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Issue #1: How Rock Around The World Began, With Wings on the Cover
Every archive has an origin point. For Rock Around The World, it was Issue #1 of the RATW newspaper — and the artist chosen for that very first cover was Paul McCartney and Wings.
The First Cover Story
The debut issue’s centerpiece was a two-part profile: “Paul McCartney and Wings: The Second Band” and its follow-up, “Band On The Run” — tracing McCartney’s post-Beatles reinvention at a moment when Wings was still proving itself as more than just an ex-Beatle’s side project. It was a bold choice for a first issue, betting that readers wanted depth on an artist still very much defining his second act.
A Return Visit, On the Air
McCartney’s connection to RATW continued well beyond that first issue. Nearly two years later, he sat down for a full two-part radio interview — Show #88 (April 11, 1976) and Show #89 (April 18, 1976) — hosted by Alan Freeman, giving RATW’s national radio audience an extended, in-depth conversation with McCartney that stretched across two full broadcasts.
He also turned up in later newspaper coverage, referenced in a 1975 feature on the London and Los Angeles music scenes alongside Peter Frampton.
Where It All Started
Issue #1’s original pages — cover, contents, and every article — are preserved in the RATW Newspaper Archive, the true starting point of the entire Rock Around The World publishing project.
Shop official Rock Around The World merchandise at the RATW Store, or explore more of the archive at rockaroundtheworld.com.
Rock Around The World aired weekly on more than 160 radio stations coast-to-coast from 1974 to 1980, pairing syndicated radio programming with a companion print newspaper.
