Paul McCartney signs to Capitol Records

Paul McCartney is back with a major record label after signing a ‘historic’ worldwide recording agreement with Capitol Records.

The new deal encompasses McCartney’s entire body of post-Beatles work, starting with his 1970 McCartney album and the label will be release new records (McCartney is working on a his 17th solo studio album) and reissues. In the press release it states that “a comprehensive plan for the artist’s catalogue is being conceived by Capitol and Universal Music Enterprises (UMe) – in conjunction with the artist and his management team – and will be implemented beginning July 2017.”

This is a slightly strange statement because Paul and his team, headed by manager Scott Rodger, have been in total control of the catalogue releases since Band on the Run was reissued in 2010 and apart from a rather leisurely release schedule, you’d have to say it ain’t broke, so don’t fix it.

I’d be surprised, in terms of reissues, whether there was any material change in strategy. If they change the size of those deluxe books, they’ll be hell to pay! Inevitably, one has to question what impact this announcement will have on the Flowers in the Dirt reissue which is expected – but not confirmed – for later this year. Going by previous timelines, it should have been announced by now, so the behind the scenes label shenanigans may have already had an impact.

McCartney officially walked away from EMI in 2010 and likened the major label to a dinosaur watching a meteorite plunging to earth. He signed with the nimble and much smaller Concord Music who issued Band on the Run – the first of his Archive Collection releases – in 2010. The same label had also put out McCartney’s 2007 album Memory Almost Full. Since then, seven further Wings and McCartney long-players have been reissued, the latest being Tug of War and Pipes of Peace which were released in October last year.