PAUL NEWS!!!!!

From the BBC.....(7/17/98)....

Friday, July 17, 1998 Published at 04:19 GMT 05:19 UK Entertainment Grieving McCartney pulls out of degree awards Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney has pulled out of a degree ceremony in Liverpool next week because he is still grieving for his late wife Linda. Despite cancelling all public appearances following Linda's death in April, a university spokesperson said the singer songwriter had been keen to receive an Honorary Fellowship at Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral on Tuesday. "Although we are disappointed that he no longer feels able to go through with the event, we fully understand his reasons," Janet Martin said, "We still plan to bestow him with the Honorary Fellowship and will do that on a date to be announced in the future, possibly next year, or whenever he is ready." First intake of students Sir Paul had accepted the opportunity to become a Fellow of John Moores University around three years ago, she said. He had waited until this year to attend the ceremony so he could see the first intake of students from the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts graduate during the same event. Lipa, known as the Liverpool Fame School, was Sir Paul's idea and is associated to John Moores University. The Honorary Fellowship is in recognition of the work he did to help establish the school.

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Thursday, July 16, 1998 Published at 07:02 GMT 08:02 UK Entertainment Linda McCartney's last film set for premiere Linda's animated film is called Wide Prairie A short film which is one of Linda McCartney's last works will be shown for the first time at the Edinburgh Film Festival in August. The surreal animated tale is about a woman who longs to escape the drudgery of everyday life by riding horses with her lover. It was inspired by a song she wrote. In April, Linda died in the arms of her husband, Sir Paul McCartney. She was aged 56 and had fought a long battle with breast cancer. Called Wide Prairie, the film was completed shortly before her death. Fittingly, it will be screened at the UK premiere of Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer on August 19. The two pictures will not tour together, but it is hoped Wide Prairie will be given a special guest slot with a major release Linda's love of horses was well known and the film will inevitabley prompt speculation that the song and story have an element of autobiography. Memorial service Sir Paul took ponies to memorial services held for her in London and New York and the couple kept a secret ranch in the US where they rode together. Linda, an accomplished stills photographer, came up with the idea and images for the film and worked on it over two years with director Oscar Grillo. A "beautiful" film Sheila Whitaker, former director of the London Film Festival, called it a "beautiful" film. "It's a song that Linda performed in a country and western style and it's about family, freedom of the range and all that kind of thing. And it's great fun. "The animation visualises the song and is very nice, very warm - and it makes you come out feeling good basically. It's about six minutes long and it's very well animated. Linda previously worked with Mr Grillo on another of her short films, Seaside Woman, set to her song of the same name.

This ad appeared in the NY Times on Friday 5/22/98

5/21/98: MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR LINDA PLANNED FOR JUNE 8TH... A memorial service and a separate candlelight vigil will be held in June in honor of Linda McCartney, who died last month of cancer, the press office of Beatles legend Paul McCartney announced Thursday. Close friends and family plan to "gather in remembrance of Linda" on the evening of June 8 in St. Martin's in the Fields, one of London's most famous churches, the statement said. "It is understood that animal welfare groups and other people who wish to honor Linda are planning to gather in Trafalgar Square at the same time for an informal candlelight tribute," the statement said. "Due to the tremendous amount of letters of condolence that the family has received, Paul and the children are placing newspaper advertisements to thank all the people who are thinking of them," it added. Linda McCartney, an outspoken vegetarian who developed a successful line of non-meat meals, died April 17 in Arizona at age 56. She played keyboards and sang backup vocals in Wings, the group her husband of 29 years formed after the breakup of the Beatles.

5/21/98: DAY TRIPPERS = GROUCHY BEATLE NEIGHBOR... The National Trust yesterday introduced the curator of Sir Paul McCartney's childhood home, but could not prevent a discordant note from a neighbour, who complained that the expected army of Beatle fans marching up and down the stairs all day behind the thin partition wall would make his life a misery. The trust had announced that John Halliday, a 50-year-old Beatles expert, would start conducting public tours of 20 Forthlin Road, a modest terrace house in Allerton, Liverpool, from July. The new custodian of the house, where the young McCartney spent ten years in the 1950s, was just talking of his new challenge, when Ken Gledhill, 53, an unemployed driver, said that he had split up from his wife, Irene, after the trust bought number 20 for £55,000 in 1995. She could see that the tiny street would be invaded by "Macca" fans. Even before the house has been officially opened to the fee-paying public, there have been coachloads of camera-toting Japanese tourists anxious to capture life as it was lived in the early years. One Japanese sightseer even popped into Mr Gledhill's garden at number 18 to urinate over the bushes. Mr Gledhill said: "I get harassed by tourists all the time. It is like living in a goldfish bowl. The National Trust seems to think it has got carte blanche to do whatever it likes. Can you imagine 100 people a day going up the stairs?" Sir Paul lived in the house with his parents, Jim and Mary, and brother, Mike, and wrote some early Beatles hits in his bedroom. Popular legend has it that he used to jump into number 18's garden to escape fans. Mr Gledhill's complaints had National Trust executives running for cover. Keith Halstead, area manager, said that the plans were shown to residents at proposal stage and there were no complaints. He promised to look into insulating the walls. Sir Paul's brother, Mike, who lived in the house until 1964, said the National Trust had done a good job. "It was discussed for a long time. The first thing we were worried about was the other families who were once our neighbours. That is why I am glad the trust have the house. They have talked to all the locals. I did not want an American, Japanese or European businessman to turn the house into a tacky theme park." Mr Halliday, whose duties as the £9,760-a-year custodian include dusting the period furniture, introduced himself as a staunch Beatles fan who used to watch them play at the Cavern Club. "This is a great opportunity to share my knowledge with visitors to Forthlin Road," he said.

5/20/98: FUR REAL... Paul's daughter, Stella, is taking aim at a fur farm near Peoria, Illinois. She has made a video that allegedly exposes animal cruelty at the farm in Roanoke. The video made its debut Tuesday in New York and urges designers not to think of fur as a fabric. This is Fur Fashion Week. PETA _ People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals _ has put the video up on giant screens outside fur shows and is running it continuously.

Paul on Ringo's new album Release date: 6/16/98

Mercury Records Set to Release New Album from Legendary Ringo Starr Entitled 'Vertical Man' on June 16 Tuesday, April 7 11:31 AM ET NEW YORK, April 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Mercury Records is set to release a new album from the legendary RINGO STARR entitled "Vertical Man" on June 16. The thirteen track album, produced by Mark Hudson (whose co-writing credits include Aerosmith's "Living On the Edge", Celine Dion's "Reason", Hanson's "Where's The Love", and Jon Bon Jovi's "Naked"), features an all-star lineup of guest musicians including Sir Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Steven Tyler, Ozzy Osbourne, Brian Wilson, Stone Temple Pilot's Scott Weiland, Alanis Morrisette, The Eagles' Timothy B. Schmitt & Joe Walsh, Dave Gibbs and Van Dyke Parks. All but two songs were written by RINGO, Hudson, songwriter Dean Grakal and guitarist Steve Dudas. Track listing is as follows: "One", "What In The World" (with Paul McCartney, Joe Walsh), "MindField" (with Alanis Morrisette, Steven Tyler, Joe Walsh and Scott Weiland), "King Of Broken Hearts" (with George Harrison), "Love Me Do" (Beatles fans will appreciate the remake of this Beatles first-ever released single featuring STARR on drums, Steven Tyler on harmonica), "Vertical Man" (with Ozzy Osbourne), "Drift Away" (the Dobie Gray classic with Alanis Morrisette, Steven Tyler), "I Was Walkin'" (with Paul McCartney, Steven Tyler, Alanis Morrisette), "La De Da" (with Paul McCartney, Steven Tyler, Joe Walsh, Scott Weiland), "Without Understanding" (with Brian Wilson), "I'll Be Fine Anywhere" (with George Harrison), "Puppet", and "I'm Yours" (dedicated to his wife Barbara Bach). "For over 30 years, RINGO STARR has been one of the most respected musicians and best-loved personalities in pop music. On this album he has reached a new creative peak and I'm sure everyone who hears it will agree that it ranks among his greatest works," commented Steve Greenberg, Senior VP of A&R, Mercury Records. Over the course of his illustrious career, RINGO STARR has sold over ten million albums worldwide with the release of his nine solo albums: Sentimental Journey, Beaucoups Of Blues, Ringo (the only post-Beatles album to feature are all four Fabs), GoodNight Vienna, Ringo's Rotogravure, Ringo The Fourth, Bad Boy, Stop And Smell The Roses, and Time Takes Time. Previous hit singles include "It Don't Come Easy", "Photograph", "You're Sixteen", "Black Off Boogaloo", "Only You", "Oh My My", and the "No No Song." The last three Beatles Anthology albums (released in 1996-97), went straight to No. 1 on the "Billboard" album chart and garnered the two top ten hits "Free As A Bird", and "Real Love." RINGO STARR and an all-star band featuring Jack Bruce (Cream), Peter Frampton, Gary Brooker (Procol Harem), Simon Kirke (Bad Company, Free), and Mark Rivera (Billy Joel) will embark on a festival tour throughout Europe in August. Dates to be announced shortly. Source: Mercury Records Contact: Lauren Murphy, Vice President of National Media & Artist Relations, 212-333-8511, or Jolyn Matsumuro, 310-996-7298, Senior Director of Media & Artist Relations, both of Mercury Records © 1997, PR Newswire

MAN JAILED FOLLOWING PLOT TO SHOOT PAUL!

"An underworld gang boss known as The Ayatollah has been jailed for 20 years after hatching a plot to gun down Sir Paul McCartney. James Phillips, 32 from Greenwich, South London, wanted one of his gang to shoot the former Beatle so that he could step in to save his life, Phillips was convicted at the end of a two month trial at the Old Bailey yesterday (Thursday) of 16 charges of robbert, attempted robbery and firearms offences, some committed while he was on the run from a previous 11 year sentence."

Stella's show in Paris March 11, 1998

By SUZY PATTERSON PARIS (AP)Stella McCartney brought out babes, ``boys'' and plenty of bosoms Wednesday in her second show for Chloe, from lingerie-like disco styles to tailored trouser suits to naughty necklines. For the disco-queen gals, McCartney created light, summery wear like embroidered slip dresses in satin or chiffon blends, terribly tight and clinging, skirts below knee. Her program cited global warming as a reason for a collection that looks more summery than wintery. And divas or dazzling creatures that women want to appear as at night are another facet of her generation. ``Sexy without aggression,'' she says. The lingerie-wearing disco babes got on well with the opposite side of the coin, the day-wear girls such as McCartney, in the tailored suit she wore to take her bow at the end of the show. The trouser suits McCartney turned out with help from her Savile Row friends were the strongest aspect of the show. Dark gray or Nile green, they had superb tailoring and flashes of satin linings - peach for the light green suit, shocking pink for the deep gray. Lots of bosoms were falling out of dresses - ones with velvet-print decolletes or slinky diagonally-printed dresses worn with satin stiletto boots. See-through blouses and lovely embroidered laces under masculine suits got the line together, in a way, for today's confused opinion - workplace woman or sexpot queen? Stella has not made up her mind, but showed the contrasts well. This show was in a tent in the Trocadero gardens, not the grandeur of the Garnier Opera like last time. But Mum and Pop, Linda and Paul, the former Beatle, applauded their 25-year-old daughter, who dedicated the collection ``to my Mum, consistent to my philosophy of 'mix and match.'''

Linda article from British OK magazine March 1998

Here Comes The Sun

In her first interview since the start of her successful battle with breast cancer, Linda McCartney talks about 30 wonderful years of marriage to Paul, her hopes for their children, her love of animals, and her plans for a bright future ...

Marriages are notoriously short-lived affairs in the fickle world of showbusiness - which is why Paul and Linda McCartney are such an exceptional couple. After nearly 30 years of marriage and Linda's successful two-year battle with breast cancer, their love is stronger than ever, as our exclusive pictures show.

Linda, who's sitting barefoot in the attic room of their Sussex farmhouse home, is constantly surprised by the joy Paul brings to her life. 'I know we're coming up to our 30th wedding anniversary next year, but some days it feels like we've just got together. And I love that. I love it when there's a power cut, no light, no heat and I'm having to cook over an open fire while Paul serenades me on his guitar. I love that simple life.

'Now that the kids have flown the nest, it's meant that Paul and I have become like boyfriend and girlfriend again, doing those little things together that you do when you're first dating ... going to the theatre or just walking hand in hand through the fields. How many married couples of 30 years' standing do you know who wander about holding hands? In some ways, we haven't grown up. I guess it must be love!'

Linda says their relationship has always been like that. 'When Paul was knighted, he said it was great because it meant he got to make his girlfriend a lady. But nobody calls me Lady Linda or Lady McCartney. I'm still just Linda and he's Paul. Sure, it's a real honour for Paul and I'm proud of him, but it doesn't seem real that my boyfriend's a knight - although he's always been a hero.'

The depth of the couple's love became obvious last year with the release of Paul's album _Flaming Pie_. Although he has long written love songs inspired by Linda (_My Love _, _No More Lonely Nights_ and _Maybe I'm Amazed_, to name but a few), the solo album contained two of the most heartfelt and moving ballads he'd ever written, _Some Days_ and _Calico Skies_. Besides earning him some of the best reviews of his career, _Flaming Pie_ also gave Paul the opportunity to record with his guitarist son James for the very first time.

Like all the McCartney children, 20-year-old James is keen to make his own way in the world. 'We're very proud of the way in which all our kids want to do their own thing,' says Linda. 'James is studying architecture now, but neither Paul nor I would be surprised if he moves into music, as he has such a passion for playing.'

'Stella [who's 26] is doing great as a designer, and I love her clothes. We went to her first Chloe show in Paris, and I was just so proud of her and the reaction she got.'

Heather, Linda's 34-year-old daughter from her first marriage to geophysicist Melvin See [the couple married when Linda was 18, right after her mother died in a plane crash], is a potter who's exhibited in New York and London, while Mary McCartney, 28, has inherited her mother's talent with a camera.

'I'm rather complimented that Mary has caught my passion for photography,' says Linda. 'She's been working for various magazines, and one of her photos has been hung in the National Portrait Gallery.'

As everybody knows, the McCartneys are an exceptionally close family. When the children were young, Paul and Linda took them on tour around the world, preferring to keep the family together. And now, even though they are all grown up, the young "Macs" still return to the family home as often as possible.

'We're enjoying life a lot but then we always have,' says Linda. 'I've always said that life is to be lived. I know that a lot of people say that, but I mean it. And I have always meant it. So, yeah, we enjoy ourselves, but as for taking life easy ... no, I'm probably busier than I've ever been.'

And busy she is. In April, Linda's famous range of vegetarian foods will be launching a new product: soya-based, yoghurt-style frozen desserts - 'yogas'. 'I'm making food for all tastebuds, and my intention is to develop meat-free versions of every food we currently get from animals. Going veggie is no longer the preserve of the professional woman in her Saab who shops at Sainsbury's,' says Linda.

'When I started out, my aim was to try and convert the truck driver. Some people thought I was crazy, but I stuck at it. I even went up to a big truck stop near Liverpool and cooked veggie burgers for these guys.'

With spirited approaches like this, Linda McCartney has turned the British diet on its head during the past seven years, with her campaigning, her cookbooks and her ready-made meals. 'All my life I have cared for animals,' says Linda, the daughter of an American showbusiness lawyer.

'As a little girl I was forever filling the house with injured squirrels or birds that needed nursing. And sure, I got angry and upset over the way that we have abused animals, but I have always condemned those groups who have resorted to violence in the name of animal rights. I have never, and will never, support the use of violence in the name of the animals. That just brings our cause into disrepute.

'I know that some people believe I support such groups - there was even a rumour that I funded hunt saboteurs out of my own pocket. That rumour wasn't true and whatever people may suspect, I still believe in that hippy thing of wanting peace, not war. There is a food revolution going on, but it's a gentle revolution.

'Soon after I launched my range, somebody tried to stitch me up by slipping a meat pie into a batch of my meat-free pies. That made front-page news everywhere, and people thought it was a cock-up on our part, that we hadn't got our act together. But it wasn't a cock-up. Somebody, who has since been fired, deliberately tried to sabotage my food in an attempt to create bad publicity. But it didn't work.'

Linda began predicting the current food revolution back in 1989 when _Home Cooking_, the first collection of her recipes, became the world's best-selling vegetarian cookery book. Now, with an estimated 5,000 Brits going vegetarian each week, her revolution shows no sign of slowing down.

There have been setbacks of course - the biggest being Linda's long battle against breast cancer, which took her out of action for 18 months as she recuperated. But even then, she didn't stay idle and set about planning the next stage of her plan to change the way we eat. Having persuaded Britain to eat meat-free, she decided the next move was for 'going veggie to go global'.

With her 38 million pound-a-year food business now established here, Linda is upping the stakes, expanding her UK range from six to 40 products and moving into six more countries by the end of the year. She's also writing her fifth cookbook, which is due to be published in September.

By developing her food line in Germany, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark, Linda is set to treble or even quadruple her annual turnover, to between 110 and 150 million pounds. And, if she takes up offers to create meat-free meals for Japan, Australia and the USA, Linda could even wind up being a bigger money-spinner than The Beatles' albums sales!

Whatever money she has already made from her booming business, Linda spends both wisely and generously. Wisely, she has reinvested profits in her business. 'What I've quietly done over the past couple of years is to take the profit from the food and put it back into the development of new dishes,' she explains.

As for her generosity, Linda has more than once gone all out to save animal lives. In 1995, she paid 3,000 pounds at a pre-Christmas auction to save a champion 28lb turkey from being slaughtered, stuffed and roasted. A few weeks later, nine-year-old Christian Pierce from Lincolnshire was inspired to spend 6 pounds of his pocket money to follow suit and save two turkeys from the Christmas dinner table. Linda said: 'Now that's what matters to me. It warms my heart to think I've influenced a nine-year-old boy to do that.'

Just last year, she paid 15,000 pounds to rescue 60 beagles destined for cosmetic industry experiments in Spain. 'You do what you can and I'm lucky that I can,' she says humbly.

'But saving animals is nothing new to me or to Paul. We've got a couple of cows on our farm that we rescued as calves - they were born while their mother was en route to the slaughterhouse. If we hadn't stepped in, they would have gone from birth to death with literally no life in between.

'We've also got a fine young bull, Ferdinand, who did a runner from a farmer who was taking him to market. The bull broke free and, lucky for him, he just happened to run into Paul, who was driving to his recording studio. Talk about lucky escapes!'

Linda was much in the minds of Fleet Street editors recently with the widely- publicised escape of 'The Tamworth Two'. The pair of runaway pigs from Wiltshire dominated the headlines for a week as newspapers scrambled to raise the money to buy them after the farmer who owned them put a price on their heads of 15,000 pounds. Several papers called Linda to ask if she'd stump up the money, but she was persuaded by her team not to become embroiled in a newspaper circulation war.

'Actually, I'm aiming to save the bacon of a lot of pigs right now,' says Linda. 'One of the secret projects we've been working on is to develop a meat-free bacon that cooks and tastes just like the real thing.

'And that will be a real treat for Paul, because for the first time in more than 20 years, since we stopped eating meat, he'll be able to enjoy a bacon buttie again. He's always said that's one of the things you miss most when you give up meat - a bacon buttie.'

Suddenly, the conversation stops. A robin has settled on the windowsill outside. In one movement, Linda has grabbed her Nikon, focused and snapped it. 'I'm still a photographer,' explains the woman who started as a photojournalist almost 30 years ago by snapping her husband's then-rivals The Rolling Stones for _Town and Country_.

'In the years since I first met Paul, I've had all sorts of labels stuck on me. Now the new label is "businesswoman". Sure, I have this business. But what I am, what I am in myself, is a photographer.'

Thoughout her long but ultimately triumphant recovery from breast cancer, Linda continued taking photographs, and her pictures provided all the artwork, publicity and promotional shots for Paul's last two albums, _Flaming Pie_ and "Standing Stone". In addition, she mounted two large exhibitions of her work at the prestigious ICP in New York and the National Museum of Photography in Bradford, Yorkshire.

Linda also took off to a 13th-century Cistercian Abbey at Romont, Switzerland, where she and her friend, the stained-glass window artist Brian Clarke, mounted a dual exhibition of Linda's photographs, stunningly transformed into beautiful stained-glass windows. 'This is my new passion,' she says, pointing to Clarke's unique windows containing her stunning portraits of artists Willem de Kooning and the controversial Gilbert and George. 'All photography is essentially about light and I love the way light works through this form.'

An exhibition of Linda's work in stained glass is heading for London, with the dates to be fixed for just as soon as she has completed two other urgent projects - her latest, internationally-themed vegetarian cookbook, and "Wide Prairie", a surreal short animated film that she has made with the animator Oscar Grillo, and which is set to a song that she wrote and recorded herself.

'Yeah,' says Linda McCartney, smiling broadly. 'I'm back.'

New Beatles Songs to Be Released????

03-19-98 New Beatles Songs Forthcoming The story below which appeared in billboard.com, was incorrect. According to Matt Hurritz. He was told by both EMI, and sources close to Apple that there are, indeed, no new or unreleased recordings coming, that it was simply a response taken out of context. "What Kirkland meant was that, in the course of their usual business, EMI-Capitol would be releasing whatever product comes down the line, if it does, in 1999. Could be repackagings, etc., could be something else. Nothing new, and it certainly doesn't mean The Beatles are making more recordings."

03-12-98 New Beatles songs??? Even though he would not give any details, a senior EMI-Capitol executive has told Billboard Bulletin that there will be new material coming out next year from the Beatles. "EMI-Capitol and Apple Corp. will release new songs from the Beatles," EMI-Capitol Entertainment Properties president Bruce Kirkland said in an exclusive interview, declaring, "Expect 1999 to be another milestone year for the Beatles." He added that in anticipation of the end of the 20th century, EMI-Capitol "will market the Beatles as 'The Band of the Millennium.' We're prepared for an intensified interest in the Beatles, and we want to re-promote this band to a new audience." Capitol/Apple's three-volume "Anthology" album series sold a combined 6,180,000 copies in the U.S., according to SoundScan.

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