Seeing Paul In Concert | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

HeyTrud said
Hello Everyone!  I am a newbie to this site and I absolutely love it!  I have been a Beatles fan all my life.  Having had teenage sisters when I was a pre-schooler, I learned the words to all the Beatles songs on all the albums they owned.  My fav Beatle has always been Paul!  I got to take one off my “bucket list” back in November 28/12 when I got to see Paul perform live at Rexall Place in Edmonton, Alberta Canada where I live.

I’m not sure how many of you out there have had the pleasure of seeing Paul LIVE!  Wow!  Words fall short.  He played for almost 3 hours and he was fantastic.  It was the best concert I’ve ever seen & a night I will never forget! 

Anyone else out there seen Paul live as of late?  Any exciting concert stories to tell?

Welcome my fellow Canadian!  I saw Paul in November in Vancouver…  absolutely amazing show!  He was funny, he was sweet, and he played for 3 hours…  it was the best!  My only complaint is that he came on the stage when I was in the bathroom.  Devastating!  How could you, Paul?  

Funny Paper said
I saw Paul McCartney and Wings just when Wings had just formed, June 10, 1976, at the Seattle “Kingdome” (a giant sports stadium newly built, just months before in March of 1976).   Me and my friend stood about 20 yards from the stage, pretty much in front, off to the side in line with Paul’s piano, where occasionally he would sit to play, with his left profile facing the audience.  I don’t remember standing on turf.  I think it was just a floor, and yet it was the football field.

That American tour of Paul’s was probably his first lavish pyrotechnic “big show” style concert, with screens showing what we now call “videos” (showing Marvel comics figures during “Magneto and Titanium Man” for example), as well as fireworks, etc.

Edit:  I see that Wikipedia says that Wings formed in 1971.  I always thought it was later than that…

Yeah, he formed Wings shortly after making Ram , keeping Denny Seiwell as the drummer.  Wild Life came out in December of 1971.  

Also, that’s awesome that you saw them that close.   I can imagine that concerts were a different experience back then.  

Its on my bucket list

Funny Paper said, “At one point, he was looking at a table of promotional t-shirts for his tour, and one caught his eye.  It said “McCartney:  Glasgow, England”.  With a mischievous glint in his eye, he picked up the t-shirt and in perfect Scottish brogue, said something like “Can you imagine what they’re gonna say about this ‘England’ in Glasgow…?””

I remember that too.

I think it was from the Flowers In The Dirt tour.

The first time I saw PM in concert was on that tour. Like everyone else here, I was super excited and had to keep reminding myself that I was no longer a teenager – and had to at least look like it was no big deal. But his previous concert in New York had been the Wings Over America tour that Funny Paper talks about above in around 75′-’76. So we’re talking 13-14 years or so between concert tours!!!

The excitement broke when he opened with “Figure of Eight” – one of my least favorite songs on Flowers In The Dirt . (It’s grown on me since – a little)

However, I jumped out of my seat (as did everyone around me) when he broke into “Sgt Pepper ‘s LHCB.” That was a big deal because

a) It was a Beatle song. That was a big deal in and of itself because as of that point he’d still been distancing himself from the Beatles. (He did play a couple of Beatle songs on Wings Over America )

b) This was a song that had never been performed live

c) Following Sgt Pepper there was a long guitar solo which segued into the “Sgt Pepper (Reprise).” A clever twist!

He then opened up the Beatle floodgates. A highlight was “Things We Said Today ” with a fabulous Pink Floyd-ish guitar solo ending. I DEFINITELY recommend it if you’ve never heard it. [You can find the whole concert on the Tripping The Live Fantastic CD – but the double album, not the condensed single-CD version is the album to get a hold of.]