No comprehensive biography of the time Paul McCartney spent with Wings has ever been published, until now.
A period often dismissed as McCartney's 'missing' years, in fact the band lasted for a decade: two years longer than the Beatles, and wielded such impact and influence that they at one point achieved the status as the biggest live band in the world. Band on the Run sold over 6 million copies worldwide and became EMI's biggest selling album of the 1970s in the UK.
Music biographer Lesley-Ann Jones has met McCartney many times and knew his late wife Linda. Here she shows how crucial Linda was to the evolution of Wings - at great cost to herself given the ridicule she was to encounter. But Linda saw that McCartney needed the band in the wake of the break up of the Beatles.
Drawing on extensive interviews and her trademark meticulous research, the author shows how this period in Paul McCartney's career was to become crucial not only to his development as an artist, but to his very survival.
Coronet has acquired Fly Away Paul, the “definitive” account of Paul McCartney’s time in the post-Beatles band Wings, by Lesley-Ann Jones.
Hannah Black, publisher, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Clare Hulton. Fly Away Paul will be published in hardback, e-book and audio on 19th October 2023.
The publisher says: “No comprehensive personal study of the years Paul and Linda McCartney spent in Wings has ever been published until now. Though that period is often described as "missing", the band in fact lasted for a decade – two years longer than the Beatles. They wielded such impact and influence that they were at one point recognised officially as the biggest live band in the world. Their seminal album "Band on the Run" sold over six million copies worldwide and became EMI’s biggest selling British album of the 1970s.
“Biographer Lesley-Ann Jones has crossed paths with McCartney on numerous occasions over the past 30 years, and knew his late wife, Linda. Here, she shows how indispensable Linda was to the evolution of Wings – at great cost to herself, given the ridicule she was to encounter. But Linda understood exactly why Paul needed the band in the wake of the break-up of the Beatles, as well as why he needed her beside him.
“Drawing on extensive interviews and her trademark meticulous research, the author shows how this period in Paul McCartney’s career was to become crucial not only to his development as an artist, but to his very survival.”
Jones is a former Fleet Street journalist who still contributes features, op-eds and guest columns to the Times, the Daily Telegraph, the Daily Express and Sunday Express. She is the author of more than a dozen published books including Bohemian Rhapsody: The Definitive Biography of Freddie Mercury (Hodder); Ride a White Swan: The Lives and Death of Marc Bolan (Hodder) and The Stone Age: Sixty Years of the Rolling Stones (John Blake).
She said: “We never forget the artists and bands we cut our teeth on as kids and teenagers. Wings were where I came in. My love for them prompted me to go looking for the Beatles. How Paul met John Lennon, and how they became the band that conquered the world, is the greatest story in rock ’n’ roll. But how Paul survived their collapse, pulled himself back from the brink and laid the foundations of a solo career that has lasted more than 50 years is equally compelling. I am immensely grateful to Hannah Black and all at Coronet for the opportunity to research and write this book.”
Black said: “The Beatles loom large in our collective cultural memory and yet Paul McCartney’s creative output following their split is both immense and hugely successful. Lesley-Ann shows, with her razor-sharp insight and research, just how significant this period was in providing McCartney with a lifeline when he most needed it. It is also a long overdue revision of outdated views and beliefs around the role Linda played in McCartney’s success and survival.”