Freshen Up | Page 4 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

^ Apologies, I was completely oblivious, and yes, yes they did 🙂

So, here’s my report, strap yourself in kids (apologies for some of the crappy video and photo quality but I set up a throwaway YT account to share them with you all so cut me some slack, also at the beginning I realised I was filming in portrait mode and I apologise profusely).

I checked the news the morning of the concert and it said doors open at 6:30pm, and please be there early to get past security efficiently. The concert was going to start at 7:30pm (how they planned on accurately security checking 15000 people in one hour, I don’t know).

I left my friend’s house at about 5:50pm and took 2 undergrounds to get to the Stadthalle (town hall) where the concert was being held. I left the station and was immediately greeted with a crowd of about 50 people, so I thought to myself “right, these must also be going to Macca, I’ll follow them”. So I did. When I crossed the road, I was greeted with a crowd of about 1000 people already queuing, so I assumed I was in the right place. I joined the end of the queue and the next woman to come behind me was wearing a Paul McCartney jumper. I was getting excited. It was 6:15pm, quite cold, and I was queuing up to see Paul McCartney , if I could have hopped with glee without drawing weird attention to myself, I would have. 

So 6:30pm rolls around and the door opens, it takes quite a while for it to have any effect on my area of the queue though as I believe it took us about 15 minutes to move a metre but shortly thereafter, we began inching closer and closer. As I’m slowly walking to the building, I walk past a “Welcome back to Vienna, Paul” poster (he hadn’t played there in 5 years), unfortunately the queue was moving too fast for me to get a picture, so I ended up getting a blurry photo which I promptly deleted. I thought I would get one on my way out leaving the concert, but I forgot. 

Anyway, 7:05 I’m at the front of the queue and waiting to get security checked- this involved my big fluffy coat being patted down and the main compartment of my tiny rucksack being looked into- okey-dokey, very secure >.> , and then, I was permitted to the front hall. The first stall I saw when I walked in was Paul’s merchandise where I balked at a €60 t-shirt, cause Paul, surely you have enough money?!?! I promptly continued walking when I saw Paul’s Meat Free Mondays cookbook and thought “aww that’s cute” and then I noticed it was a PETA table and I very audibly said “oh PETA, eww” (for reasons as to why I hate PETA, either google it yourself or ask me in the IITDTTT). I then looked for my entrance which was “main hall, east tribune”. I sat down at 7:15 and within 2 minutes of me sitting down, Paul’s DJ, Chris Holmes started up.

He’s been touring with Paul for years now and his sets are mostly the same but he’s still good at his job and I liked the deep cuts. He plays for about 20 minutes all fine and dandy it’s approx. 7:35pm-7:40pm. Then Paul’s picture show starts up.

Now it’s a nice picture show, it shows Paul’s life starting as a wain, to Quarry Men to Hamburg to Beatles to Wings to Solo but oh my God it never stops. It played some nice tunes like “Besame Mucho ” but I zoned out halfway through the Beatles’ years and instead I just looked at the audience and swung my legs (benefits of being short and on the outside of the row).

About 15 minutes into the display, one of the employees comes up to my area and says (in German) “anyone want a better seat??”. Now I leaped to my feet and dashed to her side saying “me, me, me”. So, I got moved from my original right-sided seat to a centre-seat, giving me a much better view of the entire stage, even though I was very happy in my original seat. (I payed €140 for my original seat, and my new seats cost about €200, so win-win).

After another 10 minutes the picture show finally ends and here he comes!!! At about 8:10pm, in the most anticlimactic McCartney fashion possible he just strolls on with his band and I jump to my feet and give him a big cheer. He starts off with A Hard Day’s Night which I don’t really know is a good concert-starter but who cares it got me singing along.

Now I feel the need to describe the people next to me. I was clearly the only diehard McCartney fan (in my section) who knew all the songs and that was evident from his second song Save Us, where I’m pretty sure I was the only person in my area to know the chorus (for the appropriate punching the air gesture of course). The woman to the left of me knew some of The Beatles and Wings songs, and the girl next to me (who was around my age) clearly had no interest and was only brought there by her dad. The only time she seemed to actually know any of the songs was Hey Jude and Let It Be . So, she was a bit of a damp squib. I appeared to be the only person who was dancing as well (unless it was a Beatles’ song where it seemed most of the crowd had a “finally a song I know!!” moment.

Anyhoo, about 3 or 4 songs in, Paul does his obligatory look at the posters in the crowd moment. There are the typical ones that he didn’t even pay attention to, namely “I’ll go veggie if you give me a hug” (it’s overdone guys, don’t do it), “it’s my birthday, can I get a hug? (ditto)”. He pointed out a poster which said something along the lines of “can we teach you some Japanese words?”, which was held by a Japanese couple who were wearing kimono with Paul badges and pins on them. Paul said that this particular couple have been travelling the world with him and have attended all of his concerts so far on the Freshen Up tour (my one question is, where do they get the money?!? They go to the soundchecks too which are €900 each, so they’re easily spending almost 2 grand, every time Paul has a concert- yeesh. In any of my video footage if you see a bright glow stick in the middle of the audience, that’s them).

Onwards, we go throughout the concert and it’s time for the compulsory song My Valentine . Now, I secretly wonder if Nancy is fed up with that song, ‘cause she has to listen to it at every single one of his concerts and he’s only written the one love song for her. Poor Nance. Anyhoo, it’s always a pretty ditty and we get Portman and Depp as backup performers, so yay?

After MV, it’s “one for the Wings’ fans”, as Paul describes it, Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five, (be ready with your Wings’ sign here guys, perfect opportunity, I was the only person in my area to do it :/ ). The people in the first 2 rows near the stage were having some kind of mosh during this, and I was envious of them, while I sat with the normies- curses.

It wasn’t until Song 18, ‘Love Me Do ’ that I felt the place came alive. Everyone (no matter how terrible your English is) can get those words right. Practically everyone was singing along to it and it lifted the room.

Song 24 was ‘Fuh You’ and I have expressed my indifference to this song in its official thread but dammit if it doesn’t sound really good live. Damn you McCartney, trying to make me like this song!!!

Songs 30-32 were the “haha my favourite Beatles’ song is ‘Imagine ’ pack”, LIB , Live And Let Die , and Hey Jude . For both LIB and HJ the phone flashlights came on, and people were scared by the LaLD pyrotechnics which is always a treat to see for the initiated.

Now HJ ends and Paul does his faux goodbye and there were people who actually left, when it was very obvious, he was doing an encore but ok?!?! There was some guy yelling behind me “we want more” and I felt tempted to say, “mate he always comes back, shut up, you’re screaming in my ear”. Paul came back about 2 minutes later with the Austrian flag, the UK’s flag and the rainbow flag which is apt as gay marriage will be allowed in Austria from the first of January next year.

He then brought two fans onstage (surprise, surprise veggie and birthday weren’t brought up, however there was a lad who wanted to play bass with Paul on Birthday and I could have sworn he would have been asked as Paul said, “we’ll get back to you later”, must have sorely disappointed the poor fella). The two fans were a couple, the gal, called Martha, cutely enough, was from Canada, and the lad was from Atlanta, Georgia. So, she just thought they were going up for a birthday hug but turns out American boy was going to propose to her (I assume he talked to security beforehand because I can’t imagine them just getting picked randomly out of the 30 other people who had signs with them). He proposed with the wonderfully cringy line of “Martha, my dear will you always be my inspiration?” and she, of course, said yes. Now, if I were him, I would have said “and you’re going to sing at the wedding of course, Paul?” but they just hugged him and left, so…ok.

Paul then continued on with his last few songs SPLHCB (Reprise), Helter Skelter , and a bit of the Abbey Road medley. When he got to the start of The End , I dashed from my seat and ran to the front of my section, so I would be able to get out quickly rather than being caught in the swarm. I had noticed some people with programmes earlier and I wanted to get mine before they sold out. When the concert ended at approx. 10:45pm, I sprinted out of the hall, collected my coat at the speed of an Olympic runner and ran to the merchandise stall to get my programme. It cost €25 which I almost puked at but I wanted something as a souvenir for what could well be my only solo-Beatles’ concert I ever see. (It also contains 2 pages of Egypt Station stickers, which is what I’ve wanted my entire life but just never knew I actually wanted).

I then took my 2 trains home and was sitting on my bed by 11:15pm.

Overall it was brilliant, and I had a great time, I couldn’t really fault it BUT for a few teeny-weeny things:

The only song that barely anyone responded to was ‘Who Cares’, which was a dip in the atmosphere, seeing as it was Song No. 5, that wasn’t very good.

Paul had difficulty singing Eleanor Rigby in particular the “AHHHHHHHHHHH look at….” sections, he mostly left it to his band to cover them, which I had no real problem with, he is 76 for God ’s sake. But he might want to choose a better replacement song that doesn’t screw his voice up.

Get some new anecdotes Paul, I’ve heard the Jimi Hendrix playing Sgt Pepper story about a hundred times now. Surely, he has a better Hendrix story for the reason why he does the ‘Foxy Lady’ coda?

I don’t particularly care for ‘Being for the Benefit…’ and ‘Birthday ’, I wish they were another Wings’ and another solo song (maybe something from the ‘80’s or the 90’s, which he completely ignores bar ‘Here Today ’ from 1982.). That’s probably just me though but I would love a song or two from Flaming Pie or Flowers In The Dirt .

Now I’ve spent 90 minutes typing this up and adding photos and videos, so y’all better read this, it’s 2000+ words!!!!