Here's the transcribed Ottawa Citizen article, Kev:
A new biography on Paul McCartney — shown here at the Canadian Tire Centre in 2013 — suggests a bass guitar that was stolen years ago may be in Ottawa. David Kawai / Ottawa
Paul McCartney’s stolen violin bass may be in Ottawa, hidden by a mysterious Macca fanatic known as “The Keeper.”
It sounds outlandish, but the possibility that Sir Paul’s missing bass guitar is somewhere in Ottawa is raised in a massive new biography titled Paul McCartney: The Life by Philip Norman.
The instrument, as much a part of the Beatles’ early image as mop haircuts and cuban-heeled boots, was played by McCartney throughout the Cavern Club era in Liverpool. Made by the Hofner company, the bass was stolen from the band’s Get Back/Let It Be sessions in 1969. Its whereabouts remain unknown — until now, presumably.
There were actually two violin basses. The first, bought by McCartney in Hamburg in 1962 is the missing instrument. In 1963, Hofner gave McCartney an improved model as a reward for making the brand world famous. McCartney still plays the 1963 model at concerts, as he did at his 2013 show in Ottawa. It is insured for more than $4 million.
The older instrument, referred to as “the Cavern bass” by Beatles historians, has never been recovered. The notion that it’s in Ottawa seems as out-there as the Paul-is-dead hoax started by U.S. college students half-a-century ago.
Yet in the book, Norman relates how new information about the Cavern bass came to him from a trusted source — a Liverpool taxi driver named Peter Hodgson.
Hodgson, whose father and uncle lived near the McCartney family in Liverpool, has been trying to track down the Cavern bass for years, Norman writes.
“Recently, he’s e-mailed me that he may have located it in Ottawa, in the possession of someone who was not the thief. This personage, with a Tolkien-esque flourish, calls himself ‘The Keeper,’ suggesting the guardian of some sacred relic, rather than a possessor of stolen goods who expects someday to return it to its rightful owner.”
Norman goes on that McCartney “has always paid big money for mementoes of his early career — which often belonged to him in the first place — and for one as iconic as this, the sum involved would clearly be astronomical.”
Hodgson is not looking for money from McCartney, he writes. “Hodgson seeks no monetary gain, just the joy of seeing the Cavern bass in action again …”
Norman passed on “The Keeper” tip to McCartney when the two met face-to-face in late May 2015 at a McCartney concert in Liverpool. It was the only time he spoke directly to Paul while writing the book over two-and-a-half years.
As Norman outlined his tale of the Cavern bass, “how 46 years after its theft from the Get Back/Let It Be sessions, it has apparently turned up in Ottawa in the possession of someone who wasn’t the thief and on whom it bestows an almost mystical aura,” McCartney responded with scepticism.
“Inured though he is to hardcore Beatlemania weirdness, he seems amused by the concept of ‘The Keeper.’ ”
Norman goes on, “Well, he’s got it and … he seems to want to return it.
“My words are echoed with (McCartney’s) derisive laugh: ‘He’s got it!’
Norman is “left wondering whether my great reveal has made any impression at all.” But as McCartney moves on, “his security director sides up with a mobile (cell) phone to take further details.”
The Ottawa connection may be one more wrong turn on the long and winding road to the Cavern bass, but it’s intriguing nonetheless.
Stuart Bell, McCartney’s media spokesman, was circumspect in an e-mail exchange with Postmedia about the stolen guitar. “Will see if I can find anything out!” Bell wrote with no elaboration.
Norman’s publishers in New York have not responded to Postmedia’s requests for an interview with the author.
Attempts to contact Peter Hodgson on social media have so far been unsuccessful.
And if “The Keeper” is in Ottawa, he’s harder to find than authentic poutine.
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