Paul McCartney says Give My Regards to Broad Street was ‘written on the train’ while recording Pipes of Peace

A movie starring music legend Paul McCartney was “written on the train” while the Wings frontman was preparing to record Pipes of Peace.

The Beatles legend confirmed he would write the screenplay for Give My Regards to Broad Street while commuting between Sussex and London. Writing in his book, The Lyrics, McCartney confirmed part of the film was written on the train, while the film was recorded at the same time as Pipes of Peace. It marked a busy period for McCartney as an artist, with his Tug of War album releasing in 1982 and swiftly followed up by 1983’s Pipes of Peace and the release of Give My Regards to Broad Street in 1984.

McCartney wrote: “The film’s title was a play on the old show tune Give My Regards to Broadway. We made it around the same time as my solo album Pipes of Peace and, I think, I wrote some of the screenplay on the train between Sussex and London.” Though the film did not fare well with critics at the time, McCartney shared that it was a thrill to make and reunited him with The Beatles’ Ringo Starr.

He added: “It was a lot of fun to make, and people like Ringo and his wife Barbara got involved. Linda was there too, plus George Martin and Tracey Ullman. Wrestler Giant Haystacks was also in it, and Bryan Brown.

“We had some nice set pieces, re-creating the old Liverpool dances of the fifties for the song Ballroom Dancing, and it was fun to do Eleanor Rigby onstage at the Royal Albert Hall.”

McCartney also shared how the film led to him creating some of his first solo music videos, with two separate recordings for No More Lonely Nights. The veteran frontman shared: “This was getting into the days of the big music video, and we did two for this song. One was shot in the train station at night, and the other was a bit of a clip reel with highlights from the film.

“The single did really well but just missed being number one, which I think was Wham!’s Freedom.” The song in question, No More Lonely Nights, also featured Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour on guitar. McCartney praised Gilmour for his “really nice” solo and went on to recall playing with the legendary guitarist at the Cavern Club in Liverpool.

The Wings frontman added: “But Gilmour really goes to town on that solo, especially on the album version, which is longer and gives him more space to play. It’s a really nice solo, with that signature Fender Stratocaster sound of his.

“He played guitar at a show I did at The Cavern Club in December 1999, which they’d reopened along the street from where it had been when The Beatles originally played there. So, that was a pretty good way to see out the twentieth century.”