“Do it yourself, keep it simple, don’t get overblown. You’ve done the Beatles, you’ve done A Day in the Life, you’ve done Sgt Pepper. Now come back to basics”: Paul McCartney on how he kickstarted his solo career in a remote Scottish farmhouse

Paul and Linda McCartney, plus dog, on their farm, black and white photo.

Paul McCartney’s memoir of his immediate post-Beatles years, Wings: The Story Of a Band On the Run is out this week and over the weekend the Guardian ran an exclusive extract.

The portion they went with focuses on the earliest days of his solo career, from autumn 1969. That September, John Lennon had told the other Beatles that he was leaving the group, but all four had agreed to keep their demise a secret for the time being. McCartney was in limbo.