Paul MacCallum was born in Harrow on 13 September 1948. He was
brought up by his mother and her parents in Bournemouth, where
he also went to school. It was here that he first met band leader Zoot
Money, with whom he later played bass guitar, and the two performed
in the school orchestra together. He was later a member of Zoot Money’s
Big Roll Band from the late ’80s onwards.
During the 1970s Paul played and toured in bands, backing well known
pop stars such as Helen Shapiro and Billy Fur y, and also working as a
session musician. In the ’80s he also played with Ruthless Blues and Dana
Gillespie before touring with the Wombles.
In 1966 he met Arthur Lampkin, who went on to found Wembley
Loudspeaker five years later, and the two men developed a reputation as
the UK’s leading loudspeaker repair and refurbishment experts from their
workshop in Shepherds Bush.
Their clients ranged from nightclubs, pro studios, sound hire
companies, musicians including BB King, Mark Knopfler and Eric Clapton
and when Arthur retired, Paul MacCallum took over the business and
employed Paul Mansfield and Tony Collins for many years.
But Wembley Loudspeaker was far more than a repair shop. It designed
some nifty cabinets of its own, most notably the popular B-Line bass cab,
but also the equally popular Spyder, Deuce, Maxicube and Minicube, used
by churches, high-profile discos and theatres, both in the UK and beyond.
After the onset of a degenerative form of Parkinson’s Disease had forcedhim to give up Wembley Loudspeaker, Paul MacCallum continued to play
bass with Zoot’s band right up to the point where it was no longer possible.
As a musician, he will be remembered with affection by the crowds at
the Bull in Barnes, which along with the 100 Club was one of his favourite
gigging venues.
“We had endless laughs the whole time I knew him – from secondar y
school till the end,” stated Zoot. “Paul was a fellow musician, excellent
company, a friend and solid in a crisis.”
Having shared our landmark 50th and 60th birthday parties together
with parties at the 100 Club conveniently during the PLASA Show, I also
have many fond memories.
Paul was also a major player in ever y respect on the international
circuit. During the heyday of the disco industr y, when the industr y’s sound
and lighting suppliers would decamp to the notorious Rose & Crown English
pub, off the seafront in Rimini during the golden days of the SIB trade fair,
he somehow managed to sell the owner a new Wembley Loudspeaker
sound system for installation. How anyone was sober enough to do
business in a bar that never seemed to close, and ended in carnage on
most nights, remains a myster y to ever yone.
I also had the great privilege of presenting him with The Unsung Hero
Award at the ver y first TPi Awards in 2002. It was to be a complete secret
and I was to build up the suspense during the blurb before finally revealing
his identity. But what made my task harder, was meeting up ahead of the
event at the Hilton on Edgware Road with a few industr y chums, when who
should walk in but Paul. Keeping a straight face had never been harder.
Four hours later, standing behind the mic I was following my brief, tr ying
to avoid making eye contact with the Womble on Table 39. But when I set
the scene by referring to one TV show, on namechecking a popular female
TV presenter at the time, the backstage area and led onto “he’s done just
about anything it’s possible to do in a Womble Suit”, the place went wild.
But ever yone has their favourite anecdote about Paul MacCallum, who
was loved by ever yone. You only need to look at the swathes of tributes on
Facebook and other social media sites to realise this.
Paul was married four times. With Vanessa, his second wife, he had
three children and then gained a stepson when he married Viviane. He
was married to Viviane for the last 22 years of his life, having been together
for six years prior to that. He also leaves behind four much-adored
grandchildren with another on the way.
Paul MacCallum died on 26 June from Multiple System Atrophy, a rare
neurological disorder, which progressively started to overwhelm him from
early 2016. Several months prior to his death, when already confined to a
hospice, a benefit concert was held at the O2 Academy Islington, giving the
industr y the opportunity to pay its respects.
Hosted by Zoot Money, and featuring Papa George and Alan Price, the
smile never left Paul’s face the whole evening as he sat in rapt attention on
the front row, playing air bass and wishing for all the world that he could
have been up onstage with the ensemble.
The family is asking for donations to be made to either the MSA Trust or
Princess Alice Hospice.
MSA Trust: http://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/paulmaccallum
Princess Alice: http://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/paulmaccallum
TPiPAUL MACCALLUM:
THE WOMBLE OF WEMBLEY
The professional sound industry was this month mourning the death of Paul MacCallum,
known affectionally to his friends as the Womble on account of his stint as Great Uncle Bulgaria
in Mike Batt’s furry collection, but to the many PA companies who relied on his professional services,
as Wembley Loudspeaker’s Recone King, writes Jerry Gilbert.OBITUARY