Welcome to The Beatles Rarity Of The Week.

By the end of 1971, Paul McCartney had a new band. The first Wings album was released on December 7th of that year and after the addition of a fifth member, Henry McCullough, the band was ready to take it on the road. The new album was called Wild Life and in order to capture the spontaneity of live performances on the record, five of the album’s eight tracks were first takes. Newcomer Henry McCulloch joined Wings late in 1971, after the album’s sessions and had previously been a guitarist with Gary Wright’s band Spooky Tooth. Now joining forces with bassist/guitarist Denny Laine (ex-Moody Blues), drummer Denny Seiwell and the McCartneys, WIngs was now up to full touring strength.

Wings Over Europe van, 1972

The first part of the tour kicked off in the U.K. in February 1972, making this the first tour to include an ex-Beatle, since The Beatles themselves toured. Paul and the band certainly didn’t think this was any reason for reminiscing though. There was not one Beatles cover performed on the tour, driving home the point that Wings was a new band in it’s own right. The U.K. dates were mainly universities (Nottingham, Leeds, Hull to name a few). For the second part of the 1972 tour, the band had acquired a customized van with which to tour Europe in July and August.

This week’s BROW gives us the show opener at the Pavilion in Montreux, Switzerland on July 22, 1972. Bip Bop, with composition credits by both Paul and Linda McCartney hailed from the new Wild Life album. There is also an acoustic version of Bip Bop by only Paul and Linda (and young daughter Stella giggling in the background) that is heard on the Wingspan compilation (see Amazon link below for more info). Although the recording from this show is not of soundboard quality, it still gives us a good idea of the energy behind Paul’s new band in these early days.

Paul McCartney & Wings in 1972 (L-R): Denny Laine, Denny Seiwell, Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, Henry McCullough

Want to make a suggestion for a future Beatles Rarity of the Week? If so, I will do my best to deliver, so let me hear from you. To browse for ideas, check out this search-able listing of thousands of Beatle-related recordings to choose from. Then let me hear from you here.

Here are some Amazon links to read more on, or purchase, some music related to this post:

1) Wings Wild Life
– CD remaster of the first album by Wings, including the original studio recording of Bip Bop

2) Wingspan (Hits & History)
– Hits and History 2-CD compilation of Paul McCartney/Wings era key tracks, including an acoustic recording of Bip Bop by Paul and Linda McCartney

3) More Amazon links for any of your favorite Beatles-related music: The Beatles, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

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