Greetings,
As a Hey Jude baby that was rocked in his pram, to the boy who wanted to know why The Beatles split-up at a time before I had even attended infants school, I've always, always, always been a Beatles fan, and also a fan of much of the post-Beatles music as well.
When Paul's twitter account posted in December 2017, asking about the whereabouts of the 1972 Wings Tour Bus, which they had heard maybe about again, I happened to see that tweet as it was posted, and being a good finder of stuff online, I got on the case and replied within minutes.
The Wings Tour Bus had been shipped back to the UK after being in Tenerife for 24 or so years and was hopefully going to be restored and used by a UK based international children's charity for fundraising.
The story of this bus was such that I wanted to write it up and I did so in a (free) blog which can be found here.
I have followed what has happened since and the bus has changed ownership, with the person at the charity unable to follow-through on their intentions, but it has been sold to someone who also wants to restore it but instead, put it on display.
This Bristol KSW5G bus, that was originally built and registered in 1953 as a typical double-decker of its day, that became an open-top tour bus and went around Europe with Paul McCartney and Wings in 1972, was then used as an events bus, nearly scrapped in the late 1980s, but was saved and used again, went to Cannes as part of a British Film rally, appeared on Surprise Surprise! (UK TV show), before being repainted with its 1972 Tour livery, for sale in 1993.
It was then sold on to a rock cafe owner who took it to Tenerife to be an attraction for the cafe, but ended up being left in a ravine there, before being brought back to the UK in 2017.
I recently updated my blog about the extraordinary history of this bus, with an entry here.
Some of the initial and necessary restoration has been performed, but there is plenty more to do. The bus is moving again under its own power for the first time in about 25 years so things are looking good for a full restoration to occur.
The current owner is a man called Tom Jennings, and if you want to know more about what his plans are for the bus, because I think Macca fans, and Wings fans in particular, might be a little bit interested, he has created a web site which you can find here.
It was a labour of love researching and writing about this, so I hope at least some of you find it of interest, too.
