It was 48 years ago Saturday night (July 10th, 1973) that the original lineup of Paul McCartney's solo band Wings played their 58th and final show in Newcastle, England. The show was recorded by McCartney and briefly considered to be released as Wings' first live album and followup to their recent chart-topper, Red Rose Speedway. An acetate of the show at Newcastle City Hall was pressed by Apple Records and has since made the rounds on the bootleg and collectors circles.
The concert, which featured McCartney on bass and keyboards, also included wife Linda on keyboards, Denny Laine on rhythm guitar, bass and keyboards — and the soon departed Denny Seiwell on drums and Henry McCullough on lead guitar. McCullough joined Wings just prior to their first shows in January 1972, not long after Wings' 1971 debut album, Wild Life. Both McCullough and Seiwell would regroup with Wings on McCartney's Scottish farm later in July 1973 to rehearse the material for the Band On The Run album, but both left abruptly before sessions began in Lagos, Nigeria.
Shortly before his death in 2016 at age 72, Henry McCullough told us that adding in the fact that he was treated at times as nothing more than a session player for McCartney, the deal was bound to go sour as quickly as it did: “I went into the band not to be a sideman. Once the whole thing. . . We grasped what we were headin' for, it was heads down and everyone worked towards that particular goal — and it wasn't for very long. But there was sort of revolution in the air. And Denny Seiwell was startin' to feel it a little bit. And all we wanted was to be paid for what we were doin'. I didn't want to be on a weekly wage.”