Global Screenings For Paul McCartney’s Previously Unseen ‘The Bruce McMouse Show’

The film tells the story of how McCartney and Wings came to meet the fictional impresario Bruce McMouse, with footage from the band’s Wings Over Europe tour interspersed with animated scenes.

Published on

January 10, 2019

Paul Sexton

Egypt Station press shot [02] CREDIT MPL Communications Ltd

Photo: MPL Communications Ltd

The previously unseen film The Bruce McMouse Show, which features footage from Paul McCartney and Wings’ 1972 tour and animated scenes, will be screened in selected movie theatres worldwide on 21 January. The screenings are part of a new partnership between music film global rights management partner Abramorama and MPL/Capitol/UMe.

The film tells the story of how McCartney and Wings came to meet the fictional impresario Bruce McMouse. It combines elements of a concert film and an animated feature, with footage from the band’s Wings Over Europe tour interspersed with animated scenes introducing a family of mice living under the stage.

The film opens with ‘Big Barn Bed,’ the song that opens Red Rose Speedway, the 1973 album now available as a deluxe reissue as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection. The camera then takes us down through the floorboards into an animated world in which Bruce McMouse recounts stories from his past to his children. Then his son Soily bursts into the room to announce excitedly that “The Wings” are playing above them.

As the concert continues, Bruce declares to his wife Yvonne that McCartney and the band need his help. McMouse then ventures on stage to offers his services as producer. The animated scenes culminate with dozens of animated mice flocking to the venue to see the band’s performance.

The Bruce McMouse Show was fully restored in 2018 at Final Frame Post alongside a brand-new audio mix (stereo and 5.1) created at AIR Studios, where the film was also mastered. Watch the teaser video below:

The Bruce McMouse Show - Teaser 1

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The film was directed by Barry Chattington and produced by Roger Cherrill; its concert elements came from four shows on the Wings tour, in the Netherlands and Germany. After seeing the initial concert edit, Paul saw the great potential in the material captured, married it to the idea he’d had before the tour about a family of mice and sketched the characters.

The idea was expanded by Eric Wylam, who took Paul’s sketches and created the McMouse family. This storyline was incorporated and used as a linking theme within the concert footage. The voiceovers for the animated mice were recorded at the end of 1973 and featured Paul and Linda McCartney and the much-loved British actors of the time, Deryck Guyler, Pat Coombs and Derek Nimmo. Production continued into 1977 when the film was complete, but with the passage of time and changes to the music scene and the Wings line-up, the project was held in the MPL archives.

“There’s no greater compliment than to be entrusted to oversee the global release a Paul McCartney film,” says Evan Saxon, head of west coast acquisitions and business development at Abramorama, “and continue our long-standing relationship with The Beatles family. Fans attending these special screenings of The Bruce McMouse Show will be transported to a Paul McCartney & Wings concert with the best seat in the house, just above Bruce McMouse and his family.”

Tickets and further information are available at the dedicated website. The Bruce McMouse Show will be screening at the following cinemas:

UK:

Liverpool: Everyman Cinema Liverpool

London: Everyman Cinema Hempstead

US:

New York: IFC Center

Los Angeles: ArcLight, Hollywood

Bethesda: ArcLight Bethesda

Chicago: ArcLight Chicago

Dallas: ANGELIKA

Honolulu: Kahala 8

Nashville: Belcourt Theatre