Ross King: Sir Cliff beats Sir Paul in Battle Of The Nice Guys

MAYBE in years to come they could call it “The Battle Of The Nice Guys”.

Last week I got to sit down with one of the biggest pop stars ever – Sir Cliff Richard, and he told me about his “feud” with Sir Paul McCartney.

Cliff has a new album, and I went to London’s Abbey Road Studios to meet him.

The album is called Rise Up and reflects on what he describes as his “bad period” following a police raid on his home over unfounded allegations, for which he was never arrested or charged.

Rise Up is about Cliff bouncing back, and he recorded parts of it at Abbey Road – the home of The Beatles, of course.

Although if you ask Cliff, it was the home of The Drifters ( The Shadows’ original name) first!

“I was here on July 7, 1958, with The Drifters, and I was only 17,” said Cliff. “It was all very new and I was very nervous.

“We were here before the Beatles! The Beatles think they own this place – but we owned it first!

“I guess The Shadows kind of made it famous, but The Beatles loved it here for the same reason we did.

“It was a big place for a small band, we used to record in a corner.

“There’s a big staircase that leads up to the control room – we used to rush up to listen after every take.

“I can understand why Paul and the others really liked it there. We did get a good sound in that place.”

And it was Cliff and The Shadows’ love for the studio which led to an odd clash with the Fab Four.

“I met Paul McCartney here once and he said to me that every time The Beatles called, we were in Studio 2,” Cliff told me.

“I said to him every time we called, YOU were in the studio!

“There was this funny little fight going on. In the end we made our records quite happily – but not at the same time!”

Meanwhile, I wanted to mention the sad passing of Burt Reynolds.

He was a true superstar who never took stardom seriously, but what a great actor he was. I met Burt for the first time in 1993 when I chatted to him on the set of his hit TV sitcom, Evening Shade.

He was charming, funny and larger than life. A true superstar.

In his memoir he said: “I always wanted to experience everything and go down swinging. Well, so far, so good. I know I’m old, but I feel young.

“And there’s one thing they can never take away: Nobody had more fun than I did.”