The Bruce McMouse Show is a previously never-before-seen film that tells the story of how Paul McCartney and Wings came to meet the inimitable impresario Bruce McMouse. Part concert film, part animated feature, 'The Bruce McMouse Show' features footage from Wings’ 1972 European tour, combined with animated scenes that introduce a family of mice living under the stage. After opening the film with ‘Big Barn Bed’, the camera takes us down through the floorboards into this charming animated world. We see Bruce McMouse regale his children with stories from his past, when son Soily rushes into the room in a whirlwind of excitement announcing that “The Wings” are playing above them. As the concert plays on, Bruce declares to his wife Yvonne that Paul and the band need his help. Bruce then proceeds to venture on stage to offers his services as producer… The film was directed by Barry Chattington and produced by Roger Cherrill with the live elements taken from four shows in The Netherlands and Germany in 1972. Paul viewed the initial concert edit and realised there was great potential in the material captured. Prior to the European tour he had the idea of a family of mice and sketched the characters. Picking up the idea, Eric Wylam took Paul’s sketches and created the final McMouse family. This storyline was incorporated and used as a linking theme within the concert footage. The voice-overs for the animated mice took place at the end of 1973, recorded by Paul and Linda McCartney, Deryck Guyler, Pat Coombs and Derek Nimmo. Production stretched from 1972 through to 1977 when the film was complete, however with changes in the band’s line-up and music scene, the project was held in the MPL archives until now. ‘The Bruce McMouse Show’ has been fully restored in 2018 alongside a brand-new stereo mix created at AIR Studios and mastered at Abbey Road Studios.
