Tom Dunne's Music & Me: The joys of rediscovering Paul McCartney

After hearing the news that Linda had breast cancer, he resolved to carry on recording. 'You either go to bed and never get up,' he said, 'or you just carry on. This is carrying on.'

Paul McCartney at Cork Airport in 1971 with his late wife Linda, daughters Heather and Mary, and the family dog. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive 

I’ve met McCartney, I’ve interviewed him and I’ve seen him play live in The Cavern. Given my youthful years that last one is some achievement. But somehow up to the recent re-release of his 1997 Flaming Pie album I’d never heard the track ‘Heaven on a Sunday’. Hearing it I wondered how I had lived without it? And, given that I am a fanatical fan of his work, how on earth had it escaped me?

In my defence I would point out that 1997 was the year of Radiohead’s OK Computer and The Verve’s Urban Hymns. My mind was elsewhere and Macca’s solo work was both voluminous and hit and miss. At some point you sensed he’d become disconnected. I had misfiled this one under ‘disconnected'.