Paul McCartney and Wings’ debut gig at the university.

In this video former Wings guitarist Henry McCullough returns to The University of Nottingham with the BBC’s One Show, nearly 40 years after one of rock’s most surprising debut gigs. Students on campus refused to believe that former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney and his new band Wings had turned up at the Students’ Union in an old van to play a gig in the early spring of 1972. But the lunchtime performance in the Portland Ballroom the following day has since gone down in rock and roll history. Former students will remember lectures being cancelled and impromptu flyers advertising tickets for the gig at 40 pence. Word soon spread and it was a packed house that heard Wings play the Little Richard classics Lucille and Long Tall Sally and the controversial Wings debut single Give Ireland Back to the Irish.