THE demise of the Beatles marked a low point in the life of Paul McCartney, but as a new TV documentary shows, with the help of wife Linda, he soared back to success. Olivia Convey reports. How do you follow the Beatles? Well Paul McCartney did it with Wings, briefly matching the success of the Fab Four. Now the band which McCartney controversially formed with his wife Linda, is to get its own "Beatles Anthology" treatment with the release of a double CD and the C4 documentary Wingspan. Previously unseen footage of the band on tour, which went back to McCartney's rock n roll roots playing in small venues, is featured in the programme this weekend, including moving home movie footage of the family. The C4 project has been more than three years in the making and was approved of by Linda, after she was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1995. Wingspan tells the story of the famous couples initial courtship and their marriage. "We met at the Bag Of Nails Club in London in May 1967", says McCartney. "I looked over and saw her and she looked good." The multi-millionaire musician was already having doubts about the future of The Beatles, especially when John Lennon began bringing Yoko Ono to recording sessions. Fans were wary of Linda, especially after the 1969 wedding at Marylebone Register Office, when distraught young girls were sobbing openly on the pavement. "To them I was an American divorcee. This unfashionable woman whod married a Beatle", Linda said later. But she wasnt prepared for the lengths some fans would go to. "They used to write savage stuff about her on the walls outside the house", McCartney says. But when daughter Mary, named after Pauls dead mother, was born, there was writing on the wall of a different sort. "It was the most difficult decision of my whole life. I love those guys, but I had to get out. "It doesnt matter who broke The Beatles up The Beatles were ready to break up. I nearly had a breakdown with the hurt of it all", he admits. "The disappointment, the sorrow, of losing these great friends. We took the kids, the dogs, everything we had, put a guitar on the top of it and a potty for the baby and came up to Scotland." Then began one of the bleakest times in McCartneys life as he tried to come to terms with the end of the worlds biggest ever music success. "I was very insecure, very paranoid, very out of work, very useless. I was going crazy", he says. "I wouldnt get up in the morning, I wouldnt shave I would just reach for the whisky. I was going downhill and, if I'd been on my own, I'm not sure I'd have got out of it. "Very luckily, mum was there, she started to steer me in a good direction." McCartney has given unprecedented access to archive material, not just on Wings, but on the whole family set-up. He also agreed to have his eldest daughter Mary conducting the linking interview with him. He reveals that the couple were reduced to living on Lindas savings as the high-finance wrangle over the groups wealth ground on. Footage of their Scottish retreat reveals it to be far from the country mansion that fans may have imagined. "It was a three-roomed house with rats in the wall, derelict, at the end of nowhere and it had no water", said Linda later. "But I spent some of the best years of my life there and his life." But the country idyll, surrounded by sheep and horses, was not to last. Itchy-fingered McCartney was desperate to get back to music and in 1971 he released RAM, with Linda singing alongside him. The headlines read: "Who does Linda McCartney think she is?" Undaunted, McCartney pressed ahead with plans for a new band. Wings eventually became a huge success, achieving the world record at the time for the biggest stadium concert at The Kingdome in Seattle in 1976 bigger than anything The Beatles had ever done. The name came from McCartneys musings over the birth of second daughter Stella now a world-respected fashion designer. "There were complications, a bit of drama, so, when the baby came I'd been rather thankful for the whole thing and was imagining angels wings. "I just thought, Wow! Thats a nice image Wings. It all came about in Kings College Hospital." Beginnings were small, but word soon spread and massive success was not far away, despite constant line-up changes. "The real problem for me was seeing enough of the children", Linda said. "I didn't want other people to influence them, I wanted them to have as normal a life as possible." Linda's influence was just as strong on McCartney and the band. Inspiring him to write such hits as My Love and Maybe I'm Amazed and the bestseller Mull Of Kintyre. But it wasnt all love songs and happy kids. McCartney was busted for drugs on a Wings tour of Japan and teetered on the edge of a prison sentence, an event that signalled the end for the band. "It was almost as if I wanted to get busted", he says. "I was an idiot." By then Wings had smashed box office and chart records and finally convinced McCartney that he was more than just an ex-Beatle. "We had proved what we set out to prove that there was life after The Beatles. "Now it was time to settle down and bring the kids up. We liked the idea of a close family Linda was very kind and brought out my kindness in me I think I gave her some things she was missing too." Wingspan is on Channel 4 on Saturday, May 19. Paul McCartney Special is on TOTP2 on BBC2, Wednesday May 23 | 
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