Wings

A little over a year after The Beatles broke up, Paul McCartney and his wife Linda formed Wings, a group created very much to be a touring as well as recording unit. Paul had missed the touring element most when The Beatles locked themselves in a studio.

Early in 1972 the band began a spontaneous tour of British Universities, simply turning up and asking the Student Union if they would like the band to play in their college (If any University turned them down, it's certainly not on record anywhere!).

But while they were taking their music to 'ver kids, the BBC and the Independent Broadcasting Authority (unsurprisingly) announced an airplay ban on their debut single Give Ireland Back To The Irish, a record written as a reaction to the "Bloody Sunday" massacre when British troops opened fire on Catholic protesters in Northern Ireland.

Later in 1972, on tour with Wings in Sweden, the McCartney's were arrested for drug possession. It was to be the first of a series of much-publicized busts, abroad and even at their farm in Scotland, culminating in Paul's brief spell in a Japanese jail in 1980. The Maccas seemed so careless about concealing their herb that many people wondered if they were trying to make some sort of oblique socio-political statement.

And in November of the same year, the BBC and IBA once more announced an airplay ban on a Wings single - this time it was Hi Hi Hi which they believed to contain drug references. Radio DJ's simply played the B-Side C Moon (which for all intents and purposes then became the A-Side). Following the departure of Henry McCullough and Denny Seiwell, the remaining members of Wings departed for Lagos, Nigeria, where they spent six weeks at Ginger Baker's ARC studios, recording the Band On The Run album. Critically acclaimed, and all set to spend two years on both the UK and US charts selling over 6 million copies worldwide, it was a post-Beatles highpoint which McCartney never surpassed.

1977 closed with Mull of Kintyre at the top of the UK and Australian charts for nine weeks, selling over 2.5 million in Britain to become the biggest selling UK single of all time until Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas.