REVIEW: Paul McCartney plays at the Echo Arena , Liverpool

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REVIEW: Paul McCartney plays a storming home gig at the Echo Arena
“We go all around the world and it’s great to back home”
By Laura Davis
Exec Ed What's On & Arts Editor
UPDATED 13 DEC 2018


Paul McCartney performing at The Liverpool Echo Arena 12th December 2018 : photograph David Munn

It seems that in 2018 at least Paul McCartney’s homecoming gigs are like buses. You wait years for one to come along and then there are two - or three if you count his apparently impromptu jam at the Philharmonic Pub while filming Carpool Karaoke.

His last date in the city was his ‘secret gig’ at the Cavern club to just a couple of hundred lucky free ticket holders.

Tonight’s full house at the Echo Arena may have been a less exclusive event in numbers at least but it was every bit as special to his crowd of fans.

McCartney is equally at home in both extremes - intimate club or stadium - and tonight’s venue somewhere in the middle.

By the time he and his excellent band came on stage, the crowd was already in the party mood thanks to a clever film merging pictures of his life with Escheresque buildings scrolling down the screens at either side, and a thumping soundtrack of his own songs in the run up.

And it seemed to be a significant night for the ex-Beatle too as his voice was tinged with emotion as he addressed the crowd.

“We go all around the world and it’s great to back home,” he said.

Later he added: “I could spend the whole evening just chatting to you, but I won’t. We’ll play some music.

“Imagine - all the memories come flooding back.”

He may be a bit grey around the temples now but he still won wolf whistles when he removed his jacket to reveal... a smart white shirt with only a single button undone at the collar.


Paul McCartney performing at The Liverpool Echo Arena 12th December 2018 : photograph David Munn

Opening number A Hard Day’s Night had the crowd on its feet from the opening bars. All My Loving (with footage of an impossibly young looking John, Paul, George and Ringo being chased by female fans in A Hard Day’s Night) had people shouting ‘I love you Paul’.

And the whole of the Arena united in song during Let It Be, their phones illuminated like candle flames, was almost a religious experience.

He even went further back in time to play In Spite of All The Danger, the Quarrymen’s first record, cut in Percy Phillips’ studio in Kensington.

For the Wings fans there was the thumping Let Them In and the mellow-but-upbeat Band on the Run.

And for the romantics - My Valentine, written for his wife Nancy Shevell, who was in the audience, and a heart-lifting Maybe I’m Amazed with warm guitar riffs and rich piano.

From his latest output the rock song Who Cares (“If anyone’s been bullied, hopefully this song will let them know that we care”) and ludicrously catchy pop song Come on to Me prove he isn’t resting on his back catalogue but continues to write some of the best popular music out there.

McCartney finished the concert proper with a thrilling Live and Let Die, featuring shooting flames, pyrotechnics and lasers, and, of course, Hey Jude.

Then he returned for Birthday, I Saw Her Standing There (a bit of an odd karaoke performance sung with the winners of a charity competition) and Wonderful Christmastime (with LIPA Youth Choir and snow falling on the audience).


By the time the three-hour show ended - with a run of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Helter Skelter, Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight and The End - it was hard to tell whether McCartney or the audience was enjoying it more.






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Paul McCartney's EPIC Liverpool concert - here's the full 40-song set list
Did your favourite Beatles, Wings or Paul McCartney song make the list?
By Elle May Rice
13 DEC 2018


Paul McCartney performing at The Liverpool Echo Arena (Image: Liverpool Echo)

Paul McCartney returned to Liverpool last night with a storming gig that gave the audience everything they could ever want.

Macca kicked off the UK leg of his Freshen Up tour last night - with a whopping 40-song set list in his hometown.


McCartney is known for his long sets, preferring to play on rather than take a break or leave fans wanting more.

During his visit to The Cavern earlier this year Sir Paul played a two-hour set that featured 27 songs - and now he’s gone and topped that.

Our reviewer, Laura Davis, attended the Echo Arena show last night and said “ it was hard to tell whether McCartney or the audience was enjoying it more.”

The man himself addressed Liverpool last night, saying: “We go all around the world and it’s great to be back home.

“I could spend the whole evening just chatting to you, but I won’t. We’ll play some music”.

Play some music they did - here’s every song on Macca’s Liverpool set list:

A Hard Day's Night

Junior's Farm

All My Loving

Letting Go

Who Cares

Got to Get You Into My Life

Come On to Me

Let Me Roll It

I've Got a Feeling

Let 'em In


Paul McCartney performed 40 songs at the Echo Arena last night (Image: Liverpool Echo)

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

Dance Tonight

Love Me Do

Blackbird

Here Today

Queenie Eye

Lady Madonna

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:

Birthday

I Saw Her Standing There

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

Wonderful Christmastime

Helter Skelter

Golden Slumbers


Carry That Weight

The End







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McCartney concert in Liverpool: voice falters, myth trembles
By webmaster
December 13, 2018



The Brexit and the Drama of Theresa May seem to be in Liverpool, at once very far away. In the Pubs there are two much more important issues, because it goes to the outlet deal with Brussels or the fate of the Prime Minister. The Crisis? The plays in London. The people on the Mersey, however, in one of the poorest regions of the UK, celebrate and are proud of, at least for a Moment. Can it be somewhere nice? It is a week to have been painted for this city: On Tuesday, the Liverpool FC enthusiasts in the sold-out stadium at Anfield. In a football Thriller Naples was defeated, and just in the the first knockout round of the Champions League done.

A night later, Liverpool’s loads of other legend to the next Party: Paul McCartney, probably the most famous living son of the city, in the also sold-out Echo Arena. 11.000 Fans of the now-76-year-old Ex-Beatle managed to secure a card, the presale was over in the summer after just a few minutes. Angry dam many of Liverpool’s values at the time, that in the case of intermediaries such as Viagogo and Ebay, the Tickets were offered for a short time after that for up to 600 pounds. Presumably, McCartney could have a week-long play, and the Arena would still have been sold out. “Welcome home, Paul,” greets it on metre-high billboards in the City.

The Beatlemania seems to be in Liverpool, never to stop, even if John Lennon and George Harrison, two members of the Fab Four are long dead, and the third, drummer Ringo Starr, was reportedly seen in town for years. In the City and the adjacent port, you can escape the Beatles. In almost every Pub, Restaurant or business of your Hits to run constantly. There are also, of course, a Beatles Museum and several times a day, the “Magical Mystery Tour”, a tour of the city with the Bus to the main places of the Liverpool Beatles history, stops at Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields included. The business with John, Paul, George and Ringo as a major tourism factor.

Faltering voice, and more

force To McCartney’s Homecoming Show, are Fans of Alabama, Kansas, New York, Australia, Japan, and allegedly also from Siberia arrived – so it is at least on the banners held in the crowd as Sir Paul comes along with his Band on the stage, the famous Höfner Bass guitar already around his neck. With “A Hard Day’s Night” is he the Fans on the night, and then it goes on for three full hours, without a break.

In the case of some Songs, including “I’ve Got A Feeling”, makes him and his voice especially in the higher elevations in the meantime, in the lurch, but that interferes in the hall anyone. How to compensate for the slight Weakening, he interprets many of the pieces much more powerful than in the Original. “Helter Skelter”, for example, wrote McCartney 50 years ago, because the Beatles wanted to prove that you can be louder than the emerging competition from the Who. This evening it is played even harder.

“Hey Jude”, “Let It Be” or “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-da” with singing, of course, almost everyone in the audience. A little offended McCartney complains that the Beatles classics all their phones, with the most recent Songs, such as the of his new Album, “Egypt Station”, however, hardly to be filmed and recorded.

Still, this home game gives him a lot of fun. And why not? It is a mood, like at a family party where the relatives and friends to see rather rare and sentimental reminisce. McCartney told on the stage like a couple of anecdotes from the beginning of time, when he met Lennon. Or how he drove a few months ago with the Comedian James Corden for the “Carpool Karaoke”-series by Liverpool – and how nice it was for him to have after years of his parents ‘ house in Forthlin Road where he grew up.

In the Video: “Carpool Karaoke” with Paul McCartney

after nearly 40 Songs, of course with the Beatles classic “The End”. As he passed, praise also McCartney Liverpool as the “Best City in the World”.





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Macca the master, back to where he still belongs: ADRIAN THRILLS reviews Paul McCartney's Liverpool homecoming
By ADRIAN THRILLS FOR THE DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 13 December 2018

As homecomings go, this was always going to be emotional. Returning to the city of his birth to launch the UK leg of his Freshen Up tour, Paul McCartney rolled back the years to deliver a masterclass.

There was a cheer as he walked onstage - fist-bumping the air and shrugging in mock surprise - and an even louder one to greet the iconic opening chord of A Hard Day's Night, the first song of the evening and a mighty way to kickstart any tour.

From there on, it was a matter of celebrating shared memories while appreciating a man who is still curating his legacy with respect and affection.


Paul McCartney rolled back the years to deliver a masterclass as he returned to Liverpool to launch his new UK tour

'We've got old songs, new songs and in-between songs,' he said. 'It's so great to be here and always great to be bringing it all home. I could spend the whole evening just chatting to you.'

Judging by the dozens of placards held aloft - 'Go Ed Macca', 'Hug 4 A Little Luck', 'Live And Let Sign' were just a few - and the sea of mobile phones being waved, the feeling was entirely mutual.

This wasn't the first time McCartney has been to Liverpool this year - he played two small club shows in the summer - but it was the first time since 2015 he had delivered a full, 38-song package with a surprisingly even spread of Fab Four, Wings and solo material. 

His Hofner bass slung low across his waist, he even snuck in a number, In Spite Of All The Danger, by his old pre-Beatles skiffle band The Quarrymen.

He is regarded differently here. In some cities, the mere presence of a former Beatle can leave a crowd awestruck. 

On Merseyside, he is one of their own, a singer to be relished rather than revered. 

He still played to the gallery, though, recalling his early days at The Cavern, mentioning Woolton church and joking that he was the unofficial head of the Liverpool tourist board.


it was the first time since 2015 he had delivered a full, 38-song package at a concert in Liverpool

Although fans had come primarily to hear the hits, McCartney, 76, was at pains to show that he isn't just a human jukebox by featuring some lesser-known Wings tunes, with a raucous Junior's Farm and Let Me Roll It bringing fans to their feet. 

With the exception of the ukulele ditty Dance Tonight - what John Lennon would have scathingly called 'Paul's granny music' - novelty songs were avoided.

Some surprises from his solo catalogue also featured, including tender piano ballad My Valentine from his 2012 jazz album Kisses On The Bottom. 

That was dedicated to his wife Nancy Shevell - 'This one's for you, Nance' - who was in the crowd.

There were numbers, too, from this year's Egypt Station, an album which took him to the top of the American charts for the first time in 36 years. 

Who Cares, an anti-bullying number party inspired by Taylor Swift's sisterly bond with her fans, arrived early on, with the singer telling fans: 'If anyone has been bullied, this song will let them know we care.' 

The lively Come On To Me, again from his new album, followed shortly afterwards, with McCartney recalling his summer trip back to his old Liverpool house as part of his Carpool Karaoke session with James Corden.

But it was the more familiar hits and classic album tracks which brought the most enthusiastic response. As he joked, the camera phones always come out for the big Beatles songs. Got To Get You Into My Life - 'we're going to have some fun here' - and Eleanor Rigby were rapturously received. 

For the Wings hit Let 'Em In, he discarded his black jacket- 'the night's only wardrobe change' - and took to the piano, where he remained for Maybe I'm Amazed, once more delving forcefully into his back pages for a rock ballad from his 1970 solo album. 

A solo, acoustic Blackbird led into a similarly touching Here Today, about an imaginary conversation with Lennon. 

Sung with minimal accompaniment, the two songs offered confirmation that Macca, at 76, remains in remarkably fine voice.

And, in giving all his loving to a bold mix of hits and equally-deserving, if lesser-known, gems, he showed just how much joy he still gets from playing them.