## Paul McCartney & Wings Rehearsals 1975 {{< MultiGalleryComponent galleries="c-wings-rehearsals-1975" >}} One of the artists attending the Led Zeppelin 1975 Earl’s Court shows was Paul McCartney and his wife, Linda McCartney. Paul was planning his first tour since the Beatles with his new group, Wings, to be called the Wings Over the World Tour, and he was blown away by the sound and lighting at the Led Zeppelin shows, especially John Bonham’s drum sound. In the fall of 1975, we received a call from Paul McCartney’s manager asking if I would come to England to meet Paul and Linda at the studio where they were rehearsing and discuss possible solutions to some problems they were having with the sound system they were renting from a local English sound company. They were especially unhappy with the stage-monitor system. I flew to England to meet with McCartney, and I was met at the airport by a fully uniformed chauffeur driving a Rolls-Royce. I was driven to Elstree Film Studios outside London, where McCartney and Wings were in rehearsals. Needless to say, I was in awe of the whole experience, not least of all getting to meet Paul McCartney in person. The Rolls-Royce was pretty cool too. I remember it had a bar in the back seat. {{< StoryImage id="showco-1975-wings-rehearsals-002-wings-rehearsals-75" caption="Paul McCartney’s Rolls Royce that picked me up from the airport 1975." credit="Rusty Brutsché Archive" size="large" >}} I met with Paul and Linda and the other band members and listened to them play some songs. Their monitor system had a loud hum in the speakers probably caused by a ground loop somewhere in the system. I told Paul that we could build them a monitor system that would sound great and most of all not have any hums. We agreed that I would return to Dallas and get the equipment together then return to England with the equipment and a crew. When I returned to Dallas, I discussed my visit with Maxson and we designed a monitor system for Wings that used primarily the M4 speakers and BFM100 floor monitors and we specified our new Stevenson Interface Electronics monitor console with 30 inputs and eight separate output mixes. We shipped the equipment to England to Elstree studios for McCartney and Wings to use for continued rehearsals. And I flew over with a road crew that included monitor engineer and crew chief Morris Lyda who would setup and operate the new monitor system for the rehearsals.

{{< StoryImage id="showco-018-wings-rehearsals-75" caption="Paul and Linda McCartney Wings Rehearsals 1975." credit="Rusty Brutsché Archive" size="medium" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-1975-wings-rehearsals-024-wings-rehearsals-75" caption="Paul McCartney Wings Rehearsal 1975." credit="Rusty Brutsché Archive" size="medium" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-1975-wings-rehearsals-022-wings-rehearsals-75" caption="Linda McCartney Wings Rehearsals 1975." credit="Rusty Brutsché Archive" size="responsive" >}}

## Paul McCartney & Wings Europe Tour 1976 {{< MultiGalleryComponent galleries="1975-wings-europe-tour" >}} The rehearsals went well and Paul McCartney’s manager hired Showco to provide all of the production including sound, lighting, stage sets and rigging for the remaining legs of the 1976 Wings Over the World Tour. The band had already completed the first two legs of the tour in 1975 in the UK and Australia where they had played small venues so the members of Wings could get used to playing together as a band. The first leg of the 1976 tour was going to be a short European tour of five shows in four cities from March 20-26, 1976. We hired Ian Knight, who had been the designer for the 1975 Led Zeppelin tour, to be the production designer for the Wings tour which included designing the lighting rig and the stage sets. Ian was a very experienced designer with a background in the theater. Jack Maxson was going to be the sound engineer and crew chief and be responsible for mixing the sound for all of the shows and for supervising recording all of the shows in the US on our new Studer 24 track tape machine. We shipped a Showco four-way sound system to Europe for the five shows. Ian Knight designed the lighting rig for the European shows and we used a local company to provide the lighting equipment under the guidance of our Showco lighting director, Ted Tittle.

{{< StoryImage id="showco-1975-wings-rehearsals-009-wings-rehearsals-75" caption="Ted Tittle, Paul McCartney’s lighting director 1976. Ted was an extremely talented lighting designer and he tragically was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1981." credit="Rusty Brutsché Archive" size="responsive" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-1975-wings-europe-tour-019-wings-europe-75" caption="Paul McCartney & Wings stage setup at Piazza San Marco, Venice, Italy 1976. Robin Magruder Comment: I specifically remember the problems that were encountered due to the Piazza’s weight limits, sensitive architecture and historical significance. And I remember the stage and roof design that cheekily evoked a nun’s habit!" credit="Photo Jack Maxson" size="medium" >}}

## Paul McCartney & Wings US Tour 1976 {{< MultiGalleryComponent galleries="1976-mccartney, 19-mccartney-wings-apr-1976, 20-mccartney-wings-apr-1976-bw" >}} The 1976 US tour was going to be a big event in the entertainment industry because it was going to be Paul’s first appearance in the US since he had performed with the Beatles in 1966. The US leg was scheduled to start on May 3, 1976 in Ft. Worth, Texas. I was responsible for managing the construction of the show in the Showco shops. We built a large lighting rig and a custom stage set per Ian Knight’s design. Ian specified a lighting truss that would span 60 feet and carry a large weight load so we designed and built a new heavy duty truss. The set pieces were designed to have internal lighting that would change colors. Several days of rehearsals were scheduled in Ft. Worth prior to the start of the tour on May 3, 1976. Paul and Linda and their children came to Dallas about two weeks before the start of the US tour and we rented a house for them to use rather than stay in a hotel. Paul visited the Showco facility on Governor’s Row to see the lighting rig and stage set that we were building for the tour. During Paul’s tour of Showco, he was introduced to our laser department and he decided to use lasers and pyrotechnical effects on the US tour. Johnny Roberts, a Showco monitor engineer, in his Red Beard interview, mentions how amazed he was to look up and see Paul McCartney walking around the Showco workshops. The 1976 Wings Over America tour was a huge success because the world was ready to see Paul perform and Showco did a superb job with the show production. Maxson did a masterful job mixing the live sound, the lighting and special effects were great and the stage set worked really well. Showco received rave reviews on the sound and lighting and the tour really enhanced our image within the touring industry. Paul and Linda were a pleasure to work for and were great with people and most everyone who was on the tour said that it was the best tour they ever did. After the tour was over, Maxson went into the recording studio with Paul and over several weeks sorted through and mixed down 31 shows worth of the Studer 24 track recordings to make the Wings Over America album.

{{< StoryImage id="showco-tom-walsh-studer-1976" caption="Paul McCartney & Wings lighting rig for 1976 US tour." credit="Photo Jim Bornhorst" size="responsive" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-1-people-054-showco-people" caption="Paul McCartney & Jack Maxson at Superboard Wings 1976 Tour." credit="Photo Jim Bornhorst" size="responsive" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-19-mccartney-wings-apr-005-wings-76" caption="Tom Walsh Operating the Studer 24 Track Tape Machine for Paul McCartney & Wings 1976 Wings Over America Tour." credit="Photo Jim Bornhorst" size="responsive" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-20-mccartney-wings-apr-1976-bw-002-wings-76-bw" caption="Morris Lyda, Showco Monitor Engineer, seated at monitor console and Craig Schertz, senior Showco sound engineer, standing, Paul McCartney 1976 US Tour." credit="Photo Jim Bornhorst" size="responsive" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-20-mccartney-wings-apr-1976-bw-009-wings-76-bw" caption="Paul McCartney & Wings 1976 US Tour. There was a large screen hanging down from the rear lighting truss that displayed images projected from an Eidophor video projector." credit="Photo Jim Bornhorst" size="large" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-19-mccartney-wings-apr-014-wings-76" caption="Paul McCartney & Wings 1976 US Tour." credit="Photo Jim Bornhorst" size="responsive" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-1976-mccartney-004-mccartney-76" caption="Paul McCartney & Wings 1976 US Tour." credit="Showco Recovered Archive" size="responsive" >}} {{< StoryImage id="showco-1976-mccartney-003-mccartney-76" caption="Paul McCartney & Wings 1976 US Tour." credit="Showco Recovered Archive" size="responsive" >}}

Showco History