McCartney: 'Beatles weren't that good'

Saturday, November 7 2009, 15:52 GMT

Digitalspy.com By Catriona Wightman

 

 

Sir Paul McCartney has claimed that The Beatles weren't very good when they first formed.

In an interview with radio station XFM, McCartney revealed that he wasn't surprised the band were turned down by record label Decca.

 

"We obviously weren't that good," he said. "We were formulating it all. You wouldn't have thought we were that great. You'd have turned us down if you were a record company. And they did - Decca turned us down!"

 

McCartney added that the group learned how to perform for an audience when they spent time in Germany.

 

"When we first went to Hamburg, there'd be no-one in the club," he explained. "You'd see a couple of students, maybe a guy and his girlfriend, and they'd look in a bit tentatively, look up at the price of the beer, see it was too much and start walking out.

 

"So we'd go, 'Come on, everybody, get back in here! It's all happening!' So we'd learned to attract an audience. After a few weeks, we'd be really packing those clubs. It taught us that game of how to win over an audience.

 

"We learned loads of songs, so by the time we got back to England, we had quite a big repertoire."

 

The full interview will be broadcast from November 16.

 

Do you agree that the Beatles were not that good in the beginning or not?

I think like mosts artists they are not instantly excellent on day 1, who is? But they certainly did become very good very quickly once their fame started. Was listening to their early stuff on Anthology 1, and there are a few less than excellent songs.

True - for me it also showed why Pete Best had to be replaced because his drumming was too brittle and not fluid enough.