sábado, 31 de agosto de 2019

Paul McCartney reveals his grandson was mugged at knifepoint






































www.nme.com
Paul McCartney says his grandson was mugged at knifepoint
Will Lavin
Aug 31, 2019

The Beatles
Paul McCartney

The Beatles legend revealed he too had been mugged in the past
Paul McCartney‘s grandson was recently mugged at knifepoint, as revealed by the Beatles legend himself.


Speaking in a new interview, McCartney said that suspects took his grandson’s mobile phone after he was robbed in London.
Not sharing which grandchild it was, McCartney told The Times that his grandson felt like a “coward” after it happened.
“He was saying the worst thing was that he should have just thumped the guy; he came back and felt a coward,” McCartney explained. “I said, ‘No, no, no, no! The guy had a knife and you don’t know, the guy might be able to use that knife’.”
While discussing his grandson’s ordeal, the Beatle recalled a time during his childhood when he got mugged for his watch.
“When I was a kid it was four guys and they nicked my watch,” he admitted. “I was of a similar age. I just happened to be on my own, bigger kids came along and it was the same feeling. [I thought at the time] ‘I have got to learn karate and be a black belt — and then I’ll get ’em!’ It was the worst thing.”
Meanwhile, Paul McCartney is going to be signing copies of his new picture book Hey Grandude! in London next month.
During the special appearance, McCartney will read the story of ‘Grandude’ – “a super-cool Grandad who takes his grandchildren on a whirlwind magical mystery tour, from tropical seas to Alpine mountains, all before bedtime!”






















www.independent.co.uk
Paul McCartney reveals his grandson was mugged at knifepoint
Beatles star’s grandson had phone stolen in London
Ellie Harrison
Aug 31 2019

Paul McCartney Beatles grandson mugged knife children wife news latest
Paul McCartney: The Beatles singer with one of his grandsons (Image: GETTY)

Paul McCartney has revealed that his grandson was recently mugged at knifepoint in London.
The Beatles icon said the incident reminded him of when he was mugged as a child growing up in Liverpool and his watch was stolen.
“In London, one of my grandkids, one of my older grandkids, was mugged and got his phone taken,” McCartney told The Times.

“That takes me back to my childhood when I was mugged in Liverpool, so I am able to talk to him.”
McCartney added that he advised his grandson not to retaliate with violence if a similar situation were to reoccur.

“He was saying the worst thing was that he should have just thumped the guy; he came back and felt a coward. 

“I said, ‘No, no, no, no! The guy had a knife and you don’t know, the guy might be able to use that knife.’ So it is scary these days.”
McCartney also spoke about his concerns surrounding environmental issues in the interview, saying: “Climate change? You know, I hope someone does something sensible soon. It’s really refreshing to see that the people [doing something] are the kids.
"Other people are just looking for money in the short term."
McCartney's children's book Hey, Grandude! is published on 5 September.

Smart: The 15-year-old wore an olive shirt and chinos and carried two mobile phones
Paul McCartney's grandson Arthur Donald with two mobile phones



martes, 27 de agosto de 2019

Paul McCartney takes in Mumford & Sons show in the Hamptons



















pagesix.com
Paul McCartney takes in Mumford & Sons show in the Hamptons
By Mara Siegler 
Page Six
August 26, 2019 

paul-mccartney

Paul McCartney saw Mumford & Sons play a concert for SiriusXM and Pandora at the Stephen Talkhouse. Getty Images


When it comes to new music, Macca’s keeping Mum.
Paul McCartney has given his stamp of approval to popular Brit rockers Mumford & Sons.
The legendary Beatle and his wife, Nancy Shevell, were spotted at a private SiriusXM and Pandora show Sunday night at the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, NY. “Paul showed up right before the concert and was escorted into a VIP section,” says a spy. “It didn’t seem like anyone noticed.”
The famed musician was seen giving the thumbs-up when leaving the show. Also in the crowd were John McEnroe and Dianna Agron.

Mumford And Sons Perform Exclusive Concert For SiriusXM And Pandora In The Hamptons
Paul McCartney attends the Mumford & Sons exclusive concert for SiriusXM and Pandora at The Stephen Talkhouse on August 25, 2019 in Amagansett, New York.
(Aug. 24, 2019 - Source: Getty Images North America)





La imagen puede contener: 5 personas, personas de pie y noche

lunes, 26 de agosto de 2019

SNEAK PEEK: NEW MIXES ADD FURTHER DEPTH TO BEATLES ‘ABBEY ROAD’




































ultimateclassicrock.com
SNEAK PEEK: NEW MIXES ADD FURTHER DEPTH TO BEATLES ‘ABBEY ROAD’
ERIC HOLLAND
August 24, 2019


Apple Corps, Ltd.

“My boys are ready to go!,” John Lennon can be heard yelling in an outtake from the Beatles' Abbey Road recording sessions. The previously unheard clip is one of many new highlights featured on the album's upcoming 50th-anniversary editions.
Earlier this week, a sneak peek of the newly enhanced audio was offered at the Dolby Listening Room in midtown Manhattan. Giles Martin, who previously remixed anniversary editions of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and The Beatles was again at the helm for the half-dozen different versions of the album being released next month.

The producer, who recently served as music director for the Elton John biopic Rocketman, worked from the original eight-track session tapes overseen by his father, original Beatles producer George Martin. Along with mix engineer Sam Okell, he uncovered more of what the Fab Four originally laid down, and managed to make the LP's 17 tracks bigger, bolder and more dynamic than the first time around.
The new stereo mixes reveal more distinct vocals, a more muscular bass sound and enhanced clarity of many supporting sonic elements, including the bells, birds and crickets on “You Never Give Me Your Money” and the flutes and hand claps on “Here Comes the Sun.” Another obvious accent was the more prominent placing of a guitar effect on the chorus to “Come Together.” Also detected were additional nuances from George Harrison’s Moog synthesizer, as heard on "Maxwell's Silver Hammer," "I Want You (She's So Heavy)," "Here Comes The Sun" and "Because.” The latter track, whose intro became a bit tougher, sounds absolutely luxurious and is arguably the one that benefits most from the anniversary treatment.
The most exciting playback was an alternate take of “She’s So Heavy,” recorded in Soho’s Trident Studios. The exact timing of the recording is unclear, but Lennon's ragged vocals seem to suggest it was put to tape during one of the band's all-night sessions. The thrill was hearing the swirling, blistering Billy Preston B3 contribution that was replaced by white noise on the original LP.
The remixed Abbey Road will be available in stereo, high-res stereo, 5.1 surround, and Dolby Atmos, and accompanied by 23 session recordings and demos. The sets will be released on Sept. 23. All tracks were approved by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison.








www.postbulletin.com
A new ending: Behind the Beatles’ ‘Abbey Road’ 50th-anniversary remix
By Randy Lewis
Los Angeles Times
Updated Aug 23, 2019


British pop group the Beatles, (from left to right), John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney in 1967. (Hulton Archive/Getty Images/TNS)
Hulton Archive

One evening in 1969, as the Beatles were working on a scorching new John Lennon rocker called “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” for their next album, an engineer popped his head into their London recording studio to deliver a warning.
“One of the guys says, ‘There’ve been some complaints from outside and we need to turn down a bit,’” producer Giles Martin said, recounting a favorite moment from the original session tapes he’s immersed himself in while assembling the 50th-anniversary remix of “Abbey Road.”
“The guitars were pretty loud, and there probably was some [sound] leakage. It’s very late at night, and you hear John say, ‘Is it OK if we do one more and then we’ll turn down?’” Martin, 49, said between bites of a club sandwich on a recent visit to Capitol Studio B in Hollywood, unable to suppress a smile at the thought of anyone ordering the world’s biggest rock band to pipe down. As Lennon tells his mates on the session tape, “Last chance to be loud!”
Martin’s remix of “Abbey Road” is set for release on Sept. 27, a day after the 50th anniversary of the album’s U.K. release and four days ahead of the date it arrived stateside. It’s the latest in a series of sonic upgrades and musicological explorations of the Fab Four’s work, which began in earnest with the 2017 royal treatment afforded “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
That paved the way for last year’s even more expansive 50th-anniversary reissue of their 1968 double album, “The Beatles,” aka the White Album.
As with the two previous projects, Martin has gone back to the original analog eight-track master tapes, keeping contemporary ears and audio equipment in mind for this remix of the final album recorded by Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr before they formally called it quits in 1970.
“I’ve said this before: You don’t want your kids to listen to the Beatles’ records and go, ‘God, this sounds old,’” said Martin, who took over production of Beatles releases from his father, the group’s original producer, George Martin, who died in 2016. That passing of the torch began with their father-son collaboration that created the mashup soundtrack for “The Beatles Love” show that Cirque du Soleil has been staging in Las Vegas since 2006.
McCartney and Starr, whose bass and drum parts are generally the biggest beneficiaries of the remixes, have been enthusiastic about the updates. (Each Beatles reissue also is subject to the approval of Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono, and Harrison’s widow, Olivia Harrison, before they are released.)
“For me, as the drummer, [the remix] is great because the drums — now you can hear them,” Starr, 79, told The Times recently at Capitol Studio A in Hollywood. He noted how in the early days of the band’s recording career, much of the bass content — most noticeably affecting the drums and bass guitar — was toned down to accommodate the record players in common usage at that time.
“In those days, if you wanted to take any of the bass off, you start with the bass drum stuff,” Starr said. “If you listen to something like ‘Love Me Do,’ there’s no bass drum, no bass, because we’ve taken that off.”
The anniversary reissue will be packaged in several formats, the most ambitious being a box set comprising three CDs of audio tracks, plus a fourth Blu-ray disc with high-resolution versions of the album’s new stereo mix, a 5.1 surround-sound version and another in Dolby Atmos audiophile audio, the first for a Beatles release. It will come with a 100-page book packed with session photos, introductions from McCartney and Giles Martin, a facsimile of one of George Martin’s orchestral scores and new essays by Beatles historian Kevin Howlett and music journalist David Hepworth.
“Everything we do is done with two things in mind,” said Bruce Resnikoff, president and CEO of Universal Music Enterprises, which manages the Beatles’ recordings in partnership with the group’s Apple Corps Ltd. “One, we want to create something specifically for fans who’ve been there for as much as 50-plus years; we also want to create something engaging for young people who weren’t around when the Beatles were first going.”
The bonus audio discs with the “Abbey Road” reissue contain nearly two dozen alternate takes; studio chatter among the Beatles and other session participants; and demo versions of songs the foursome was working on at the time but were not part of the “Abbey Road” album.
Among them: both sides of their ’69 hit single “The Ballad of John and Yoko” and “Old Brown Shoe”; McCartney’s demo versions of two songs he handed off to other musicians he produced for their fledgling Apple Records label — Mary Hopkin’s “Goodbye” and Badfinger’s “Come and Get It”; plus an isolated track highlighting longtime Beatles producer-arranger George Martin’s orchestral accompaniment for Harrison’s ballad “Something.”
As to Lennon’s surprisingly polite response to the midsession request that he and the band back off, Giles Martin thinks it’s a great example of one essential quality that suffuses “Abbey Road”: that of a conscious victory lap for a group that had scaled virtually every peak the world had to offer.
“It’s really sweet that you hear John say that,” he said. “I think that everyone’s on their best behavior to a certain extent.
“They know this is going to be their last album. You can tell they’re going to make sure it’s a good one and that everyone’s songs are going to get equal attention.”
THEIR TOP-SELLING ALBUM
“Abbey Road” represented a reunion of sorts for the band members and George Martin.
His input had been reduced the previous year while they made the White Album. Martin often felt sidelined while the four Beatles flexed their increasingly assured muscles working the control boards at what until that time was known as EMI Recording Studio.
Early in 1969, more distractions ensued while they attempted to film their creative process for a new album, which eventually would be released in 1970 as “Let It Be.”
The “Let It Be” songs, however, were recorded before “Abbey Road,” and unfolded in large part at Twickenham Film Studio under the lights and gaze of director Michael Lindsay-Hogg. The experience, outside their comfort zone at Abbey Road Studios, exacerbated growing tensions and creative differences among the four. Nevertheless, a few months later McCartney approached Martin to produce another album for them.
“‘Let It Be’ was a miserable experience, and I never thought that we would get back together again,” George Martin told Beatles historian and biographer Mark Lewisohn in his 1988 book, “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions.” “So I was very surprised when Paul rang me up and said, ‘We want to make another record. Will you produce it for us, really produce it?’”
Among the group’s original studio albums, “Abbey Road” is their top seller worldwide, according to a UME spokesperson, and has been certified for sales of more than 12 million copies in the U.S. alone, according to the Recording Industry Assn. of America.
“Think about it,” Giles Martin says. “The Beatles recorded some of their most successful, most popular songs on their last album. I can’t think of another band that can say that.” In fact, Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun” has become the most-streamed song in their catalog, according to SoundScan, even though it was never released as a single, while “Let It Be” is the catalog’s most downloaded track.
Indeed, “Abbey Road” yielded two of Harrison’s finest compositions, “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun,” along with Lennon’s hard-driving rockers “Come Together” and “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and his harmonically and lyrically exquisite ballad “Because,” McCartney’s ’50s R&B-inspired “Oh! Darling,” the whimsical “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” and his benedictory ballad “Golden Slumbers,” as well as Starr’s innocently sweet rocker “Octopus’s Garden.”
As for the celebrated studio itself, it was opened in 1931 by composer and conductor Edward Elgar as “the world’s first purpose-built recording studio,” residing on the street named Abbey Road in London’s posh St. John’s Wood neighborhood, where McCartney owns a home just around the corner.
“In naming their album ‘Abbey Road,’ the Beatles bestowed instant world fame upon the studio in which they had recorded almost all of their output,” Lewisohn wrote. “Since the day of the LP release, the studio building has taken on an almost tangible aura of magic. … Like the zebra [street] crossing outside — it is visited daily, still, by tourists from all over the world.”
MESSING WITH HISTORY?
The “Sgt. Pepper” and White Album remixes were critical and commercial hits. Both received perfect 100 scores on the Metacritic.com aggregate website. The reissued “Sgt. Pepper” entered the Billboard 200 album chart at No.3 in 2017, and the more costly White Album reissue debuted at No.6 last year.
They also helped introduce the group’s music to younger listeners. “The average age of the listener for Beatles music has actually dropped,” said UME’s Resnikoff. “Both ‘Sgt. Pepper’ and the White Album, in their initial streaming week, registered hundreds of% more streaming than they had before. And they averaged a million more streams per week through the rest of the year than they had the previous year.”
Still, a vocal minority of musicians and purist fans balk at the notion of tinkering with what the Beatles and George Martin signed off on originally.
“Can we just get the extras without the remixes of the original LPs?” Benmont Tench, longtime keyboard player for Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers, tweeted recently. “[Engineer] Geoff Emerick & George Martin got it right the first time. How’s about we repaint [Picasso’s] ‘Guernica’ while we’re at it?”
Martin gets the argument from those who don’t believe in remixes, and he won’t dismiss them. Consequently, in remixing some of the most beloved recordings of the 20th century, he treads judiciously — aiming to unshackle certain sounds that often were the result of compromises dictated by the limitations of recording and playback equipment of the day but without fundamentally altering the aesthetics of the originals.
Playing side two of “Abbey Road” for a reporter last spring, Martin noted that the new mix still wasn’t finished — some sound effects, such as the cricket sounds at the opening of “Sun King,” had yet to be added back in.
But “Abbey Road” gains impact, clarity and tangibility in a mix that brings the recording presumably that much closer to what the band sounded like in the studio five decades ago.
George Harrison’s finger-picked guitar opening pops out of the speakers on “Here Comes the Sun,” and the octave-hopping Moog synthesizer part that doubles the guitar arpeggios in the midsong break now sends deeper vibrations into the floorboards.
The exquisite three-part vocal harmonies from Lennon, McCartney and Harrison on “Because” — which were overlaid a second and then a third time to create the rich, nine-layer vocal mix — are that much more visceral.
“It’s all done by feel,” Martin said. “You want to go with what they intended, then you listen to everything, you think about it and you just try to get it right.”
Echoing a sentiment consistently expressed in recent years by surviving Beatles McCartney and Starr, Martin observed in listening through the “Abbey Road” tapes that regardless of what frictions may have been developing outside the studio over business matters or shifting personal dynamics, when it came to making music together, the Beatles chemistry remained unmistakable.
“The camaraderie was definitely there. You can’t sing ‘Because’ with those three-part harmonies around the same microphone without having some camaraderie,” Martin said.
Longtime “Breakfast With the Beatles” radio show host Chris Carter concurs.
“I think they had to know this was the end,” Carter said. “It would be almost foolish to end an album with a song called ‘The End’ if it wasn’t. If you were writing a script about a rock ‘n’ roll band, and you wanted that band to go out with a bang, that’s what you’d do. You couldn’t write a better ending.”
The Beatles. Как создавалась обложка для альбома "Abbey Road": dubikvit





viernes, 23 de agosto de 2019

Why Paul McCartney Recorded So Many 'White Album' Songs Without the Other Beatles























www.cheatsheet.com
Why Paul McCartney Recorded So Many 'White Album' Songs Without the Other Beatles
Eric Schaal
August 22, 2019

Paul McCartney has referred to the Beatles’ White Album (1968) as “the tension album,” and you only need to hear a few of the stories to understand what he meant. You might as well start with the time he and John Lennon nearly got into a fistfight in the studio.
That confrontation occurred during the recording of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.” By the time Paul was content with the endless takes and new arrangements on that song, Grammy-winning engineer Geoff Emerick had quit his job in the control room. A month later, Ringo walked out on the band.
We haven’t even mentioned George Harrison leaving for Greece out of frustration during the sessions for “Not Guilty” (a song that later got bumped). In short, Beatles morale was at or near its lowest point while making The White Album.
But you can probably tell just by looking at the personnel on many of the tracks. You find Paul playing by himself or with minor contributions from bandmates on at least five songs on the album.

Paul decided to retreat to a studio alone on many occasions.


Paul McCartney, bassist and songwriter with The Beatles, performs on stage in 1966. | Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Just a few days before Ringo ditched the band to go on an Italian holiday, Paul worked on two recordings that excluded George and John completely. One was “Wild Honey Pie,” a White Album track on which Paul sang, played guitar, and also recorded the drum part.

Clearly, he wasn’t in a collaborative mood, and his bandmates noticed. Looking back on the sessions in 1980, John described how he felt about Paul playing every part on a song.




“That’s how it was getting in those days,” John told David Sheff. “We came in and he’d made the whole record. Him drumming. Him playing the piano. Him singing. I can’t speak for George, but I was always hurt when Paul would knock something off without involving us.”
John was referring to “Why Don’t We Do It in the Road,” a wild track featuring primal-scream vocals and heavy guitars by Paul. In that case, only Ringo did a bit of work on the recording. As the backup recording engineer noted, the tension was impossibly thick during those days.

‘Mother Nature’s Son’ got recorded during an exceptionally tense time.


The Beatles pose for a group shot at a press conference in 1967. | Ivan Keeman/Redferns

When you listen to the beautiful “Mother Nature’s Son,” there’s no way to know how bad things had got between the Beatles in those days. Ken Scott, who replaced Emerick as engineer on those sessions, recalled how the recording started off well but changed when John and Ringo entered the studio.
“Suddenly, halfway through, John and Ringo walked in and you could cut the atmosphere with a knife,” Scott recalled. “An instant change. It was like that for 10 minutes and then as soon as they left it felt great again.”




On that track, Paul played drums, guitar, bass, and also sang the vocals. Session players came in to record horn parts (trumpet and trombone), but otherwise no Beatles played on the track.
Paul knew the old band dynamic wasn’t working. Obviously, he planned to do what he could on his own to get his White Album tracks down somehow. On “Blackbird” and “Martha My Dear,” he also worked mostly without his bandmates.
The Beatles were falling apart fast, and Paul seemed to cope by finding a space in the studio where he could work in peace. Within a year, John would announce he was leaving the band. It couldn’t have been a surprise.
Image result for paul mccartney white album





lunes, 19 de agosto de 2019

Paul McCartney spotted making own guitar plectrums in bizarre way on railway line
















www.mirror.co.uk
Paul McCartney spotted making own guitar plectrums in bizarre way on railway line
The Beatles legend was spotted leaving the coins on train tracks to flatten them so he can use them to play his guitar
By Christopher Bucktin
19 AUG 2019



Sir Paul McCartney heads to the long and winding railroad track for a new guitar pick.
Plucky Paul left coins on the rails near his home so trains would flatten them.
The Beatles legend returned later to collect them.
An onlooker said: “Normally it’s kids who leave coins on the track, not a grandad. It was only when he returned did the penny drop – perfect plectrums.”
Macca, 77, wearing shorts, T-shirt and a Team GB Olympic cap, placed a dozen one-cent coins on the Long Island Rail Road in New York’s Hamptons.

Macca went to extreme lengths to get the perfect plectrum (Image: SplashNews.com)


The coins are flattened by trains (Image: SplashNews.com)


Macca was seen putting the one cent coins on the track (Image: SplashNews.com)


The coins are flattened and then the Beatles legend uses them to play his guitar (Image: SplashNews.com)

Sir Paul was once said to have worn acrylic nails to stop his fingers bleeding, but returned to a plectrum.

Other musicians, including Queen’s Brian May, have used flattened coins as plectrums because the metal is strong.

But it is against US law to deface currency, with a fine if you try to spend it again.


The Beatles on Instagram: “#PaulMcCartney #thebeatles”




jueves, 15 de agosto de 2019

Paul McCartney Nears $1 Billion In Solo Touring Revenue

















  


www.iheart.com
Paul McCartney Nears $1 Billion In Solo Touring Revenue
By Andrew Magnotta
August 13, 2019

US-ENTERTAINMENT-MUSIC-MCCARTNEY-CONCERT

Paul McCartney has wrapped up his 'Freshen Up' Tour and vaulted himself into the top 10 highest earning tour performers of all time.
After 37 concerts in 299 days from September 2018 to July 2019, McCartney sold 928,252 tickets and grossed $129.2 million, according to reporting by Billboard Boxscore.
The figures bring McCartney's solo career gross to $944.3 million, which came from 8,241,521 tickets sold. That inches him into sixth place beyond Dave Matthews Band ($935.9 million), Taylor Swift ($935.4 million) and Coldplay ($902.1 million).
This time around McCartney brought in the majority of his money in the United States and Canada. His biggest nights were a two-night stand at the T-Mobile Arena in Las VegasJune 28 - 29 during which he grossed $7.2 million in ticket sales.
Despite being arguably the most successful musician of the 20th century, McCartney didn't begin touring full-time as a solo artist until the late-'80s.
Billboard's numbers do not account for inflation. The magazine also notes that its figures are fluid, depending on an artist's touring cycle.
Photo: Getty Images



www.billboard.com
Paul McCartney Enters All-Time Top 10 With Freshen Up Tour Grosses
by Eric Frankenberg
8/9/2019


Paul McCartney performs live at The O2 Arena on Dec. 16, 2018 in London, England.
Samir Hussein/WireImage

After 37 concerts over 299 days, Paul McCartney wrapped the Freshen Up Tour, impacting the Hot Tours recap dated Aug. 10, 2019 at No. 5. All told, the worldwide trek grossed $129.2 million and sold 928,252 tickets, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore.
The tour began and ended in North America, from four shows in Canada in Sept. 2018 to a 16-show run across the continent from May 23 – July 13, 2019. In between, McCartney played four shows in Japan ($21.2 million), eight concerts in Europe ($17.6 million), and five in South America ($22 million).
The trek’s remaining earnings of $68.3 million came from the U.S. and Canada, peaking with a recent two-night play at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on June 28-29. There, McCartney grossed $7.2 million, helped along by a $500 premium ticket (tickets scaled down to $49.50 on the low end).
The best-selling show of the jaunt was the June 8 performance at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wis., selling 49,416 tickets. That show’s tickets topped out at $301.95, more in line with the rest of the North American leg. Green Bay’s strength in numbers may have been due to bottled-up anticipation, as it was McCartney’s first solo performance in Green Bay, though he has similarly strong history in nearby Milwaukee.
Globally, Macca’s high points came overseas, earning $12.7 from an Oct. 31-Nov. 1 stint at Japan’s Tokyo Dome and $8.7 million on March 26-27 at Sao Paulo’s Allianz Parque.
McCartney’s 37-show sprint around the globe falls short of the 57 shows from 2016-17’s One on One Tour and the 60 shows of 2013-15’s Out There Tour. Accordingly, his recent $129 million gross trails the $199 million and $196 million of his previous tours.
But show for show and ticket for ticket, the Freshen Up Tour proves the infinite strength and stability of McCartney’s prowess as a global touring force. The 2018-19 tour averaged $3.491 million per concert, up just .06% from the One On One Tour’s average of $3.488 million. On the Out There Tour, he averaged $3.271 million each night. Similarly, his average tickets-per-night has increased from 23,927 in 2013-15 to 24,734 in 2016-17, and again to 25,087 on his latest tour.
Theses added grosses push McCartney’s solo career gross to $944.3 million from 8,241,521 tickets sold, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. This places him among the top 10 artists in Billboard Boxscore’s history, narrowly passing Dave Matthews Band ($935.9 million), Taylor Swift ($935.4 million), and Coldplay ($902.1 million). These rankings, of course, are fluid as artists go on and off touring cycles. Among solo artists, Macca ranks sixth.
See below for the full Hot Tours tally, featuring North American dates for Robyn, an extensive European run by Metallica, and a run of shows in Las Vegas by Gwen Stefani.


HOT TOURS - AUG. 10, 2019
  Ranked by Gross, Compiled from Boxscores reported July 30 - Aug. 5
 
  ACT
  Total Gross
  Show Date Range
  Venue, City (Shows/Sellouts)
  Total Attendance (Capacity)
 
RANK
1 Metallica
  $70,215,503
  June 8 - July 21
  Slane Castle, Slane, Ireland (0/1)
  Amsterdam Arena, Amsterdam, Netherlands (1/1)
  RheinEnergieStadion, Koln, Germany (0/1)
  King Baudoin Stadium, Brussels, Belgium (1/1)
  Etihad Stadium, Manchester, England (0/1)
  Twickenham Stadium, London (0/1)
  Olympiastadion, Berlin, Germany (1/1)
  Ullevi Stadion, Gothenburg, Sweden (1/1)
  Tell Parken, Copenhagen, Denmark (0/1)
  Granasen Arena, Trondheim, Norway (1/1)
  Festival Park, Hameenlinna, Finland (1/1)
  Raadi Airfield, Tartu, Estonia (1/1)
  Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow, Russia (0/1)
  696,191 (709,273)
 
2 Ed Sheeran
  $25,710,766
  July 12 - 28
  Lucasvala Park, Riga, Latvia (1/1)
  Otkrytiye Arena, Moscow, Russia (1/1)
  Malmi Airport, Helsinki, Finland (1/2)
  Tusindarsskoven, Odense, Denmark (2/2)
  278,128 (298,046)
 
3 John Mayer
  $11,267,594
  July 19 - 28
  Times Union Center, Albany, N.Y. (0/1)
  Dunkin' Donuts Center, Providence, R.I. (1/1)
  Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, Pa. (0/1)
  Capital One Arena, Washington, D.C. (1/1)
  Madison Square Garden, New York (2/2)
  PPG Paints Arena, Pittsburgh, Pa. (0/1)
  96,219 (99,338)
 
4 Andre Rieu
  $10,763,416
  July 4 - 21
  Vrijthof, Maastricht, Netherlands (12/12)
  105,417 (105,417)
 
5 Paul McCartney
  $9,672,272
  May 27 - July 6
  PNC Arena, Raleigh, N.C. (1/1)
  Bon Secours Wellness Arena, Greenville, S.C. (1/1)
  BC Place Stadium, Vancouver, British Columbia (1/1)
  67,901 (67,901)


6 Train & Goo Goo Dolls
  $6,415,870
  June 21 - July 28
  Starlight Theatre, Kansas City, Mo. (0/1)
  Daily's Place, Jacksonville, Fla. (0/1)
  Ameris Bank Amphitheatre, Alpharetta, Ga. (0/1)
  PNC Music Pavilion, Charlotte, N.C. (0/1)
  Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek, Raleigh, N.C. (0/1)
  Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater at Virginia Beach, Virginia Beach, Va. (0/1)
  Ascend Amphitheater, Nashville (1/1)
  Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, Tinley Park, Ill. (0/1)
  Ruoff Home Mortgage Music Center, Noblesville, Ind. (0/1)
  DTE Energy Music Theatre, Clarkston, Mich. (1/1)
  Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, Ohio (0/1)
  Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, N.Y. (0/1)
  Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Bethel, N.Y. (0/1)
  Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion, Gilford, N.H. (0/1)
  169,793 (227,456)
 
7 Gwen Stefani
  $3,111,133
  July 5 - 26
  Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood, Las Vegas (1/9)
  27,672 (35,176)
 
8 Queen + Adam Lambert
  $1,780,047
  July 23
  American Airlines Center, Dallas, Texas (1/1)
  13,800 (13,800)
 
9 Backstreet Boys
  $1,399,194
  Aug. 3
  Staples Center, Los Angeles (1/1)
 
10 Robyn
  $876,828
  July 25 - 27
  Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, San Francisco (1/1)
  The Forum, Inglewood, Calif. (1/1)
  12,240 (12,240)