Indica Gallery - McCartney's Involvement

McCartney's Involvement

Whilst living in the Asher family house, 57 Wimpole Street, Paul McCartney became involved with the emerging underground scene in London and the setting up of the bookshop/gallery. McCartney was the Indica bookshop's first customer - before it even had premises - as he used to look through the books at night, stored in the Ashers' basement, and leave a note for the books he had taken to be put on his account. Some of the first books he bought were Ed Sanders "Peace Eye Poems'", "and the Mind" by Deropp, and "Gandhi on Non-violence". The wood that was needed for the shelves and shop counter was picked up from the lumber yard by Dunbar and Miles in McCartney's Aston Martin car. Artists such as Pete Brown also helped in the renovation of the Indica, and Brown remarked that as he was helping to paint the interior, he would often look over his shoulder and see McCartney, who also frequently visited the Scotch, sawing a piece of wood.

McCartney's girlfriend, Peter Asher's sister Jane Asher, donated the shop's first cash till, which was an old Victorian till that she had played with as a young girl. McCartney helped to draw the flyers - which were used to advertise the Indica's opening - and also designed the wrapping paper. Barry Miles later introduced McCartney to the works of William Burroughs, and Allen Ginsberg, and their conversations were infused with subjects such as Buddhism, drugs, and 'pataphysics, which McCartney later put into the lyrics of Maxwell's Silver Hammer. After one evening at Lennox Gardens, McCartney had an idea that he told to John Lennon the next day, which was an album title called "McCartney goes too far", which Lennon thought was a great title, and insisted that McCartney should do it.