Paul McCartney Thrills Winnipeg Fans, Throws Back to Beatles’ Classics

 PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Paul McCartney in concert at Bell MTS Place Friday.



www.chrisd.ca
Paul McCartney Thrills Winnipeg Fans, Throws Back to Beatles’ Classics
By Michelle Bailey
ChrisD
Winnipeg News
September 28, 2018


Paul McCartney performs during his ‘Freshen Up’ tour at Bell MTS Place in Winnipeg on Friday, September 28, 2018. (DAVE BAXTER / CHRISD.CA)

Paul McCartney‘s brand of music easily transcends generations of fans, despite any preferred genre they may lay claim to. Nothing was more clear than that Friday night at Bell MTS Place.

Concert-goer Shannon McKinnon was happy to relive another McCartney show, just five years after last seeing the former Beatle in the city.


“Oh yes, when he was here in 2013,” she excitedly recalled while waiting in line at security.

“After the concert, my husband said it would be OK if Paul ever came back to go with a friend who didn’t mind having her arm pulled on for nearly three hours straight,” who this time came with her friend, Marie.

For more than three hours, the 76-year-old former member of The Beatles and Wings belted out song after song for thousands in the stands, both young and old.

McCartney, one of two surviving members of The Beatles, had four stops in Canada as part of his Freshen Up tour: Winnipeg, Edmonton, Montreal and Quebec City.

When he walked onto the stage at 8:17 p.m., the crowd erupted with cheers as he launched into A Hard Day’s Night followed by Hi, Hi, Hi and Can’t Buy Me Love.

Even when he digressed to play some of his newer music, featured on his album, Egypt Station, released just this month, the audience clapped with energy and enthusiasm, simply thrilled to have McCartney back in the ‘Peg.

However, there’s no denying the classics McCartney is known for as a member of The Beatles and Wings is what got the crowd whistling and singing along as was evident when he took to the piano to perform Let ‘Em In which he wrote and released with Wings in 1976.

He even took a moment to sing a song he wrote for his wife, Nancy Shevell, who was in the audience. My Valentine was penned in 2009 and sung for her at their October, 2011 wedding.

The audience really got into it halfway through the when McCartney asked if they were ready for some Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da circa 1968.

McCartney spent a lot of time chatting up the crowd, cracking jokes and also reminiscing about the stories of songs written by other members of the Beatles. At one point, he brought out a ukulele to play Something, paying homage to George Harrison (who died in 2001) and wrote the tune.

The pyrotechnics during Live and Let Die shook the building and, of course, the audience took over when McCartney gave everyone the cue to do so during Hey Jude to wrap things up.

When he came back out for an encore, he did so waving a large Canadian flag and to deliver a little more to the crowd of 13,700 by performing Yesterday, I Saw Her Standing There, Sgt. Pepper, Helter Skelter, Golden Slumbers and The End. Confetti canons capped off the concert as McCartney waved and said: “we hope to see you next time.”




www.winnipegfreepress.com
Fans let go as Paul McCartney amazes
Living legend charms young and old alike
By: Erin Lebar 
Posted: 09/28/2018 
Last Modified: 09/29/2018

There are few artists in the world who can draw a crowd like Sir Paul McCartney, and I’m not talking about numbers. 

Bell MTS Place was buzzing Friday night with a multi-generational army of fans; grey-haired couples held hands as they navigated the packed hallways an hour before showtime, teens in Beatles tour T-shirts that were older than they are trailed behind parents who paid a lot less than $50 for them many years ago. 

And, shortly after 8:15 p.m., when the first chord of the first song, A Hard Day’s Night, hummed through the dozens of speakers dangling from the rafters, all those voices, young and old, merged like rivers into one overwhelming ocean of sound, welcoming the Beatle back to Winnipeg.

It hasn’t been as long a McCartney drought as the city has experienced in the past; he was last in town in 2013, but he played Investors Group Field then, with 31,200 people along for the ride. So in the arena with 13,700 people, this experience was comparatively intimate.


PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Paul McCartney in concert at Bell MTS Place Friday.

"I get the feeling we’re going to have fun tonight," he said, in the exact casual, friendly tone he said it in last time.

He told stories and did little dance-wiggles in his black jacket and jeans; he mimicked throwing his body into the audience to crowd surf; he implanted a trio of brass players in the crowd for Letting Go; he licked his finger and pretended he burned it on the air because the crowd was so hot after Hi, Hi, Hi. Everyone laughed. Turns out all it takes for a dad joke to be funny is for Paul McCartney to deliver it. 

Winnipeg is the third show of McCartney’s 26-date Freshen Up tour, but already things are running like clockwork. Massive video screens flanked both sides of the stage, with lighting/video panels displaying old photos, and modern graphics filled the back of the stage between them. Upping his ante a bit from 2013, some other fancy laser-esque lighting tricks were implemented, though overall, his stage show remains a representation of his music: classic. 

McCartney knows his crowd and he knows they want the hits, but he did release a new album earlier this month, Egypt Station, and dropped a few tracks from that album in the mix — Who Cares, Come on to Me and Fuh You. While they obviously didn’t result in the same boisterous reaction as his work from the Beatles, Wings and his older solo material, they actually blend in to his catalogue pretty seamlessly. 

Passing off the guitar he used for the first third of the night, McCartney headed to a beautiful black grand piano and knocked out a series of hits including Let ’Em In (which also had a tremendous trombone solo, a comment not often made at a rock show) and My Valentine, which he dedicated to his wife, Nancy Shevell, who was in the building. "This one’s for you, baby," he adorably chirped.

And of course, no visit to the piano would be complete without the love song of all love songs, Maybe I’m Amazed. At 76 years old, McCartney’s voice has its limits; he was, on occasion, a bit strained in certain parts of his upper register, but those moments were few and far between and when he needed to, he really came through. 

"Maybe I’m a man, maybe I’m a lonely man who’s in the middle of something," he hollered, just as powerfully as he did when the song was first released in 1970.

Mid-set, McCartney and the four core members of his incredible band gathered centre stage for a bit of a jam session, featuring some of the oldest tracks of the night, such as In Spite of All Danger, From Me To You and Michelle; as fun as the more rock-rooted sections of the night were, it was the quieter times such as this one that warmed the soul. 

And then came Blackbird.

Plucking away at that unforgettable opening riff on his acoustic guitar, a completely solo McCartney rose up into the air on a platform, voice soaring through the room. It was the sweetest of moments; even those singing along were doing so in a whisper, careful not to overpower him. And though the same thing happened the last time he performed that song in this city, it still felt special.

As the main set came to a close, it was heavy-hitter after heavy-hitter; the crowd bopped along to Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da; Band on the Run proved to be a stand-out vocal performance; and the final trio of Let It Be, Live and Let Die (with an impressive amount of pyrotechnics) and Hey Jude, were simply perfect.


McCartney returned for an encore brandishing three flags — Canadian, British and Pride — starting things of slow and sweet with solo acoustic rendition ofYesterday before ramping back up with I Saw Her Standing There, a reprise of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and a frenetic Helter Skelter.


Wrapping up the last of his 39-song set, McCartney finished with Golden Slumbers, Carry that Weight, and The End, an absolutely mind-blowing finale.

There are many music stars one-third of McCartney’s age who would struggle to keep up with a three-hour show that moves at the pace his does; he’s on guitar, he’s on piano, he’s at the mike charming the crowd; he’s alone, he’s with the band; he is warm and calm yet full of boyish energy. He does everything and he does it well, making it look easy in the process. He’s an icon for a reason.

This could well be the last time Sir Paul plays a show in Winnipeg, and if that is to be the case, he couldn’t have left on a better note. 

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @NireRable


PAUL MCCARTNEY'S SET LIST
A Hard Day's Night

Hi, Hi, Hi

Can't Buy Me Love

Letting Go

Who Cares

Come On to Me

Let Me Roll It

I've Got a Feeling

Let 'Em In

My Valentine

Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five

Maybe I'm Amazed

I've Just Seen a Face

In Spite of All the Danger

From Me to You

Michelle

Love Me Do

Blackbird

Here Today

Queenie Eye

Lady Madonna

FourFiveSeconds

Eleanor Rigby

Fuh You

Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!

Something

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

I Saw Her Standing There

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)

Helter Skelter

Golden Slumbers

Carry That Weight

The End



GALLERY

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS - Paul McCartney in concert at Bell MTS Centre Friday. - Sept 28, 2018