A documentary detailing the recovery of Paul McCartney's lost 1961 Höfner bass guitar has been released, recounting the instrument's disappearance over 50 years ago and its eventual return. The film, titled 'McCartney: The Hunt for the Lost Bass', follows the efforts of Nick Wass, a Höfner employee, and Steve Glenister, an ambulance service worker, who tracked down the iconic violin-shaped guitar. McCartney purchased the bass for £30 in Hamburg in 1961, and it became a symbol of the Beatles' legacy before vanishing after the band's split.
The documentary reveals that the bass was stolen from the back of a Wings roadie van parked in Ladbroke Grove, west London, in the early 1970s during a Wings tour. McCartney initially did not realise it was missing, as he had a second bass. The theft occurred in a neighbourhood known for its counterculture scene, leading to suspicion falling on the band Hawkwind and their associate Michael 'DikMik' Davies, who died in 2017. However, the true culprit was less glamorous, eventually giving the bass to a pub landlord, from where it ended up in Hastings.
The film struggles to reconcile its upbeat tone with the sombre reality of the theft, which involved individuals driven by hardship. McCartney, however, has expressed forgiveness, noting that such acts were common among his peers in their youth. The bass was finally recovered in 2024, bringing closure to a long-standing mystery.
