When Anvil met Macca

Anvil frontman Steve 'Lips' Kudlow recalls meeting Paul McCartney at an awards show and being amazed that the Beatles icon knew who he was.

Lips was at the People’s choice Awards with drummer Robb Reiner, hoping to win an award for the 2008 documentary Anvil! The Story Of Anvil, only to lose out to dolphin documentary The Cove.

He tells the Sydney Morning Herald: “We were at the People’s Choice Awards with the film and I could see Paul McCartney sitting at a table 20 feet away. We lost our category to The Cove and when we got up to go to talk to him, Quentin Tarantino grabs my jacket and starts yelling, ‘Those bastards, they gave the prize to some dolphins.’

“I go, ‘Listen, Quentin, it’s great to meet you, but I want to speak to Paul McCartney’. So we rush up to Paul McCartney, and he’s surrounded by his people, but he takes a look at Robb and I and goes, ‘Oh my God, it’s the Anvil boys. Are we rockin’ tonight?’ Paul McCartney knew who we were. I almost passed out.”

Anvil’s career was re-energised by the film and they have since released two further albums – Juggernaut Of Justice and Hope In Hell.

In August, Anvil split with bassist Sal Italiano and replaced him with Chris Robertson.

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.