1972 Wings Tour Bus

Template:Wikidata Infobox The 1972 Wings Tour Bus or WNO 481 is a Bristol double decker bus built in 1953. Originallyused in Essex and Norfolk, it was repainted and used by Paul McCartney's band Wings during their 1972 Wings Over Europe Tour. Subsequently lost, it was rediscovered in a garden in Tenerife, and is now being restored in the UK.

Service use

WNO 479, an identical bus painted as WNO 481 would have looked in 1966

The double decker bus has an Bristol Commercial Vehicles KSW5G chassis, with a body from Eastern Coach Works. In was built and registered in 1953, and originally had a closed upper deck.

It was originally used in Essex and Norfolk in the 1950s-60s for local bus routes. It entered service with Eastern National Omnibus Company in Chelmsford, and was painted plain green. In 1966 the upper deck roof was removed, and it was repainted cream with a green trim. It was sold to Eastern Counties Omnibus Company in 1968, with the green trim repainted maroon red. It was sold again to a dealer in July 1971, and was bought by Halls Coaches, painted red and grey, and used under the name "Valliant Silverline", up until June 1972.

Wings Tour bus

Rather than using a normal tour bus for the 1972 Wings Over Europe Tour, his first tour after the break-up of The Beatles, McCartney obtained the bus and painted it in psychadelic colours. The seats on the top desk were removed, with mattresses and bean bags for the band and their families to sleep on, and was also used as a playpen for their children while on the move. It was designed by Tom Salter, of the Gear shop on Carnaby Street.

The bus visited 25 cities in 9 countries, for 25 concerts in July and August 1972, covering 7,500 miles (12,100 km), with a top speed of 38 miles per hour (61 km/h).

Later history

Halls Coaches was bought by Tricentrol around August 1973, and the bus was repainted mustard gold and moved to Dunstable. It was scheduled to be scrapped in 1982, when Roger White from St Albans purchased it, and subsequently repainted it as it had been during the Wings tour. In 1989 it was repainted red and white, and was used in the BAFTA Great British London-Cannes Film Rally in May 1989, and the Southend Bus Rally in 1989.

In August 1993, the bus was put up for auction, for which it had been repainted with the Wings livery for the third time (and the last time it was repainted).

The bus was subsequently displayed outside of a rock cafe in Tenerife, before being moved to the cafe owner's garden, where it was left to decay. It was spotted there by Justin James around 2009, who bought in even though he didn't know what he would do with it. Moving the bus to Oxfordshire, in the UK, took eight years, partly due to the difficulty in removing it from the garden (requiring cranes to remove it). He later planned to use it for musical children's tours.

In 2017, Paul McCartney tweeted to say that he'd heard it was back in the UK, and to ask its whereabouts, with a reply from James that it was in Oxfordshire.

In 2019 it was put up for auction in Merseyside by Omega Auctions, with an estimated selling price of £15,000-£25,000, as James's plans did not work out, and he was emigrating to Australia. He estimated that he had spent around £25,000 on the bus at that point, and profit would go to the charity he was a trustee of, Arms Around the Child. However, no bids were received and the bus went unsold.

It was subsequently obtained by The 1972 Wings Tour Bus Supporters Club, who fundraised for its restoration. The bus is now being restored.