11 days until the start of the Get Back sessions
The McCartney clan grew on December 22, 1968, when Mike’s wife, Angela, gave birth to a 6-pound, 8-ounce daughter, Benna.
Brother Paul, who was playing the father figure role to girlfriend Linda Eastman’s daughter, Heather, was now officially an uncle.
In an interview with the Daily Mirror published on December 27, the new father – who went by the stage name Mike McGear — explained the name. “We thought of Ben as a boy’s name. When it was a girl, my wife just added a couple letters and we got Benna.”
During the Get Back sessions, on January 10, 1969, publisher Dick James asked if Mike and their father, Jim, had received his telegram offering congratulations of “More gear to the McGear.”
“Mike had become a Benna-ficiary,” Paul replied with what seemed like a road-tested joke.
A DISC and Music Echo report from August said Mike had a children’s story called “Roger Bear” accepted for publication, with Scaffold bandmate Roger McGough illustrating. “Roger Bear” was ultimately published in 1971. (John Lennon was a fan – he had it sitting on his mantle).
While Paul celebrated a new member of the family on December 22, 1968, one of his guitars was hard at work.
The DISC and Music Echo presently on stands said that Chas Chandler was planning to borrow a bass from Paul to play at a reunion of the Animals. (George makes an off-the-cuff reference to the reunion on January 3 as seen in Get Back). The pair of benefit shows, held at Newcastle City Hall, were well reviewed.
The Animals backstage before their December 22, 1968, show in Newcastle. Left to right: John Steel, Chas Chandler, Alan Price and Hilton Valentine.
From the January 4, 1969, DISC and Music Echo:
There onstage together for the first time in nearly four years were Eric, Alan, Chas, Hilton and Johnny, the five members of the original Animals from the days of “House of the Rising Sun.”
It seemed as though nothing had changed. Eric is in great voice and as wild as ever. Chas, tall and chunky. And Alan, ever serious, hunched, eyes closed, over the organ.
The review explains why Chas – who left the Animals in 1966 and later discovered Jimi Hendrix and became his manager — needed Paul’s gear in the first place.
“I haven’t touched a bass since I left,” he told the paper before the shows. “I’m not even sure if I can still play.”
They May Be Parted 
