Bam Bam And The Calling formed in Derry in 1983 and in the early days had a somewhat changeable lineup with Paul PJ McCartney being the one constant. Paul was an ex member of Derry PuNk band Grafitti. Raymond Gorman was an early member before leaving for London with Sean O'Neill to form That Petrol Emotion.

The band lineup settled around McCartney (guitar, vocals), Tom Doherty (drums), John McCloskey (guitar) and Joe Brown (bass). The band built up a considerable live following in Derry and received rave live reviews in both the NME and Hot Press before moving base to London.

Despite numerous TV appearances such as their 1986 appearance on the BBC NI programme Channel One where they performed two songs, 'New Surroundings' and ‘Talking Aloud' and recording numerous radio sessions including Radio Foyle in 1986, one for the Dave Fanning show on 19th January 1987 featuring tracks ‘Road Of The Lonely’, ‘Only Sing’, ‘Scraping Off The Shine’ and ‘Secret Meeting’ the band never fulfilled their obvious potential and split up. They returned home but not before releasing two excellent singles though; 1987’s Shine’ and 1988’s ‘Neck Tattoo’.
Paul McCartney featured on an EP by Sean O’Neill’s post That Petrol Emotion project Rare, in 1990 and in 1992, released an album “Entrance” on Setanta Records with The Deadly Engines.

In September 2000 Bam Bam & the Calling reformed for a charity gig with The Moondogs and The Undertones in The Vibe in Derry. In August 2001 they played The Gasyard Festival and in 2007 PJ hit the road with a new band called The Rural Felini. For this venture he assembled his brothers Gavin and Rio and David Doherty. They later formed their own band Here Comes The Landed Gentry who are currently kicking up a storm on the Northern circuit. John McCloskey was involved in the establishment of The Nerve Centre in Derry and in his guise as writer, director and animator was nominated for a BAFTA award in 2008.