When a band like the Beatles gives so much joy, we often need them around to lift us. After a torrid 2020 their timing could not have been any better and like a fine wine we should recognise 2021 as a vintage year.

With the news dominated by the pandemic, families apart and life having been turned on its head in 2020, many fans will have found themselves earlier this year turning to music and entertainment to give them a lift.

Now you may be a boxset person or discovered the delights of podcasts or stuck your nose in a good book or like me you might have found yourself falling back in love with your favourite band again, grabbing all you can get your hands on to take the ultimate mystery tour into the back catalogue and reading all there is worth knowing.

The year started with McCartney III having been released just before Christmas still ringing in our ears. Always a fasciation the DIY element of the ‘McCartney’ series is begging to be analysed. What instruments is Paul playing now and where on earth does this drive come from at pushing eighty years old. McCartney III gave us that in droves, with III taking us back to that more laid back style of the the first of the three albums as opposed to the electronica of the now middle child.

But that was 2020 right, we would be waiting a year at least for more new music surely? Thankfully that was not to be. In April Paul gives us McCartney III (Imagined) a remix record that calls on the like of Beck, St. Vincent, Josh Homme and Damon Albarn. Like Twin Freaks the 2005 electronic remix of his solo hits, Paul pulled a 4/5 star record out of the record and turned McCartney III into as good a modern collaboration as you will ever hear. This is not duets by numbers, as so many of these albums can be, but rather an inventive retelling that shows that Paul is far from being a relic but is amongst his contemporaries, still at the top of the tree after all these years despite his advancing years. It is a fascinating listen.

Fast forward to August and Paul again treats us, this time it his opus The Lyrics, the closest thing we will ever get to a biography. Written with Paul Muldoon in secret over a four year period, The Lyrics is two weighty volumes telling the stories behind 154 McCartney songs, charting not only his Beatle years but his solo days too. Back-breakingly dense it is filled with unheard stories and confirmations from Paul, not least the secret we have known for all these years, that alas it was John who broke up the band.

The biggest joy from this book release was its launch at the South Bank. Streamed live to the world for those of us not quick enough on the button to bag tickets or just too far away to make the trip to London. This intimate interview with the two Paul’s was a real treat and the chance to get some one-on-one time with McCartney to talk us through the book and the process and also to add a couple degrees more shading to stories we knew, like his lazy afternoons skipping school with that scallywag John Lennon.

Barely giving us chance to come up for breath, the 25 August saw McCartney 3, 2, 1, being released on Disney Plus. A multi-part documentary where Paul and legendary producer Rick Rubin, explore Paul’s back catalogue and dig deep into the stories and the craft behind the songs. It was the perfect companion to The Lyrics, with 30 minutes episodes just perfectly timed, at least, in my case to fit in around a busy life. Filmed in silvery monochrome, it allowed us to concentrate on what was being said and gave us the viewpoint of being in a three-way conversation with Paul and Rick. Somehow in the building fever surrounding the release of Get Back later in the year and coming out so close to The Lyrics it seems to have passed a lot of Beatle fans by, so if you have not seen it I strongly advise checking it out.

By the beginning of September I was personally quite far down the Beatle rabbit hole and approaching a milestone birthday. A party ensued where I had a very fab influenced playlist and a two tiered Beatle cake that confirmed to all my guests (As if they didn’t know) that I had once again been bitten by the Beatle bug. As Beatle fever goes it was a strong strain and was only about to multiply as the year grew on.

A few days after my birthday came the reassuring thud on the doormat that signalled the arrival of Grandude’s Green Submarine. A surprise for my young daughter, this follow-up book was greeted with a squeal that only dogs could hear. We both adored the first one. A tale of a hip Grandude and his grandchildren known as the Chillers as they set off on a globe trotting adventure jumping into Grandude’s picture postcards.

These books from Paul are both charming and beautifully illustrated and they also give Beatle fans a chance to introduce the band to their children in a way they can connect with. The books have been a gateway for my daughter to step into the music and already, even at 4 she can recognise a Beatle tune from a 100 paces.

By the week approaching the 25th November, Beatle hysteria, not just in my household and with my daughter, but in the wider world was building to Anthology levels. Not since November 1995 had I known such a buzz about the band. Back then the Beatles popularity had been propelled by Britpop and the emergence of the likes of Oasis, Kula Shaker and others paying homage to the Beatle sound. There was a curiosity among my friends back then about the band, although for many they were cast as just ‘Mop Tops’ and ‘Love Me Do’, but hearing songs like ‘Rain’ and ‘Tomorrow never comes’ and tuning in to ITV to watch the Anthology weekly put that quickly to rest. In fact it is the first time I can recall rocking up to school to hear people talk about watching music on TV outside of Top of the Pops, it had everyone hooked.

The buzz of course this time around was for Peter Jackson’s ‘Get Back’ coming to Disney Plus. Over 8 hours of fly-on-the-wall footage of the Let it Be sessions and possibly the most revelatory bit of television we have seen in many a year, proving that even the memory of a Beatle can let us down with Paul equally complimentary of how Jackson has changed his views on that month that George has called the ‘winter of discontent’ but proved to be everything but.

The euphoria that came from seeing the full rooftop concert in all its glory will live with Beatle fans for years to come. For the first time ‘being there’ as a child of the sixties meant less, fans of all ages were able to experience this new event for the first time together and it was joyous. It was the Beatles last summer as I wrote in my post about it last month, and maybe our last chance to bask in their glow, a fitting end to the story we thought we all knew.

Looking back on 2021 and all that it gave Beatle fans, we have to thank Paul for not just slipping listlessly into retirement but instead giving us one of his most productive years. The drive that we saw from the young Paul in Get Back has not dimmed at all, if he is not giving us new music, we have interviews, books and documentaries. His energy literally knows no bounds.

And what is most impressive is that this is not a man who stopped inventing in 1970, Paul has shown us what it is to be a true artist, to be so creative that you just cant switch it off and you wouldn’t want to even try. It is a roadmap for life, love what you do so much that you never work a day in your life, Paul loves what he does and it shows.

As he approaches his eighth decade we should take time to tip our hat in his direction. Paul is intent to keep us on his long and winding road but far from cruising he insists on driving it all in top gear.

Thank you Paul