Born in Liverpool, a British performing artist and rock photographer and the brother of Paul McCartney.

He attended the same school - the Liverpool Institute - as his brother, two years behind him. McGear had several hit records in the 1960s and 1970s, mostly as a member of the Liverpool comedy-poetry-music group The Scaffold with Roger McGough and John Gorman, which they formed in 1962 (the year of the Beatles' first hit). He decided to use a stagename, using the Liverpudlian equivalent of 'fab', so as not to generate undue attention about his family connections to the Fab Four.

The Scaffold recorded a number of UK hit singles between 1966 and 1974, the most famous being the 1968 Christmas number one single Lily the Pink. McGear composed the band's next biggest hit, Thank U Very Much.

In 1968, with McGough, he released an album (McGough & McGear) that included the usual Scaffold mix of lyrics, poems and comedy. The trio later added several other members and released two albums in 1973 as Grimms (an acronym for Gorman-Roberts-Innes-McGear-McGough-Stanshall).

McGear released a solo album entitled Woman in 1972, which included many tracks co-written with McGough.

In 1974, McGear released McGear in which he collaborated with his brother Paul and his band Wings. Also recorded during these sessions was Liverpool Lou, which became The Scaffold's last top-ten hit and led to their re-formation.

He is also a photographer, has published pictures he took of the Beatles backstage and on tour, and has recently brought out a limited edition book of photos he took spontaneously backstage at Live8.