One of the most frequent questions I get asked in relation to the site is if I actually believe that the rumours are true. My reply is 'no, of course not'. That of course doesn't answer the question of whether or not I think at least some of the clues were intentionally put. I personally believe that some may have. After all, rumours of Paul being dead were made aware by the group in February 1967 when the Beatles Monthly magazine ran a 'False Rumour' article about it so there's every possibility that they saw this and decided to have a little fun.

There are some websites out there that use photographic comparisons to 'prove' that Paul McCartney underwent physical changes from between 1966 and 1967. However this same technique can also be used to show how Paul McCartney didn't change at that time. In fact, all they show is that Paul had a slightly different haircut, lost a little weight in his face and grew a moustache.

The following images are used with kind permission from an individual on the OPD Discussion Forum named KHAN who posted them there. His discussion forum can be found at: http://maccafunhouse.proboards34.com/index.cgi

The following are combined images of a pre 1966 Paul and a post 1966 Paul. These are not fade-in pics but are where the face of one Paul has been pasted onto the face of the other to show that, in the new context, there is pretty much zero difference in facial structure or anything.

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In this first set of images we can see that the face of a young McCartney - possibly 1961 to 1962 - has been pasted onto the head of a picture of him from 1969. As you can see, there is pretty much no visible difference between the middle and right pictures - all that's changed is the hairstyle.

Again, in this picture we see the face of a 1963 McCartney pasted onto the head of a late '60's McCartney. Once again, there is zero difference between the late 60's photo and the right picture composite of the two images.

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This time the face from a 1967 photo of Paul (middle) has been pasted onto the head of an early 60's McCartney (left). As you can see in the composite image on the right there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that this the same Paul. An animation showing the same face but with the different heads is shown here too.

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But what about the other aspects of Paul, the behavioural aspects of the man? Well, there are some comparitive photos of Paul playing with unique characteristics that have been found in pre and post 1966 photos.

This following comparison is of Paul playing the piano. The attention in these photos is paid towards the hands as Paul is playing in an unusual fashion as you can see...

In these photos we can see that Paul is not playing with his thumb or middle finger, instead playing with just his index, middle and ring fingers. For me personally, my thumb features quite strongly in my piano playing as it does with a large number of pianists, but Paul here is not both in 1964-1965 and 1967.

But it's not just the way he plays the piano that remained consistant. His unusual playing of the bass guitar is also identical both pre and post 1966.

Here are two pictures of McCartney, the left from 1967 and the right from mid 1966. Check out the way he is playing the bass here, more particularly how his left (your right) hand is positioned. In both photos he has his hand almost vertical to the strings and plucking with his index and middle finger. This is quite an unusual method of playing as most players tend to pluck the strings with their thumb.

Here are two more images of McCartney, the left one from the 1999 Cavern Club performance and the right from the sequence 'The Night Before' in the movie 'Help!'. Notice how in both instances his thumb is being held over the top of the neck of the guitar rather than being used to help support his hand to get a good contact with the string as he plays. Again, this is quite an unusual trait.