CLUB SANDWICH 40

CLUB SANDWICH

            As most of you know, Paul is now nearing completion of his new album, set for a spring release. Our next issue will be devoted entirely to its making, complete with background information and exclusive pix. Recently, in anticipation of the album, there have been many media reports about the possibility of Paul's doing a tour. Paul has no plans for any tours at the moment, as he is concentrating on finishing the album, and has made no decision one way or the other. Fun Club members will be kept fully informed should he decide to do any concerts.
            After the runaway success of the Rupert and the Frog Song Video here in the U. K. - it was the No. 1 selling music video of 1985 at the Music Week Awards - there are plans afoot for making a feature length version. It is still all very tentative, so there is no news to report on the project.
            This is a somewhat eclectic issue of the Sandwich, which we hope you will enjoy. Next time we are resurrecting the Guitar Corner feature from past Sandwiches, which was always popular and informative. We will be featuring the famous Hofner Violin Bass, an instrument with a lot of nostalgia for Paul.
            Meanwhile, Linda has become involved in work which links her art to her passionate concern for the environment. In a project for the Council for the Preservation of Rural England, she has been taking photographs of certain threatened areas in southern England, which may become endangered by industrialisation. Other leading photographers involved in this campaign are David Bailey, Lord Snowdon and Donald McCullin. There is also some possibility of Linda's doing a calendar for CPRE in 1987.
            Linda also recently contributed four pictures to a joint exhibition of top London photographers held at the Royal Photographic Society in Bath. She showed her photographic sun prints, which utilise the oldest technique in photographic printing: from natural daylight on to fabric. She's had rave reviews, with invitations to show more of these works in other major galleries.
            Look out for the album issue next time. Remember, if you're moving do try to give us your change of address at least four weeks in advance, along with your old address. Then you'll be sure to get your issue.

            'til next time,
            Sue

Meet EDDIE KLEIN

            Although his family were Londoners, Eddie Klein was born in Leicester in 1943 — "because my mother was there and I wanted to be near her": actually, Mrs. Klein was being evacuated away from the German bombs still ravaging London three years after the Battle of Britain. Eddie grew up near Sadlers Wells, home to a very different type of music from that which he would help Paul McCartney produce in later years.
            Paul has made use of Eddie's talents over the years, but especially since he left EMI's famous Abbey Road recording studios in December 1984 to work full-time putting together Paul's ideal rural studio, where "Spies Like Us" and the new, eagerly-awaited album were recorded. We talked in the Abbey Road canteen while his children Kate and Christopher played quietly in the background -though the former chipped in with "That's going back too many years!" when I asked Dad about his interests at school. Order restored, I found them to be engineering, woodwork and science: "I learned more from my experiments at home than I did from chemistry at school. I made microphones from carbon rods out of an old battery, but when I poured molten lead into the cold battery shell it spattered my face." Another narrow shave was when Eddie made chlorine gas from salt water, using electrolysis. "It reminded me of the swimming pool. In fact, it's highly poisonous, but it didn't do me any harm."
            But alongside E. Klein, apprentice boffin, strummed E. Klein, would-be skiffler. Inspired, like many, by Lonnie Donegan, he progressed from taking his guitar to a music shop for tuning at 1/6d (now 7 1/2p) a time to playing with a group at weddings, technical colleges etc. His brother Alan wrote "What A Crazy World" - later the title song for a play and a film-for Joe Brown, among other hits, and Eddie would sing on his demos, getting to know London's few recording studios in the process. "I've always been intrigued by film and tape. Records I regard as black magic" - good pun, Eddie-"and I was fascinated by chord structures, being much better at the theory of music than I was at the practice."
            Back in the workaday world, MPL's resident boffin had jobs with a scientific instrument manufacturer (briefly), as a draughtsman and in the British Film Institute's film library. Then, in summer 1967, Eddie answered qn advert for an electro-mechanical engineer at the EMI Recording Studios - not called Abbey Road Studios until a certain album had made the address famous - and ended up in charge of all their tape machines. ("Each new machine had more electronics involved than the one before.") It was a year before he felt really comfortable there: "I was a backroom boy, one of the white coat brigade-it freaked me out when I saw the Beatles in the canteen. Then I got close to Geoff Emerick" - a name familiar to McCartney fans - "and some of the others and became a tape operator to get more involved."
            His next step took Eddie Klein still closer to Paul's orbit, as the Apple studios' technical manager, where he got to know more artists and producers. But funnily enough, on his return to Abbey Road some three years later, his first important work was on John and George's early post-Beatles efforts. Then came a "backroom role" on Wings Wild Life, though Eddie's first strong involvement was in the mixing of 1978's London Town; he then helped to mix Back To The Egg the following year. Most of the latter was recorded at Lympne Castle, Kent, but the famous Rockestra session took place at Abbey Road's no. 2 studio ("Paul's favourite") with Eddie in attendance.
            "Then came another phone call, asking me to record the 1979 Wings tour." One consequence is that you don't mention fan heaters in Mr. Klein's presence: "It was EMI's first 24-track mobile recording and I was assured it would be OK to warm up the hired van with a fan heater since the cofd machines were affecting the tape. Then there was a power cut onstage at Edinburgh and I got the blame!"
            Less dramatically, Eddie provided a 16-track machine for McCartney II and knocked up a monitor mixer for Paul to hear his efforts in stereo as he worked. Eddie retains fond memories of the album and of "Wonderful Christmas Time", both of which he edited, though in his words "they're all memorable in their way".
            Did he go to Montserrat for Tug Of War? "No, to Huddersfield — a much better place. I recorded the National Indoor Tug of War Championships for the sound effects at the start of the album." After some administrative work on Pipes Of Peace, Eddie arranged the tape machine and mixing console for the "Eleanor Rigby" sequence at the Albert Hall in Broad Street.
            Why did Paul decide to have his own studio away from London after all this time? "I think previously he didn't want the encumbrance of a studio which he'd have to use to justify its existence. Then he realised that the studio was intrinsic to his work: Paul doesn't want to be restricted by technology. It [the new studio] was well received as it's workmanlike and practical — the decor is all Paul's, though. I'm glad we hedged our bets between analogue and digital equipment, as it has to be compatible with old stuff recorded in various studios."
            In contrast to Paul's normal methods, "Spies Like Us" had to be recorded in a hurry. Did this cause Eddie any particular problems? "I was very tense over possible equipment failures, in view of the deadline." As a well-known perfectionist and a man who knows his way round a studio, was Mr. McCartney demanding to work for? "No. He's very understanding and appreciative as he knows the trials and tribulations involved." Eddie Klein's enthusiasm is surely another reason for Paul's appreciation.
            "Unlike most technical people, I had a strong interest in music. I was thrilled when I heard 'Ebony And Ivory' on a builder's radio in Yorkshire, even though I'd been involved only at the demo stage, and it won't be any different now: I shall be thrilled to hear the next one."

CUFF-LINK

Paul and Eddie Klein aren't just mucking about with that camera, you know. (See above.) Eddie used it to film Paul's tributes to fellow-Liverpudlian Gerry Marsden (shown on British ITV's This Is Your Life) and Peggy Lee (to be shown on American TV in a special to celebrate her 40 years in show business)... If we told you a tale of UKLPs for US and problems with CDs, you might have initial difficulties. In plain English, the Beatles' British albums-quite different to the American issues before Sgt. Pepper - are gradually to be released in America. We suggest you watch the music press, American readers. Certain problems remain to be ironed out before the Beatles' albums can be issued on compact disc, however... Paul's publicist, Bernard Doherty, did the same job for Live Aid, receiving a Special Commendation in the annual Music Week awards and a triple platinum disc for "Do They Know It's Christmas?" from Bob Geldof...The press have been dreaming up some loopy McCartney stories. Just because Paul has been taking regular excerise, this has been taken as evidence that he is getting fit for a forthcoming tour. In fact, this is nothing new: he gave his hobby as running in the 1972 Wings tour programme and told Janice Long about his enthusiasm for exercise in his Christmas radio interview. Also, Paul is not on Daryl Hall's solo album - he was asked, but couldn't spare the time from his own album, now approaching its final stages..."Spies Like Us" is Paul's 100th single in Billboard's Hot Hundred, including 65 with the Beatles, 31 solo or with Linda or Wings, two with Michael Jackson, one with Stevie Wonder and one with Suzy and the Red Stripes. There were also two Beatles EPs: if you don't know what they are ask your Mum and Dad...If any British fans need hospital treatment in the near future, there may be one compensation. Paul has recorded a second interview for hospital radio, at present being edited. Members of the National Association of Hospital Broadcasting Organisations will receive details in the next mailshot...An actor playing Paul circa 1964 appeared in an episode of Joanie Loves Chachi broadcast by London Weekend Television on 2nd February. The American 'Paul' did OK, making Joanie's dreams come true by appearing on stage with her...Prompted by the British Music Industry Awards, Keith Waterhouse wrote in the Daily Mirror on 13th February of the "belief that work shouldn't be fun. Probably if Paul McCartney had made his millions out of exporting dustbin liners he would be Lord McCartney of Liverpool by now." Personally, we're glad Paul opted for the guitar... One of Ralph Steadman's Halley's Comet stamps features the phrase "Twice in a lifetime", since if you live to be 76 or more you may see it twice. There is no connection with the McCartney film song of the same name...Finally, will Suzy please get in touch with Nightfish?