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1972 WINGS TOUR BUS VIDEO

Enjoy this excellent compilation of video footage to the soundtrack of Sir Paul’s Yesterday.

 

 

PAUL McCARTNEY & WNO 481

“We knew we were going to tour in Europe and that the weather would be nice, and the idea of being stuck in a bus all the time, going from city to city, hotel to hotel, wasn’t too appealing so we decided to travel around in an open-top bus and get some sunshine as we travelled from one place to another.”

– Paul McCartney.

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The first show of the European tour was booked for a deliberately out-of-the-way location – a 2,000-seat Roman amphitheatre at Châteauvallon, high in the pine-forested hills above Toulon on the south-eastern coast of France. Here, before the gig, on Sunday, 9 July 1972, Paul gave an informal press conference. ‘I’m starting all over again and working my way upwards,’ he accepted. ‘You don’t fight Cassius Clay on your first time out.’ He hinted at his recent crisis of confidence and the worry of being smothered by the weight of his reputation:

‘A year ago, I used to wake up in the morning and think, I’m a myth. I’m Paul McCartney. And it scared the hell out of me.’ “We painted the outside psychedelic, like a magic bus,” McCartney says of their tour transport on that halcyon trip. “If you look at it very straight, very conventionally, it was quite a mad thing to do, to put a playpen on the top deck of the bus and put all the children in there while driving around Europe. It was not what you’d expect from a normal band. But we weren’t a normal band.”

 

WNO481 Paul McCartney's 1972 Wings Tour Bus
WNO 481 Paul McCartney's 1972 Wings Tour Bus

 

Paul McCartney’s Wings Achievements

Paul McCartney’s Career Achievements

WNO 481 PAUL McCARTNEY 12,000 KM’s

Paul McCartney, Wings & WNO 481 travelled 12,072 kilometres, 7,500 miles to do 25 concerts in 25 cities in 9 countries across Europe.

Paul McCartney's 1972 Wings Over Europe Tour Map

The restoration of Paul McCartney’s 1972 Wings Tour Bus WNO 481 in song titles.
When people are happy in their work they might break out in song. Well, we put together a few song titles while we worked. Hope you enjoy them:

 

RESTORATION IN SONG TITLES

I SAW HER STANDING THERE and I thought with ALL MY LOVING we couldn’t just LET IT BE and LIVE AND LET DIE. WNO 481 has has many’s A HARD DAY’S NIGHT with all those DAY TRIPPERs YESTERDAY. WITH A LITTLE LUCK and WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS WE CAN WORK IT OUT. ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE and even if money CAN’T BUY ME LOVE if I can make them COME TOGETHER though it may take EIGHT DAYS A WEEK for a while we will all pitch in to HELP. So, when WNO 481 can once again say I FEEL FINE we’ll know that IT WON’T BE LONG before we’re calling out HEY JUDE, WHY DON’T WE DO IT IN THE ROAD, the ABBEY ROAD and head off on another MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR on THE LONG & WINDING ROAD to PENNY LANE and we’ll take along a BAND ON THE RUN. Our restoration tells WNO 481 you deserve another TICKET TO RIDE to GET BACK to where you once belonged, the future.

– Tom and The 1972 Wings Tour Busketeers

 

FBHVC WNO 481 PARTNERSHIP

We are delighted to announce a partnership with FBHVC – The Federation Of British Historic Vehicle Clubs.
1972 Wings Tour Bus WNO 481 - FBHVC Articles

Click to play the soundtrack plus interviews with Paul McCartney and others who were there.

1972 Wings Tour Bus WNO 481 - FBHVC Articles

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INVITATIONS & HONOURABLE MENTIONS

Here is just a selection of the invitations and honourable mentions that WNO 481 Paul McCartney’s 1972 Wings Tour Bus has attracted.

July / August 1972 Wings Over Europe

WNO 481 is THE bus that Paul McCartney customised for his first major tour without The Beatles after their break-up in 1970.

By 1972 with The Happening at Woodstock in 1969 still ringing in everyone’s ears Paul got himself a double-decker open-top bus and turned it into Macca’s Mother Ship by having it painted in a ‘Woodstock on Wheels peace and love’ psychedelic design. He then set off with family and band on board to kick-start loud and proud the legendary Wings phase of his musical life and continue his amazing streak of writing and performing songs that would ultimately make music / rock and roll history. 25 concerts in 25 cities in 9 countries in Europe. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wings_Over_Europe_Tour.

Our amazing bus combines 67 years of beautiful classic automotive transport of the people design heritage, coming up to 50 years of music / rock and roll history on wheels and time-capsule Beatles Magical Mystery Tour Yellow Submarine inspired artwork painted by the renowned Geoffrey Cleghorn, friend of Pink Floyd, The Who, The Stones et al. Also involved with setting up the bus was Paul’s Tour Manager Tom Salter, owner of the Gear boutiques of Carnaby St and Kings Road fame.

Paul McCartney, the biggest pop/rock star on the planet, really did give WNO 481 its Wings, thus creating a true inter-national treasure and Legend Of Rock & Road.

Just months after the tour, in October 1972 Paul recorded tracks for the upcoming Red Rose Speedway album which contained the classic My Love. In the same sessions they recorded James Bond theme song Live and Let Die. It is a tantalising thought that Paul McCartney, the most successful songwriter of all time, may have found inspiration on 1972 Wings Tour Bus WNO 481 whilst writing one or more of his songs.

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