From the S&S archives: New Wings: Paul McCartney's rock group makes a lot of music, has fun

OFFENBACH, Germany — As if on cue, a small fly landed on the reporter's note pad.

"See what I mean?" said ex-Beatle Paul McCartney, who had been explaining that since selecting Wings as the name of his new rock music group, "I see wings everywhere."

The sloe-eyed entertainer had also pointed out a pack of. French cigarettes that bore a wings insignia and a wings-decorated glass, brought in from a nearby German gasthaus.

Wings had just ended its second concert in Germany, before the Stadthalle here, half of a crowd of about 2,500 fans at which appeared to be Americans.

Although the local promoters sold standing room at reduced cost, the show started with about 100 still outside vainly trying to gain entry.

McCartney 30, says he is pleased with the general reception of the group on its first major tour since forming last winter. "But the Germans had a tendency to sit on their hands last night," he added, referring to his Tuesday night Munich concert.

During a backstage interview with The Stars and Stripes, the breakaway Beatle replied to those critics who claim the millionaire musician is on an "ego trip," citing the new group.

"Sure I'm on an ego trip," he shouted, "I'm not sure I know exactly what they mean by ego trip — that's an absurd, overused term — but if it means `I', then I'm on it!"

McCartney added, "I have to keep functioning and I must do what I do, well. The Beatles are gone. It was a great scene and we went the full circle. So now it's time to get on with it and try something new. Wings is a new thing, and to me there's nothing better than something new."

The Briton likened Wings' current eight-week continental tour to the early days of the Beatles, "We're having a good time." Ironically, the Beatles, which went on to become the greatest money-making group in pop music history, earned their first international fame by performing in Germany.

The dark-haired Liverpool native, whose "long" locks in the early '60s started the longhair trend among males, wore his hair close cropped at Wednesday night's show.

McCartney says there's no real leader of Wings, "There's not an awful lot of hype about it. We don't make it a big deal. We just work together."

His pretty, honey-blonde American wife. Linda, interjected, "The thing is to fool around, make music and have fun. That's what it's all about."

Paul is lead singer and Linda, a former photographer whom he married in March 1969, plays piano and sings. Other members are wild-eyed, jumpin' Henry McCullough on rhythm guitar; Denny Seiwell, drummer and Pennsylvanian Denny Laine on lead guitar.

Wings shows promise in a field already flooded with rock groups.

His own tune, "Give Ireland Back to the Irish," an antiwar song he wrote, is banned in England. But it drew thunderous response from the mostly young people — ages 15 to 30 — at the Offenbach show.

"That song says it for me," explained the superstar. "I love the British Isles, that's my home, and I think those young soldiers being sent to Ireland are great guys — good lads.

"But I'm like a lot of other people, who sort of know that governments don't play fair. It used to be that we criticized the Americans for their involvement in Vietnam. Now my government has turned about and done the same bloody thing in Ireland."

He denied, however, that his new group's name has anything to do with symbolism or freedom — hence the wings. "No one else had it, and we liked it," he said with a boyish grin, "so that's how we got Wings."