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   BILL HARRY. THE PAUL MCCARTNEY ENCYCLOPEDIA

Valentine Day

The third track on Paul's debut album McCartney in 1970, lasting 1 minute and 40 seconds. Paul ab-libbed on the number and recorded it at his Cavendish Avenue home, playing guitar, drums, electric guitar and bass. The final mix was completed at Abbey Road Studios on 22 February 1970.

Vanilla Sky

Paul received a Golden Globe Award nomination for composing 'Vanilla Sky', theme song for the film of the same name. Director Cameron Crowe had approached Paul, who wrote the song in four days. He said, 'All I had to do was watch forty minutes of the film to agree. I saw Cruise acting his heart out, and I thought Cameron Diaz and Penelope Cruz also delivered great performances. It's very exciting being nominated for a Golden Globe.'

He received an award for the song at the seventh annual Critics' Choice Awards, held in Beverly Hills, on Friday 11 January 2002.

He also won an award for the number at the 59th Golden Globes Award ceremony that took place on Sunday 20 January 2002 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Beverly Hills, California.

The song was also nominated for an Academy Award as Best Original Song in 2002 and Paul performed it at the Oscars ceremony, although it didn't win.

When he was told of the nomination, Paul said, 'This is fantastic news, it's a great honour to be considered for an award such as this. We are thrilled and would like to thank all of the people responsible.'

Paul had previously been nominated for an Oscar for 'Live And Let Die' in 1971.

'Vanilla Sky' was in the repertoire of his Drivin' USA tour in 2002 and when he performed the number on stage he was joined by Rusty Anderson on a six-string acoustic guitar and Paul 'Wix' Wickens playing the flute part on keyboard.

Vaughan, Ivan

The friend who first introduced Paul to John Lennon. Ivan was born on the same day as Paul.

Ivan's house in Vale Street, Woolton, backed onto John Lennon's home 'Mendips' in Menlove Avenue and the two were firm friends from an early age and attended Dovedale Primary School.

When John then went to Quarry Bank School and Ivan enrolled at Liverpool Institute, Ivan was in the same class as Paul and they became great friends. It was Ivan who asked Paul to accompany him on 6 July 1957 to meet John Lennon and see his group the Quarry Men perform at the Woolton village fete. They both arrived on their bikes and Ivan took Paul into the village hall where he introduced him to John.

In subsequent years, Paul and Ivan remained in touch with each other, Paul with his success as a Beatle, Ivan with his career as a teacher following his graduation from Cambridge. At one time Paul and John invited Ivan to run an Apple School, but the venture was never realised.

It was Ivan's wife Janet who helped Paul with some of the French words for 'Michelle'.

Tragically, Ivan developed Parkinson's Disease, which is incurable. His courageous fight against the disease came to the attention of Jonathan Miller, who produced a BBC 2 documentary, simply called 'Ivan'. It was broadcast on BBC 2 on 3 December 1984. Paul had also allowed the programme to use his composition 'Blackbird' free of charge.

Paul was devastated by the news of Ivan's illness and invited him to spend Christmas with the family at their home in Sussex that year.

Ivan's book, Living with Parkinson's Disease was published in 1986. He died in 1994.

After Ivan's death Paul began to write poetry. He said, 'I couldn't write a song about somebody dying, so I just started on this poem. It was a farewell, and it went from there.' In his book Blackbird Singing he has a poem simply titled 'Ivan'. This is 27 short lines in length and covers his life from birth to death.

Ivan also inspired Paul's Standing Stone. At a press conference conducted prior to the Albert Hall premiere of Standing Stone on Tuesday 14 October 1997, Paul said that the original of the Standing Stone poem which provided the focus for the symphonic poem, came about following Ivan's death. He said, '"Jive with Ive, the ace on the bass" was his intro when we played together. Ivan was very important to me. Poetry seemed the right way to express what I felt about his death. Later, I decided to write an epic poem that would serve as a framework for Standing Stone. I realised that I wasn't going to wntt a s\-mphocx-work where I had to take a theme and develop it throughout a movement, partly because I simply didn't know how to do that.'

Vaughan, Jan

The wife of Paul's childhood friend Ivan Vaughan. Jan was a French-language teacher and when Paul was composing 'Michelle' he sought her help.

Jan was to say: 'Paul asked me if I could think of a French girl's name, with two syllables, and then a description of the girl, which would rhyme. He played me the rhythm on his guitar and that's when I came up with "Michelle, Ma belle." Some days later, he phoned me up and asked me if I could translate the phrase, "These are words that go together well".'

Paul confirmed this. Soon after writing the song he commented, 'I just fancied writing some French words and I have a friend whose wife taught French and we were sitting around and I just asked her, you know, what we could figure out that was French. We got words that go together well. It was mainly because I always used to think the song always sounded like a French thing, and I can't speak French really, so we worked out some actual words.'

Vegetables

Paul attended a Beach Boys recording session on Tuesday 11 April 1967 and can be heard chewing vegetables on a track called 'Vegetables', which was issued as a track on the Beach Boys album Smiley Smile. This was issued in the US on 18 September 1967 and in the UK on 20 November 1967. It was also suggested that Paul had played bass guitar on 'On Top Of Old Smokey', but this track was never released.

Brian Wilson was to say, 'That was when Paul McCartney came to the session. He was dressed in a white suit with red patent leather shoes. He was very handsome and a little crazy, and I said, "You look good!" He played "She's Leaving Home" for me and my ex-wife, so we got a special trip that night. We were eating vegetables while we were recording, to get the feeling.'

In May 2002 Paul won a radio phone-in Beatles quiz.

He was driving in Los Angeles and turned to the local radio station where disc jockey Chris Carter was hosting a Beatles breakfast show. He asked, 'What Beach Boys song does Paul appear on eating a carrot?'

There were dozens of wrong answers, so a frustrated Paul stopped the car to enable him to telephone the station and give them the correct answer, 'Vegetables'. He won a bag of goodies - signed by Paul McCartney! He told the disc jockey to give them away and then requested that he play 'Here Today', the number Paul wrote in tribute to John Lennon.

Carter was to say, 'It was quite a surprise when Paul called up but this is a Beatles show so we were very honoured. It's nice to know he obviously tunes in. He's very pleasant to talk to and he told us to keep up the good work. There's not many megastars in the world who would do that.'

Vegetarianism

Paul first became a vegetarian following an incident at his farm in Scotland. The family was sitting down to a Sunday dinner of roast lamb when Paul looked out of the window and spotted a small lamb outside.

'It really brought it home that we could probably do without this,' he said. 'Linda is a crazy animal lover, we have lots of pets, and as a kid I used to run around with my Observer Book Of Birds in my pocket.

'So from then on we stuck to eating things where nothing had to lose a life. One Christmas, Linda even managed to make a kind of macaroni turkey: you could cut it into slices just like the real thing.

'I know it sounds a bit corny, but we really value being vegetarians, and it doesn't seem too daft because our place is a nut house anyway!'

On another occasion, Paul said, 'If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian. We feel better ourselves about the animals, knowing we're not contributing to their pain.'

Paul and Linda became patrons of the Vegetarian Society in 1995. Linda commented, 'Being a vegetarian is about life, not ending it,' while Paul said, 'I'm convinced that the vegetarian way is the way of the future for many people and Linda and I are pleased to be a part of it.'

In 1998 National Vegetarian Week in Britain was held in tribute to Linda.

Following the death of Linda, Paul gave his first interview to Juliet Gellatley, the founder and director of Viva (Vegetarians International Voice For Animals) who had persuaded the major supermarkets to stop taking 'exotic' meats such as kangaroo and ostrich. He also presented her with 'The Linda McCartney Award For Animal Welfare'.

He also said, on Linda's death, 'She was unique and the world was a better place for knowing her. The tribute she would have liked best would be for people to go vegetarian.'

Paul is also active in his campaign to promote vegetarianism. During National Vegetarian Week in 1999 a leaflet was issued, 'Go Veggie With Paul McCartney and Viva'. Viva had issued the leaflet, which contained text by Paul and several of Linda's recipes.

Paul wrote, 'Going veggie saves animals and people, protects the environment and is one of the healthiest things you can do. Linda became the spokesperson on vegetarianism largely because she had the time available. I'd be off making music somewhere but in fact she was speaking for both of us - for all our family.

'I really worry that good people around the world might think that we've lost a powerful voice. Well, we have, but my voice is there now and I'm trying to use it.'

He also commented, 'The science is now overwhelming - vegetarians suffer less from a whole string of diseases and they live longer. It is an ideal diet for everyone.'

Talking further about vegetarianism, he wrote, 'It's always been and will always be compassion for animals. That's it! It's respect for our fellow species. We're just another animal yet we think we're so clever, know so much, but what have we done? We're heading towards disaster and won't even acknowledge it. From the biggest to the smallest we have beaten all the other animals into submission. Couldn't we be magnanimous in victory? Isn't it time to see if there's anything they can teach us before we obliterate the whole lot of them and ourselves as well.

'We can't go cramming creatures into battery cages, broiler sheds, pig pens and so on. Where's the compassion? For the sake of the animals, support Viva!'

On National Vegetarian Week that year, he commented, 'It's magnificent that National Vegetarian Week is now in its seventh year. There was a time when you couldn't imagine anything like this happening. Since it began more and more people have made every week vegetarian week and I hope more people will join us and realise the bonus of cooking with kindness.'

The International Vegetarian Union also posthumously awarded Linda the Mankar Trophy in honour of her significant contribution to the cause of vegetarianism. Paul accepted the award in December 1999.

Stella McCartney became a patron of the Vegetarian Society in September 2000, commenting, 'It is a great honour for me to be a patron of the Vegetarian Society, It is a brilliant organisation and you can support them by going veggie now.'

At the Gala Ball and Vegetarian Society Awards on Friday 19 June 2001 at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London, Mary McCartney accepted the Vegetarian Society Achievement award on behalf of her late mother.

Paul wrote a two-page foreword to a 2001 book by Susan Shumaker and Than Shaffel called Vegetarian Walt Disney World And Greater Orlando, which was a guide to vegetarian restaurants in the area. Paul was to write, 'As any travelling vegetarian can tell you, this series has been sorely needed for quite some time. Veggies on the road often have to make a special effort to eat right, what with steak houses and fast-food chains dominating the landscape.'

On 14 September 2001, when the vegetarian group 'Viva!' held their annual conference in Atlanta, Georgia, Paul sent a video he had made especially for them. In it he said, 'There's a whole host of things threatening the planet, but government and big business don't seem to do anything about it. But you can, and you don't need anyone's permission. You can help end the appalling cruelty to animals. You can save the environment, and you can improve your own health, just by going vegetarian.'

According to PETA, 850,000,000 animals are killed annually for food.

They are the Eloi, we are the Morlocks.

However, vegetarians are twice as likely to become anaemic as meat-eaters due to a lack of iron and vitamin B12. B12 is the nutrient that is needed for cells to divide and mature properly and comes mostly from animal foods. Therefore, strict vegetarians who eat no meat or dairy foods need to take B12 supplements or brewer's yeast.

Venus And Mars (album)

The title is supposed to refer to how people relate to star signs, but critics assumed it referred to Paul and Linda.

The album was the first McCartney LP to carry the MPL logo and was the first recorded product by an ex-Beatle not to be issued on Apple.

It was released in Britain on Parlophone PCTC 254 on 30 May 1975 and reached the No. 1 position in the charts. In America it came out on Capitol SMAS 11419 on 27 May 1975 and also reached the No. 1 spot.

Some tracks were recorded at Abbey Road Studios with Geoff Britton on drums, namely 'Love in Song', 'Letting Go' and 'Medicine Jar'.

The band then flew separately to New Orleans, moved into the Latin Quarter and recorded further tracks at the Sea Saint studios.

Geoff had been feeling that both Denny Laine and Jimmy McCullogh had been voicing their dislike of him to Paul. His fears seem to have been borne out, as Paul and Linda came to his room and told him he was no longer a member of the group.

He was to comment in an interview with Chris Welch: 'When I first joined I was promised royalties and we talked in telephone numbers. Then it became session fees and bonuses. But it was a waste to have let such a golden opportunity become such a bad experience. Maybe I should have given Jimmy McCulloch and Denny Laine the pasting they deserved. Maybe Jimmy wouldn't be dead now and we'd all be still in Wings.'

Joe English replaced him and the sessions, which spread from January to April, moved on to the Wally Heider studios in Los Angeles.

When the album was completed there was a celebratory party held on the Queen Mary in Long Beach Harbour with guests who included Michael Jackson, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Cher, Tatum O'Neil, Davy Jones and George Harrison.

The tracks on the album were: 'Venus And Mars', 'Rock Show', 'Love In Song', 'You Gave Me The Answer', 'Magneto And Titanium Man', 'Letting Go', 'Venus And Mars Reprise', 'Spirits Of Ancient Egypt', 'Medicine Jar', 'Call Me Back Again', 'Listen To What The Man Said', 'Treat her Gently', 'Lonely Old People' and 'Crossroads Theme'.

Commenting on their recording part of the album in New Orleans, Paul said, 'The album doesn't sound very New Orleansy to me. I couldn't tell you. It's just your opinion. Everybody says something different about every track anyway. We just wanted to record in America and find a musical city. There's not that many. Only New York, Nashville and Los Angeles and I'd never been to New Orleans, except on tour when we never saw anything except the inside of a trailer. The only thing I remembered about New Orleans was the vibrator bed in the motel. And it was sweating hot.'

Venus And Mars (single)

The single was released with a 'Rockshow' medley and 'Magneto And Titanium Man' on the flipside. The Wings single was issued in Britain on Capitol R6010 on 28 November 1975 and in the US on Capitol 4175 on 27 October 1975 where it reached No .12 in the charts.

It was released in Germany on Capitol 1 C600-97142 and in France on Capitol 2C006-97142.

Veronica

A number co-written by Paul and Elvis Costello, credited to McCartney-McManus (Elvis's real name is Declan McManus). It was included on the Costello album The Spike and also released as a single. The single was issued in Britain by Warner Brothers on 20 February 1989 on a 7" disc (W 7558), a 12" (W 7558T), a 3" compact disc (W 7558CD) and a 5" compact disc (W 755CDX).

Vertical Man

Ringo Starr's album, issued on Tuesday 16 June 1998. It included 'What In The ... World', with Paul on bass and 'La De Da' with Paul on backing vocals.

Videography

A selection of some of the many videos associated with Paul.

1973: James Paul McCartney.

1975: Wings Live In Melbourne.

1979: Rock Show

1979: Back To The Egg.

1980: Seaside Woman.

1981: Concert For Kampuchea.

1982: McCartney Today.

1982: The Cooler.

1984: Paul McCartney: Freeze Frame.

1984: Give My Regards To Broad Street.

1984: Paul McCartney: The Man, His Music, And His Movies.

1985: Rupert And The Frog Song.

1986: McCartney.

1989: Put It There.

1990: From Rio To Liverpool.

1991: Get Back.

1993: Paul McCartney Up Close.

1993:Movin'On.

1997: Standing Stone.

1997: Paul McCartney: In The World Tonight.

1999: Here, There &t Everywhere, A Concert For Linda.

1999: Paul McCartney Live At The Cavern Club.

Virgin Islands

A group of islands in the West Indies. Paul and Ringo hired a yacht called Happy Days when they took a holiday in the Virgin Islands with Jane Asher and Maureen Cox in 1964. While he was on the yacht, Paul penned the number 'Things We Said Today', which was featured in the movie A Hard Day's Night.

The islands were also where the second set of sessions for the London Town album was recorded on a yacht. Denny Laine had the idea after seeing Rod Stewart record on a yacht moored off the California coast.

Paul chartered the Fair Carol and engaged the engineers from Record Plant, who'd arranged the Stewart sessions, to convert her into a floating recording studio complete with a 24-track machine. Accommodation for the twenty-strong party was provided on the El Того, where Paul, Linda and family stayed, and on the Samala and the Wanderlust where Wings, their families and the recording crew stayed. Other bits of necessary equipment were also stowed on these boats. All four yachts were moored in a bay off the island of St John's.

The sessions lasted from 1-31 May 1977 during which time nine tracks were recorded, seven of which were used on the album. Work tended to start at nightfall, as there were naturally too many distractions during the day - sunbathing, swimming and sight-seeing! Everybody had a wonderful time, but as Paul was later to tell Rosie Horide of Beatles Monthly, there were problems. 'The Virgin Islands were really great. The thing was that it's a big problem getting a studio on a boat like that just for a whim. OK, it's a great idea -and a lot of people would like to record on a boat, I'm sure. But the great problem was that we might get out there and find that the salt water had gone for the machines or that the machines just didn't work.'

Wings were also fined $15 by the National Park Commission for breaking the rule: 'No amplified music after 10 p.m.'

Voice

A CD single by Heather Mills, released on Monday 13 December 1999 with Heather on vocals and Paul McCartney on backing vocals and guitar. Paul also produced two dance mixes at his own studio.

Heather had told Paul she was making a record and mentioned she needed a singer. She said, 'Paul said, "I'll do it, love," and I couldn't believe it. I was worried to begin with because I thought he might have felt forced into saying it because he was getting so involved in the charity (Adopt A Minefield). But I know now he would never say something he didn't mean.

'When he offered, I didn't want him to feel pressurised into it but I knew he had done it from the heart and I wouldn't have accepted his help if it wasn't.'

Pinnacle Records issued it in Britain on CODARCD 004.

On the record Heather relates the story of a young girl who is an amputee and the prejudice she encounters.

She recorded part of the single in Greece where her sister Fiona runs the dance-music label Coda in Athens. Nikko Patrelakis produced the track, which also featured violinist Stamos Semsis and pianist Jonathan Elvey. When Heather visited Paul's studio in Peasmarsh he added guitar and backing vocals. He also produced a remix of the track.

There was a press launch for the single at the IMAX cinema in Waterloo, London on Tuesday 23 November 1999, which Paul attended.

A promotional video of the single was screened on which Heather narrated the story of the disabled girl. It was a controversial promotional film because it showed pictures of limbless children intercut with shots of Heather dancing and saying, 'I'm so flexible with my false leg now that I can dance with Michael Jackson,' and then her leg comes off and goes flying across the dance floor.

Voormann, Klaus

The son of a Berlin doctor who, in 1960, drifted into the Kaiserkeller club in Hamburg after hearing an exciting sound. The group on stage was Rory Storm & the Hurricanes, but Klaus was more impressed with the next band to appear - the Beatles. He then brought his girlfriend Astrid Kirchherr and fellow student Jurgen Vollmer to see the group. Klaus became a very close friend of the Beatles and was particularly influenced by the group's bass guitarist Stuart Sutcliffe, to the extent that he became a bass guitarist himself.

Klaus was later to join a band with two Liverpool musicians, Paddy Chambers, former member of Faron's Flamingos, and Gibson Kemp, who'd replaced Ringo Starr in the Hurricanes and later married Klaus's former girlfriend Astrid. The group was called Paddy, Klaus & Gibson and they were initially managed by Tony Stratton Smith, then by Brian Epstein.

Klaus designed the cover of the Revolver album, for which he won a Grammy, and married actress Christine Hargreaves, who was then a regular in the soap Coronation Street. He joined Manfred Mann and over the years became associated with the individual members of the Beatles on various recording projects, including the Plastic Ono Band, with whom he appeared in Toronto, Canada, in 1969.

When Paul instigated the legal action that heralded the end of the Beatles as a business partnership, John and George considered replacing Paul with Klaus.

The Daily Mirror ran a story by Don Short on 20 March 1971 headlined 'The New Beatles' in which the subheading ran: 'John, George, Ringo ... Now Comes Klaus'.

An Apple spokesman commented, 'Paul refuses to return to the group, so what are they to do?'

The name they were to adopt was said to be the Ladders.

The group never came into existence. Klaus recorded sessions for solo projects with John, George and Ringo and in the 1980s returned to live in Hamburg.

He later decided to abandon his career as a musician to concentrate on graphic art and was commissioned to design the Anthology CD covers.

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