Lawrence "Macca" Gilmour is a top Paul McCartney act. He's performed in the US, UK, and recently toured Russia. He has also been on several television shows, most notably Stars in Their Eyes. Paul saw his performance on that show and was very impressed with Lawrence. Paul was so impressed that he invited Lawrence to work as his double in the "No Other Baby" video for the Run Devil Run album. Lawrence has since continued playing as a Paul tribute act. He was very kind to take the time to do an interview with me, which I've posted below. Thanks, Lawrence. You're the best!

Lawrence Macca Interview by Holley
February 2005

Q: How and when did you become a fan of Paul's?

Lawrence: When I was a kid my older brother had a band. They used to rehearse in our house, and they did a lot of Beatles songs, and I would sit and listen to them. Then I listened to my first Beatle album Rubber Soul around 1968 and loved it. I got more into Paul specifically after I got married, when someone gave me the album Red Rose Speedway in 1982, and my wife and I would lie in the dark listening to that. I LOVED it. Then my sister bought me a Reader's Digest set of the Beatle albums, and my wife and I went through all of them too.. in the dark.. it just got better and better.

Q: When did you start learning to play the guitar?

Lawrence: I did it in parallel... I did the TV show, then I teamed up with a Russian mate of mine who taught me Beatles stuff on guitar. I was living in Germany at the time (the TV company had flown me over to the UK from Germany). I returned to live in the UK a year later, and I joined a band. So I didn't start doing my impersonation seriously until about two years after the TV show... i.e. I took the time to learn to play some things first -- i.e. do it justice.

Q: When did you start performing as Lawrence Macca?

Lawrence: The name Lawrence Macca I only started using when I moved to the USA in 2000. Before that it was always Lawrence Gilmour as Paul McCartney, but a lot of my mates started calling me Macca. So I thought Lawrence Macca... captures me and Paul.

Q: What was the first venue you remember playing?

Lawrence: Apart from playing at private family parties etc... the first venue I did was for a college night in Poole, Dorset, England, and it was amazing because I bumped into an old friend living in Poole, whose older brother played in my brother's band that I used to listen to when I was a kid. We got talking and I told him I was thinking of doing this college thing, and it turned out he was an experienced musician, so he helped me out at it. So twenty something years after he and I used to sit and listen to our older brothers doing Beatles we did a Beatle gig together...

Q: What was working with Paul like? Is there anything you remember talking to him about that really stands out, or did he make any funny jokes?

Lawrence: I was very excited days before the event. On the day, just before he arrived, I was anxious and when he arrived and we met... I was so nervous for the first fifteen minutes, then he put me at ease. He was so down to earth and friendly. He joked a lot. He was joking that my hair was too long e.g. more like him in 89/90 and he had just had his cut, so he said to the producers, "Let's cut Lawrence's hair off." He joked about me being his double.. e.g. said to the camera men, "You're filming the wrong guy. I'm the double." He also told a few jokes, and I said to him, "Hey, I'll use that in my act and say, 'This is a joke Paul told me'." And he said, "You better not." I never did, just in case he meant it.

Q: What's your favorite song to do live?

Lawrence: It was "Hey Jude" for a long time, especially at the end when all the audience joins in and he and me go mad. Recently I've been enjoying doing some Wings songs, e.g. "Let Me Roll It," I like, because the words make it seem very relevant to the audience. "You gave me something..." etc.

Q: What guitars do you use on stage?

Lawrence: I use a Hofner bass identical to Paul's. I use an acoustic guitar, which looks like a Martin, which Paul plays, but is a lot cheaper (it's a tanglewood at the moment), and I use an original Gibson electric guitar... 1957... quite a bit older than Paul's Gibson Les Paul, but looks a little bit like it.

Q: Are there any other particular bands or solo musicians you like besides Paul?

Lawrence: I like oldie folks mostly like Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Elvis even, for his great velvet voice. Roy Orbison also because of his voice. Modern bands I like are Keane, Travis, and Weezer, even. My son put me on to them.

Q: Do you have any plans right now to come back to the US?

Lawrence: Well, I was planning to be at AROTR [Abbey Road on the River] for my fourth year in a row in Kentucky in May, but I cancelled after the promoter and I failed to reach an agreement on the terms, but we have been communicating about the event in the future. So, who knows, I may be at AROTR in 2006. Apart from that there are no immediate plans, but I will be looking for opportunities when I get my new band going. I spoke to a promoter here recently, who asked me if I was interested in doing a show in Las Vegas. Of course, I said, I love America. But will he get me the gig - who knows?

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