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1972 Wings Tour Bus

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1972 Wings Tour Bus
Paul McCartney's 1972 Wings Tour Bus WNO 481 at the restoration workshop.jpg
The tour bus under restoration in 2019
Overview
Typedouble-decker bus
Manufacturer
Also calledWNO 481
Production1953

The 1972 Wings Tour Bus or WNO 481 is a Bristol double-decker bus built in 1953. Originally used in Essex and Norfolk, it was painted in psychedelic colours and was used by Paul McCartney's band Wings during their 1972 Wings Over Europe Tour in place of a conventional bus. After returning to service, it was subsequently repainted as it was during the tour and put on display outside a rock cafe in Tenerife in the early 1990s, ending up in a garden for many years before being transported back to the UK in 2017 for restoration.

Service use[]

WNO 479, an identical bus painted as WNO 481 would have looked in 1966

The double-decker bus has a Bristol Commercial Vehicles KSW5G chassis, with a body from Eastern Coach Works. It was built in 1953,[1] registered with the DVLA in November 1953,[2] and originally had a closed upper deck.[1]

It was originally used in Essex and Norfolk in the 1950s–60s for local bus routes.[3] It entered service with Eastern National Omnibus Company in Chelmsford, and was painted plain green. In 1966 the upper deck roof was removed, turning it into an open top bus, and it was repainted cream with a green trim.[1] In this form it was primarily used by Eastern National for regular service routes in seaside areas during the summer months.[4]

The bus was sold to Eastern Counties Omnibus Company in 1968, with the green trim repainted maroon red. It was sold again to a dealer in July 1971, and was bought by , painted red and grey, and used under the brand up until June 1972.[1]

Wings Tour bus[]

Rather than using a normal tour bus for the 1972 Wings Over Europe Tour, his first major tour after the break-up of the Beatles,[5] McCartney bought the bus and painted it in psychedelic colours,[3] with the tour name shown in a blue sky over snow-capped mountains, the band's logo above the windscreen,[6] and the band members names stenciled on the back in the order Paul & Linda McCartney; Denny Laine; Henry McCullough; and Denny Seiwell. It was a similar idea to the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour and Cliff Richard's Summer Holiday from the 1960s.[7]

The seats on the top deck were removed, with mattresses and bean bags for the band and their families[3] to lounge[8] and sleep on[3] (although the band stayed in hotels during the tour),[8] and was also used as a playpen for their children while on the move.[3] The downstairs was carpeted, with four original seats at the front, bunk beds for the kids,[7] and a fully-functioning kitchen in the rear,[9] and there was a stereo.[10] The McCartneys also had a double bed in the bus, which they tried to take into various hotels during the tour.[11] The Wings logo on the rear was made of wood.[2] It was designed by Tom Salter, of the Gear shop on Carnaby Street,[12] with the work carried out in a London Transport garage in Staines.[2]

"Quite a mad thing to do, to put a playpen on the top deck of the bus and put all the children in there. It's not what you'd expect from a normal band. But we weren't a normal band."

—Paul McCartney, decades later[9]

McCartney wanted to have a good time during the tour,[10] noting as the tour began that "We never had time to do that in the Beatle days."[13] In particular, he liked the idea of being out in the sun while traveling rather than stuck inside a vehicle in the heat of July and August.[7]

The bus visited 25 cities in 9 countries, for 25 concerts in July and August 1972, covering 7,500 miles (12,100 km).[5] The concert locations were printed and displayed in the bus's spinning destination indicator.[7] The bus had a top speed of 38 miles per hour (61 km/h),[14] making it, in the view of author Howard Sounes, "no doubt huge fun ... [but] a slow and inefficient way to navigate the continent."[8] Wings member Seiwell later recalled cars zipping by them on European motorways and said of the bus, "It was quite nice, but it didn't make a lot of sense."[8] The bus traveled in convoy with a crew tour bus. Whenever it looked like the buses would not arrive at the venue on time for a concert, a convoy of other vehicles would be sent from the venue to collect them.[7]

During the tour, the band and McCartneys stayed in luxury hotels rather than in the bus (with hotel extras costing the band most of their wages during the tour). Most of the adults on the bus also smoked cannabis, but rather than storing the drugs on the bus and risking taking them through customs they were regularly posted from England, which caused problems during the tour as the Swedish police discovered the scheme. This prevented the tour from going on to the USA and Japan, and it concluded in Berlin on 24 August 1972.[8]

Later history[]

The bus subsequently re-entered service. Halls Coaches was bought by around August 1973, and the bus was repainted mustard gold and moved to Dunstable. It was scheduled to be scrapped in 1982, when Roger White from St Albans purchased it[1] for £3,000,[15] and repainted it as it had been during the Wings tour. In 1989 it was repainted red and white, and was used in the BAFTA Great British London-Cannes Film Rally in May 1989, and the Southend Bus Rally in 1989,[1] before being repainted with the Wings livery for the third time (and the last time it was repainted) for the Beatles Amsterdam Convention in April 1993.[15]

In August 1993, the bus was put up for auction,[16] with the Wings livery.[1] Its value was estimated as £25,000–£30,000.[17]

The bus was displayed outside of a rock cafe in Tenerife,[3] however it blocked light from the cafe,[15] and it was moved to the cafe owner's garden[3] in La Caldera del Rey, Adeje,[18] where it was left to decay. It was spotted there by Justin James[3] in 2007,[2] who bought it even though he did not know what he would do with it. Moving the bus to Oxfordshire in the UK took eight years, partly due to the difficulty in removing it from the garden, which required using cranes.[3] In October 2017 it was loaded onto the Monte Alegre for transport from Algeciras to Felixstowe.[19][20]

In 2017, McCartney tweeted to say that he had heard it was back in the UK, and to ask its whereabouts, with a reply from James that it was in Oxfordshire.[3]

In 2019 it was put up for auction in Merseyside by ,[3] as part of a Beatles-themed auction,[21] with an estimated selling price of £15,000–£25,000. This was because James's plans to use it for musical children's tours did not work out, and he was emigrating to Australia. He estimated that he had spent around £25,000 on the bus at that point, and said that any profit would go to the charity he was a trustee of, .[3] The bus was auctioned with the owner's paperwork, but without an MOT.[6] However, no bids were received and the bus went unsold.[22]

It was subsequently bought by [15] who set up the 1972 Wings Tour Bus Supporters Club,[23] who fundraised for its restoration.[24] The bus is now being restored[5] in Bristol.[15] A digital 3D model of the bus exists.[25] Although some museums expressed interest in having it as an exhibition, Jennings intends that it would be used on the road again after restoration.[26]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "More Images and History for WNO 481". 1972 Wings Tour Bus. 28 August 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d Jammor, Radio (12 December 2017). "The Curious History of the Wings Over Europe Tour Bus (WNO 481)". Radio Jammor is on the air... Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Paul McCartney's psychedelic Wings tour bus rediscovered". BBC News. 7 October 2019. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  4. ^ Pask, Brian. "Southend Sea Front Bus Services". SCT'61. Retrieved 21 July 2021.
  5. ^ a b c "Support WNO 481 The 1972 Wings Tour Bus". 1972 Wings Tour Bus. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  6. ^ a b "Macca's old tour bus ready to pick up for a song at £25k". Daily Express. 7 October 2019.
  7. ^ a b c d e Doyle, Tom (2014). Man on the Run: Paul McCartney in the 1970s. Polygon. ISBN 978-1846972928.
  8. ^ a b c d e Sounes, Howard (2010). Fab: an intimate life of Paul McCartney (1st Da Capo Press ed.). Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press. pp. 297–298. ISBN 9780007237067.
  9. ^ a b Carlin, Peter Ames (2009). Paul McCartney. Touchstone. p. 221. ISBN 1416562230.
  10. ^ a b "Features Guardian". The Guardian. 15 July 1972. p. 10. Retrieved 11 July 2021.
  11. ^ "The Gossip Column". The Spokesman-Review. 17 September 1972. p. 98.
  12. ^ "WNO 481 – The Lower McCartney Deck". 1972 Wings Tour Bus. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  13. ^ "On This Day". The Times. 11 July 2001. p. 19.
  14. ^ "WNO 481 – The Upper McCartney Deck". 1972 Wings Tour Bus. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  15. ^ a b c d e Jammor, Radio (10 August 2020). "Wings Over Europe Tour Bus 2 : The Update!". Radio Jammor is on the air... Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  16. ^ "Hold out for the tour bus". The Miami Herald. 24 July 1993. p. 2.
  17. ^ "WNO 481 & The White Album 1989–1993". 1972wingstourbus.com. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  18. ^ Musings, Red Queen's (11 October 2019). "Paul McCartney's psychedelic Wings tour bus discovered in Adeje". Everyone's Favourite Tenerife blog. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  19. ^ "El bus de la gira 'Wings Over Europe' de 1972 embarca en Algeciras". Andalucía Información. 31 October 2017. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  20. ^ "Transporte Marítimo de Canarias a Europa – Transporte Canarias Baleares". www.transportecanariasbaleares.com. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  21. ^ "Hundreds of Beatles memorabilia to go under hammer in Newton-le-Willows". St Helens Star. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  22. ^ "Wings Tour Bus Not Sold At Auction". Macca News. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  23. ^ "WNO 481 - Legend Of Rock & Road". 1972wingstourbus.com. Retrieved 11 July 2021.
  24. ^ The 1972 Wings Tour Bus, Indiegogo. Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  25. ^ "WNO 481 Paul McCartney's 1972 Wings Tour Bus – 3D model by 1972wingstourbus (@1972wingstourbus) [9145875]". Retrieved 22 March 2021.
  26. ^ Sobrevals, Sara (21 April 2021). "El bus con el que Paul McCartney se fue de gira por Europa en el 72 abandonado en Tenerife". Furgosfera - All you need is road (in Spanish). Retrieved 11 July 2021.
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