{"id":322,"date":"2007-02-27T22:35:25","date_gmt":"2007-02-28T02:35:25","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-01-05T00:14:00","modified_gmt":"2011-01-05T04:14:00","slug":"pick-up-the-pieces-hamish-stuart-levels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/pick-up-the-pieces-hamish-stuart-levels\/","title":{"rendered":"Pick Up the Pieces: Hamish Stuart Levels Abuse Charges at Paul McCartney"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Paul McCartney sideman and Average White Band leader <strong>Hamish Stuart<\/strong> ended years of silence following his dismissal from McCartney&#8217;s band, leveling charges of musical and emotional abuse and threatening to petition for full custody of the Hofner &#8220;Beatle&#8221; bass they shared during the <strong>Flowers in the Dirt<\/strong> tour.<\/p>\n<p>The charges were contained in an addendum to a 13-page court document filed previously by Mr. Stuart, said London&#8217;s <em>Daily Mail<\/em>. A copy of the original document was faxed to news organizations by an anonymous source Monday night. Details of the addendum were leaked to the <em>Daily Mail<\/em> yesterday.<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LGRMl0mz_R0?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nIn the original 13-page document Mr. Stuart claimed that Mr. McCartney had forced him to cancel a crucial hair salon appointment because the appointment would have interfered with Mr. McCartney&#8217;s planned rehearsal of &#8220;Live and Let Die&#8221; with <strong>pyrotechnics<\/strong>. Mr. Stuart also charged that Mr. McCartney had refused to let him keep a spittoon by the side of the stage.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want that stinking thing up here because it makes the stage smell like a f*ck*ng old man&#8217;s home,&#8221; Mr. McCartney is alleged to have said when Mr. Stuart pleaded with him to let him use the spittoon.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nMr. Stuart also claimed in his original document that Mr. McCartney had tormented him after destroying Mr. Stuart&#8217;s favorite acoustic guitar.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Paul asked me if I wanted to play <strong>&#8216;Pick Up the Pieces&#8217;<\/strong>, by which I assumed he meant my best-known song with AWB. Of course, I told him. Then he smashed my Gibson to bloody bits and said, &#8216;Go ahead, pick up the pieces!'&#8221;<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/S29C4JdC7Ms?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nMr. Stuart further alleged that Mr. McCartney had forbidden him to accommodate autograph requests from female fans.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re my breasts to sign,&#8221; Mr. McCartney is reputed to have said. &#8220;I don&#8217;t want to have to fit my signature around your stinking Scottish scrawl!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As troubling as these revelations are, Mr. Stuart&#8217;s new allegations play even greater havoc with Mr. McCartney&#8217;s reputation. Instead of a cuddly duffer whose chief vices are weed, wine, and writing treacly pop songs, Mr. McCartney emerges as the second coming of <strong>Buddy Rich<\/strong> \u2014 a controlling, insecure monster, envious of other musicians and given to fits of near psychotic pomposity.<\/p>\n<p>According to Mr. Stuart, Mr. McCartney bore an intense resentment toward his former bandmate, <strong>Denny Laine<\/strong>. Mr. Stuart charged that Mr. McCartney flew into a rage when he found him listening to an early <strong>Moody Blues<\/strong> CD.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t ever want to hear that c*unt&#8217;s music in my house again,&#8221; Mr. McCartney allegedly screamed. &#8220;He was shite, you hear? Shite. I carried him while <strong>Wings<\/strong> were together. I carried the other Wings too.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Mr. McCartney then subjected Mr. Stuart to a &#8220;painfully loud&#8221; 10-minute imitation of <strong>Linda McCartney<\/strong> singing.<\/p>\n<p>The charges against Mr. McCartney have been difficult for his fans to accept. One 50-something woman in a North London record shop said, &#8220;It&#8217;s bad enough he made Hamish give up his spittoon, but I&#8217;m shocked by his language. Such filth. Did he write &#8216;Bluebird&#8217; with that mouth?&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Paul McCartney sideman and Average White Band leader Hamish Stuart ended years of silence following his dismissal from McCartney&#8217;s band, leveling charges of musical and emotional abuse and threatening to petition for full custody of the Hofner &#8220;Beatle&#8221; bass they shared during the Flowers in the Dirt tour. The charges were contained in an <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/pick-up-the-pieces-hamish-stuart-levels\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}