JM story I wrote - DM's Beatles forums

Hey everybody,

I wrote this JM biography-interview piece a couple of months ago. The quotes are actual quotes from Jimmy. Enjoy

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�For me, the best part about music is touring. Yes, I do prefer being on the road to being in the studio. I love going out and giving something back to the fans who buy our records and support us you know,� Jimmy McCulloch said from his dressing room as he tuned his Gibson SG. McCulloch, 23, is the lead guitarist of Wings, having joined them after being recommended to Paul McCartney. McCulloch explains, �The first thing we did was in Paris and it developed from then. That was after Band on the Run. I was at the mixing of Band On The Run, but it was only a couple of times. I first heard about it through their old sound man, Ian Horne, who said �the band is talking about getting another guitarist and they're thinking about you.� Then I did Mike McGear's album and it was during that they asked me to join. It wasn't like an audition, they knew me, they'd heard me before, I wasn't doing anything so it was perfect. I knew I would learn a lot from playing with Wings. It would be good experience, just everything. Now I listen to the other people in the group. I kinda think, I'm not going to play and all I can hear is myself. We're into complementing each other, y'know really listening and feeling who's playing what.�

McCulloch's role in Wings is typical of a lead guitarist although he dabbles with bass and pedal steel as well. Live he uses an SG and a Strat, plus an Ovation for the acoustic numbers, with a spare for each. Like most people, he isn't crazy about Ovations, but recognizes their convenience value, and the fact that they can be easily d.i.'d to the mixing board. In the studio he also plays a 12-string Zemaitis and a Martin D28. As for the rest, there's a Crown which he splits with Denny Laine, plus an Olympic pre-amp, Marshall cabinet and a 2 x 12" Fender Bandmaster which he's had souped up. Effects-wise he again doesn't like to over-complicate: there's a wah-wah and a volume pedal, and that's about it. "I just like plain sounds. I'm not that keen on weird stuff because it's not necessary in what we play in the band. I do it on my own - I've got Ech-plexes and Binsons and that, but live all that's taken of through the PA. The sound engineer's in control. It takes a lot off your mind, it's something less to worry about and you can concentrate on what you're playing more if you don't have to think I've got to be at that spot to hit that button at such-and-such a time'. It's OK for bands whose players just stand in one place and don't move all night. But we like to wander around and have a bit of a laugh, and that's what we try and generate to the people."

Inspired by the Shadows at age 11, McCulloch picked up his first guitar and soon began playing in local bands. At 13 the pint sized teenager joined a band called One in a Million, a name McCulloch thought of himself because he thought his mates were �one in a million� The group released a single, Fredereek Hernando/Double Sight before splitting up through lack of funds which McCulloch deemed was just ridiculous. After One in a Million, he met Who guitarist Pete Townshend and cut a few demos at Townshend's place. It was there that the group Thunderclap Newman was formed. McCulloch recalls, �I met Speedy (Keen) and Andy (Newman) came round a couple of times. We just got together one night and made a recording. It was rather strange really. Then we did Something in the Air, and then we did the Hollywood Dream album.� Shortly after the release of the album, Thunderclap Newman �fell apart� according to McCulloch. �We hadn't been together long enough to play on stage. We were three characters thrown together. It was all down to Pete and he couldn't look after three groups.�

Having been in the music business since he was 13, McCulloch has had his fair share of ups and downs. �I had to rely on cabs and public transport. I went for a Jethro Tull audition on the tube once. I had to struggle on the train with my guitar jammed upright. Then it turned out I was too young.�

Soon after Thunderclap Newman, McCulloch was recruited by John Mayall to join his band. �He phoned on a Thursday and I was on stage on Sunday night. There were no rehearsals. Sunday afternoon we went down to the gig played a few 12 bars and he said, 'Right that'll do.' It's all right if it's that easy but if you've got songs to do you've got to work. It was great fun.� McCulloch followed the footsteps of Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor and Peter Green who played with Mayall. McCulloch's guitar playing improved by leaps and bounds because �Mayall made me play better because of that reputation he's got and I thought right I've got to prove myself.� The gig with Mayall only lasted a month before Stone the Crows came calling after their guitar player Les Harvey tragically died after being electrocuted onstage. �I was with Stone the Crows for a year but I never really made an album with them. It was a good road band.� When lead singer Maggie Bell left to pursue a solo career, it was McCulloch who wanted to keep the band alive and find another lead singer. �We had the name, three of us had played with John Mayall. Colin (Allen, drummer), Steve (Thompson, bass) and Ronnie (Leahy, keyboards) so we had a tight band after a year.� Ultimately financial pressures and the lure of other work tore the band apart. McCulloch had written about 5 songs for the next Crows album before the split.

All together McCulloch thinks he has half a dozen songs that are �just drifting�. To aid him in composing and recording ideas for songs, he has a Wurlitzer electric piano and a Roland rhythm box. The latter being a mechanical device, sounds too regulated to take the place of a real drummer. What he does, therefore, is to mix it with a snare drum of his own toprovide a certain amount of variation. �All the guitar stuff has really come out of my head, 'cept for maybe some part that's really a line in the song. So I like to sit down and listen to a song, and what comes out depends on how I'm feeling. An extension of your personality, that's what your guitar is. Instead of putting it into words you just say it through your instrument.�

He played me a tape he had made at the age of fourteen with a singer up in Glasgow, some
ten years ago, and the freshness and power of the sound was quite extraordinary. He has tapes from every period since then, but most of it is just sec�tions of songs. "You get so far that you end up with nothing," he explained. "It's all bits and pieces, but you don't follow it through. I could go back to something years later - dig it out, and think - great! But to try and re-create that is another thing."

He put another tape on: "This is a little thing I did on my own, again. I played the drums and the bass. It's just an instrumental: there's a few guitar tracks on here, but it's not mixed at all. That's where I left it, and I just come back to it now, and again."

After Stone the Crows, the 19 year old guitarist signed a contract with Robert Stigwood and joined Hugh Nicholson's band Blue. That didn't last long however. � I went to Germany and did some gigs. Four days in a club, a festival with Chuck Berry and The Faces. I'd be dressed up ridiculous and they'd all walk on wearing jeans. From the start I was the odd one out. I just didn't fit in.�

McCulloch was in the process of working on a solo album when Paul McCartney came calling. �I never thought I'd get the chance to play with McCartney. I mean he used to be a Beatle and it was like some sort of a dream and he was talking to me like I mattered.�