As Sir Paul McCartney's life post-The Beatles break-up in 1970 is chronicled in a new Amazon Prime documentary, Man On The Run, less is known about his younger brother Mike, who also had a brush with fame in his own right. Indeed, the 82-year-old, known professionally as Mike McGear, has enjoyed success as a musician and photographer.
Indeed, he grew up alongside Paul, 83, in Liverpool. While Mike was working as an apprentice at a ladies' hairdresser when The Beatles - who had formed in 1960 - started to make a name for themselves, he himself soon became involved with the group The Scaffold.
It was made up of himself as the musical performer, poet Roger McGough and comic entertainer John Gorman. The trio were known for their hit single 'Thank U Very Much' in 1967 and their Christmas number one 'Lily The Pink' in 1968.
Mike - who has six children, three daughters and three sons, from two marriages to Angela Fishwick and then Rowena Horne - was keen to achieve success in his own right, and so he used the stage surname 'McGear' instead. Indeed, he only reverted to using his family name upon his retirement from music in the 1980s.
© Getty Images
© PA Images via Getty ImagesMusical success
As part of The Scaffold, he released a number of top ten singles and albums with Parlophone and EMI between 1966 and 1971, and several more with Island, Warner Bros. and Bronze after that. The group disbanded in 1977, but have occasionally reunited.
While The Scaffold may not have reached the industry heights of The Beatles, they did outsell many of their songs with their Christmas number one, 'Lily The Pink' in 1968. It took the top spot in the UK for four weeks, and was also number one in Australia and Ireland.
© RedfernsPhotography career
Alongside music, Mike - who received a British Empire Medal in 2019 from the late Queen Elizabeth - was a passionate photographer. He took numerous pictures of The Beatles, who also include John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, in their heyday, and has published several books showing them backstage and on tour.
Mike likewise photographed the cover of his brother's 2005 solo album 'Chaos and Creation in the Backyard'. Additionally, a collection of his photographs taken in the Scottish Highlands, called Mike McCartney's North Highlands, was published in 2009 with a foreword by a then-Prince Charles.
