Paul McCartney’s brother says he could have had a very different job

Paul McCartney’s brother, photographer and songwriter Mike McCartney claimed the Beatles may not have existed and they both could have been doctors.

Their mum Mary died in October 1956, after a battle with breast cancer. Mike said the world may have been without the Liverpool quartet if their mother had lived. The origins of the Fab Four date back to 1957, when Paul met a young John Lennon by chance at a church fete at St. Peter’s Church in Liverpool.

Speaking to the ECHO, Mike McCartney explained how the guidance from their mother may have meant him and brother Paul would have followed more educational routes. He joked: “You’d be speaking to Dr McCartney now, or she was a Catholic so maybe it would be Father McCartney.”

After John and Paul met, Paul joined John’s outfit The Quarrymen, where he initially played rhythm guitar. Then in 1958, Paul invited his friend, 15-year-old George Harrison to watch the band – and impressed Lennon when he auditioned, however John believed Harrison was initially too young.

Speaking on the McCartney’s family life following their mother’s death, Mike said: “It [20 Forthlin Road] was a warm family home, not as warm as it would have been with a mum around. We lived here when he had no money and no hope – certainly hope in showbusiness.

“Dad was poor, he had choices: to steal – but this would lead to prison, or to gamble, but he enjoyed playing music in the Jim Max band. When mum died it was hard but he always had thoughts of the band, he bought me a banjo and Paul a guitar – a Spanish guitar I called it, and we had a drum kit that fell off the back of a lorry.”

Beatlemania would soon take over the world. with the quartet going on to become the biggest selling artists of all time, recruiting Ringo Starr to play drums. The rest, as they say, is history.