Radio host, writer and researcher Mike Williams, known as The Sage of Quay, features in this two-hour return to the replacement of the real James Paul McCartney back in 1966 with a double who has been impersonating him ever since. This individual is William Shepherd, (not Campbell, as frequently claimed,) a trained musician, actor and freemason also known by the nickname 'Billy Shears.'
Mike gives his observations on the book 'The Memoirs Of Billy Shears', which purports to be the confessional auto-biography of Shepherd, but embellished with enough fictional elements for it to be passed off as a 'novel' to avoid the legal minefield that would occur were the replacement to go on the official record. Mike's comments build on those he put forward in an equally comprehensive podcast interview with Sofia Smallstorm recently, and it's recommended that listeners really wanting to understand this subject area fully, listen to that interview first in order to get the full background. It's available here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV39RmErX14
Mike observes that the level of knowledge of The Beatles' world in the 1960s, and the breaking-down of the real meaning behind so many of their ambiguous lyrics, can only have come from someone on the inside, giving credibility to many of the book's claims. The Beatles deliberately placed hundreds of symbolic clues into their music and imagery, giving the public the opportunity to understand the nature of the switch all along.
While all doubt has now been removed that the person the world has thought of as 'Paul McCartney' for the past half a century is really William Shepherd, one highly pertinent question remains; what happened to the real Paul, and was his death on September 11th of 1966 really a tragic accident that nobody could have foreseen, or something altogether more sinister? And what further revelations might we expect upon the death of Billy Shears, now aged 79?
This interview is split into two parts for the convenience of those who like to burn the audio to CD, like myself. Be sure to check out Part 2, which can be found here: https://soundcloud.com/mark-devlin/good-vibrations-podcast-vol-96-mike-williams-re-pid-p2
All of Mike's work resides at www.sageofquay.com
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