Chart entered : 1 September 1979
Chart peak : 60
Less than two years earlier they had made the ( then ) biggest selling British single of all time but due to the unique nature of the band, Wings's demise was the most muted of any major group and few people noticed or cared then or now.
Since their politicised debut in 1972 Wings had become one of the major bands of the seventies on both sides of the Atlantic. As the quality of their output varied wildly from "Band On The Run" to "Mary Had A Little Lamb" so too did their chart positions although only 1975's "Venus And Mars" failed to chart at all.
There were changes to the line up too. Henry McCullough and Denny Seiwell quit the band in 1973. They were eventually replaced by guitarist Jimmy McCulloch from Stone The Crows ( and previously Thunderclap Newman ) and drummer Geoff Britton from East of Eden . The latter quit during the recording sessions for the album "Venus and Mars" in 1975 and was hurriedly replaced by American Joe English . He and McCulloch both quit during the recording sessions for 1977's "London Town" , the former due to homesickness and the latter to join the reformed Small Faces , surely one of the dumber career moves in rock history. They were replaced by session men chosen by Denny Laine, guitarist Laurence Juber and drummer Steve Holley who , with the McCartneys and Denny made up the band's final line up.
In fact Wings had just one more album to go. "Back To The Egg" with Sex Pistols producer Chris Thomas at the helm ,was released in June 1979 and was excoriated by the critics as lazy, slapdash and unfocused. Columbia had only just prised Paul away from Capitol in the US with a deal making him the highest paid artist in the world and were less than pleased by the album peaking at number 8 in the US. The recriminations would continue for the next 6 years. In Britain the album got to number 6 despite the lead single, the spiky rocker "Old Siam Sir" stopping at number 35. Nevertheless the record shops soon started discounting it to clear surplus copies.
So this single had the responsibility of trying to revive a struggling album and, as its chart position shows , wasn't equal to the task. "Getting Closer" ( a number 20 hit in the US where it was the lead single ) was written by Paul back in 1974 as a piano ballad but now acquired new wave trappings. It sounds like a gutless attempt at the hard rocking sound of the early Motors circa Dancing The Night Away . It's an utterly vacuous song with annoyingly stupid lyrics eg. rhyming "salamander " with "don't answer". The big mellotron finish would have been better reserved for a decent song. "Baby's Request" is a snoozy jazz tune that Paul recorded as a demo for veteran vocal quartet The Mills Brothers. He then took umbrage when they requested payment for recording it and tacked his demo onto the album at the eleventh hour . It's well enough executed I suppose but not my cup of tea at all.
Many people assume that Wings had disbanded when Paul released the execrable "Wonderful Christmastime " as a solo single in December. He had recorded it without them but they all appear in the video for it and were on tour with him in the UK while it was out. They were playing a new song called "Coming Up" on the tour , the last night of which ( in Glasgow ) was recorded.
The band then flew over to Japan for a tour in January 1980 but Paul was arrested for possession of marijuana on arrival at Tokyo Airport and spent 10 days in jail. The tour was cancelled and the rest of the band ( except Linda of course ) returned to the UK without him. When Paul returned he cancelled the planned US tour for the autumn and decided to release and promote a solo album "McCartney II" that he'd recorded at his home studio the previous summer. "Coming Up " became its lead single and reached number 2 in the UK. I absolutely loathe it and Columbia felt the same way about its gimmicky feel and so promoted the Glasgow version on the B side, on which the credit had be shared with Wings, instead . This took the song to number one in the US.
While he was waiting for Wings to resume Denny released a solo album "Japanese Tears" in December 1980 comprising material recorded over the past seven years including three live tracks by Wings on which he sang lead. Steve played on two recently recorded songs. Wings did get together to do some desultory work tarting up old outtakes for a budget compilation but negative reaction from the record company forestalled the idea. Denny went into the studio with Paul to record a new album Tug of War and is featured on one of the tracks but it was soon clear that Paul was more interested in working with guest musicians. Denny took the initiative and announced he was quitting the band in April 1981 citing Paul's resistance to touring in the wake of Lennon's murder. This brought the band to an end.
It's difficult to assess how much impact the group had. Certainly Paul McCartney's subsequent work became ever more patchy if not completely redundant but you could argue that that process began with the later Wings albums. There's also an argument that Paul deliberately chose less than stellar talents - creatively at least - for his new band to give himself free rein for better or worse.
Of course we're not done yet with Paul and his wife continued to work with him, however you want to interpret that ,until her death from cancer in 1998. But what of the others ?
Henry quit the band in the summer of 1973 after an argument with Paul during preliminary sessions for "Band On The Run" over a guitar part. This was exacerbated by Henry's contempt for Linda, later telling Melody Maker "She doesn't have a musical head on her".
Henry next popped up as guitarist in the Frankie Miller Band. He played on his 1975 album "The Rock " . Henry then released a solo album "Mind Your Own Business" , pointedly on George Harrison's Dark Horse label. It's dull-as-ditchwater blues and country rock and Henry's feeble sub-Dylan whine makes it a real grind. After that Henry became a guitarist for hire working with Roy Harper, Eric Burdon, Ronnie Lane and Dr Feelgood among others.
In 1980 he moved to Ireland where he suffered a serious hand injury while drunk in 1984 . Afterwards he seemed to be content with playing the pub scene there for over a decade. In 1998 he worked in Poland for a while. On his return he issued a single "Failed Christian" which sounds like a Chris Rea song with a poor pub singer doing the lead vocal. It was later covered by Nick Lowe. Henry's subsequent albums have only been released in Ireland. In 2009 he had a public reconciliation with Paul. In 2012 Henry suffered a major heart attack with some media outlets prematurely reporting his death. He remains in an invalid condition and a benefit concert was held in London earlier this month. No one from Wings took part in it.
Denny S wanted the group to replace Henry before going to Lagos to record the album. When Paul dismissed the suggestion Denny let the group know on the eve of their departure that he too was out. Denny settled back into being a session drummer working with James Brown and Billy Joel among others. He eventually settled his differences with Paul and has appeared with Denny and Lawrence at Beatles conventions . Retired from the rock scene, he now drums in a jazz trio.
Geoff played on only a few tracks , quitting during the sessions for "Venus And Mars" in 1975. In 1976 he joined the group Rough Diamond formed by ex-Uriah Heep singer Dave Byron and ex-Humble Pie man Clem Clempson. They lasted long enough to record one eponymous album which made a minor impact in the US. Without offering anything too original in its keyboard-heavy hard rock it does have its moments particularly the stomping "Lock And Key" and "Scared ". However after supporting Peter Frampton on tour in the spring of 1977 they split up . Geoff then turned up in Manfred Mann's Earth Band for the album "Angel Station" in 1979 which we've already covered.. Geoff's fourth band in as many years was the power pop quartet The Keys. They signed with A & M in 1980 and released an excellent debut single in the doleful "Just A Camera" which reminds me of the Chameleons. They then worked with Joe Jackson on their debut LP. Bassist and main man Drew Barfield sounds so like Jackson you could be forgiven for thinking the latter was moonlighting with them during his jazz phase. "The Keys" is a promising rather than great album and the singles reflected that. "One Good Reason" uses a rockabilly bass line that doesn't really work but the follow up "I Don't Wanna Cry" ( which I do recall from the radio ) is a classic of melodic guitar pop, like The La's at their best. The third single "Greasy Money " is a little too close to Alison for comfort but grows on you. Sadly it didn't work out for The Keys and after two more singles produced by Wally Brill which I haven't heard they split up in 1982. After that there's little word of Geoff until he moved to Spain in 1989 and formed a blues trio with other ex-pats called Major Blues which in 1996 evolved into The Rockets. His most recent band there appears to have been The Brink Band.
We've already covered Jimmy's tenure with the Small Faces. After a brief sojourn in Wild Horses in 1978 he joined a band called The Dukes. Their eponymous album on Warner Bros is front loaded with its two singles "Hearts In Trouble" and "Leaving It All Behind" good examples of tuneful AOR in the Toto vein. After that it's rather stodgy until Jimmy's sole song "Heartbreaker " which injects a heavier note but isn't really that good. Just days after its release Jimmy died of a heroin overdose at his flat in Maida Vale.
Joe left during the recording sessions for "London Town " ( something of a pattern developing here ) ostensibly due to homesickness. Once back in the States he soon received an invitation to join the Californian band Kingfish who were closely associated with the Grateful Dead. He played on their 1978 album "Trident". The single "Hard To Love Somebody" is a pleasant enough West Coast rocker in the America/ Doobie Brothers tradition but the other tracks I've heard are mundane to say the least. Joe then joined jazz fusion band Sea Level playing on three albums between 1978 and 1980. In the latter year he had a spiritual revelation and formed a band called The Joe English Band to play and record on the Christian rock scene. Thy released a string of albums in the eighties but in the nineties Joe had to give up playing due to a chronic ankle condition. He still sings in a church choir.
Steve easily slipped back into being a drummer for hire and credits the association with Macca for opening a few doors for him. He played on Julian Lennon's debut album for one. He also began a long standing association with Ian Hunter in the late eighties.He was playing with Joe Cocker in Berlin in 1989 when the Wall came down. In 2000 he played at a Special Olympics Benefit at the White House and got to shake Clinton's hand. In 2003 he put out a solo LP " The Reluctant Dog" on the boutique label Angel Air.
Lawrence had already released a solo album during his tenure with Wings. He moved to the US and interspersed session work with a string of instrumental LPs developing his fingerstyle technique. He has also been Al Stewart's producer since 1995 and sometimes performs with him.
And lastly what of Denny L ? "Japanese Tears" hadn't sold too well but he signed a solo deal with Scratch and released the LP "Anyone Can Fly" in 1982. From the couple of tracks I've heard it sounds like he was going for a seventies singer-songwriter vibe which didn't make much commercial sense in 1982. Three years elapsed before his next effort "Hometown Girls" which tried for a more modern pop sound - Denny poses self-consciously with a mobile phone on the cover - with synths and fretless bass aplenty but the songs are relentlessly mediocre. Denny was now in dire financial straits and sold his one asset, the co-credit for writing Mull of Kintyre to Macca in a fruitless attempt to stave off bankruptcy. He made the synth-pop album "Wings On My Feet" which is dominated by the sound of guest star Rick Wakeman but it's still awful. After that it's hard to track down his solo releases which were issued on tiny labels to minimal interest.In the nineties he moved to the USA where he has toured as both a solo artist and in a band optimistically called Phoenix.
From 1997 onwards, Lawrence, Steve and the two Dennys have occasionally performed together at Beatles conventions.
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