mccabe was born in huyton, liverpool on 21 april 1939 (; ; ; ; ). his father was a physicist . mccabe was badly burned in an accident when he was a child and was home schooled for eight years . during this time, mccabe said that there was "a lot of music in the house", which inspired his future career . he explained "my mother was a very good amateur violinist and there were records and printed music everywhere. i thought that if all these guys – beethoven, brahms, schubert – can do it, then so can i!" . by the age of 11 mccabe had composed 13 symphonies, but he later suppressed them, believing they were not good enough (; ). he subsequently attended liverpool institute .