Last night (Thursday 19 December) saw the inimitable Sir Paul McCartney perform the closing show of his ‘Got Back’ tour at the o2 Arena in London. The tour has taken him around the world, including to South America and beyond and this time he really had reached home turf.
The show was phenomenal. An absolute dream. In fact, it was packed with real ‘pinch me’ moments. The iconic musician that he is, Sir Paul played for over two and a half hours to an adoring crowd. Some fans in the front row had been to 136 of his shows. For others it was the 180th show, while others had travelled from Japan. The crowd showed their appreciation for their favourite artist by holding heart signs up during a particular song.
We don’t say this lightly but it was one of the best shows we have ever seen and we have been reviewing some great acts such as Harry Styles, Arctic Monkeys and Hozier lately.
To kick things off, Sir Paul played the well-known and much loved Beatles classic, ‘Hard Day’s Night’ and then told the audience he was planning on playing a mix of old and new songs (although it doesn’t look like any songs from his latest album ‘McCartney III’ made the cut, which was a bit of a shame but we were spoiled rotten when it came to the setlist so no complaints here). Apparently Ringo Starr came up with the slightly peculiar term, ‘hard day’s night’ in the sixties but more on Ringo later.
Next, Macca went for Wings track, ‘Junior’s Farm’ before playing another Wings track, ‘Letting Go’. He played ‘Blackbird’ while on an elevated stage and spoke a bit about how The Beatles had found the segregation laws in Jacksonville, USA,where they were due to perform at the time “stupid”. He went on to describe how the band were able to change things as they had refused to perform for a segregated crowd and thus ensured that The Beatles’ shows were always integrated.
This led to cheers for The Beatles.
Sir Paul played ‘Drive My Car’ with the lyrics “I wanna be famous” and he gave a knowing smile as he sang those lyrics.
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Since Sir Paul is in his eighties, his voice was perhaps not the strongest it has ever been but there were only a couple of times when this was noticeable. For example, on one or two songs it wasn’t super clear what he was singing but then on other tracks, such as ‘Helter Skelter’ with Ringo Starr on drums (you heard me!), he gave it his all (which he did throughout, to be fair) and really belted out those lyrics.
Sir Paul McCartney invited a couple of friends to join him on stage. One was another legend , Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood and another was his Beatles bandmate, Mr Ringo Starr.
The setlist included ‘Get Back’, ‘Hey Jude’ and many, many more. The visuals and other parts of the show were all vey well thought out and highly impressive too. When he performed ‘Live and Let Die’ it was all going on with indoor fireworks and pryrotechnics galore.
A great time was had and the show was an unforgettable one – with a living legend! Sir Paul McCartney has proven once again that he still has ‘it’ not that he has anything to prove to anyone at this stage in his career!
Set list:
HARD DAYS NIGHT
JUNIORS FARM
LETTING GO
DRIVE MY CAR
GOT TO GET YOU INTO MY LIFE
COME ON TO ME
LET ME ROLL IT
GETTING BETTER
LET ‘EM IN
MY VALENTINE
1985
MAYBE I’M AMAZED
I’VE JUST SEEN A FACE
IN SPITE OF ALL THE DANGER
LOVE ME DO
DANCE TONIGHT
BLACKBIRD
HERE TODAY
NOW AND THEN
LADY MADONNA
JET
MR KITE
SOMETHING
OBLA DI OBLA DA
BAND ON THE RUN
WONDERFUL CHRISTMASTIME
GET BACK
LET IT BE
LIVE AND LET DIE
HEY JUDE
I’VE GOT A FEELING
SGT PEPPER / HELTER SKELTER
GOLDEN SLUMBERS
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Words: Narzra Ahmed
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