When the 2019 “Freshen Up” tour pauses after the Dodgers Stadium show, plans have already been laid out for 2020. The initial schedule for Paul this year was to headline the 50th edition of the Glastonbury Festival and to continue his Freshen Up tour with a new European leg.
The COVID-19 crisis put a halt to the daily routine of billions of people throughout the world, forcing people to stay confined at home and all gatherings to be cancelled, including concerts. Everything had to be cancelled.
Think about just HIS touring and performing plans… every show, city, industry connected would not see a penny this year that the shows would have brought with it..… Billions of dollars of revenue for of thousands of people and business based on this one man. And then multiply this by nearly every live event scheduled world wide.
As I write this… it’s still far from good, but there was still NO vaccines available.
So, Paul, who doesn’t need another penny to survive, but realizes that all the others do…. Must be heartbreaking for him, to have to shut down on the heels of a new album (EGYPT STATION) that had found only praise. The clock is ticking…..
To compensate, Paul joined a couple of live-streamed events, like One World: Together At Home or ‘Round Midnight Preserves…
But he also gathered his daughter Mary, her children, and they gathered and stayed at Paul’s home, with Paul and Nancy. Safe and sound. Oh, Paul has a recording studio set up in the home.
So, he pulls out old and new fragments and ideas, and slowly begins to put things down, for a form of release.
As they forms of release became more polished songs, he began to change the concept. He would record something and bring it to the dinner table and have the family listen.
In 1969 and 1970, after the band he was in split up, he took new wife Linda and daughter Heather and recorded this way on 4 track Studer and he gave us I.
In 1980, after his drug bust, and mental realization that the NEXT band would break up, he again holed up with family and on two 4 tracks hooked he gave us II.
With nothing but unknowns in the world he was again holed up, and 77 year old Paul with his state of the art home studio came up with III.
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On July 31st, 2020, the album FLAMING PIE received the next treatment in the archive series.
It was released on formats including 1. 5CD/2DVD/4LP Collector’s Edition strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies issued in a cloth wrapped two-piece collector’s box — will feature everything in the Deluxe Edition plus a marbled art print portfolio of six silkscreened Linda McCartney art prints, exclusive vinyl versions of the remastered album cut at half speed across 2LPs in an exclusive gatefold sleeve, an LP of home recordings in a hand-stamped white label sleeve, and “The Ballad of the Skeletons” – Paul’s 1996 collaboration with Allen Ginsberg, also featuring Philip Glass and Lenny Kaye – released for the first time on vinyl and cut at 45 RPM with vinyl etching and poster.
- 5CD/2DVD Deluxe Edition
Deluxe Edition Box Set comprised of the original album remastered at Abbey Road Studios, 32 bonus audio tracks including unheard home recordings and demos, alternative studio recordings, rough mixes and B-sides including selections from Oobu Joobu parts 1-6, Flaming Pie At The Mill CD (Paul’s hour-long tour of his studio), video content including the In The World Tonight documentary, original music videos, EPKs, interviews, performances and behind-the-scenes material, a 128-page book containing previously unpublished images by Linda McCartney, expanded album artwork from the archives and the story behind the album written by Chris Heath – including track-by-track information, recipes and new interviews with Paul, Ringo Starr, Jeff Lynne, Steve Miller and key album personnel, studio notes, handwritten lyrics, the 1997 Flaming Pie issue of Club Sandwich, the official newspaper of the Paul McCartney Fanclub, downloadable 24bit 96kHz HD audio, and more.
- 3LP (remastered album cut at half speed across two 180g LPs in gatefold sleeve with booklet, plus single 180g LP of unreleased home recordings in hand-stamped white label sleeve both housed in a slipcase
- 2LP (remastered album cut at half speed across two 180g LPs in gatefold sleeve with booklet
- 2CD (remastered album + 21 tracks of bonus audio)
- Steaming platforms.
All digital pre-orders included ‘Young Boy’ EP. Also available as a stand alone purchase, the EP recreates the 1997 ‘Young Boy’ maxi single and features the remastered Flaming Pie single ‘Young Boy,’ a home recorded version of the song, the original B-side ‘Looking For You,’ and excerpts of ‘Oobu Joobu Part 1’ also from the original single.
The two music videos for the track were restored and published on the same day.
Two additional EPs will be available for pre-order with ‘The World Tonight’ arriving on June 26 and ‘Beautiful Night’ on July 17.
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On April 18th Paul played at Hog Hill Studio on One World: Together At Home.
“I’m very honored to be part of this program tonight that celebrates the true heroes: Our health care workers all around the world. As this COVID-19 pandemic is a global crisis, we all have to come together to fight it on a global scale. Let’s tell our leaders we need them to strengthen the health care systems all around the world so that a crisis like this never happens again. My mother Mary was a nurse and midwife just after and during the second World War, so I have a lot of time took for the doctors, the nurses and all the medical staff that keep us healthy. We love you, thank you.”
He performed that bluesy old man voice version of “Lady Madonna.” His heart was in the right place, but not one for the highlight reel.
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June 20th, same thing but for ‘Round Midnight Preserves.’
Preservation Hall hosted a concert to benefit the COVID-19 relief efforts of the Preservation Hall Foundation. It featured performances by Preservation Hall Jazz Band,Paul McCartney, Dave Grohl, Elvis Costello, Irma Thomas, Dave Matthews, Beck, Jon Batiste, Jim James, Arcade Fire, PJ Morton, Nathaniel Rateliff, and more!
Spotify matched donations to the Preservation Hall Foundation, dollar for dollar, up to a collective total of $10 million.
Paul plays the trumpet in the rendition of “When The Saints Go Marchin’ In.” The trumpet was the first instrument Paul learned to play, before switching to the guitar.
The trumpet he used belonged to Louis Armstrong kindly loaned from the Louis Armstrong estate”)
“Happy Birthday Louis Armstrong. Thanks for lending me your trumpet!”
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In a worldwide exclusive for Radio 2, to mark what would have been John Lennon’s 80th birthday, Sean Ono Lennon interviews Julian Lennon, Paul McCartney and Elton John in two-part documentary on October 3rd and 4th.
“I look back on it now like a fan, how lucky was I to meet this strange teddy boy off the bus, who played music like I did and we get together and boy, we complemented each other!” – Paul
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“Come Together” Paul re-records the classic with The Smokin’ Mojo Filters (Paul Weller, Noel Gallagher etc..) in 1995 and it finally comes out on September 9th, on The HELP Album.
Paul and Joe Walsh, Lenny Kravitz, Sheryl Crow and others lend background vocals on “Here’s To The Nights” on Ringo’s ZOOM IN EP. It would come out in 2021.
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It was also announced on February 16th that a documentary 12 years in the making was going to may see the light of day. Charlie Lightning was to halve filmed the Glastonbury 2020 festival performance to cap off his film.
‘I’ve worked with Paul McCartney for 12 years and I followed him. I am still working with him, it’s not finished. I’ll be with him at Glastonbury,’ -Lightening
The film includes interviews and looks to cover Paul’s decade in the Beatles, his second band Wings and his subsequent solo career.
‘He’s helped me with what I do and I adore him. He’s trusted me and to have someone like that to see up close and work with – that’s inspiring, it makes you better at what you are, it makes you want to be better.’
The concert was cancelled and no hint on ANY release day for this documentary. George had an amazing three hour tribute by Martin Scorsese. I can only hope for the same here.
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October 16th…. It began.
It started with just a picture of a die.
And showed us the 3 dots.
Next: III
A Life Through The Eyes Of A Man 