. My mother, who was a nurse, would be very worried about protein. Growing up, I thought that's what gives you protein-meat-and I think a lot of people think that. I have a lot in common with Joe Public because that's who I was 'til I got in The Beatles, so I can often understand people's concerns, and protein would be my mother's. But I know it's actually a huge fallacy. You can get your protein from a million other non-animal places, and it's much better for you. Heather and I are raising a baby, and obviously we aren't going to give her bad food; we just make sure she gets the best food, and it is vegetarian. And we know what's what because we look into it instead of just accepting McDonald's and what it throws on your plate. I think the thing is just to ask about it. You look at a film like Super Size Me, and those things come in very strongly on our side.

D: There is some exciting news: The last Pope was the first to say that animals have souls, and now Pope Benedict has come out against factory farming, saying it makes a mockery of God's creatures. As someone who was raised a Catholic, do you have a message for him?

P: God bless him! I think it would be fantastic if someone in his position who's able to reach so many people took a strong stance on that, because one of PETA's strongest points, and one of mine, is compassion. That certainly is a basic tenet of the Catholic religion. I think it would be terrific if he took a strong stance and urged people to come out against that kind of thing.

D: You announced a campaign against KFC a few years ago with us. After hours-long meetings with them, some of KFC's top players agreed to make recommendations for the basic care of chickens to their suppliers, but none of them would be enforced, so it was just a bunch of hot air. Do you have any words for KFC?

P: Get with it. This is a modern age; you can be ... well, actually my message to them would be, "Get lost."

D: The fur trade has fought to bring fur back, especially with the cheap imports from China. There are a few celebrities, such as J. Lo and P. Diddy, who still wear fur and say, "We want to be educated," but we've sent them videos and information over the years, and they still wear fur. What would you say to them?

P: That's the great thing about PETA-you are relentless. I think it's very sad. Look at early pictures of me in Help, and I've got this black fur coat on that Linda liked because it was such a cool coat, or so it seemed at the time. And I remember asking the salesperson, "What is this?" and he said, "It's nutria." I had no idea what he meant. The point I'm making is that I understand all too well the attraction of, when you first earn money, you want to show off. You want the most ridiculous furs, you want chinchilla dripping off you, you want jewelry. The trouble is, the difference between fur and jewelry is fur hurts someone. What PETA and I want to say to them is, "Look at these videos, because you are going to see anal electrocution, you're going to see animals with their throats slit, and you are taking a beautiful animal's coat." I met someone recently who was wearing a polar bear coat, and I said, "Oh, man, why are you doing that?" And he actually listened to me. He was shocked. He was interested. I think hearing it from me, he took a little notice, and I said, "You know, polar bears had to be killed for that. Animals have to be killed and their lives are taken often in the most disgusting ways for you to have your coat, and that's the reason you shouldn't do it." So that's what I would say to P. Diddy. J. Lo-you look good enough anyway, baby!

D: Animal rights people often feel as if we're up against overwhelming odds and that there's so much to address, you know?

P: Remember all the things in the past that seemed insurmountable. Remember Gandhi in India. It seemed like he could never do it-one man in a loin cloth taking on the might of the British Empire-impossible. But he did it. He won. The abolition of slavery, that looked like it would never happen. Civil rights looked like it would never arrive, but it did. South Africa's apartheid looked like it would never end. Mandela being head of a nation like South Africa, which was so white and prejudiced-it would have been unbelievable when I went to school. All of us get a little worn down by it, but the truth is, we are winning. We will win in the same way that people now do have civil rights. We are learning to understand these issues.

http://www.peta.org/campaigns/sirpaul.asp

McCARTNEY SLAMS FUR-WEARING LOPEZ AND COMBS

SIR PAUL McCARTNEY has slammed stars including SEAN 'P DIDDY' COMBS and JENNIFER LOPEZ for flaunting their wealth by wearing expensive fur coats - because animals are tortured to make them look good.

The former BEATLE has marked PEOPLE FOR THE ETHICAL TREATMENT OF ANIMALS' (PETA) 25th anniversary by urging celebrities to watch the animal rights group's videos - which show animals being tortured and slaughtered - before investing in animal skin fashion statements.

He says, "I understand all too well the attraction of, when you first earn money, wanting to show off. you want the most ridiculous furs, you want chinchilla dripping off you, you want jewellery.

"The trouble is, the difference between fur and jewellery is fur hurts someone. What PETA and I want to say to them is, 'Look at these videos, because you are going to see electrocution, you're going to see animals with their throats slit, and you are taking a beautiful animal's coat.'"

05/08/2005

http://contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/mccartney%20slams%20furwearing%20lo...

2005 SONGLINK AWARDS AT LIPA

L-R: David's brother Nigel Stark (Hi-Star Classics), SongLink editor/publisher David Stark and Sir Paul McCartney.

Note: Nigel is holding a presentation pack of the new Royal Mail 'Motorcycles' stamp series, which he provided the period clothing for - check out the Hi-Star site for more info about his vintage gear.

THUMBS UP FROM MACCA FOR SONGLINK AWARDS AT LIPA

Liverpool, July 29th:

SongLink International editor/publisher David Stark presented awards to songwriting graduates of LIPA (the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts) along with Sir Paul McCartney, the academy's Lead Patron. The annual Graduation Day ceremony on Friday July 29th also saw LIPA Companionships presented to Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees, writer/producer Guy Chambers, and Tim Wheeler of Ash.

This was the second year that the 'SongLink Prizes' have been awarded, to Bachelor of Arts (Music) graduates Thomas Kongshavn (from Norway) and Alex Reid (UK), whose work was selected from over 30 final year students. David Stark commented, "It's incredibly hard to pick out just two individuals from a talent collective which is producing such a high standard of work, but Thomas and Alex's songs shone out. Hopefully these awards will help give them a leg-up to success in the biz."

Sir Paul McCartney added, "I always take a particular interest in the songwriting activities at LIPA, and try to take regular one-to-one sessions with the final-year students, offering bits of advice about their songs and ideas. Whether they bother to take my points on board is up to them of course, but the main thing is that we end up with an incredibly creative and dedicated bunch of kids graduating each year, who all have the potential to make it in whatever branch of the performing arts they have chosen."

LIPA was established in 1996, and offers diploma, degree and postgraduate courses in the whole spectrum of arts and entertainment, including music, theatre, dance, sound technology and related business studies. Led by Founding Principal and CEO Mark Featherstone-Witty, it took about Ј20m and five years' effort to create LIPA from the ground up. The result is a range of unique courses and a cultural centre with world class facilities, with over 1,000 people per year learning there, ranging from full-time students, to part-timers, to children aged from 4 years up who come in at weekends.

SongLink International was launched by David Stark in 1993, and over the past twelve years has provided exclusive information (leads) to songwriters and music publishers around the world, resulting in songs being recorded by such names as Christina Aguilera, Cliff Richard, Mis-Teeq, Tom Jones and many other artists who depend on finding hit material from outside writers. David also publishes Cuesheet, which is a similar service for Film & TV music writers and composers, and has himself been honoured with a Gold Badge Award from the British Academy of Composers & Songwriters.

http://www.songlink.com/lipa072905.html

August 6, 2005 -- Contact Music

McCARTNEY SHOCKED BY REACTIONS TO HIS SONGS

Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney always took songwriting lightly until he realized his lyrics had an emotional impact on his listeners.

The Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band rocker, who headlined London's Live 8 concert last month, believed his lyrics were throwaway until a friend's mother told him how much his words moved her.

He says, "The first time I realized people take their own meanings from what I write was in 1963 when I went back to Liverpool. I was 'round at RORY STORM's (frontman of Rory Storm and the Hurricands) mum Vi's house.

"I played 'From Me To You' to her... She said, "I didn't know you could think like that.' I was like, 'It's just a song.'

"But it hit an emotional nerve, I don't know what, she didn't say, but it made me realize something about the power of songs."

McCARTNEY AND LENNON GRIEVED FOR LOST MOTHERS TOGETHER

SIR PAUL McCARTNEY and his late BEATLES bandmate JOHN LENNON once spontaneously cried together over their grief at the death of their mothers.

McCartney always felt an affinity with Lennon due to their "unspoken bond" from losing their mums during their adolescence, culminating in a highly emotional night in 1964 while touring America.

The incident went on to inspire the lyrics in HERE TODAY: 'What about the night we cried?/Because there wasn't any reason left to keep it inside'.

McCartney, 63, says, "The Beatles were under a lot of pressure, touring all the time, and we didn't have any release.

"The night we were flying to Jacksonville, Florida (9 September 1964), but to avoid a hurricane we had to put down in Key West, which at that times was the end of nowhere, like in the HUMPHREY BOGART movie (KEY LARGO).

"We stayed up all night drinking, all of us together, chatting about everything, and there came a moment where we, um, cried. Which we'd never done.

"I'm not sure, but the likely explanation is that John and I had both lost our mothers - mine died of breast cancer, John's in a road accident - and it had always been a sort of unspoken bond between us.

"Knowing we had both been through that grief and horror. That night we finally got round to talking about it."

08/08/2005

Tuesday, August 09, 2005
Paul Mccartney to appear at LA peta gala

Paul McCartney and wife Heather will be attending PETA's 25th Anniversary Gala & Humanitarian Awards show on September 10th in Los Angeles at the Paramount Pictures Studios. This year's event will be hosted by Pamela Anderson - the recipient of the first Linda McCartney Memorial award for her animal-rights activism. McCartney, along with his first wife, the late Linda McCartney, have been avid animal rights activists since the mid-'70s. People For The Ethical Treatment Of Animals (PETA) is the largest animal rights organization in the world, with more than 850,000 members.

McCartney, who'll be releasing his new CD Chaos And Creation In The Backyard on September 13th, was interviewed on the PETA.org website and talked about the advantages of vegetarianism explaining that: "Heather and I are raising a baby, and obviously we aren't going to give her bad food; we just make sure she gets the best food, and it is vegetarian. And we know what's what because we look into it instead of just accepting McDonald's and what it throws on your plate." McCartney added that, "I think the thing is just to ask about (vegetarianism). You look at a film like Super Size Me, and those things come in very strongly on our side."

Among the award recipients and celebrities appearing at the PETA gala include actors Bea Arthur, Alec Baldwin, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kathy Najimy, and Eric Roberts, along with former NBA star Dennis Rodman, Indian music-virtuoso Ravi Shankar, Sharon Osbourne, and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

An after-party featuring live entertainment will be held on the "New York Street" housed within the studio's backlot. No acts have been announced yet.

Back in 1999 McCartney performed at the PETA gala, premiering songs from his yet-to-be-released Run Devil Run album.

McCartney kicks off his upcoming US tour on September 16th in Miami at the American Airlines Arena.

http://www.therockradio.com/2005/08/paul-mccartney-to-appear-at-la-peta.html