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Lot Essay
It’s believed that Yamaha presented this left-handed Yamaha BB-1200 electric bass guitar to Paul McCartney in late March or early April 1979. Former Wings guitarist Laurence Juber confirmed that the bass arrived after the recording sessions for Wings’ seventh and final studio album Back to the Egg had been completed that February.
The BB-1200 was first put into action for the promotional music video for Wings’ non-album single ‘Goodnight Tonight’. While the single had already been released on 23 March 1979, the music video was shot some ten days later on 3 April 1979 at London’s Hammersmith Palais. According to Club Sandwich No.14, it was McCartney who suggested the idea of a 1940s dance hall setting to director Keef McMillan. With slicked back hair and dinner jacket, McCartney plays the BB-1200 bass throughout while singing into the old-style microphone on stage, while the rest of Wings perform as his backing band in similar costume. Five versions of the video were filmed, with three being chosen for screening in specific markets. In the UK, the video was shown on BBC’s Top of the Pops and on ITV on The Kenny Everett Video Show. The single was an international hit, peaking at number five on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart, and was certified gold by RIAA for sales of over one million copies. The video for ‘Goodnight Tonight’ was included in The McCartney Years DVD box set in 2007.
Filmed on 11 June 1979 in the medieval hall of Lympne Castle in Kent, the promotional video for Wings’ next single ‘Old Siam’ would feature a more straightforward rock performance from McCartney on his new Yamaha bass. Notably, the bass displayed a promotional Back to the Egg fried egg sticker on the upper horn. Director Keef McMillan would produce six more promotional videos for selected Back to the Egg tracks over the following week , which would be compiled for a planned television special to promote the album. The Back to the Egg TV special, which also included the video for ‘Goodnight Tonight’, was aired in the US on various occasions during November and December 1979.
That November, Wings embarked on a 19-date British Tour in support of Back to the Egg, kicking off on 23 November in Liverpool and closing in Glasgow on 17 December. Wings' lineup for the tour was Paul and Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, Laurence Juber and Steve Holley, together with a brass section from the previous tour led by Howie Casey. As seen in numerous tour photographs, this Yamaha BB-1200 bass served as McCartney’s principal instrument for the tour. As quoted in McCartney’s recently published memoir Wings, guitarist Laurence Juber observed: Paul’s bass playing on that UK tour, when he was playing the Yamaha bass – he had retired the Rickenbacker at that point – it was muscular. There was girth. His bass playing was just killer. Juber told us that the Yamaha had a more robust tone and better intonation than McCartney’s Rickenbacker and suited his playing style very well. McCartney would play bass on twelve out of the 22 numbers in the planned set list, which included ‘Got to Get You into My Life’, ‘Old Siam Sir’, ‘Goodnight Tonight’, ‘Band on the Run’, ‘I’ve Had Enough’, ‘No Words’, ‘Cook of the House’, and two unreleased songs that McCartney had recorded on his own over the summer – ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ – which was released midway through the tour – and ‘Coming Up’. By all accounts the Glasgow shows were considered the best of the tour. Interviewed for Beatles’ fan site Daytrippin in 2010, Juber declared that the highlight of the tour from a musical point of view was that last Glasgow concert. That was the point on the tour when we were really cooking as a band... I’ll never forget the audience reaction to the bagpipe band marching through the audience that night.
Wings’ last concert of the year – and as it would turn out, also their last ever – would be as headliners on the final night of a series of four benefit concerts to raise funds for war-torn Cambodia, which had been organized by McCartney in collaboration with United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim. Wings played the Concert for Kampuchea at London’s Hammersmith Odeon on 29 December 1979 and were joined by members of the Rockestra supergroup that McCartney had formed the previous year including Pete Townshend, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham. The whole gang assembled on stage to close the show with McCartney’s ‘Rockestra Theme’ from Back to the Egg. McCartney is seen playing the Yamaha bass on several tracks that made it onto the subsequent concert film Concert for Kampuchea, including 'Got to Get You into My Life’, ‘Every Night’, ‘Coming Up’, and a cover of Little Richard’s ‘Lucille’ with Rockestra.
The first leg of a planned world tour ended before it had even begun, when McCartney was arrested at Tokyo’s Narita Airport on 16 January 1980 for possession of marijuana. It’s almost certain that he would have opted to use his Japanese-built Yamaha bass for the scheduled Japanese tour, however it was of course immediately cancelled, and the incident ultimately led to the disbanding of Wings the following year. According to Juber, who continued to work with McCartney on other projects outside Wings, McCartney used the Yamaha bass during the sessions that he produced for Ringo Starr’s 1981 studio album Stop and Smell the Roses at Super Bear Studios in the south of France from 11-21 July 1980. The former Beatles recorded two McCartney compositions, ‘Private Property’ and ‘Attention’, a cover of ‘Sure to Fall’, and Starr’s song ‘You Can’t Fight Lightning’, which he wrote after he and future wife Barbara Bach were nearly stuck by lightning.
Several spectacular color photos have surfaced from around this period that show McCartney playing his Yamaha bass in a Santa suit. It’s believed that the shots are by Linda McCartney and may date from October 1980 rehearsals at Pugin Hall in Tenterden, Kent, for the project that would become the solo McCartney albums ‘Tug of War’ and ‘Pipes of Peace’. The project was shelved for some months following John Lennon’s murder that December. Having employed his old friend George Martin to produce, McCartney resumed sessions for his next solo project, flying to Martin’s AIR Studios in Montserrat where he would record with various musicians from 3 February to 2 March 1981. Photographs shot by Linda McCartney during these AIR sessions show McCartney on his Yamaha bass, contentedly jamming alongside Stevie Wonder on the drums. The photos strongly indicate that McCartney used this bass to record either ‘Ebony and Ivory’ or the funky ‘What’s That You’re Doing?’ with Stevie Wonder. As the Yamaha BB-1200 was evidently a go-to instrument for McCartney during this period, it’s very probable that this guitar was used extensively on the ‘Tug of War’ sessions, however there is very little visual evidence available to confirm. Some of the material recorded during the February 1981 AIR sessions would later be released on McCartney ‘s subsequent solo album Pipes of Peace. The Yamaha bass features prominently in an episode of The South Bank Show that followed McCartney in the making of his 1984 musical film Give My Regards To Broad Street. With the help of George Martin on piano, we see McCartney repetitively pluck the strings of the bass as he workshops the ominous riff that will feature in the film’s opening titles and, with a key shift, develop into the ballad ‘No More Lonely Nights’.
As the majority of McCartney’s instruments remain in his personal archive, it’s extraordinarily rare for any McCartney-associated bass to come to auction. When this much-loved Yamaha BB-1200 was generously donated to benefit Musicares in 2021, it would set a world record price for a bass guitar that has not yet been beaten.
REFERENCES
L. Perasi, Back to the Egg: The Story of Wings’ Last Album, Milan, 2025.
M. Terrill, ‘Exclusive: Ex-Wings guitarist, Laurence Juber, talks about having Paul McCartney as a boss’, Daytrippin, 9 August 2010. https://daytrippin.com/2010/08/09/exclusive-ex-wings-guitarist-laurence-juber-talks-about-attending-paul-mccartney-university/
The BB-1200 was first put into action for the promotional music video for Wings’ non-album single ‘Goodnight Tonight’. While the single had already been released on 23 March 1979, the music video was shot some ten days later on 3 April 1979 at London’s Hammersmith Palais. According to Club Sandwich No.14, it was McCartney who suggested the idea of a 1940s dance hall setting to director Keef McMillan. With slicked back hair and dinner jacket, McCartney plays the BB-1200 bass throughout while singing into the old-style microphone on stage, while the rest of Wings perform as his backing band in similar costume. Five versions of the video were filmed, with three being chosen for screening in specific markets. In the UK, the video was shown on BBC’s Top of the Pops and on ITV on The Kenny Everett Video Show. The single was an international hit, peaking at number five on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart, and was certified gold by RIAA for sales of over one million copies. The video for ‘Goodnight Tonight’ was included in The McCartney Years DVD box set in 2007.
Filmed on 11 June 1979 in the medieval hall of Lympne Castle in Kent, the promotional video for Wings’ next single ‘Old Siam’ would feature a more straightforward rock performance from McCartney on his new Yamaha bass. Notably, the bass displayed a promotional Back to the Egg fried egg sticker on the upper horn. Director Keef McMillan would produce six more promotional videos for selected Back to the Egg tracks over the following week , which would be compiled for a planned television special to promote the album. The Back to the Egg TV special, which also included the video for ‘Goodnight Tonight’, was aired in the US on various occasions during November and December 1979.
That November, Wings embarked on a 19-date British Tour in support of Back to the Egg, kicking off on 23 November in Liverpool and closing in Glasgow on 17 December. Wings' lineup for the tour was Paul and Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, Laurence Juber and Steve Holley, together with a brass section from the previous tour led by Howie Casey. As seen in numerous tour photographs, this Yamaha BB-1200 bass served as McCartney’s principal instrument for the tour. As quoted in McCartney’s recently published memoir Wings, guitarist Laurence Juber observed: Paul’s bass playing on that UK tour, when he was playing the Yamaha bass – he had retired the Rickenbacker at that point – it was muscular. There was girth. His bass playing was just killer. Juber told us that the Yamaha had a more robust tone and better intonation than McCartney’s Rickenbacker and suited his playing style very well. McCartney would play bass on twelve out of the 22 numbers in the planned set list, which included ‘Got to Get You into My Life’, ‘Old Siam Sir’, ‘Goodnight Tonight’, ‘Band on the Run’, ‘I’ve Had Enough’, ‘No Words’, ‘Cook of the House’, and two unreleased songs that McCartney had recorded on his own over the summer – ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ – which was released midway through the tour – and ‘Coming Up’. By all accounts the Glasgow shows were considered the best of the tour. Interviewed for Beatles’ fan site Daytrippin in 2010, Juber declared that the highlight of the tour from a musical point of view was that last Glasgow concert. That was the point on the tour when we were really cooking as a band... I’ll never forget the audience reaction to the bagpipe band marching through the audience that night.
Wings’ last concert of the year – and as it would turn out, also their last ever – would be as headliners on the final night of a series of four benefit concerts to raise funds for war-torn Cambodia, which had been organized by McCartney in collaboration with United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim. Wings played the Concert for Kampuchea at London’s Hammersmith Odeon on 29 December 1979 and were joined by members of the Rockestra supergroup that McCartney had formed the previous year including Pete Townshend, Robert Plant, John Paul Jones and John Bonham. The whole gang assembled on stage to close the show with McCartney’s ‘Rockestra Theme’ from Back to the Egg. McCartney is seen playing the Yamaha bass on several tracks that made it onto the subsequent concert film Concert for Kampuchea, including 'Got to Get You into My Life’, ‘Every Night’, ‘Coming Up’, and a cover of Little Richard’s ‘Lucille’ with Rockestra.
The first leg of a planned world tour ended before it had even begun, when McCartney was arrested at Tokyo’s Narita Airport on 16 January 1980 for possession of marijuana. It’s almost certain that he would have opted to use his Japanese-built Yamaha bass for the scheduled Japanese tour, however it was of course immediately cancelled, and the incident ultimately led to the disbanding of Wings the following year. According to Juber, who continued to work with McCartney on other projects outside Wings, McCartney used the Yamaha bass during the sessions that he produced for Ringo Starr’s 1981 studio album Stop and Smell the Roses at Super Bear Studios in the south of France from 11-21 July 1980. The former Beatles recorded two McCartney compositions, ‘Private Property’ and ‘Attention’, a cover of ‘Sure to Fall’, and Starr’s song ‘You Can’t Fight Lightning’, which he wrote after he and future wife Barbara Bach were nearly stuck by lightning.
Several spectacular color photos have surfaced from around this period that show McCartney playing his Yamaha bass in a Santa suit. It’s believed that the shots are by Linda McCartney and may date from October 1980 rehearsals at Pugin Hall in Tenterden, Kent, for the project that would become the solo McCartney albums ‘Tug of War’ and ‘Pipes of Peace’. The project was shelved for some months following John Lennon’s murder that December. Having employed his old friend George Martin to produce, McCartney resumed sessions for his next solo project, flying to Martin’s AIR Studios in Montserrat where he would record with various musicians from 3 February to 2 March 1981. Photographs shot by Linda McCartney during these AIR sessions show McCartney on his Yamaha bass, contentedly jamming alongside Stevie Wonder on the drums. The photos strongly indicate that McCartney used this bass to record either ‘Ebony and Ivory’ or the funky ‘What’s That You’re Doing?’ with Stevie Wonder. As the Yamaha BB-1200 was evidently a go-to instrument for McCartney during this period, it’s very probable that this guitar was used extensively on the ‘Tug of War’ sessions, however there is very little visual evidence available to confirm. Some of the material recorded during the February 1981 AIR sessions would later be released on McCartney ‘s subsequent solo album Pipes of Peace. The Yamaha bass features prominently in an episode of The South Bank Show that followed McCartney in the making of his 1984 musical film Give My Regards To Broad Street. With the help of George Martin on piano, we see McCartney repetitively pluck the strings of the bass as he workshops the ominous riff that will feature in the film’s opening titles and, with a key shift, develop into the ballad ‘No More Lonely Nights’.
As the majority of McCartney’s instruments remain in his personal archive, it’s extraordinarily rare for any McCartney-associated bass to come to auction. When this much-loved Yamaha BB-1200 was generously donated to benefit Musicares in 2021, it would set a world record price for a bass guitar that has not yet been beaten.
REFERENCES
L. Perasi, Back to the Egg: The Story of Wings’ Last Album, Milan, 2025.
M. Terrill, ‘Exclusive: Ex-Wings guitarist, Laurence Juber, talks about having Paul McCartney as a boss’, Daytrippin, 9 August 2010. https://daytrippin.com/2010/08/09/exclusive-ex-wings-guitarist-laurence-juber-talks-about-attending-paul-mccartney-university/