READING PRACTISE - Paul is Dead (part 1)

As you may know I come from Liverpool, the home of The Beatles. Here is a strange story about one of them.

In the autumn of 1969 a rumour went around the world that Paul McCartney, of The Beatles, was dead. In fact, that he had died three years ago on November 9, 1966 in car crash while returning home from the EMI recording studios. Also, that the surviving band members, afraid of the effect his death might have on their careers, secretly replaced him with a double named William Campbell (an orphan who had won a Paul McCartney lookalike contest in Edinburgh). However, they also put clues in their later albums to let fans know the truth - that Paul was dead.

Beatles fans spent many, many hours searching for clues hidden in the albums, finding hundreds of them. Many articles appeared in magazines talking about Paul's Death. McCartney added to the rumour by refusing to appear in public to deny it. Finally, photographers for LIFE Magazine found the singer at his Mull of Kintyre house where he was on holiday and took a photo of him, and ending the rumour.

How the Rumour Started

On January 7, 1967 McCartney's Mini Cooper really did crash, and a few newspapers reported that he had died. However, McCartney wasn't in the car when it crashed. He was at a party in Sussex. The man driving the car (who also didn't die) was Mohammed Hadjij, who was using the car to take drugs to the party in Sussex. Later more rumours of Paul's death were heard at parties  in London.

The rumour was then seen in print on 17th September 1969, in Tim Harper's article for the student newspaper of Drake University in Iowa, America, titled ‘Is Beatle Paul McCartney Dead?’ Then on 12th October Detroit DJ Russ Gibb took a phone call on-air from student Tom Zarski. Zarski explained the whole rumour for Gibb and, as proof of its truth, asked him to play ‘Revolution Number Nine’ from the Beatles' White Album backwards. Gibb did, and much to his surprise, could clearly hear the words ‘Turn me on, dead man’ being spoken many times. Gibb was amazed by what he heard. This was the spark that ignited the fire.

Fred LaBour, a student journalist at the University of Michigan, heard Gibb's radio programme and wrote an article for the Michigan Daily describing Paul’s ‘death,’ and detailing many of the clues. The article excited readers, and was soon seen in many other university papers throughout the country. LaBour's article, more than anything else, spread the rumour across America.

Journalists from the bigger newspapers heard the story and went to England to find Paul. For three weeks his ‘death’ was the main subject in America. It wasn't until LIFE printed the picture of McCartney on the front of its November 7 issue that the excitement began to die down.

Paul is Dead (part 2)

VOCABULARY

(a) double  noun  a person who looks exactly the same a someone else
(an) orphan  noun  a child whose parents are dead
(a) clue  noun  a piece of information that helps you solve a problem
(a) rumour  noun  a piece of news that may or may not be true that spreads very quickly
to deny  verb  to say something is not true
(-) on-air  noun  if someone is on-air then you can hear them from your radio
spark that ignited the fire  phrase  something small that starts a bigger event
to die down  phrasal  verb  when something dies down it becomes less active