Band on the Run

Band on the Run is the third studio album by the British rock band Paul McCartney and Wings, released on 30 November 1973. It was McCartney's fifth album after leaving the Beatles in April 1970 and his final album on Apple Records. Although sales were modest initially, its commercial performance was aided by two hit singles – "Jet" and "Band on the Run" – such that it became the top-selling studio album of 1974 in the United Kingdom and Australia, in addition to revitalising McCartney's critical standing. It remains McCartney's most successful album and the most celebrated of his post-Beatles works.

The album was mostly recorded at EMI's studio in Lagos, Nigeria, as McCartney wanted to make an album in an exotic location. Shortly before departing for Lagos, drummer Denny Seiwell and guitarist Henry McCullough left the group. With no time to recruit replacements, McCartney went into the studio with just his wife Linda and Denny Laine. McCartney therefore played bass, drums, percussion and most of the lead guitar parts. The studio was of poor quality and conditions in Nigeria were tense and difficult; the McCartneys were robbed at knifepoint, losing a bag of song lyrics and demo tapes. After the band's return to England, final overdubs and further recording were carried out in London, mostly at AIR Studios.

Band on the Run has been reissued numerous times with bonus tracks, including in 1993 as part of The Paul McCartney Collection, in 1999 for its 25th anniversary, in 2010 as part of the Paul McCartney Archive Collection and in 2024 for its 50th anniversary.

Paul thought, 'I've got to do it, either I give up and cut my throat or [I] get my magic back.'

By 1973, three years after the break-up of the Beatles, Paul McCartney had yet to regain his artistic credibility or find favour with music critics for his post-Beatles work. After completing a successful UK tour with his band Wings in July 1973, he planned their third album as a means to re-establish himself after the mixed reception given to Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway.

Keen to record outside the United Kingdom, McCartney asked EMI to send him a list of all their international recording studios. He selected Lagos in Nigeria and was attracted to the idea of recording in Africa. In August, the band – consisting of McCartney and his wife Linda, ex-Moody Blues guitarist and pianist Denny Laine, Henry McCullough on lead guitar, and Denny Seiwell on drums – started rehearsals for the new album at the McCartneys' Scottish farm. During one rehearsal session, McCullough and McCartney argued, and McCullough quit. Seiwell left a week later, the night before the band flew out to Nigeria. This left just McCartney, Linda and Laine to record in Lagos, assisted by former Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick. McCartney had chosen Lagos, as he felt it would be a glamorous location where he and the band could sun on the beach during the day and record at night; the reality, however, was that, after the end of a civil war in 1970, Nigeria was run by a military government, with corruption and disease commonplace.

It was McCartney's last album released on Apple Records.

The band and their entourage arrived in Lagos on 30 August 1973, returning to London late on 22 September. EMI's studio, located on Wharf Road in the suburb of Apapa, was ramshackle and under-equipped. The control desk was faulty and there was only one tape machine, a Studer 8-track. The band rented houses near the airport in Ikeja, an hour away from the studio. McCartney, Linda, and their three children stayed in one, while Laine, his wife JoJo, Emerick, and Wings' two roadies stayed in another.^{[citation needed]}