“You have to go. I don’t care where you go – but you just have to go.” After three hours on stage, the 76-year-old Paul McCartney was gently suggesting that his audience should go home. The Glasgow gig was his penultimate show on the European leg of his “Freshen Up” tour which had taken in Paris, Copenhagen, Vienna and Liverpool.
Playing in Glasgow to a sold-out audience of almost 10,000 fans, McCartney opened the show with The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night”. All the shows on the tour had opened with this song – a brave choice from McCartney as it is generally accepted to be mainly composed by his former counterpart, John Lennon. However, the reasoning goes, McCartney was in the same band so, if anyone has a right to sing these songs, it is him. That theme continued throughout the night: around sixty percent of the songs were picked from the fertile period of the sixties: highlights included “Love Me Do”, “Back in the USSR”, “Eleanor Rigby”, “Helter Skelter”, “For the Benefit of Mr Kite!” and, with the obligatory audience participation number, “Hey Jude.” There were many more. Occasionally McCartney’s vocals struggled to reach the high notes on those early Sixties’ rockers; he’s no longer 24 – or, even, 64.
At one point, McCartney was raised high above the audience on a square plinth which was illuminated with multi-media images from his career. Playing his acoustic guitar, McCartney sang his tribute to Lennon [“Here Today”] as well as one the Beatles’ most played songs, “Blackbird.” There was also a tribute to George Harrison – “Something” – which saw McCartney start on the ukulele, before being joined powerfully by the whole band.
Curiously, McCartney has been playing with his current backing band for 16 years, which is longer than he played with The Beatles. This might explain the tight sound and easy playing generated throughout the concert. During “Live and Let Die”, the guitar playing surged alongside McCartney’s familiar piano motif at the heart of the song. The pyrotechnics on display during this James Bond number were so loud that some of audience jumped out of their seats – and the heat from the fireworks could be felt as it radiated throughout the arena. Yet McCartney was serene at the centre of it all, playing away on his multi- coloured, psychedelic piano.
The fitting climax arrived with McCartney returning to The Beatles’ back catalogue of hits. He finished with the closing medley “Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End” from final album recorded by the Fab Four - “Abbey Road”. This mixture of melody and heavy guitar playing raised the nostalgia levels to even greater heights.
At just after 11pm, a delirious audience flooded out from the arena. Only the sight of two drunks fighting outside brought us all back to reality. They continued their fight as they staggered towards the train station – some people can never just let it be...
Mr Hart
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