Wings University Tour

Paul, Linda and their three daughters set off from St John’s Wood, London with three dogs, three Wings (one with wife), two roadies, a truck and a caravan and headed north. The well-established college circuit seemed the best bet for impromptu gigs and so it was that Nottingham University entered the history books as the venue for Wings’ first performance on 8th February 1972 – a lunchtime show, too, something Paul hadn’t done since Cavern days. In the light of his career before and since, it’s amazing to think of Wings turning up with no hotels booked – they were thrown out of one in Hull – living off fish and chips and resting up in Scarborough, playing tapes of their early gigs like any nervous new band. “We went off on our little university tour, which was great,” Paul remembers. “It was very ballsy to do, really, I couldn’t think of anything else. It didn’t feel ballsy at the time, it just felt like, well, what else do I do? We literally took off in a van up the M1, got to Ashby-de-la-Zouch, liked that name, 'Great! Turn off here'. But there wasn’t a gig, there was just a little village and nothing else there. It was a signpost. Anyway we kept going until we got to Nottingham University, and then it suddenly hit, 'Ah, that’s it – let’s do universities.'” The cost for tickets to the first show was just 40p, with proceeds being split between all the band members. For Paul, it was a way of starting afresh after The Beatles, a way to reconnect with a new set of fans and go back-to-basics. “That tour of ’72, just some kids who were there, haven’t particularly been into The Beatles, just became Linda fans. That’s where all that started.”