BOOK REVIEW: Conversations With McCartney by Paul Du Noyer

Shane | 27 February 2016 | Reply

BOOK REVIEW: Conversations With McCartney by Paul Du Noyer

Hachette Australia
October 2015
Paperback, $32.99
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar

Music Biography

5/10

Paul Du Noyer was contacted in June 1989 by Paul McCartney’s London office and offered an interview with the ex-Beatle. No sane journalist could refuse, and Du Noyer went on to work for Macca on tour programmes, album liner notes, press and website material as well as continuing to interview him over the ensuing 25 years.

Here he collates all of his recorded material and presents it in a somewhat chronological order – chronological, that is, based on whatever topic they were talking about at the time. So when referencing one song, or time period, we might be presented with quotes from several different interviews, years apart.

Whilst the book is full of illuminating information, it is sadly not the “intimate portrayal” promised by the accompanying press material. Perhaps because of the ‘cut and paste’ nature of its assembly, the end result is very dry, to the point that I found it inaccessible, leaving many of the gems contained within undiscovered.