McCartney Times

Music great Paul McCartney ’s songs are timeless and, it turns out, so is the equipment he used to produce such amazing tunes.

Beatles legend Sir Paul, 78, has written some of the most covered songs in history, such as Yesterday, Eleanor Rigby and 1964’s And I Love Her.

And he still plugs into an amplifier he saved up for and bought as a 14 year old.

The little green Elpico AC55 sits alongside equipment worth tens of thousands at his Hog Hill Mill Studios in East Sussex.

This little bit of pop history is one of the highlights of Macca’s hour-long audio tour of the studio, which is included in his re-release of his 1997 album Flaming Pie.

He says: “This is my very first amp I ever had when I was 14, it was called an Elpico. As you can see it is very 50s, it looks like a piece of 50s furniture.

“Instead of putting guitars into it, it says Mic1, Mic2, Gramophone, anything but guitars really. In those days amps were used more for putting your records through or microphones, for little PAs.

“That was the first thing and I have kept it ever since. I have now had it fixed up because it so old.

“When you put an electric guitar through it now it sounds a bit like a fuzz guitar so it is quite a funky sound that I use sometimes. It is a dear little thing from many years ago.”

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Among the other surprises on the tour is the double bass of Bill Black, who played on Elvis Presley’s hits such as Heartbreak Hotel, Hound Dog and That’s All Right.

He says: “Step this way, here is a very prized item… this is the original Elvis Presley bass. It used to be played by a guy called Bill Black.”

Macca says Elvis had been a favourite of the Beatles and points out “a slightly disastrous” white trim on Black’s old instrument. He says: “It is in the film Loving You and it is a beautiful bass.”

Paul says: “Bill Black had died and Linda found out the bass was still around. We were in Nashville at the time and so Linda said to the family ‘would you let me by it for Paul for his birthday present’.

“So they did, they had no other use for it, and they are quite happy it is in my collection. For me it is a very special piece of wood and occasionally I use it when you want a different sound. Nothing complicated but for a very simple bass line.”

The new Flaming Pie Archive collection also includes previously unreleased ­material from Sir Paul and video showing him discussing how the artwork for the CD would look.

But he reveals he doesn’t like CDs and preferred vinyl.

He says: “When they get stuck it is the worst sound in the world.

“George Martin had the first CD ever, Sony were bringing out and they wanted everyone to pay a royalty on it. And George was sitting around and said ‘you see chaps the wonderful thing is they are absolutely unbreakable and he was ‘bang’(on table) and it broke.”

Originally released in 1997, Flaming Pie ended a four-year gap between McCartney studio albums. It earned rave reviews and was his most commercially successful release of the 90s, selling more than 1.5 million copies worldwide.

• The Flaming Pie Archive Collection including deluxe and collector’s editions with rare material from Sir Paul, are out on CD and vinyl.

Source: Paul McCartney still uses musical keepsake he bought as a teen before Beatles success – Mirror Online