Sir Paul McCartney’s fame and success has impacted his brother Mike McCartney and made him and the rest and the family feel inadequate, his relative Ted Robbins has revealed.
The 68-year-old stand-up comedian’s late mother was Paul’s first cousin and Ted has many fond memories of Paul joining the family for parties and get togethers. However, the Phoenix Nights star has revealed that Paul’s legacy with The Beatles means that his younger brother Mike - who formed his own bands the Scaffold and Grimms and performed under the name Mike McGear - has always felt second best and in hidden in the huge shadow that his older sibling cast.
Ted said: “Paul and my mum are first cousins. You know, when people do that, who’s the most famous person on your phone? Well, that’s Paul McCartney. Uncle Jim, who is Paul’s dad, well, my great uncle, Uncle Joe, my mum and dad, Auntie Gin, who was Paul’s auntie, helped bring him up.
“You know the song, Someone’s Knockin at the Door … Auntie Gin. Well, Auntie Gin, when Paul’s and Mike’s mum Mary died in 1956, they kind of, with my mum, all the cousins and all the uncles and aunties used to look after Paul and Mike because they were 14 and 13 and they grew up. I grew up, you know, listening and the aunties say, listen, ‘Cousin Paul’s on the radio,’ you know, and yeah, yeah, it’s a strange thing because, people say everyone in Liverpool, my auntie used to scrub Ringo Starr’s steps and all that.
Comedian Ted Robbins is related to Paul McCartney (Manchester Evening News)“In some ways it’s a great thing, but for some members of our family, it’s kind of screwed their lives up a bit. Because if you compare, you know what I mean? Paul McCartney and all that. You become a dentist, great, you know. I think Mike, his brother, who’s the loveliest of men and talented, but his fear is on his gravestone, ‘Here lies Paul McCartney’s brother.’ He is lovely Mike. I see more of Mike, but I see Paul occasionally and he rings me up, ‘How you doing son?’”
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Ted - whose famous family includes his comedian sister Kate Robbins and TV star niece Emily Atack - says some members of the family have even cheekily asked Paul, 81, to share some of his estimated £800 million fortune with them, to which the songwriter has replied “all you need is love”.
Ted said: “We’ve got a cousin called Ronnie Fogg, and he’s the most Scouse man. Ronnie was married into Auntie Gin’s family, he was Auntie Gin’s son-in-law and he worked on the ferries, and he’s the most Scouse man in the world. Ronnie’s a f***ing great guy. He’s like the fool to Paul’s King Lear, because whenever Ian and Jackie, god rest them, who was his father-in-law, they had a big house, they had nine kids, and everyone used to pile in, and Paul would come as well.
“There was this family do and Ronnie, he just cuts straight to the quick and goes, ‘Hey Paul, giz a mill, you f***ing tight ****. Giz a mill, you can afford it.’ And Paul laughs. Paul says, ‘Hey Ronnie, you don’t need a mill, you just need love.’ Ronnie said, ‘Oh, I f***ing love you, giz a mill?’”
Ted though reveals that Paul was generous enough at the height of The Beatles fame to pay off his mum and dad’s mortgage and save their house when they were totally broke and he even wrote his solo song Teddy Boy about the comic when he was a kid.
He told the Chatabix podcast: “When the Beatles were really on the up, listen to this, we lived in Bebington on the Wirral and Paul actually sorted my mum and dad’s house out. They were really skint at the time. You know he wrote a song called Teddy Boy, which is on his first (solo) album called McCartney. And, you know, it goes, ‘this is the story of a boy named Ted’ and it was sort of inspired [by me].”
And Ted has also revealed that no one in the family calls Sir Paul by his nickname “Macca”, he’s always been known as Paul Mac by his relatives. He spilled: “This thing about calling him Macca, we’ve never. You know there’s Paul Mac, Mike Mac, his brother, Johnny Mac, who’s another cousin Uncle Joe’s son. Keith Mac who suddenly passed away, who was Uncle Jack’s son. There were six uncles and aunties, and my grandmother, Annie McCartney, was Paul’s dad’s sister. There you are.”
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