Ruth McCartney

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Ruth McCartney (neé Williams) was born and raised in Liverpool in the "swinging 60's." She began to study guitar, singing and dance at the tender age of 4 and then continued with her musical education, adding piano lessons from the age of 7, and guitar from the age of 12.

Jim McCartney married the widow Angela Williams—Ruth's mother— after only three meetings, on 24 November 1964. Jim was 62 and Angie was 34 when they married.^[1] They were introduced by Jim's niece, Bette Robins. Ruth was legally adopted by Jim, becoming Paul and Michael McCartney's legal stepsister. Ruth remembered that Jim was funny and musical with her, but also strict when she was young, and was insistent that she learned good table manners and etiquette when speaking to people.^[2]

Ruth was greatly influenced during her teens by such legends as Liza Minnelli and Shirley MacLaine. She has always been a fan of "the spectacle" and to this day, continues the tradition in her own live shows, the most recent of which were in Moscow, St Petersburg and 8 different cities in Siberia, Russia. Ruth became a household name there during appearances on Russian TV and in Armenia in 1989. It was then that Ruth bonded with the people of these countries. During that time the rouble was not an exchangeable currency and consequently she donated all the proceeds of her first 3 tours to various Soviet charities including the children of Spitak, Armenia who were so horribly devastated by the earthquake of 1988. Little did she know that she would experience a similar trauma in California only 6 years later.

The relationship with the Russian and former Soviet audiences still lives on and was witnessed nightly at the sell-out shows organized in areas such as Siberia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Lithuania. Ruth has also enjoyed a fruitful career as a songwriter since her beginnings in Sydney, Australia in 1982.

There she met up with Dave Skinner (of John Farnham fame) and they penned a song for Tina Cross entitled "New Blood" which was released on Festival Records and reached #11 on the Australian charts. In 1983, Ruth relocated to Los Angeles and formed what was to become a long term writing partnership with Barry Coffing, BMI award winner for co-writing "How do you talk to an Angel?", theme tune from Aaron Spelling's series "The Heights (TV series)". Together, Ruth and Barry wrote "Cigarette in the Rain" for Randy Crawford's Warner Bros. Records LP "Rich and Poor".

Randy chose this song as the 3rd single from the album and it rose to #32 on Billboard (magazine)'s R&B chart, selling more than 600,000 copies worldwide and earning gold status in South Africa, Scandinavia and Italy. Ruth and Barry have also collaborated on other titles which are included in several feature films such as:

   * MYSTIC PIZZA (Julia Roberts)
   * MIDNIGHT CROSSING (Faye Dunaway)
   * POLICE ACADEMY (#5)
   * PARTY LINE (Leif Garrett)
   * DEADLY INTENTIONS (Robbie Benson)
   * THE GIRL GETS MOE (Tony Danza) 

After her marriage to German Gaffer Dieter Bockmeier, 1990/91 saw Ruth based in Germany writing songs for her debut album on Ralph Siegel's Munich based Jupiter/ BMG Records, with Producer / writing partner Andi Slavik (Joni Madden, La Toya Jackson, Shari Belafonte, Fire, Ice & Dynamite...).

Together they travelled to London, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Hollywood to complete tracks on Ruth's LP "I Will Always Remember You". The album is currently released in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, S. Korea, S. Vietnam, Turkey, Russia and The Philippines.

During her time in Germany, Ruth was introduced to both Grammy Award winner Harold Faltermayer (Beverly Hills Cop, Top Gun etc.,) and famed Producer / Publisher Joerg Evers. With Harold she wrote the theme tune for the 1992 1992 Summer Olympics, commissioned by German TV network ZDF, entitled "Forever Human".

The song was released Europe-wide by BMG and featured on 14 different compilations as well as receiving daily airplay during the network's coverage of the games. With Joerg, she and Martin penned "Diva in Disguise" for Germany's legendary Margot Werner for her 1996 season.

Harold then invited Ruth to co-write some titles for Chaya, Sony's "Wunderkinder" in Europe. The first single, "I Feel My Heart is Burning", has received, according to Billboard (magazine), "massive airplay" and entered the Musikmarkt chart at #67. The second single "Hot Shot Lover" , co-written with husband Martin Nethercutt, has recently been released.

Another of the songs she co-wrote for Chaya was one titled "Think About The Children" which was subsequently selected as the theme for United Nations Children's Fund's world wide promotional projects.

The last tour of Russia was Ruth's 8th since 1989 and during this trip she was the subject of a documentary shoot for Russian National Television which has some 300 million viewers. It is the only network which reaches all 11 time zones of the country plus parts of the former "East Bloc", Cuba and China. The documentary, entitled "Picture of Ruth" aired nationwide in January of 98.

Whilst in Moscow, Ruth also dabbled with her acting talents, starring as herself in 2 episodes of Russia's most popular soap opera. She also began recording a Russian Language project for EMI / Gala Records. She has taken turn of the century silver age Russian Poetry and set it to a contemporary dance groove with the help of famed Russian pop composer Vladimir Musikant. Her first single, "Lyubiminya Prosta" ... "Love Me Simply", was written over a hundred years ago by legendary Russian poet Fyodor Salagup.

The rest of the trip consisted of staging concerts in the remote towns and cities of middle Siberia. She travelled daily by helicopter (the only possibility), to reach such outlying places as: Nizhnivartovsk, Yurai, Sovietski, Noyabirsk, Yugorski, Beriozova, Khanti Mansi (home of the last of Siberia's native Eskimos), and last but not least, Salehard on the Arctic Circle where the temperature reached an unbelievable 40 degrees below zero and where the electricity turbines are so underpowered there is absolutely no facility for heating water. In fact, during Ruth's 4 day stay, there was no running water at all in the entire city. That's showbiz!

Ruth again returned to Moscow to shoot a music video for a self-penned title "Russian Nights" which was nominated for Russian MTV's "Video of the Year".The music clip will be part of her next album project,

As the CEO of McCartney Multimedia, Ruth coordinates the online presence of many clients including country legend Clint Black, LeAnn Rimes, Steve Tyrell, Oleta Adams, REO Speedwagon and the company's technology iFanz babysits the databases of stars from Paula Abdul to Fleetwood Mac. Currently, Ruth is busy preparing a celebrity cook-book (see recipes section) to benefit "Feed the Children" and KidsCharities.org - a site which MMI developed; Ruth serves on the board of the Las Vegas based non profit.

She is also busy writing titles with husband Martin Nethercutt for his up-coming release "Geistmusik"; she has appeared as a speaker at various Beatles fan conventions in Chicago, New York, Kansas City, MO, Toronto and Los Angeles, and if that wasn't enough, Ruth has recently returned from Liverpool and London where she narrated and co-produced a retrospective Beatles documentary entitled "Here, There and Everywhere" with Atlanta based cameraman / director Ken Barker. The footage features rare interviews with Cynthia Lennon,Neil Innes of Rutles fame, Bob Wooler - the original Cavern DeeJay, the Fourmost's Billy Hatton, Beatles sister Lou Harrison and more.

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