A man’s Beatles toy figure was spotted by Paul McCartney – and has now become official merch.
Figure-maker David McGurk created a mini George Martin – The Beatles’ producer who passed away in 2016 – and posted a photo of it on his social media.
The 46-year-old, who is a huge fan of the iconic band, was surprised to be contacted by Martin’s son Giles – also a talented record producer.
Giles asked for one which David sent to Abbey Road recording studio and it was spotted by Macca – who insisted it sit on a mixing desk during a session.
Stunned Giles was then asked to make 100 more – to go on sale at the Abbey Road Studios shop.
Giles, from Clydebank, Scotland, said: ”Giles he told me ‘I really like the figure of my dad, if you make any more, I’d like one’ so I thought right away ‘I’m going to do it’.
“I made a new George Martin figure, and I made one of Giles as well because I thought ‘I’ll put this in as a wee surprise’.
“I sent it down to Abbey Road which was crazy in itself.
“‘Can you just send it down and I’ll give you the address; it’s Abbey Road’ he said, as if I didn’t know!”
After receiving the figures, Giles messaged David and asked if he would be free for a chat over the phone.
“He told me ‘I’ve got quite a cool story for you”, the dad-of-one explained.
“He said, ‘When they got here, I was in the middle of a session with Paul McCartney’.
“I couldn’t speak at this point, I’m a huge Beatles fan.
“He said, ‘we opened them up and Paul McCartney was looking at them, he said they were amazing’.
“He told me Paul McCartney put the figures onto the mixing console that they recorded The Beatles’ albums through.
“He said he was about to clear them away because they were going to go back to their session, but Paul McCartney said, ‘no leave him here’.”
David, who first started making figures as a hobby, was in shock after being asked to make “a couple of more” figures for the Abbey Road Studios shop.
After meetings with branding and retail departments, the bank worker was asked to make 100.
“They wanted 100, it wasn’t a couple, it was 100”, he said. “Honestly, I was expecting maybe five at the most for them to use as ornaments.
“But these were to sell as a limited-edition item.”
After more meetings and approval to get George Martin’s likeliness rights, David had a lengthy job on his hands.
Luckily, he had previously reduced his hours at work to spend more time on his dream job figure-making.
He said: “I was thinking how the hell am I going to make 100, because 50 is the most I’ve ever made, and that nearly killed me. But I managed. It took me three months.
“I went to look online, and it said sold out. It must have been less than an hour after they went on sale.”
Due to the experience, David has been introduced to contacts within the retail industry and Universal Music.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “For me, it was such a big thing to get the figure into the studio and onto the same mixing console where The Beatles recorded all their music.”
Produced in association with SWNS Talker
