Mike McGear
| Mike McCartney | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Peter Michael McCartney 7 January 1944 Liverpool, Lancashire, England |
| Other names | Mike McGear |
| Occupation |
|
| Years active | 1966–1981 (musician) 1966–present (photographer) |
| Parent(s) | |
| Relatives |
|
| Musical career | |
| Genres |
|
| Instruments |
|
| Labels | |
| Associated acts | |
| Website | Mike McCartney Website |
Peter Michael "Mike" McCartney (born 7 January 1944), known professionally as Mike McGear, is a British performing artist and rock photographer and the younger brother of Paul McCartney. He attended the Liverpool Institute two years behind his brother.
Michael and his brother Paul (born 18 June 1942) were both born in the Walton General Hospital in Liverpool, where their mother, Mary McCartney, had previously worked as a nursing sister in charge of the maternity ward. Michael was not enrolled in a Catholic school as his father, Jim McCartney, believed that they leaned too much towards religion instead of education. At age 17, McCartney started his first job at 'Jackson's the Tailors' in Ranelagh Street, Liverpool. The year after he took an apprenticeship at 'Andre Bernard', a hairdresser for ladies in the same street.
At the time the Beatles became successful, Mike McCartney was working as an apprentice hairdresser. However, he was also a member of the Liverpool comedy-poetry-music group the Scaffold, which included Roger McGough and John Gorman and had formed in 1962 (the year of the Beatles' first hit). McCartney decided to use a stage name, so as not to appear to be riding his brother's coattails. After first dubbing himself "Mike Blank", he settled on "Mike McGear", "gear" being the Liverpudlian equivalent of "". The band was subsequently signed to Parlophone.
The Scaffold recorded a number of UK hit singles between 1966 and 1974, the most successful being the 1968 Christmas number one single, "Lily the Pink". McCartney composed the band's next biggest hit, 1967's "Thank U Very Much". In 1968, he and McGough released a "duo" album (McGough & McGear) that included the usual Scaffold mix of lyrics, poems, and comedy. The Scaffold ended up hosting a TV program, which limited the musical portion of their career, and they were dropped by Parlophone. McCartney then signed to Island Records and released a solo musical album entitled Woman in 1972—
sample —which again included many tracks co-written with McGough, and the Scaffold subsequently released their own album on the label, Fresh Liver.
...
Wikipedia