With Band On The Run, Paul McCartney didn’t just create a great album, he came up with a memorable sleeve, one to match the iconic likes of Revolver and Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The front cover image was what made it so special. It was vaguely redolent of the famous-people artwork for the Beatles’ masterpiece, only this time the celebrities – captured at Osterley Park, West London, by photographer Clive Arrowsmith as a pretend gang in the throes of fleeing from prison – were all living. Alongside the McCartneys and Denny Laine in this mocked-up escape scene were chatshow host and journalist Michael Parkinson; actor, comedian and singer Kenny Lynch; movie tough guy James Coburn; screen vampire Christopher Lee; politician and raconteur Clement Freud; and boxer John Conteh.
“Everyone in that group was talented in different ways,” Paul explained. “Kenny had been a mate since The Beatles – he was the first black guy we got to know, and he’d toured with us; a nice guy. Christopher we’d known since the early Beatles days when he was making a vampire movie next door. We used to go and see John Conteh fight – we were fans.” The feeling was mutual: “It was a great honour to be involved,” said Conteh. As for Lynch, up until his death in 2019, it remained the thing he was most frequently asked about by fans. “Everybody asks me about Band On The Run,” he said in 2010, “wherever I am in the world.”