Almost 50 years ago, Sir Paul McCartney and his band Wings decided to decorate an open-top bus in psychedelic colours to take them on tour across Europe. He converted the double-decker for his post-Beatles band and their families, with the seats on the upper deck replaced by mattresses and bean bags. A year or so after the adventure of Wings over Europe the band disintegrated – Wings had ten members between 1971 and 1981.
Sir Paul made an appeal for the double-decker’s whereabouts in 2017. And where was it found….
For many years it was abandoned at the back of a house in the south of Tenerife, on a plot of land, actually an agricultural and livestock farm located in La Caldera del Rey (Adeje) in the heart of the tourist area.
It was a curiosity to people who saw its slow deterioration as to how an English double-decker bus, worn and rickety and with a lot of colours faded by the sun ended up in a plot of land on Barranco del Rey? How many were aware of Wings Over Europe’s past? On the side, a sign in red (Wings over Europe) was the only link that could associate the former Beatles with the dilapidated bus.
Many of the questions still remained unanswered after the bus after was found and returned to the United Kingdom a little over two years ago. It is known that the vehicle ended up with a British investor who decided to at some point to settle in the south of Tenerife. The exact date is not clear but documents suggest 1993.
Next Sunday bidding ends when the bus will be auctioned by Omega Auctions in Merseyside with an estimated value of £15,000-£25,000.
The mountains, the sun and a celestial cloudless sky also shine on another less colourful vehicle, that remains currently abandoned in a plot of Taco (La Laguna). Could that too have an interesting history?
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