Thursday, August 08, 2013

These are Paul McCartney's pants, I swear

A jazz musician is trying to flog off what he reckons are Paul McCartney's old leather trousers.

Mike Hoggard claims Brian Epstein gave him the trews at the Cavern Club; Epstein was trying to persuade the band to wear suits instead of leather, apparently, and so was giving the clothes away. Look, apparently it says "Paul" in the trousers, so what further proof do you need?

Mr Hoggard, who has now owned the trousers for more than 50 years, said he recently rediscovered them when he was moving house.

He said his Yorkshire Jazz Band played regularly at the legendary Cavern Club between 1960 and 1961. At the time, a little-known band called The Beatles were their support group.

"The trousers were in a bag hanging up [in the dressing room]. Epstein said to take them because he wanted to get them out of the leather and into these suits.

"So I took them and I wore them. At the time they [The Beatles] weren't famous at all, so there was no sort of thought about 'I've got something that's massively invaluable' or anything like that, just I fancied a pair of leather trousers."
Mike's son-in-law reckons you can recognise the trousers in photos of the time, soon.

Hang on, though... were the Beatles being moved onto suits at this time?

Walter Smith made their suits for their first Granada TV appearance in 1962; that raises the possibility that McCartney was swanning round Liverpool without any trousers at all.

Mind you, while we're looking at the Beatle trousers, it's worth mentioning that after Smith had suited them up, London tailor Dougie Millings wasn't impressed. The band turned up to see him for suits shortly afterwards:
It all began in the fall of 1962, a time Dougie Millings remembered because it coincided with the release of the Beatles' first single, ''Love Me Do.'' Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, brought the group to Mr. Millings' shop at 63 Compton Street in the Soho section of London. There was a grand piano in the basement.

And how were the soon-to-be conquerors of the hearts of the world's teenage girls dressed? ''Well in hand-me-downs, really,'' Mr. Millings told GQ magazine in April 2000. ''Not well.''
Charming.

So far, Paul has been tight-lipped on if these are his trews or not. We'll keep you posted.


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