Paul McCartney live: Yarkon Park, Tel Aviv

Paul McCartney played his first concert in Israel in front of an estimated 40,000 fans, on 25 September 2008.

He performed a mixture of Beatles hits, Wings numbers and solo songs at Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv. The historic concert, dubbed Friendship First, came 43 years after The Beatles were banned from performing in Israel.

Prior to the concert, which took place on Thursday 25 September, McCartney brushed off Palestinian pleas to boycott Israel in protest over its military and settlement activity.

I was aware of the criticism, but I thought it was best to go with a message of peace and find out myself what the situation was.

Tickets to the concert cost up to 5,000 shekels (£800), with the least expensive tickets priced at 500 shekels.

McCartney addressed fans mainly in English, but with a smattering of Hebrew. He wished them a happy new year ahead of next week’s Rosh Hashanah, and during ‘Give Peace A Chance’ he stopped to let the audience sing the chorus.

The Beatles had been scheduled to perform in Israel in 1965. However, the event was cancelled, for reasons which have been hotly debated in the intervening years.

Concert setlist

• ‘Hello, Goodbye’
• ‘Jet’
• ‘Drive My Car’
• ‘Only Mama Knows’
• ‘All My Loving’
• ‘Flaming Pie’
• ‘Let Me Roll It’
• ‘My Love’
• ‘Let ’Em In’
• The Long and Winding Road
• ‘Dance Tonight’
• ‘Blackbird’
• ‘Calico Skies’
• ‘I’ll Follow The Sun’
• ‘Mrs Vandebilt’
• ‘Here, There And Everywhere’
• ‘Eleanor Rigby’
• ‘Something’
• ‘A Day In The Life’
• ‘Give Peace A Chance’
• ‘Band On The Run’
• ‘Back In The USSR’
• ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’
• ‘Live And Let Die’
• ‘Let It Be’
• ‘Hey Jude’
• ‘Lady Madonna’
• ‘Get Back’
• ‘I Saw Her Standing There’
• ‘Yesterday’
• ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)’