This show was epic in length, three hours in total. That’s a lot of songs, even for someone with such a humungous back catalogue, not all of which I wanted to hear.
A perfect sunny night at Hampden Park, the end of a balmy day, and it looked around 90% full – rumours of discounted tickets late in the day possibly boosting the overall numbers.
People of all ages, some bedecked in Sgt Pepper regalia, had come to see the remaining creative force in that band, and no, Scroobius and Le Sac, the Beatles were not “just a band”, really.
I had some misgivings about this gig, however you just have to do what you have to do, and a £95.20 overall bill for a pretty good deck chair in the front section was the price. Hefty, yes, but then this is a multi-continent global machine which requires fuel.
I passed on the support act; Ms Spiteri can sing to someone else if you don’t mind. At 8pm or thereabouts the medley of hiphop versions of Beatles classics ended and with not much fanfare, the band took to the stage (does this sound predictable, well with disembodied tannoy announcements at 30 mins, 10 mins and I think 5 mins, yes it was!)
Looking dapper in a black suit, flanked by identically-cheekboned session musician guitarists probably less than half his age, one of whom doubled on bass when required, plus the gargantuan drummer/funnyman and the longest serving backing member (from the Wings days, older readers) on the keys, it was the start of a long and varied one night stand between Mr Mc and his Scottish faithful. A tour of this size could have rolled out the string/brass section, employed far more backing musicians and of course the alluring backing singers thing, but I get the feeling he wanted things fairly stripped down, and that is what he went for, because, well, he still makes the decisions here.
A dodgy guitar lead allowed him to improvise a “we’re here on stage, you’re there in the audience” routine during the pause before “let’s get started”, and away we went.
Betty has been cruel about some old guys, and Sir Paul is now 68, but she really can’t be on this occasion. The overall effect of this gig was of a body of work, some bits better than others, but overwhelming nonetheless. If the running order was at times a bit unfocused, the set not necessarily building to a peak but rather going up and down the hill quite a few times, it was I guess because there were just so many potential highlights.
I had feared there would be a lot of people here who really don’t obsess about music, who really don’t like music that much, and there was some evidence of this; however, let’s not dwell on it. Any big gig “event” attracts the great unwashed, or the dressed up to the nines in some cases, who’d happily exchange it for the races, the big game or Robbie Williams for that matter, but these were harmless, if probably in some cases quite powerful people, and let’s not carp.
The music: well, I will attempt to take you through it (setlistfm will give you the entire list) and also what was played on other dates on the tour etc., but I’m not a plugger, just catering for the anoraks.
A few FAQ first, to break this rather long piece up a bit:
Q- did he play any Beatles stuff?
A – yes, a lot!
Q – did he play any Wings stuff?
A – yes, the same.
Q – did he play any really dodgy numbers and try to justify them?
A – only a couple.
Q – did he do the thumbs aloft thing?
A – once or twice but he was trying not to!
Q – what was the track count from those “classic albums”
A – Wings Greatest Hits – oh God, at least 6 I counted
– Let it Be – 4, looking good, most played Beatles album
– Beatles White – 3,
– Abbey Road – 2 or maybe 2.5
– Sgt Pepper – 2
– Help – 2
– Electric Arguments – 2 (ok, not quite a classic but)
The highlights for me were inevitably the Beatles selection, some of the Wings ones worked ok, ‘Jet’s easy confidence, the anthemic although a bit lazy ‘Band on the Run’ and of course ‘Live and Let Die’ with admitted spectacular fireworks, but the song not really justifying special treatment, just an excuse for “aahs” and “ooohs” from the crowd.
Material from the latest Fireman installment eased itself into the set and was pleasant enough, plus a few solo album efforts, the mandolin-led ‘Dance Again’ (I think) from Memory Almost Full being pleasant enough, but too much of the solo material has been just that, pleasant, and then developing into faintly embarrassing, not good enough to fill the shoes of his early achievements.
And what achievements they were. Early on, a couple of low-key Beatles tracks, ‘All My Loving’, not exactly the highlight of their career, but shining out at Hampden as perfect pop bliss, McCartney finding his feet as a writer at, what, 19 or so? ‘Long and Winding Road’ seemed a bit out of place at this early point in the set, but then you have to stick it somewhere, ‘Drive My Car’, tossed off and always a bit by numbers but pretty subversive and innuendo-stuffed for 1965, anyway… A couple of surprises such as ‘I’ve Just Seen a Face’, ‘And I Love Her’, and after a slew of Wings stuff he shifts the gears a bit and we are into some bona fide classics. Introducing “Something” on the ukelele with the “George was a big Formby Fan, you know” patter, he acknowledges Harrison’s talent with this tribute, segueing into the full band playing it.
‘Back in the USSR’, ‘Paperback Writer’, ‘Hey Jude’ and ‘Day in the Life’, recreating as he did in his last visit to Glasgow in 1990 studio material the Beatles never played live in their puffs, he made a pretty good fist of it, then moving into ‘Give Peace a Chance’, his “tribute” to John – I will refrain on commenting about everyone in this audience’s commitment to world peace but at this point in the set, most people seemed to agree.
The most potentially schmaltzy moments were kept fairly brief and earlier in the set, after “poignant” songs about Linda, and then John (from Press to Play) (mercifully none of the early noughties ditties about Heather, ’nuff said), he shrugged off the sentimentality with “well that’s that done with” type gestures, let me entertain you, leave it all behind.
Throughout, the voice remained pretty intact, not quite hitting the highest notes but no blinking backing singers (save for the band shouting along and a couple of nice backing lines from the drummer), no auto-tune, over three hours you have to admire that.
As you show went on, the between songs behaviour became quite repetitive, the hand gestures repeatedly picking out (possibly imaginary) people from the audience for whatever reason in the way that the average stand-up attempts to “work the crowd”. It didn’t quite work but I think it’s a learned behaviour over years of playing to complete strangers, or was it a hangover from the “exclusive” soundcheck played to 150 or so people who had paid £400+ each for the privilege – not sure.
As a musical legacy however, the sight of Mr Mc holding up the “guitar I wrote ‘Paperback Writer’ on” is pretty hard to argue with, the legacy aspect of his career catching up with him but he’s still out there, doing it, you have to say respect due.
A few more big guns were wheeled out, including ‘Let it Be’, then the pipers came on, it had to happen – around five minutes felt like half an hour as this admittedly catchy but unremitting dirge echoed across Hampden, ironically no rain or mist tonight.
At 22.45pm, after ‘Mull of Kintyre’, I thought that would be the end, but no, grandad decided it was time for ‘Helter Skelter’, a brave choice given the hour and the controversy the song has been associated with over the years, but it’s his song and he wanted to play it. It screamed in the way that a fairly under-generated sound system could let it, and respect due, people are still forming bad heavy rock groups on its basis, and it was darned good.
The end came, as I supposed it probably would, with Sgt Pepper’s reprise “sorry but it’s time to go”, and inevitably ‘The End’, not the best Beatles song but it does put a bit of a marker down about where we are, i.e. 11pm on a Sunday night with a 68 year old telling us to go home.
There was much to ponder as the crowd filed out, the Beatles legacy and McCartney as the carrier of the torch still, being the most profound. Although overall I found it a bit hard to get fired up by this occasion, and I think this shows in a slightly bland review, I did hit a good few nerves and showed an international pop superstar, possibly the original one, still going strong, doing his thing and bringing pleasure to the masses.