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   CLUB SANDWICH 67

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MINING THE FILM AND VIDEO ARCHIVE

Time indeed for another amble through the archive

SILLY LOVE SONGS Club Sandwich 67

            We see Paul, we see Linda, out on tour, travelling in their jet, playing to packed auditoria and stadia in America, their devoted fans singing along with every word, we see the backstage handshakes, the police motor-cycle escorts on the road...
            Truly, some things never change. Because this is not 1993 we're discussing here, it's 1976. And though that may seem like yesterday, it's actually seventeen years ago. [Oddly, in 1976, one thought that 17 years before then, 1959, was aeons back. That's what aging does for you.]
            Watching again the video for 'Silly Love Songs', after all this time, one can't escape the sense that the McCartneys' goldfish-bowl existence has become as familiar to us bystanders as it must be to the McCartneys themselves. Oh sure, some things change - flared trousers, mercifully, are no longer de rigeur, nor are frizzed permed haircuts as frequently visible now in the Western world - but, otherwise, not a lot has altered.
            So, in the 'Silly Love Songs' promo, which is essentially a compilation of film snippets from the 1976 Wings Over America tour, the viewer is given every reminder of a band on the run, Wings style. Paul alights his airplane in yet another US city and is instantly ambushed by an airport staffer wielding an autograph book; Paul and Linda make good their escape from an arena seconds after sounding the last note of the last encore (that then much-discussed track 'Soily', if one remembers right); Paul is subjected to a sea of distant flashbulbs from his adoring audience. Like them, you surely get the picture.
            Although some on-stage footage is included here, the video soundtrack has been dubbed from disc; indeed the song's promo begins with some nicely blatant advertising for the album from whence it came: Wings At The Speed Of Sound, that most democratic of all Wings LPs when Paul stepped back to give Linda, Denny, Jimmy and Joe their opportunity to bask in the limelight.
            There were few TV outlets in 1976 for the screening of promotional videos -MTV, VH1 and the like were perhaps not yet even a twinkling gleam in an executive's eye - but occasional broadcasts did nonetheless support the rise and rise of 'Silly Love Songs' as a single when it was issued around the world in the late spring of 1976.
            In America, indeed, it rose and rose to number one, while in the UK it almost scaled the summit, stalling at number two and being held off the top spot by (for goodness sake) those country yokels the Wurzels and their 'Combine Harvester' threshing of Melanie's once delightful 'Brand New Key'. For neither the first time, nor the 100th, nor the last, the British record-buying public was showing its love of the ridiculous.
            Now, what was that about some things never changing?

GET OUT OF MY WAY & BIKER LIKE AN ICON

            A great deal was accomplished by Paul in the run up to the New World Tour, witness the TV specials Up Close and Movin' On, the private and public rehearsals, the press conferences, the video shoots for 'Hope Of Deliverance' and 'C'mon People', the photo sessions, the radio interviews, and much more besides.
            So perhaps you won't be totally surprised to learn that two more lesser-spotted promo videos were also shot, and in a single day, during that time. The day was 12 January, when Paul And Band took to the soundstage at the edge-of-London Pinewood Studios - familiar to Paul through his filming there of 'Only Love Remains' and other promos over the years - and performed Off The Ground favourites 'Get Out Of My Way' and 'Biker Like An Icon' before the cameras.
            They're straight-ahead rockers put across in a straight-ahead manner, without frills, without anything unnecessarily fancy, with only one aim in mind: to steam on ahead to the end of the song and impress the daylights out of every viewer. Emphasising their musical kinship, the band didn't mime but played live.
            Both clips were directed for MPL by Aubrey Powell, already well ensconced in the making of Movin' On. Indeed, both could be seen in that programme, albeit in edited form. And with smiles in evidence all around, said excellent musicianship, the definite "live" feel and Brian Clarke's NWT backcloths backdropping the stage, these two promos more than served their purpose in readying an awaiting public for the splendour that has followed on stages in Australasia, North America and now Europe.