In June, Paul and Linda, their daughters and the members of wings went on holiday in Spain.
El refugio valenciano de Paul McCartney - Beat Valencia:
In 1972, after the beating of his album Wild Life (first by Wings), Paul sets off with his inseparable Linda and his daughter Stella, to a country whose political and cultural isolation will be the best help to re-compose at the level that his genius deserves: the Spain of the end of Franco's regime. The chosen locality is the municipality of Vila Joiosa, in the Marina Baixa, staying at the Hotel Montíboli. The visit of the beatle was picked up by the press of the time. Thus, the newspaper Información, from Alicante, interviewed him at the end of June 1972, giving Paul the opportunity to advertise his new postbeatle stage. The photographer José Crespo Colomer was able to photograph an excursion of the orphaned children of the Casa de Beneficencia de Alcoi, and its nuns caretakers, together with Linda and Paul in the beach of the coastal city. Paul's stay in Vila Joiosa will be absolutely fruitful and will mean McCartney's return in style. It is in the Hotel Montíboli where he will compose songs that will integrate two of his best solo albums Red Rose Speedway and Band on The Run.
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The song composed at the Hotel Montíboli with the greatest repercussion was undoubtedly "Hi, hi, hi". The BBC, which had already banned in 1972 the policy and claim "Give Ireland Back To The Irish", returned to the burden by banning the song written in Valencian lands. The motive in this case was not political, but to make apology of drugs and sex. Thus, phrases in which McCartney literally talks about "getting high" or "doing it" are forbidden by obscene and irreverent. In this way, Paul not only reaffirms his musical quality, but also gets two of his best songs banned by censorship, something that will never happen to any other beatle, not even Lennon's rebel. And the best thing is that the ignorance of Shakespeare's language on the part of Franco's censorship at the time will make "Hi, Hi, Hi" number one on the Spanish charts for five weeks. Few would imagine that it would be in that backward, grey Spain, where Paul McCartney would find the necessary inspiration to return in style and claim the place he deserved in rock and roll. And all thanks to the hotel that gave him back the inspiration of a town on the Alicante coast called Montíboli, and to which he would dedicate his song "Hotel In Benidorm". Paul saw as fulfilled what he sang at the end of Abbey Road: "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make", (and in the end, the love you receive is equal to the love you give).
Philip Norman:Wings' second exploratory flap as a live band was a continental tour between July and August of 1972, somewhat grandiosely billed as Wings Over Europe although its 28 small-venue dates were concentrated in France, Belgium, Switzerland, West Germany, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. Once again, Paul and Linda took their children with them. McCartneys and musicians travelled together in a personalised London double-decker bus, its top deck open, its lower one fitted with aircraft-style seats, a kitchenette and bunk beds for Heather and Mary. In a nod to the Magical Mystery Tour, its usual red paintwork was covered by psychedelic cartoons. The party flew to Marseilles to pick up the vehicle, which had been driven overland from London. As the roadies loaded the gear on board, the painters were still putting the final touches to its decoration.
