Paul McCartney live: Grand Central Terminal, New York City

Paul McCartney performed a surprise concert at New York’s Grand Central Terminal, to celebrate the release of his 17th solo album Egypt Station.

The show, which took place at Grand Central’s Vanderbilt Hall, was attended by 300 sweepstake winners, and celebrity guests including Sean Lennon, Meryl Streep, Jon Bon Jovi, Kendall Jenner, Amy Schumer, Kate Moss, Chris Rock, and Steve Buscemi.

Found the stage for tonight’s “secret” Paul McCartney concert at Grand Central Station! Fans are already showing up hoping to get in.#EgyptStation #PaulMcCartney @NBCNewYork pic.twitter.com/d6zBbdJVbZ

— Adam Kuperstein (@Adam4NY) September 7, 2018

Fans unable to get tickets gathered outside the terminal in an attempt to catch a glimpse of the former Beatle. Special edition Egypt Station MetroCards were also being sold at Grand Central, leading to long lines at the ticket booth.

McCartney had dropped hints about the show the previous night, during an appearance on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon: “It’s a surprise gig,” he said. “We haven’t been telling anyone but the album’s title is Egypt Station so that might be a little clue there — station. It might be a grand show, I don’t know.”

It was a career-spanning set, including Beatles hits from ‘Love Me Do’ to ‘Let It Be’ – and the first US performance of ‘From Me To You’ since 1964. McCartney also performed the Egypt Station songs ‘Come On To Me’, ‘Come On To Me’, and ‘Fuh You’.

There were also songs originally recorded with Wings, and FourFiveSeconds, McCartney’s collaboration with Rihanna and Kanye West.

The show was filmed and livestreamed on YouTube with a slight delay. The sound was handled by Giles Martin, the son of Beatles producer George Martin.

Before the show began, McCartney asked the crowd to join him in a joke, where he would pretend to test the venue’s acoustics by singing the opening words of ‘Hey Jude’, and having the out-of-sight audience sing it back to him. When the crowd continued singing the song, McCartney held up his hands, laughingly telling them: “No, no! Just one line!”

The delay allowed for some mistakes to be edited out, including when McCartney twice forgot the lyrics of ‘Blackbird’. ‘I’ve never played it in the middle of people before!’ he told the crowd.

The concert starts at the 40-minute mark:

Concert setlist

• ‘A Hard Day’s Night’
• ‘Hi, Hi, Hi’
• ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’
• ‘Letting Go’
• I’ve Got A Feeling
• ‘Come On To Me’
• ‘My Valentine’
• ‘Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five’
• ‘From Me To You’
• ‘Love Me Do’
• FourFiveSeconds
• ‘Blackbird’
• ‘Dance Tonight’
• ‘Who Cares’
• ‘I Saw Her Standing There’
• ‘Fuh You’
• ‘Back In The USSR’
• ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’
• ‘Birthday’
• ‘Lady Madonna’
• ‘Let It Be’
• ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)’
• ‘Helter Skelter’
• ‘Golden Slumbers’
• ‘Carry That Weight’
• ‘The End’