Sir Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney was born in Liverpool on 18th June 1942. He was raised in the city and educated at the Liverpool Institute. Since writing his first song at the age of 14, Paul McCartney has dreamed and dared to be different.

In the sixties, as the writer and co-author of their greatest songs, he changed the world of music with The Beatles. Legendary albums include: Please Please Me, Revolver, Help!, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and The White Album.

Through the following four decades, first with Wings and albums that included Band On The Run and Wings at The Speed Of Sound and then as a solo artist, most recently with his album Chaos & Creation in the Backyard, he has continued to break boundaries and to influence the sound of music around the globe.

Paul McCartney is also an accomplished classical composer. 1991 saw Paul writing his first full-length work of classical music, Liverpool Oratorio. When the double-CD was released, it reached Number 1 in both the US and UK classical charts. In 1997 Paul’s symphonic poem Standing Stone was commissioned by EMI to mark the 100th anniversary of the record company and was given its world premiere at The Royal Albert Hall by the London Symphony Orchestra.

His most recent album Ecce Cor Meum (Behold My Heart) was released in September of last year and was his fourth classical album to date. Ecce Cor Meum had been more than eight years in the making after Anthony Smith (President of Magdalen College Oxford 1998 – 2005) invited Paul to compose something to set the seal on a new concert hall for the college. On November 3rd 2006, Ecce Cor Meum was given its world premiere performance to a sold-out audience at the Royal Albert Hall. Paul received a standing ovation from the audience at the end of the performance.

Equally renowned as a live performer as he is a songwriter, Paul McCartney has spent much of the last five years performing sold out concerts to millions of people all over the world, winning rave reviews along the way. 2003 saw him play to a crowd of over 500,000 outside The Coliseum in Rome and in the same year Paul performed, historically, his first ever gig in Russia when 90,000 people came to see him play in Red Square, Moscow. The following year, in the summer of 2004, Paul headlined the Glastonbury Festival. 120,000 festival-goers gathered to watch what has now become the festival’s most legendary moment. British music bible NME declared, “Spare a thought for Michael Eavis. He could live to host 100 more Glastos and he’ll never top this.” The Observer reports, “His appeal continues to bridge generations.” Later that year Paul is honoured at the NME Awards for his performance on the famous Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury.

On tour in the US in 2005, Paul has another ‘world first’ moment when his performances of English Tea and Good Day Sunshine are beamed live to the International Space Station from his show in Anaheim, California. It becomes the wake-up of the day for NASA astronaut Bill McArthur and Russian cosmonaut Valery Tokarev. It is headline news the following morning in newspapers around the globe.

A freeman of The City Of Liverpool and Lead Patron of The Liverpool Institute Of Performing Arts, Paul McCartney was appointed Fellow of The Royal College of Music in 1995 by The Prince Of Wales. In 1996 Paul McCartney was knighted by H.M. The Queen for his services to music.

Paul is currently working on a number of projects set for release this year. Details to be announced in the coming months.