Without knowing the full provenance of this footage featuring golden couple Paul and Linda McCartney larking about in front of a camera, it’s a wee bit difficult to know if it is outtakes from a music promo or indeed, as claimed by the man who transferred and uploaded it to You Tube, Larry Jamieson, a “lost” home movie made by the McCartneys while holidaying in New Zealand sometime during 1997:

This is a damaged super 8 film of Paul and Linda having some fun making a home movie. I restored what was left of this film many years ago and forgot about it. It is over exposed and out of focus in parts, but it is a personal treasure.

But the clip’s provenance doesn’t really matter as what we have here is the Mozart of pop music, Paul and photographer, activist, and musician Linda McCartney making a sweet little film which is all the more moving because we know how this particular story ends.

Linda McCartney’s usual long, blonde, flowing locks have been cropped short as she was then undergoing treatment for breast cancer, which had spread to her liver. Sadly, McCartney died in Tuscon on April 17th, 1998. As a grieving Macca suggested at the time, perhaps the best way to remember Linda is to donate to a breast cancer charity—one that doesn’t support animal testing—or better still “go veggie.”
 

 
With thanks to Simon Wells.
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
When Paul McCartney Met Jack Kirby
Listen to Paul McCartney’s ‘lost’ experimental Christmas disc for his fellow Beatles from 1965
Paul McCartney on the bust-up with Lennon
Jesus tries to cheer up Paul McCartney with a Lamb Chop sock puppet
In 1977 Paul McCartney released a cover album of ‘Ram’—and kept his involvement secret for years
The time John, Paul, George and Ringo took a ‘trip’ to buy a (fascist) fantasy island

 
London 1977: By day Phil Munnoch was a mild-mannered copywriter working for an ad agency in the heart of the city. He was neat, he was clean, he looked smart in his collar and tie, sharp pressed trousers and bright, shiny shoes. But Phil had a secret that he kept from his colleagues. At the end of each working day, like some postmodern superhero Phil would change out of his work clothes into tight fitting bondage trousers, studded dog collar and badge-covered plastic jacket to become his punk alter ego Captain Zip.

Captain Zip hung out with the other punks who idly wandered up and down the King’s Road every evening. He enjoyed the freedom, the camaraderie, the sense of adventure and the sound of punk music blaring out of shop radios. Zip was older than these young punk rock fans and was wise enough to know he was a part of something very, very important.

Being part of the gang allowed Munnoch access to film his friends and acquaintances and between 1978 and 1981, in the guise of Captain Zip, Munnoch documented the street life of punks on the King’s Road. In the 1980s, Munnoch collected the first eight of these Super-8 home movies together to make the short documentary film Death Is Their Destiny that captured the subculture of punks in London.
 

 
Background on Phil Munnoch and Captain Zip plus interviews, after the jump…