Ep. 33: The Day I Met Macca

It’s not every 17-year old who gets the chance to interview Paul McCartney for three hours, especially at the point, back in early 1982, that Macca had barely been heard from publicly since the assassination of his former Beatles band mate John Lennon on that tragically book-marked day of December 8, 1980. That 17-year old was your One Step Beyond host, Tony Fletcher, and the story you will hear on this Episode, The Day I Met Macca, ties in to two of his ongoing book projects.


One is The Best of Jamming!: Selections and Stories from the Fanzine That Grew Up 1977-1986, and it comes out on September 23rd in the UK and November 25th in the USA. The Paul McCartney interview referred to in this short story was published at the time in Jamming!, which was started by Fletcher back at school in the late 1970s, and is reprinted verbatim in this new compendium. In fact, if you squint at the logo for this particular episode of One Step Beyond on your phone, you should be able to see Fletcher holding up a reprint of the McCartney interview from the a hot-off-the-presses copy of The Best of Jamming.


The second project is the sequel to Fletcher's memoir Boy About Town, which detailed those formative years growing up in South London in the 1970s, as a kid transformed by punk and new wave. The Day I Met Macca is an edited extract of a full chapter from that sequel, publication date to be determined.


The Best of Jamming! will be launched with its own podcast series, featuring conversations with former contributors and interviewees. Consider this short story a teaser for the upcoming books and the associated podcast.


Oh, and if you were wondering why One Step Beyond failed to publish a new episode this August, it's not because we spent the month on the beach. Rather, your host found himself in Intensive Care - the subject, no doubt, of a future Episode, and another reason this current Episode may feel like a detour from the usual outdoors/travel/health/athletic subject matter.


The Best of Jamming!: Selections and Stories from the Fanzine That Grew Up 1977-1986 is available through all good bookshops or order online from outlets such as:

UK:

UK.Bookshop.org

hive.co.uk

Waterstones.com

Omnibus Press

US:

Bookshop.org

Indiebound.org

Barnesandnoble.com

And yes, if you must, from Amazon.


More information about Boy About Town and Tony's other books here.


Questions/comments/suggestions/free beer? Use this e-mail Onestepbeyond@ijamming.net, where you can also subscribe to the newsletter.


The One Step Beyond website is here.


Or, find One Step Beyond on social media at:

Instagram is OneStepBeyondPodcast

Facebook is One Step Beyond with Tony Fletcher

Twitter is OneStepBeyondP1


Incidental music is by Noel Fletcher


And your host can be found here:

tonyfletcher.net




Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.