Clydebank figure-maker in shock after being praised by Beatles legend

Earlier this year, David McGurk created a figure of George Martin – The Beatles’ producer who passed away in 2016 – and posted a photo of it on his social media.

The 46-year-old, who is a huge fan of the iconic band, was surprised to be contacted by Martin’s son Giles – also a talented record producer.

“I thought he was going to give me into trouble,” David said.

“But he told me ‘I really like the figure of my dad, if you make any more, I’d like one’ so I thought right away ‘I’m going to do it’.

“I made a new George Martin figure, and I made one of Giles as well because I thought ‘I’ll put this in as a wee surprise’.

“I sent it down to Abbey Road which was crazy in itself.

“‘Can you just send it down and I’ll give you the address; it’s Abbey Road’ he said, as if I didn’t know!”

After receiving the figures, Giles messaged David and asked if he would be free for a chat over the phone.

He relayed his thanks and appreciation, before making David’s day.

“He told me ‘I’ve got quite a cool story for you”, the dad-of-one explained.

“He said, ‘When they got here, I was in the middle of a session with Paul McCartney’.

"I couldn’t speak at this point, I’m a huge Beatles fan.

“He said, ‘We opened them up and Paul McCartney was looking at them, he said they were amazing’.

"He told me Paul McCartney put the figures onto the mixing console that they recorded The Beatles’ albums through.

"Giles sent me a photo of it.

Photo: Carsten Windhorst (Image: Photo: Carsten Windhorst)Photo: Carsten Windhorst (Image: Photo: Carsten Windhorst)“He said he was about to clear them away because they were going to go back to their session, but Paul McCartney said, ‘no leave him here’.”

David, who first started making figures as a hobby, was in shock but was left even more amazed after being asked to make “a couple of more” figures for the Abbey Road Studios shop.

After meetings with branding and retail departments, the bank worker was asked to make 100.

“They wanted 100, it wasn’t a couple, it was 100”, he said. “Honestly, I was expecting maybe five at the most for them to use as ornaments.

“But these were to sell as a limited-edition item.”

David working on a previous project (Image: Newsquest)After more meetings and approval to get George Martin’s likeliness rights, David had a lengthy job on his hands.

Luckily, he had previously reduced his hours at work to spend more time on his dream job figure-making. 

He said: “I was thinking how the hell am I going to make 100, because 50 is the most I’ve ever made, and that nearly killed me. But I managed. It took me three months.

“The guy that was in retail had said, well, that's them on sale. This guy had then sent me a message on Instagram and said ‘look, could you give me one of these figures?’ I replied and told him they were on sale online and in the store.

“I went to look online, and it said sold out. It must have been less than an hour after they went on sale.

“They said they didn’t really get the chance to promote them.”

Due to the experience, David has been introduced to contacts within the retail industry and Universal Music.

“It’s unbelievable,” he said.

“For me, it was such a big thing to get the figure into the studio and onto the same mixing console where The Beatles recorded all their music.”

We previously reported that David was approached by Nissan USA in 2019 and asked to make 50 Eugene Levy figures for the car manufacturer that was going to be showing an ad during the half-time show at the Superbowl. 

To follow David on Instagram, search @lightning_boltz_action_figures.