Author’s Introduction
Hello, my name is Adrian Allan and I am the author of Paul McCartney After The Beatles: A Musical Appreciation, Volumes One and Two.
I was born in November 1971, six months after the release of Ram, and thus can be considered a second-generation fan of Paul McCartney and The Beatles.
My musical journey began at the age of nine, when I began guitar lessons with a local teacher. After a few years I discovered the music of The Beatles and McCartney, and was particularly fond of the albums The Beatles Ballads and Give My Regards to Broad Street. It wasn’t long before I had purchased every single Beatles album, and following from that, every McCartney solo or Wings album. As a budding young musician, I also bought all of the sheet music songbooks and spent many hours in bedroom, adapting the songs for guitar from piano and voice.
Sometime around 1988 my musical tastes branched out to embrace the classical guitar, and I similarly amassed a large collection of sheet music for the instrument and moved onto lessons with some of the very best teachers in the region, including the performing artist Craig Ogden, who was then at the beginning of his career and living in Manchester.
When not involved in music, I was studying hard at school, and took a BA in History at Lancaster University in 1990-1993, which also included independent research into the history of popular music and musicology. Fast-forward to 2017 and I began a part-time masters’ degree in history with the University of the Highlands and Islands, which I soon hope to complete.
After graduating in 1993 I began teaching guitar on a peripatetic basis around Manchester and in 1995 I passed a performance diploma in classical guitar. In 1999 I enrolled on the PGCE music scheme at Manchester Metropolitan University and completed a teaching post-grad for secondary music.
Since completing the PGCE I have taught music and other subjects in every single type of teaching institution in the UK, including prisons, nurseries, adult education, behavioural units/PRUs, PMLD/profound learning difficulties and mainstream high schools. I have always been happiest on long-term temporary contracts (out of choice), moving on when the tyrants at Ofsted came a-knocking on the door.
In 2019 I decided to write a book about Paul McCartney. I was confident that I could achieve this because:
- I have a broad and in-depth knowledge of both classical and popular music, having written nine books of arrangements and having had my music performed and recorded by many other musicians. I can play the guitar to a high standard and “get a tune” out of a whole host of other instruments, including piano, flute, clarinet, bass guitar, recorder, violin and viola.
- I have a thorough knowledge of every aspect of Paul McCartney’s career, both during and after The Beatles.
- I have sound research skills, honed by recent post-graduate research in history
- I have many years of teaching experience and know how to pitch my subject to the reader in a clear and accessible manner.
After completing this book in the spring of 2019 I began work on Volume Two and completed it at the end of March 2020. At 170 thousand words it reperesents an even more detailed examination of McCartney’s career after The Beatles and covers a further fifty songs.
Both Volumes One and Two can be purchased in the “shop” on the homescreen of this website.
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