From the Beatles to the palace, Sir Paul McCartney is one of the few who deserve the title, "Living Legend".

BBC Radio Sheffield's Antonia Brickell met the Mac Daddy of pop...

Last time I saw you was Sunday 6 April, you were doing your soundcheck and I was chomping at the bit to talk to you. What a build up - and here you are now.

And I lost my voice, but here I am now, yeah.

And we cried.

Why did we cry, because I lost my voice? It was very weird, you know. I'd never had to cancel a show before and I had to walk around with a pad and a pen, writing things down.

The doctor said, just don't talk for two days and that's not easy. But anyway I'm glad to be back, it's really great and the penultimate night of the tour now, so it's fabulous.

So how's the tour been? You've been to Moscow, you've been to Rome….

Well at least I've got more to talk to you about now.

Yeah, Moscow was fantastic. We played in Red Square and Heather and I got invited to the Kremlin with Mr Putin and all that.

It was really great - the weather was great, the Russians were fantastic. I'd never been and Heather had never been, so it was a great first visit. We got to see St Petersburg and Moscow and everything.

Then we were in Rome, which was unbelievable, by the Colosseum playing a gig inside one night and then outside the other.

And the outside gig was like five hundred thousand people - so it was just a mile of people.

Unbelievable - they had screens going down so everyone could see and hear and it just worked out great. So we've been having a great time.

Do you not feel that the pressure is on when you drive past and you see these thousands, these millions of people waiting to see you - you and Heather?

John Lennon and Paul McCartney during the filming of 'Mersey Sounds'

Well, not really you know, because you get used to it, to tell you the truth. It's normally not millions of people, that takes a bit of getting used to.

But it is normally thousands. I think when you don't do that - a lot of my friends don't do that and they're ordinary - well not ordinary, they're normal people, whatever you call people….

Whatever you call normal…

Well that's what I mean, it's hard to describe people like that. But they're people who don't do what I do.

And they say "Oh you must be really tired." And I say "No I love it, y'know".

'Cos I think the idea for them of getting out of a traffic jam and getting out of work each week and going and doing all this stuff would be really exhausting.

Paul and Heather are looking forward to their first child together. More on Page 2

But I say to them "No, it's great really, we have a good time, we love playing the music, we travel in real style." So half the time it's like being on holiday. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

You played in Sheffield in 1964 with the Beatles at the City Hall and obviously things have changed a little bit. Now you're here, what do you see the differences as for you as a performer?

I feel lovely about the whole tour, obviously and coming to Sheffield after losing my voice and stuff.

I was always very disappointed not to do that second night.

It's great y'know - I didn't really notice enough the first time around to be able to say to you well that's new, or that's been built or that wasn't here…

But the feeling was, we're talking about the 60s, so Sheffield was a little northern town, or seemed like. And now it seems bigger and more modern - all the obvious stuff.

But did you imagine when you were here with the Beatles, that you'd still be packing them in at 60?

No, no, I really didn't. We didn't think any of that was going to happen.

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We thought we might have about five or ten years tops with the group, but it just continued.

When the 10 years was up we thought "Well now we're coming up to 30, it's time to retire isn't it?"

But it wasn't y'know because we were still doing stuff, then I went on with Wings and that ended up to be a big success.

I think the truth is I just always enjoy it; and if you really enjoy what you do you don't want to stop.

So people say "Are you going to retire?" and stuff. I say "Well you know, even if I retire I won't stop singing. I just love it too much. I won't stop writing songs."

So it's just a natural thing for me to do this. Obviously the audiences are coming and it's still as big as this tour has been. Which is phenomenal….

And internationally as well. I mean people love you in the States, you're away….

Aw gee, thanks for saying that! No it is true though - it is fabulous, it's quite surprising. I do love what I do and as long as they love what I do, I'll continue to do it?

Page 2: Macca on the Beatles, John Lennon and Heather's pregnancy>>