CLUB SANDWICH 73

            The first radio programme was compiled over the following weeks and we went back into the studio to record Paul's between-item links. This session ended up in hysterics, Paul holding multi-character, multi-voice anecdote-crammed conversations with himself, doodling on the guitar and discussing his musical tastes.
            On completing this first show the blueprint had been set for the series, since when an enormous amount of time and effort has gone into the production of many more Oobu Joobu programmes. They're exciting, they're innovative, they're very unusual. You'll get to hear odd bits of music, weird bits of interview, off-the-wall audio collages and never-before-heard Paul McCartney music - demos, unreleased studio tracks, the lot.
            If you're thinking that this sounds very exciting, you're right. If you're thinking "But I never heard about this before", you're right again. Oobu Joobu has been one of Paul's best kept secrets, conceived and assembled over more than 20 years with not a single word mentioned about it in the media.
            Don't worry about my arithmetic, by the way, because I've not miscalculated. While it's true that it's 14 years since I first got involved with the delightful Oobu Joobu, the series has been on the blocks for much longer. One of the unreleased songs we air in the series, actually called 'Oobu Joobu', was first recorded by Paul around 1973.
            So, Ladies and Gentlemen, after something like 22 years in the making it's about to come your way: Oobu Joobu, the radio series -with a difference. As we go to press plans are afoot for it to premiere on coast-to-coast US radio in the coming months. To paraphrase the late Joe Orton, it's time to prick up those ears!

MEET EDDY PUMER

            Paul McCartney has needed a special person to put together his Oobu Joobu. Someone who could keep the project secret, working effectively but quietly. Someone who, as a musician himself, has an affinity not just for Paul's music but for all music. Someone who can be trusted and who knows enough about radio to make the project come together with that medium firmly in mind.
            Paul found the man, and Eddy Pumer is his name. His is the job that thousands, if not millions, will envy: the man with access to the riches of Paul's tape archive, who has been given licence to enter therein and select some pearls for the world to savour.
            It's a position of no little responsibility, and it could scarcely have gone to a nicer man, for Eddy Pumer is a rarity in what has become a somewhat cut-throat, corporate business. He is an honest, hard-working, polite individual, dedicated to his work and to music, and liked by all.
            He even appeared once on Top Of The Pops, and you can't say fairer than that.
            This was when Eddy was guitarist/songwriter with a British band called Fairfield Parlour. They had previously been known as Kaleidoscope, releasing what might be loosely labelled as "psychedelic music" on singles and albums which, remarkably, now sell on the collectors' market for somewhere in the region of Ј20 and .Ј100 respectively.
            This cult status did little for the band at the time, however, and they broke up. Pumer moved into radio, joining London's Capital Radio around the time of its 1973 launch. Here he produced music sessions by visiting bands, and DJ programmes for the likes of Kenny Everett, Alan 'Fluff' Freeman and Tony Myatt, and helped launch the career of Kate Bush by being the first producer to broadcast and champion her debut single 'Wuthering Heights'.
            Eddy left Capital in the early 1980s and joined Music Box, the pan-European version of MTV, as music director, then returned to Capital for three more years, producing Chris Tarrant and other DJs and a series of programmes featuring George Martin.
            Life got particularly interesting in 1986, when Eddy Pumer was invited by the rock guitarist Duane Eddy to help produce his next album. Eddy Pumer had known Duane Eddy for some years and had been a fan for much longer — which is why his first name is spelled E-D-D-Y (and why this paragraph is such a confusing read). Mr Pumer (it's probably easier to call him this) promptly put Mr Eddy (ditto) in league with a hot combo of the day, the Art of Noise, and this unlikely collaboration resulted in a high-tech revival of Duane's classic 'Peter Gunn' — a top ten smash.
            Other sessions took the guitarist and his producer to play with George Harrison and Jeff Lynne and then, thanks to Mr Pumer's Oobu Joobu connections, down to Paul McCartneys studio for a rebel rousing re-recording of Paul's 'Rockestra Theme'. So successful was this that the track was the lead single off the album, released by Capitol late in 1987. "It was a wonderful session," enthuses Mr Pumer. "Paul wrote a new middle-eight for the track, in order that Duane could pluck on that famous E string. We all had a lot of fun, and then went back again the next day to see Paul mix it. It was quite a thrill."
            After four years at another of London's commercial stations, Melody Radio, Eddy is now freelance, composing music for TV commercials, TV programmes and for his wife Roberta's educational and charity videos.
            And, of course, there's Oobu Joobu, which has been keeping Eddy Pumer particularly busy of late. A self-confessed McCartney fan who names such relatively obscure tracks as 'Let Me Roll It', 'The Other Me' and 'Little Lamb Dragonfly' among his favourites, and who saw Wings in concert several times, Eddy Pumer is thrilled to be working so closely with Big Mac. "Paul is one of the great entertainers," he says. "He hasn't lost anything; he's gained more and more. All that incredible music and great energy...even when I hear Paul doodling in the studio with a guitar something magic comes out of it.
            "I'm a very lucky guy because I'm working not only with music, my first love, but with the very person who, to me, is the finest composer in popular music. Every time I hear 'For No One' what few hairs I still have on the back of my neck stand-up. Paul's contribution to the music industry is incalculable, and to be working on Oobu Joobu is a dream come true.

MARK LEWISOHN

Left: Eddy Pumer (front centre) with Paul, Duane Eddy and fellow Rockestra revivalists, 1987. Above: EP and Kate Bush, 1978.