Wings live: Hammersmith Odeon, London

Wings’ final concert performance took place at London’s Hammersmith Odeon on 29 December 1979.

The show was part of the Concerts for the People of Kampuchea, which occurred over four nights from 26-29 December. Also appearing were The Clash, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury and The Blockheads, Matumbi, Robert Plant, The Pretenders, Queen, Rockpile, The Specials, and The Who.

The concerts were charity events in aid of victims of the war in Cambodia. They were organised by Paul McCartney and UN secretary general Kurt Waldheim.

The thing that led to the breakup of Wings was a disastrous concert we did for Kampuchea. We thought our performance was dreadful. I’ve listened to the record since and realized it wasn’t so bad, but at the time we hated it so much it put us off being in a band for a couple of years. That’s what led to the breakup.

Paul McCartney, 1990
Glass Onion: The Beatles In Their Own Words, Geoffrey Giuliano

For the encore McCartney assembled a version of Rockestra, the supergroup who had recorded ‘Rockestra Theme’ on the Wings album Back To The Egg. On this occasion the band consisted of the members of Wings plus John Bonham, Billy Bremner, Gary Brooker, Dave Edmunds, James Honeyman-Scott, Kenney Jones, John Paul Jones, Ronnie Lane, Robert Plant, Bruce Thomas, and Pete Townshend.

Kampuchea was a stage highlight in terms of getting to play with all the rock luminaries and [laughs] having Pete Townsend looking over my shoulder on ‘Let It Be’. At a certain point, I realized no one out of this huge band was going to step forward to play that solo and I’d been doing it for the whole tour, so I just went for it. It was one of those moments in my career where I was able to say, ‘Well, I got to do that…’ It was a magical moment.

Laurence Juber
Daytrippin’ Beatles Magazine

A film of the events was released in August 1980, and contained Wings’ performances of ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’, ‘Getting Closer’, ‘Every Night’, ‘Arrow Through Me’, ‘Coming Up’, Lucille, ‘Let It Be’, and ‘Rockestra Theme’ (reprise).

The 1981 double album Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea contained the recordings of ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’, ‘Every Night’, and ‘Coming Up’, plus the Rockestra encore.

Wings had previously performed at the Hammersmith Odeon on 25, 26, and 27 May 1973, and 17 and 18 September 1975.