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Ian Peel challenges a few preconceptions about Beatle Paul, citing a mass of little known McCartney experimentalism.

The Unknown Paul McCartney : McCartney and the Avant-garde by Ian Peel.

Internationally acclaimed, knighted and immortalised in music's pantheon, Paul McCartney nevertheless remains one of the least fully appreciated of modern icons.

Throughout his career, McCartney has initiated and participated in projects that have taken him very far away from the kind of music associated with his career in The Beatles, in Wings, and as a solo artist.

From as far back as the 1960s there have been experimental solo projects, both under his own name and incognito. These include the legendary 'Carnival of Light' sixties freak-out, the Percy Thrillington diversion in the 70s, techno, ambient and chill-out releases as The Fireman, pure noise performance art as well as less-publicised activity, much of which Ian Peel now reveals in depth in print for the first time.

Collaborators and Fans

Undertaking extensive research for his new book The Unknown Paul McCartney : McCartney and the avant-garde, Ian Peel interviewed many of McCartney's intimate musical associates from this less-familiar side of his career, including:

Super Furry Animals - on their carrot chewing percussion and electronic sound collage collaborations.

Youth - the three-times BRIT-nominated producer speaks in depth for the first time ever on his two albums of techno ambient and chill-out recorded with McCartney as 'The Fireman'.

Nitin Sawhney - on McCartney's first tentative steps into drum & bass, holed up in Sawhney's London bedsit.

Richard Hewson - breaks a 20-year silence on the Thrillington project and pseudonym.

David Vaughan - the renowned psychedelic artist and organiser of 60s 'happenings' airs his strong views on Carnival of Light, The Beatles' most legendary unreleased track.

Yoko Ono

Other interviewees include Yoko Ono, bassist Herbie Flowers, Gong's Daevid Allen, Frank Zappa's guitarist Mike Keneally, JJ Jeczalik (Art of Noise) and members of Wings.

David Toop, acclaimed author of Exotica, Ocean of Sound and RapAttack!, contributes a Foreword.

The book covers all eras of McCartney's creative life:

1960s: This is the first McCartney/Beatles book to examine in detail the avant-garde influences that weighed into their music, examining artists such as John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, the late Delia Derbyshire and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop and Max V. Matthews (who made the first ever computer music in 1957). To say nothing of Ray Cathode (George Martin's electronica alter ego). The Unknown Paul McCartney also looks at how the influence of these early 20th century composers resonates across modern pop music as a whole.

Easy Listening?

1970s: Peel looks above the mullets and drug busts and examines the more credible side of McCartney's music in the 1970s. The work of Percy 'Thrills' Thrillington - his bizarre easy listening alter ego - comes under the microscope for its most detailed analysis to date. Wings guitarist Laurence Juber tells of freaking out David Bowie with radio/dialogue/funk jams. The avant-garde act of vegetable chewing in a Brian Wilson/Beach Boys session also comes out of the hazy mists of time.

1980s: Although critically his most reviled period to date, the '80s saw McCartney begin to play with synthesizers, samplers and remixes. While tracing the story of a Beatles' first faltering steps into 12" singles and New York clubs, Peel finds time for one of the most in-depth histories of remix culture ever to appear in print.

Mainstream?

1990s: It may not get covered in the mainstream press but the 90s have been McCartney's most avant-garde period to date. Peel covers his secret jam sessions with Yoko Ono, ambient sound collage with the Super Furry Animals, pure white noise and chainsaw recordings for an art gallery installation, and guitar/poetry performance with Allen Ginsberg.

What emerges is a unique, critical insight into an apparently over-familiar public figure - Paul McCartney, avant-garde musician. To quote the title of Chapter 10, it's all "a long way off the Frog Chorus..."

The Unknown Paul McCartney: McCartney and the Avant-garde, with a foreword by David Toop by Ian Peel is out now from Reynolds & Hearn Limited.

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