REVIEW: Paul McCartney Delivers A Truly Great Performance To Open His Australian Tour

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(Paul McCartney; NIB Stadium Perth, Saturday December 2, 2017)

Paul McCartney hasn’t been to Australia since 1993 – and he more than makes up for it with this enormous 3 hour journey though his phenomenal musical history.

Opening the night with A Hard Day’s Night immediately showed that the 20-something “Mop Top” Paul is still alive and well in there somewhere.

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The days of Beatlemania returned several times in the first half of the show (much to the delight of my 70-something mum) with Can’t Buy me Love, All My Loving, Love Me Do, and And I Love Her.

The joyful nostalgia is added to by some great stories told by Paul: like his tale of the Quarrymen (Paul, John and George’s pre-Beatles band of course) recording their first song In Spite of All the Danger in 1958. The cab ride that Paul and John shared with Mick and Keith from The Stones – where the Beatles 'donated' a song to them (I Wanna Be Your Man). Paul’s experiences with Jimi Hendrix - the riff of Jimi’s Foxy Lady gets a run on the end of the Wings classic Let Me Roll It.

The best of the Wings catalogue was hand-picked for us: Band on the Run, Junior’s Farm, Letting Go, Live and Let Die. The latter was a visual highlight, with fire-jets and stadium-roof fireworks lighting up the night.

 

Some more recent solo tracks got a run: Queenie Eye and the title track from New – Paul cheekily explaining:

“When we do a Beatles song your phones light up; when we do the new stuff it’s a black hole out there! But we don’t care, we’re doing them anyway!”

 

There were some poignant moments:

George Harrison was remembered as McCartney performed Something on a ukulele given to him by the late Beatle. A John Lennon tribute: Here Today (written by Paul just after John’s death). And the front of the stage rose up for an acoustic rendition of Blackbird – McCartney explaining it was inspired by the American Civil Rights movement in the 60’s.

There were special moments just for us Perth fans too: Macca stating “We don’t normally do this one…” before launching into the Wings hit Mull of Kintyre – aided by the WA Police Pipe Band (one hell of a bag-pipe blow-out!)

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And early in the show, someone had held up a sign “can I propose on stage?” McCartney obliged later on, and a bloke called Martin popped the question to his girlfriend Saya, in front of over 20,000 people. Luckily she said yes!!

The 2nd half of the show was a cavalcade of Beatles classics. The screens went psychedelic for Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite. The crescendo of A Day in the Life shook the stadium. A woman in my row was literally brought to tears by hearing Let It Be. And the "na-na-nah-nah’s" of Hey Jude brought about THE biggest stadium sing-along I’ve EVER seen!! The triple-whammy of brilliance that closed out the Abbey Road album also closed the show: Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight / The End. And special mention to Macca’s band – who bring it all to life with some incredible musicianship.

What a night. What a legend.

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If you’re on the east-coast and are 'undecided' about whether to see McCartney: DO IT! It’s not every day you get to see a Beatle…and this one’s in fine form!

SET LIST

  • A Hard Day's Night
  • Junior's Farm
  • Can't Buy Me Love
  • Letting Go
  • All My Loving
  • Let Me Roll It
  • I've Got a Feeling
  • My Valentine
  • Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
  • Maybe I'm Amazed
  • I've Just Seen a Face
  • In Spite of All the Danger
  • You Won't See Me
  • Love Me Do
  • And I Love Her
  • Blackbird
  • Here Today
  • Queenie Eye
  • New
  • Lady Madonna
  • FourFiveSecond
  • Eleanor Rigby
  • I Wanna Be Your Man
  • Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
  • Something
  • A Day in the Life
  • Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
  • Band on the Run
  • Back in the U.S.S.R.
  • Let It Be
  • Live and Let Die
  • Hey Jude

    Encore:

  • Yesterday
  • Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
  • Helter Skelter
  • Mull of Kintyre
  • Birthday
  • Golden Slumbers
  • Carry That Weight
  • The End

 

Remaining Oz Dates

  • Dec 05, 2017 AAMI Park, Melbourne - All Ages
  • Dec 06, 2017 AAMI Park, Melbourne - All Ages
  • Dec 09, 2017 Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane - All Ages
  • Dec 11, 2017 Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney - All Ages
  • Dec 12, 2017 Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney - All Ages

Visit the Frontier website for ticket and show details

 


Written by: @TimLordan1

4 December 2017




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