Wings live: Empire Theatre, Liverpool

Wings performed at the Empire Theatre in Liverpool, England, on 18 May 1973.

It was the seventh night of the 18-date Wings 1973 UK Tour, which opened on 11 May in Bristol. The support act was Brinsley Schwarz.

Wings were Paul McCartney on vocals, guitar, and bass guitar; Linda McCartney on vocals and keyboards; Denny Laine on vocals, guitar, and bass guitar; Henry McCullough on guitar and vocals; and Denny Seiwell on drums.

When the compere re-appeared the audience was by now expecting Wings to come on, but a poor acrobatic duo assisted by a poodle appeared. The latter receiving the well deserved applause. Five minutes later… “Live on stage, Paul McCartney”, the applause was overwhelming. The first number I hadn’t heard before, then Paul announced ‘Big Barn Bed’. The sound was impeccable. When The Night with really ‘Beatlish’ harmony followed. The next song – ‘Wild Life’, and then Linda’s own ‘Seaside Woman’. Paul then remarked that it was strange him being on stage, he said ‘I used to be up there, watching Cliff!’
‘My Love’, equally as good minus strings, got audience approval on the opening notes.
‘The Mess’ gave Linda a chance to play melotron. Bloody fabulous song. Within 10 seconds girls were dancing in the aisles, within 20 seconds everyone had rushed forward to the front and the atmosphere was fantastic.
Wings came back for an encore of ‘Long Tall Sally’ and that was the end. As we saw daylight, we saw the queue of fans waiting to go in for the second show, and told them how super the concert was. Their memories were yet to come, mine are never to be forgotten. Wings have taken off. Long may they fly, Hi, Hi, Hi.

Wings Fun Club newsletter

There were two performances on this date, in the afternoon and evening.

It’s a pity whoever wrote about the Liverpool gig, didn’t see the second show. The atmosphere was even better. Before the shows we met Denny, Henry and Denny going in, but they said we’d missed Paul and Linda so we waited outside after the second show and once more we were talking to Denny, Henry and Denny, but Paul had gone out of another door, so after seeing the coach go, we made our way to the taxi stand, on the way down the coach passed and Henry waved to us. A little further on the coach stopped outside the Adelphi Hotel, so we were talking to them again, but we didn’t get to see Paul and Linda at all, the two roadies said he’d gone to his dad’s.
The next day I read in the paper that Paul and Linda had been to Forthlin Road, where Paul used to live, but I didn’t think to go. I had been waiting outside the Cavern for about half an hour in case they went there, and then I went back to the Empire and watched the roadies loading all the equipment in, they said that half of it was the Beatles stuff.

K Kelly
Wings Fun Club newsletter

The Beatles performed at the Empire Theatre on 28 October 1962; 24 March, May 26, and 22 December 1963; 8 November 1964; and 5 December 1965. Wings returned there for a final show on 15 September 1975.