REVIEW : PAUL McCARTNEY IN SAN DIEGO (Jun 22 2019)

 





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AHORA EN SAN DIEGO, PAUL McCARTNEY ES ACLAMADO POR LA COMUNIDAD MEXICANA
Antonio Cerda Ardura
Beatlescopio
23 de junio

Paul McCartney volvió, éste sábado 22 de junio, a San Diego, California, para ofrecer un concierto, y de nuevo fue recibido con gran alegría y calidez por miles de mexicanos.
El ex beatle cantó, ante 42,000 asistentes, en el estadio de béisbol, Petco Park, operado por el equipo de los Padres, en el que presentó otro show de su gira internacional “Freshen Up”, iniciada en septiembre pasado en Canadá.
Tal como sucedió hace unos días en Arlington, Texas, la comunidad mexicana de San Diego literalmente se volcó a las calles para recibir al músico, que llegó a la ciudad en compañía de Rusty Anderson, Brian Ray, Paul “Wix” Wickens, Abe Laboriel, Jr. y los Hot City Horns, para cumplir con la audición número 31 de su recorrido.
La primera vez que McCartney cantó en San Diego, junto con los Beatles, fue el 28 de agosto de 1965, en el Estadio Balboa, tras la cancelación de un concierto programado en la Ciudad de México y un día después de la famosa visita del “Cuarteto de Liverpool” a la residencia de Elvis Presley en Beverly Hills en Los Angeles.
Después actuó con los Wings, el 16 de junio de 1976, en la San Diego Sports Arena, y el 28 de septiembre de 2014, con su actual banda, también en el Petco Park.
En el área cercana a San Diego, McCartney ofreció una audición, en un evento privado, el 22 de febrero de 2003, en Rancho Santa Fe.
Paul fue abrigado con mucha simpatía por su público y demostró, que a sus 77 años, sigue dominando el escenario con espectacularidad, a pesar de que mantiene el mismo repertorio que ha tocado durante por lo menos una década.
La próxima parada de la gira “Freshen Up” será, el 26 de junio, en la Talking Stick Resort Arena de Phoneix, Arizona.

Fotos: johngarruto, Akashi, San Diego Union Tribune, nadione1, dmitrymaranik, metal_fan_4_life, sllipson, petertellone, fagnerbernardo, courtvee15, justinkeiththomas.




Paul McCartney returned, this Saturday, June 22, to San Diego, California, to offer a concert, and was again received with great joy and warmth by thousands of Mexicans.
The former beatle sang, before 42,000 attendees, at the baseball stadium, Petco Park, operated by the Padres team, in which he presented another show of his international tour "Freshen Up", which began last September in Canada.
As happened a few days ago in Arlington, Texas, the Mexican community of San Diego literally took to the streets to receive the musician, who arrived in the city in the company of Rusty Anderson, Brian Ray, Paul "Wix" Wickens, Abe Laboriel , Jr. and the Hot City Horns, to fulfill the audition number 31 of its route.
The first time that McCartney sang in San Diego, along with the Beatles, was on August 28, 1965, at the Balboa Stadium, after the cancellation of a concert scheduled in Mexico City and one day after the famous visit of the " Liverpool Quartet "to the residence of Elvis Presley in Beverly Hills in Los Angeles.
Then he performed with the Wings, on June 16, 1976, at the San Diego Sports Arena, and on September 28, 2014, with his current band, also at Petco Park.
In the area near San Diego, McCartney auditioned, at a private event, on February 22, 2003, at Rancho Santa Fe.
Paul was warmly welcomed by his audience and showed that at 77, he continues to dominate the stage with spectacularity, despite maintaining the same repertoire he has played for at least a decade.
The next stop of the "Freshen Up" tour will be, on June 26, at the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoneix, Arizona.

PHOTOS: johngarruto, Akashi, San Diego Union Tribune, nadione1, dmitrymaranik, metal_fan_4_life, sllipson, petertellone, fagnerbernardo, courtvee15, justinkeiththomas.









www.sandiegouniontribune.com
Review: Paul McCartney transcends and defines time at marathon Petco Park concert
The veteran solo star and co-founder of The Beatles, who turned 77 on Tuesday, turned in a winning 38-song set Saturday night at Petco Park
By GEORGE VARGA
JUNE 23, 2019


Paul McCartney rocked Petco Park on Saturday night. (Photo by Nancee E. Lewis)

Good day sunshine!

Paul McCartney didn’t perform that classic 1966 song from The Beatles’ “Revolver” album at his sold-out Saturday concert at Petco Park — although he did include two other “Revolver” gems, “Eleanor Rigby” and “Got To Get You Into My Life.” (The full set list appears below.)

But the larger-than-life rock legend seemed to bring a welcome change in the weather, with the clouds that have shrouded San Diego for much of June (and nearly all of Friday) clearing Saturday afternoon. At 77-going-on-just-17, " the veteran solo star and co-founder of The Beatles proved to be a warm and illuminating force of nature for the more than 42,000 adoring fans in attendance.

He also seemed to almost simultaneously transcend and exemplify the passing of time at his first area performance since his 2014 Petco Park show, which was also sold-out and marked his first public appearance here since 1976.

“Good evening, San Diego,” McCartney said, after opening the concert with the rollicking “A Hard Day’s Night” and the rock-a-boogie chestnut “Junior’s Farm.”

“I’ve got a feeling we’re going to have a little bit of fun tonight. We’ve got some old songs, some new songs and some in-between songs. This (next) is definitely not a new song.”

With that, McCartney ripped into the 1964 Beatles’ hit “Can’t Buy Me Love,” which and his ace band delivered with enough rousing aplomb to almost suggest the song could have been written yesterday, not 55 years ago.

Paul McCartney in concert at Petco Park on Saturday night.   ((Photo by Nancee E. Lewis))

It’s a testament to how deep McCartney’s repertoire is — as a solo artist, with The Beatles and with his post-Beatles band, Wings — that no fewer than 19 of the songs he performed Saturday were different than at his 2014 Petco Park show.

Never mind the fact that, for most artists, 19 songs constitute an entire concert. Never mind that McCartney is older than all but two of the current U.S. Supreme Court justices. And never mind that he sang and played bass for nine songs that lasted nearly 40 minutes before sitting down at the piano for the first time Saturday.

“I saw The Beatles’ San Diego concert at Balboa Stadium in 1965 and they were only on stage for 35 minutes!” said Cathy Worthington, who noted that her daughter attended McCartney’s 2009 Coachella performance.

The first three songs Saturday, “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Junior’s Farm” and “Can’t Buy Me Love,” were all delivered with impressive vigor. So were the next six, two of which — “Who Cares” and the frisky “Come On To Me” — are from his chart-topping 2018 album, “Egypt Station.”

Prior to playing another song from that album, “Fuh You,” which was his 24th number of the night, McCartney shared some perspective with the wildly cheering crowd.

“We know what you like. We can tell,” he said.

“If we do an old Beatles’ song, the whole place lights up with your phones. It’s like a galaxy of stars. Then, if we play a new one, it looks like a black hole. We don’t care — we’re going to play them anyhow!” (The audience took the bait and Petco Park was illuminated by thousands of phones during “Fuh You.”)

To McCartney’s credit, the new songs were all rock-solid. Alas, the same cannot be said of the sound system, which was marred by a slap-back echo that bounced around much of Petco Park. The echo was evident even — and especially —during his spoken introduction of some songs.

This was both a shame and curious, since the echo seemed much less pronounced at his 2014 show at the same venue, which featured the same four-man band (who are being augmented on this tour by a punchy, three-piece brass section). Of course, stadiums are not designed with live music performances in mind, but for an artist of McCartney’s high standards, it would appear some sonic tweaks are in order.

Paul McCartney alternated between grand piano, bass, guitar and upright piano at his Saturday concert at Petco Park.(Photo by George Varga / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Saturday’s concert featured 38 songs over the course of 2 hours and 46 minutes. By comparison, McCartney’s 2014 Petco gig lasted 3 hours and featured 41 songs.

He was 72 then. He’s 77 now and as slim as ever, if not quite as boyish, as his more visibly gray head of hair attested. Likewise, McCartney’s voice is thinner, he has to work harder to hit certain notes and he sang in a lower register on some of his selections.

But, really, so what?

Playing 38 songs, with no intermission and with consistent verve and emotional commitment, is something virtually no other currently active veteran rock star not named Bruce Springsteen would attempt. And The Boss, let’s remember, is still a comparative young pup at just 69.

Moreover, hearing McCartney’s voicin periodically brought a greater sense of pathos to such tender ballads as the civil rights movement-inspired “Blackbird,” which he performed as a solo acoustic number on a mini-stage that rose 15 or so feet in the air.

That he sounded as weathered as the song only added to its enduring appeal and timeless message of compassion and endurance in the face of adversity.

Tellingly, when he and three of his band mates paraded on stage with four flags held aloft prior to the encores — just as they did at their 2014 Petco Park concert — an update had been instituted. Three of the flags were the same: the Stars and Stripes, Union Jack and the state flag of California. But the fourth, a skull and crossbones pirate flag in 2014, was replaced Saturday by a rainbow flag representing the LGBTQ community.

Whether playing bass, lead guitar, grand piano or upright piano (as he did on the Fats Domino-inspired “Lady Madonna”), McCartney sounded fully engaged. He may know most of these songs in his sleep, but there was nothing routine about his performance of them. And, like a veteran athlete, he knows how to pace himself to build momentum over an extended period.

Between some songs, including “Back in the U.S.S.R.” and his loving version of George Harrison’s “Something,” McCartney shared the same anecdotes about them that he did at his 2014 Petco Park concert. Happily, he embellished those anecdotes, adding a new detail here or an added aside there to bring them alive anew.

For good measure, McCartney successfully balanced his Hoffner electric bass guitar, upside down in the palm of his hand, at the conclusion of his third encore, the lacerating “Helter Skelter.” That ferocious 1968 cut by The Beatles rocked with more intensity, incidentally, than any song performed a week earlier at the Petco Park show by Foo Fighters, a much younger band whose admiration for the Fab Four is a matter of record.

Good day sunshine, indeed.

Paul McCartney Petco Park set list, June 22, 2019

1. A Hard Day’s Nigh
2. Junior’s Farm
3. Can’t Buy Me Love
4. Letting Go
5. Who Cares
6. Got to Get You Into My Life
7. Come On to Me
8. Let Me Roll It
9. I’ve Got a Feeling
10. Let ‘Em In
11. My Valentine
12. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
13. Maybe I’m Amazed
14. I’ve Just Seen A Face
15. In Spite of All the Danger
16. From Me to You
17. Dance Tonight
18. Love Me Do
19. Blackbird
20. Here Today
21. Queenie Eye
22. Lady Madonna
23. Eleanor Rigby
24. Fuh You
25. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
26. Something
27. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
28. Band on the Run
29. Back in the U.S.S.R.
30. Let It Be
31. Live and Let Die
32. Hey Jude

33. Birthday
34. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
35. Helter Skelter
36. Golden Slumbers
37. Carry That Weight
38. The End



GALLERY
Paul McCartney at Petco Park

The two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee, who turned 77 on Tuesday, brings his current Freshen Up concert tour to San Diego 

Paul McCartney in concert at Petco Park on Saturday night.  ((Photo by Nancee E. Lewis))































entertainmenttoday.net
McCartney Revisits San Diego
BRAD AUERBACH
Jun 23rd, 2019

Paul McCartney is arguably the most critic-proof artist touring these days. He has the deepest songbook in history, and his non-stop three hour concerts consistently leave fans satiated. He shows no signs of slowing down, weeks after starting his 78th year.



In his sold out San Diego show at Petco McCartney mined his songbook, which stretched from a pre-Beatles song through a couple tracks from his improbably strong Egypt Station album from September. Over the various times I have seen him previously (from the tiny record store gig to the Desert Trip biggest box office in history), McCartney has continued to deliver near-perfection in concert.

As folks found their seats, a DJ spun John Lennon’s Beatles songs, which I thought was a nice tribute. I was surprised when the DJ rig was removed from the stage and McCartney’s solo songs were piped through; it is rare to hear the performer’s music over the PA before the concert.

But the setlist was bulletproof. The one-two punch of the opening “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Junior’s Farm” was followed by “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “Letting Go.” McCartney spent the majority of the night on bass, but moved nimbly to piano and lead guitar. His band (which has been intact far longer than The Beatles’ six year recording career or Wings’ time together) is well-oiled. The more hirsute members are in the front line; guitarists Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray flank McCartney. Keyboardist Paul “Wix” Wickens and the jovial drummer Abe Laboriel, Jr. rounded out the band. A trio of horn players first appeared deep in the stands, and then popped up several times during the rest of the show (“Got To Get You Into My Life”) in their more traditional spot at the back of the stage.

Other great songs were “Let Me Roll It” and “I’ve Got a Feeling.” The latter was in The Beatles’ final set list, on the roof of their offices in Soho.

McCartney continues to pay tribute to his fallen comrades. The solo versions of “Something” (on ukulele) and “Here Today” were touching reflections on the unbelievable chemistry among Harrison, Lennon and McCartney.





Band on the Run” evoked the summer of 1974, when the song was happily ubiquitous on the radio. Similarly, “Live and Let Die” (perhaps the best thing from the James Bond film of the same name) was another radio staple. Onstage, McCartney uses that song to exceed KISS with pyrotechnics that nearly overpower the stage and extend to fireworks above the stage.

McCartney was the musician who whispered into the ear of a Warner Brothers Records executive, encouraging him to sign an American guitarist who was exploding on the scene in London in the late 60s. McCartney told the San Diego audience about The Beatles releasing their Sgt. Pepper album on a Friday, and by Sunday night Jimi Hendrix was interpreting it at a club in London. With Clapton, Townshend, McCartney, Lennon and others in the audience, everyone knew a new force of nature was emerging.



McCartney winds up his concert with the opus he wrote for the last third of Abbey Road, and it was a fitting way to close. The album was the last time the four Liverpudlians recorded together, and it caps the end of the most influential band in history.

McCartney was a pivotal component of that band, and he honors that legacy in concert among the myriad other songs he wrote thereafter.

It is doubtful anyone left the show feeling less than fulfilled. A splendid time was indeed guaranteed for all.

(photos by Brad Auerbach)






sdcitybeat.com
Shoulda Been There: Paul McCartney at Petco Park
McCartney satisfies sold-out crowd 54 years after Beatles’ only local appearance
by Seth Combs
June 26, 2019


Photos by Seth Combs

Ask anyone who covers the local music scene and they’ll tell you that sometimes San Diego blows it when it comes to hot, up-and-coming music acts. Here’s how it usually plays out: An act will come through town just after, or just before, playing a Los Angeles show. More often than not, that L.A. show will be sold out, which is generally not the case with the San Diego show. In fact, the San Diego show often ends up serving as an encore or warm-up to the L.A. appearance. This isn’t the band’s fault, but because San Diegans don’t show up. What’s worse, the band remembers and is much more likely to skip San Diego on its next tour.

So imagine being the biggest band in the world, selling out stadiums all over the U.S. and Europe, only to come to San Diego and not even selling two-thirds of the available tickets. Such was the case on Aug. 28, 1965, when The Beatles—fresh off a sold-out show in L.A.—came to San Diego to play at the old Balboa Stadium. Those lucky enough to have been there witnessed the band’s one and only appearance in San Diego.

Nearly 54 years later, Paul McCartney, looking as svelte and sounding nearly as crisp as he did in the ’60s, opened his sold-out show at Petco Park with “A Hard Day’s Night,” one of the same numbers The Beatles played in 1965. And with more than double the amount of people that showed up to that Beatles gig in 1965, it seems San Diegans have since learned their lesson. Well, at least some of those who were old enough to remember.

“I’ve got a feeling we’re going to have a little bit of fun tonight,” McCartney told the crowd just after the second song. “We got some old songs for you, we got some new ones, and we’ve got some in-betweeners. This one is definitely not a new one.”

With that, he launched into “Can’t Buy Me Love,” much to the delight—or maybe the chagrin—of the 50-something man with his 20-something girlfriend sitting behind me.  

“I’d definitely fuck him,” the woman said about McCartney, just after the song ended. The hilarity of such a statement was not lost on me, but I did find the couple to be representative of the overall crowd on this night. All around me were a mix of die-hard fans of all ages, some approaching McCartney’s age and some as young as their teens. When it came to the younger people in the audience, I got the sense that truly desired to be a part of what they were witnessing. That is, they loved the music just as much as their parents or grandparents.

“I’m here with my mom and it’s her birthday,” a young woman told me. “Her name is June and all I want is for him to play ‘Hey Jude.’”

Of course, McCartney did just that a few songs later, with the crowd of over 40,000 singing along to every word and every syllable. As if sensing the moment, he played “Birthday” right after “Hey Jude.” It really was a perfect moment.

Some other perfect moments: The horn section that magically appeared in the stands during a performance of the Wings hit, “Letting Go.” McCartney taking off his jacket after about the seventh song and declaring—cool as a cucumber and barely breaking a sweat—that it was going to be “the one and only wardrobe change of the whole night” before launching into a blistering rendition of Wings’ “Let Me Roll It.” While I later learned that he said the exact same thing during his 2014 Petco show, he made up for it with his stories in between songs; the ones about “old friends” such as Jimi Hendrix, George Harrison, Eric Clapton and, of course, John Lennon.

“If we do a Beatles’ song, the whole place lights up with your phones,” McCartney said just after the one-two punch of “Lady Madonna” and “Eleanor Rigby.” “It’s like a galaxy of stars. When we play a new one, it looks like a black hole. But we don’t care—we’re going to play them anyhow.”

It was charming to see the San Diego crowd light the place up with their phones (there were even—gasp—a few lighters) as he played one of those newer songs (thanks to George Varga’s excellent review of the concert, I now know that song is called “Fuh You”).

“OK, you fooled me with the lights,” McCartney chuckled after the song.

The two most beautiful moments of the night, however, came when McCartney played a solo rendition of “Blackbird,” explaining that the song was a statement of solidarity for the civil rights movement. A few songs later he broke out a vintage ukulele, a gift from George Harrison, and played a reverent version of Harrison’s “Something,” a song Frank Sinatra once called “the greatest love song ever written,” and the second-most covered song in The Beatles’ catalogue (after McCartney’s “Yesterday,” natch).

Alas, McCartney did not play “Yesterday,” a song I would have personally loved to hear, but he did nearly burn the place down with “Live and Let Die” (like, literally—there was a pyrotechnics display that approached Big Bay Boom levels). Ash from the fireworks fell on me like snow as I looked around at the faces around me. Nearly 54 years since the first time he came to San Diego, Paul McCartney had a sold-out crowd in the palm of his hand. And he didn't let them down.

Paul McCartney: 'I cried for a year when Linda died'

Ricky Ross Meets...Paul McCartney
Celebrating the photography and legacy of Linda McCartney and their shared love of Scotland. Plus some of Paul McCartney's songs that were inspired by his late wife and family.



www.bbc.com
Paul McCartney: 'I cried for a year when Linda died'
BBC NEWS
Jul 4 2019


A photograph of Linda McCartney taken by Eric Clapton in 1967

Sir Paul McCartney bought his farm in Kintyre before he met Linda but it was her love of its "wildness and freedom" that created so many happy memories.

The former Beatle says the west of Scotland peninsula was one of their favourite places in the world and photographs from their time on High Park Farm form part of a new retrospective of Linda's work, being shown at Glasgow's Kelvingrove art gallery.

The pictures of rural Scottish life sit alongside photos of music legends such as Jimi Hendrix and Aretha Franklin which Linda took before the couple settled into their newfound home.

A 1970 snap of Mary, Paul and Heather in Scotland

Sir Paul, now 77, told BBC Radio Scotland's Ricky Ross Meets programme his late wife was a trailblazing photographer before the pair got together and raised a family.

In 1968 her portrait of Eric Clapton featured as the cover of Rolling Stone magazine and she was the first female photographer to do so.

But following her marriage to Sir Paul in 1969, her photographs became more intimate and emotional, exploring the natural world and family life.

Many of them were taken near the farm and its 200 acres of land close to Campbeltown, which Sir Paul bought at the height of Beatlemania in 1966, on the advice of financial advisors.

The Beatles at Abbey Road in 1969

He says he knew little about Scotland but fellow Beatle John Lennon had relatives there and would "talk about it in very fond terms".

"I think my attraction to it came through him talking about it originally," he says.

"When I met Linda and we were becoming a couple she said 'haven't you got a place up in Scotland?'."

"We went up and she totally fell in love with it. She loved the wildness and she loved horse riding and animals generally."

Aretha Franklin modelling for Mademoiselle

Linda, who was born in New York State in 1941, photographed the Manhattan music scene of the 1960s as well as later getting to know British bands such as The Rolling Stones and The Beatles.

Sir Paul says: "When she came over to Britain and we got married, life was more domestic."

In Kintyre she would photograph "old biddies and bonnie babies in prams", he says.

"She always put people at ease. She had a way of disarming you."

Sir Paul says the big attraction of getting away to Kintyre was "freedom", for them and later for their four children, who spent lots of time roaming about the countryside.

The joy of the "mist rolling in from the sea" would inspire his 1977 hit Mull of Kintyre, which sold two million copies.

Linda McCartney's self portrait in Sussex, 1992

He says Linda's upbringing had been quite strict and she wanted to be able to indulge her passions such as a love of animals which would later lead her to be a pioneer of the vegetarian movement.

"When she came to Britain and we got to together the greatest thing about it was we both wanted to be free," Sir Paul says.

"We did what we wanted and she took pictures of it all."

The exhibition at Glasgow's Kelvingrove museum and art gallery runs from Friday until January next year.

It has been put together by Linda's daughter Mary McCartney, who is also a professional photographer, and Sarah Brown, who looks after her archive.

As well as photographs, the exhibition includes one of Linda's diaries from the 1960s and her cameras, photographic equipment and vintage magazines.

Sir Paul says Linda, who died of breast cancer 21 years ago, had exhibitions during her lifetime but would have loved the idea of a retrospective of all her work.

Lucky Spot in Daisy Field - Sussex, 1985

Linda was just 56 when she died in 1998.

Sir Paul's own mother Mary died at the age of 47, when he was just 14.

"Both my mum and Linda died of breast cancer," he says.

"We had no idea what my mum had died of because no-one talked about it. She just died.

"The worse thing about that was everyone was very stoic, everyone kept a stiff upper lip and then one evening you'd hear my dad crying in the next room.

"It was tragic because we'd never heard him cry. It was a quiet private kind of grief."

The Beatles at Brian Epstein’s home in Belgravia at the launch of Sgt Pepper’s in 1967

Sir Paul says his own grief for Linda was much more open.

"I think I cried for about a year on and off," he says.

"You expect to see them walk in, this person you love, because you are so used to them.

"I cried a lot. It was almost embarrassing except it seemed the only thing to do."

The Linda McCartney Retrospective opens at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow on Friday and runs until 12 January 2020. Tickets cost £7 for adults.

Laurence Juber Recalls Wings' Rough-and-Tumble Final Album, 'Back to the Egg'

www.guitarworld.com
Paul McCartney Rocks: Laurence Juber Recalls Wings' Rough-and-Tumble Final Album, 'Back to the Egg'
By Damian Fanelli and Mark McStea
Jul 03 2019

In 1979, the man who wrote "Silly Love Songs" decided to break out the rock and roll (and a few love songs).


Wings guitarist Laurence Juber performs with Paul and Linda McCartney in December 1979
(Image credit: Pete Still/Redferns/Getty Images)

Forty years ago, Paul McCartney released one of the heaviest, hardest-rocking albums of his career, 1979's Back to the Egg. Please note that we're not talking about "heavy" as in Motörhead, Judas Priest or Van Halen, all of whom also released albums in '79. We're talkin' heavy as defined by the guy who wrote "The Fool on the Hill," "My Love," "You Gave Me the Answer" and "Warm and Beautiful."

Of course, McCartney also wrote "Helter Skelter," "The End," "Hi, Hi, Hi" and "Soily" — and Back to the Egg relies heavily on that side of his personality. 

Album tracks "Old Siam, Sir," "To You" and "So Glad to See You Here" set the disc's tight, overdriven tone, making it obvious that McCartney had been listening to some punk and new wave. The singles "Getting Closer" and "Arrow Through Me" got some decent FM airplay, and "Rockestra Theme" — a thunderous instrumental featuring John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Pete Townshend and David Gilmour (check out the video at the bottom of this story) — earned McCartney a Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental Performance.

But "Spin It On," an unassuming little tune that clocks in at 2:13, is one of the album's hidden gems. It features some superlative playing by Wings' two newest members, drummer Steve Holley and guitarist Laurence Juber, who's now considered an acoustic fingerstyle master (probably because he is). In fact, the song's way-too-brief guitar solo represents Juber's shreddingest (new word!) moment as a member of Wings. Sure, the album does include a few "soft" tunes, including "Baby's Request," "We're Open Tonight" and the "Winter Rose"/"Love Awake" medley, but Back to the Egg still makes 1978's London Townsound like, well, soft rock.

Although Back to the Egg cracked Billboard's Top 10 in 1979, it took a beating from critics. Big-shot reviewer Robert Christgau gave it a "C," and Allmusic won't budge on its two-star rating. It's all a bit incongruous, really, since many serious McCartney fans (including GW editor Damian Fanelli) consider it their favorite Macca album. 

When Wings traveled to Tokyo for a quick Japanese tour in January 1980, McCartney got busted at the airport for possession of marijuana and even spent a few nights in jail. The incident is usually connected to the demise of Wings. McCartney's next album, 1980's McCartney II, was released under his own name — and it's been that way ever since.

This spring, while chatting to Juber about his new album, Touchstones: The Evolution of Fingerstyle Guitar, we took a few minutes to ask him about Back to the Egg. You can read the quick Q&A below.

Back to the Egg is probably the hardest-rocking Wings album. Was that McCartney's goal, or did he pretty much let you do what you wanted to do?

It was a combination of a number of factors. He’d been writing stuff that had more of an edge to it, and coming off the London Town album, which was kind of soft, there was a punk edge in the air. Producer Chris Thomas had done the Sex Pistols and was on the way to doing the Pretenders.

How did the band's new lineup affect the songwriting or recording process?

Steve Holley was the first full-time Wings drummer who was English — a big backbeat drummer. That changed the texture somewhat. Also, McCartney had signed with Columbia in America and the push was to do a more rock-oriented record. “Spin It On” and “To You” were the first batch of songs, and that gave it a kind of kick, a garage-band drive.

What are your memories of recording that album, and what do you think of it 40 years later?

I do still listen to it and it always surprises me, as I always think it still sounds fresh. It’s very polished and produced, but it has a real drive to it. Recording in McCartney’s barn definitely added a raw flavor. There's something basic about it. I think it’s aged quite well. Things like “Arrow Through Me” that were kind of quirky proved to be enduring.

Whenever you read something about Back to the Egg, the words "fan favorite" usually pop up somewhere in the story.

Back to the Egg definitely has a fan base, particularly in the States — and it wasn’t a singles-driven album, either.

For more 1979 flashbacks, check out the August, September and October 2019 issues of Guitar World.

Exhibition displays the many sides of Linda McCartney

The Linda McCartney Retrospective opens at Kelvingrove on 5 July 2019. This will be the very first time the exhibition has been shown in the UK.



www.express.co.uk
Exhibition displays the many sides of Linda
THE Scotswoman entrusted to sort through Linda McCartney’s personal photographs and diaries has told how she was inspired by the creative legacy of the renowned animal rights campaigner.
By PAUL ENGLISH
PUBLISHED:  Sun, Jun 30, 2019


BEAUTY... Horse Lucky Spot photographed in a daisy field in 1985 (Image: Linda McCartney)

An exhibition of the late American’s work opens at Glasgow’s Kelvingrove Museum this week as part of a UK-wide tour. Linda married Sir Paul McCartney in 1969 and they remained together until her death from breast cancer in 1998. They remain one of pop’s most iconic couples whose legacy in music and arts remains as strong now as it ever was. Now, East Lothian photography expert Sarah Brown has been tasked with setting out Linda’s lifelong career behind the lens for the fantastic exhibition.

She worked with Sir Paul and his daughters, Stella and Mary, to select work for the international event.


This stunning photograph of Stella McCartney was taken by her mother in Amsterdam, 1989.

The 28-year old oversaw the first public display of intimate photographs of the McCartneys on their Mull of Kintyre farm, describing Linda’s inspirational legacy as a “multifaceted 20th century woman”.

Ms Brown said: “It is truly an incredible experience and every day I learn something new about the breadth of Linda’s brilliant work.

“For the exhibition coming to Glasgow, we decided we wanted to do something new and chose to include some of Linda’s cameras, diaries and other memorabilia.


Paul McCartney snapped Linda with her dog in 1976 (Image: Linda McCartney)


Paul with Mary and Heather in 1970 (Image: Linda McCartney)

“I always love my meetings with Paul, Mary and Stella as it is so insightful looking at Linda’s work and photo equipment. I always learn something new about her photographic practice or I’ll learn about the story behind the image.”

Ms Brown, who studied history of art at the University of St Andrews, has worked with style bible Vogue and for Lord Snowdon.

She said: “The experience has given me a great appreciation about who she was a photographer, vegetarian food pioneer and overall a multifaceted woman working in the 20th century.”

The Linda McCartney Retrospective is open from Friday, July 5, until Sunday, January 12 next year.






www.glasgowlife.org.uk
Linda McCartney Retrospective

A major retrospective photographic exhibition, which is curated by Paul, Mary and Stella McCartney and features iconic names and moments in music from the 1960s along with more intimate and emotional later work by this acclaimed and prolific photographer.

The retrospective features a wealth of ephemera and archive material, which is being shown in public for the first time. This will include one of Linda’s diaries from the 1960s, bringing new insight into the contemporary music scene of the era and the beginnings of her photographic career.

Cameras used by Linda and held in her archive will also be displayed along with photographic equipment and vintage magazines that have been uncovered from her expansive archive. Polaroids and contact sheets will also be part of the exhibition which explore her creativity and use of the different photographic techniques.

The Retrospective will feature a section dedicated to the photographs Linda took in Scotland alongside the themes of family life, self portraits, nature and social commentary.

Book tickets

£7/£5

All ages

0141 353 8000

Dates and times

5th Jul 2019 - 12th Jan 2020

10:00AM - 5:00PM

www.theguardian.com
Paul McCartney on Linda’s best photos: ‘Seeing the joy between me and John really helped me’
Linda Eastman was the award-winning photographer who captured a generation of rock stars before marrying a Beatle. He discusses how her work changed his life
Alexis Petridis
Last modified on Thu 27 Jun 2019


‘This picture is a blessing for me.’ Photograph: Linda McCartney/© Paul McCartney

‘I always used to joke that I ruined Linda’s career,” says Paul McCartney, sitting on a sofa in his office in Soho, London, with a selection of his late wife’s photographs spread on the table before him. “She became known as ‘Paul’s wife’, instead of the focus being on her photography. But, as time went on, people started to realise that she was the real thing. So, yeah, she eventually did get the correct reputation, but at first it was just blown out of the water by the headline-grabbing marriage.”


Photograph: Linda McCartney/PA

He has a point. Before she met and married him, in March 1969, Linda Eastman was an award-winning photographer. Born in 1941 and raised in a suburb of New York, she had studied under Hazel Archer – who taught the artist Robert Rauschenberg, among others – and was the first woman to shoot a Rolling Stone cover, featuring Eric Clapton. Her speciality was capturing pop stars in unguarded moments: a tearful Aretha Franklin; Jimi Hendrix mid-yawn; Janis Joplin backstage, her bottle of Southern Comfort already drained. But marriage to a Beatle tended to overshadow your own work and reputation, as Yoko Ono discovered.

It wasn’t until years later that her talent was reappraised: 1976’s unassumingly titled book Linda’s Pictures was the first in a series of collections of her work. If anything, her reputation has grown since her death in 1998 – The Linda McCartney Retrospective, at Kelvingrove Art Gallery in Glasgow, is just the latest global exhibition of her work. It was curated by McCartney, along with their daughters, Mary and Stella; here, he picks six of his favourite photographs. “As you can probably tell,” he says, after an exhaustive account of one of the McCartneys’ family holidays in Orkney in the early 70s, “I like talking about this stuff.”

BB King, 1968

‘She was a great believer in the happy accident.’ Photograph: Linda McCartney/© Paul McCartney

“This was taken before I got to know her. Linda was the resident photographer at the [music venue] Fillmore East in New York. She would go to the Fillmore, or other events, and there would be other photographers there, who would say to her: ‘Who’s this? Who’s this guy playing?’ and she would know. She loved the music so much, she listened to it all the time, so she just knew: this is the Grateful Dead, this is BB King, this is Buddy Guy, this is Janis Joplin, you know? That always comes to mind when I see this picture; I imagine her crouched down, by the stage, taking photos of BB King.

“She was a great believer in the happy accident. Where other people might have said: ‘Well, this is blurred, we can’t use this one, we’ll go and look for the sharper photographs,’ she went with it. I love this picture – his guitar looks like an instrument from the future, a space-age thing. It just looks to me like his music sounds: exciting blues. A friend of ours, Brian Clarke, made a stained-glass window of this image, which is fabulous: I’ve got it in my studio.”

The Beatles, 1967

‘Linda could instinctively feel a moment happening.’ Photograph: Linda McCartney/© Paul McCartney

“This is the press launch for Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, at Brian Epstein’s house in Belgravia – 24 Chapel Street [in London]. We were lining up for various photographers and Linda was one of them. I think it was the second time I’d met her. She’d come to England to do the photos for a book, Rock And Other Four-Letter Words, by a writer called J Marks. She photographed the Animals, the Yardbirds, a lot of British acts for the book, and she was invited along to this.

“One of the great things about Linda was she knew when to click. The photographers she admired were people who got those off-the-cuff moments – Walker Evans, [Henri] Cartier-Bresson, [Jacques Henri] Lartigue – where what they’re doing is a form of reportage that actually moved into art. If you think about the famous Cartier-Bresson photo of the guy jumping over a puddle [Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare, 1932] – it’s all about capturing that split-second. Linda could instinctively feel a moment happening. That’s what’s happened here. John and I have gone [posh voice]: ‘Hello, old chap, how are you?’ ‘Nice to meet you, jolly good!’ You’ve got John being funny, me in stitches at him and George and Ringo both loving it. It shows the relationship between us all.

“Linda put you at your ease. Some photographers, you’re very aware that you’re having a picture taken. But she had such a relaxed attitude that she’d get a picture of Jimi Hendrix, but he’d be yawning in it. He felt comfortable enough to yawn, she felt confident enough to take a picture of him yawning, knowing he wouldn’t mind.”

John and Paul, 1968

 ‘It reminds me that the idea we weren’t friends is rubbish.’ Photograph: Linda McCartney/© Paul McCartney

“This is me and John, in Abbey Road. It wasn’t too long before the breakup of the Beatles; this would be the end of our relationship and, at the end, when the breakup happened, it was kind of sour – very difficult to deal with. The rumour started going around that John and I didn’t get on well, we were arch-rivals, that it was very heavy and ugly. The strange thing is you sometimes get to believe something, if it’s said enough times. So I used to think: ‘Yeah, it’s a pity, you know, we didn’t get on that well.’

“So this picture is a blessing for me. It’s like, this is how we were: this is why we related, or else we couldn’t have collaborated for all that time. It sums up what our relationship was like the minute we were actually working on a song, and most of the time we were together, really. I’m just writing something out – possibly it’s a medley or something; it might be for Abbey Road – and it’s lovely, because John is very happily in on the process, and agreeing with me, and we’re laughing about something. Just seeing the joy between us here really helped me, because it reminds me that the idea we weren’t friends is rubbish. We were lifelong friends, our relationship was super-special.

“That applied to all the Beatles, even when we were pissed off with each other from time to time. People used to remind me: that’s families, that happens. Mates disagree. As soon as we started working on music, we gelled, we just enjoyed the noise we made together, we enjoyed playing with each other. We’d worked together for over 10,000 hours over the years, and that old spirit automatically kicked in. Any disputes were got over very quickly.”

My Love, 1978

 ‘Until I met Linda, I panicked when I got lost.’ Photograph: Linda McCartney/© Paul McCartney

“This was taken in London in 1978. I love it because it’s a historic piece, because the cars and everything date it, but it’s also a really good portrait of me.

“Technically, I still don’t get this one, because there’s me in the rear-view mirror and I’m in focus, but the houses are in focus and the bus is in focus as well. So I don’t get how that worked. It’s not a montage, it’s a straight photo. And the other thing is that I’m driving, and I think Linda is taking the picture with one of our babies on her lap – if you look, there’s a very faint reflection in the windscreen. Talk about multi-tasking.

“One of the things about Linda, when you talk about how people seem at ease in her photos, is that it was her lifestyle. We’d say: ‘Let’s go out of London,’ so I’d just drive, we’d get out of London and I’d say: ‘Where do you want to go?’ She’d say: ‘Just anywhere.’ After a while, you’d end up in areas you didn’t know, going: ‘Ooh, I’m getting a bit lost here,’ and she’d say: ‘Great.’ You were in places you’d never been, you were seeing things you hadn’t intended to see, all of which was rich stuff for her photography. I remember I wrote the song Two of Us about that – ‘Two of us riding nowhere / Spending someone’s hard-earned pay.’ That was one of those excursions, when we were first going out together, this great idea of getting lost. Until I met Linda, I panicked when I got lost, you know?”

Mother and child, 1969

‘There’s something fascinating about this moment.’ Photograph: Linda McCartney/© Paul McCartney

“Linda took a lot of pictures of ordinary people that to her seemed extraordinary. This was when we were in Greece on holiday. We wouldn’t go to the big places; we’d just go to a little beach. That was very much my relationship with Linda. She’d had a reasonably strict upbringing, what with her father being a lawyer, but then she’d started to smell freedom when she went to university in Arizona. She loved riding, she had a horse out there that her friend’s parents let her ride … it was the dangerous seeds of freedom. And when she met me, I’d been like a robot, having to go on tour, make a record, go on tour, do this – and I’d had it up to here. So we started to have a life where we didn’t have any plans. We’d go to Greece, book a hotel and just bum around. That feeling, that sniffing freedom, it went all the way through her photography and my music [on 1970’s McCartney and 1971’s Ram].

“One day, we were just on the beach, having a swim, but she’s seen this mother and child, and it’s an interesting moment, so she’s just grabbed her camera and snapped it. She wouldn’t have used a whole reel on it; it could even be the only shot. Because she’d had to do things quickly, she’d just worked on the hoof, without an assistant. She didn’t use light meters often – she guessed – so she just went out with a pocket stuffed with film, camera around her neck and that would be it. There’s something fascinating about this moment she’s caught, the way the kid is looking into the camera eerily, the mum with this incredible bathing hat on. I could look at it for hours.”

Paul, 1968

 ‘It was a joyous little moment before we went our separate ways.’ Photograph: Linda McCartney/© Paul McCartney

“This was at the airport in Los Angeles. I had to do something record-related – I think it was a convention that Capitol, our American record label, were having – and she happened to be in LA, so she could hang out with me. She’d turn up at the hotel and we’d say: ‘Oh, what are we going to do today? Shall we do something? Well, let’s just stay in,’ and we’d just do nothing, basically. We loved that freedom. It was an important thing in a relationship, that neither of us minded doing nothing much.

“So this is us parting after our little trip. I was going back to England and she was catching another flight, going back to New York: I think I was there with a guy called Magic Alex [Mardas, the Beatles’ notorious “electronics wizard”, whose various schemes reputedly cost the band about £5m in today’s money without yielding any results]. While we were waiting, she would just have her camera there, lift it up, click, get the shot, put it down again. So I’m goofing; I’ve pulled my jacket up and sort of masked my face. I’m going back to England, back to the Beatles, and I’m hiding: ‘No photos please!’ It was just a joyous little moment before we went our separate ways. But, you know, luckily, we hooked up again and, er … made a go of it!”


The Linda McCartney Retrospective is at Kelvingrove Art Gallery, Glasgow, from 5 July to 12 January 2020