Paul MacCallum: The Womble of Wembley

PAUL 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.

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 Fury, 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 forced

him 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 secondary 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 every respect on the international circuit. During the heyday of the disco industry, when the industry’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 mystery to everyone.

I also had the great privilege of presenting him with The Unsung Hero Award at the very 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 industry 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, trying 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 everyone has their favourite anecdote about Paul MacCallum, who was loved by everyone. 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 industry 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: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/paulmaccallum Princess Alice: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/paulmaccallum1 TPi