Tour by Paul McCartney | |
Start date | 28 April 2022 |
---|---|
End date | 16 December 2023 |
Legs | 5 |
No. of shows | 35 |
Website | paulmccartneygotback |
Paul McCartney concert chronology |
Got Back was a concert tour by English musician Paul McCartney, that started on 28 April 2022 and ended on 16 December 2023. [1] The tour is McCartney's first following the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in the cancellation of a planned European leg of his Freshen Up tour in 2020, [2] which included a planned performance at Glastonbury Festival. [3] McCartney performed at Glastonbury on 25 June 2022, as a conclusion to the first leg of the Got Back tour. [4]
The setlist for Got Back, as with McCartney's other concert tours as a solo artist, includes songs by his former bands the Beatles and Wings, as well as songs from his solo career. In addition to McCartney, the tour band includes Rusty Anderson on guitar, Brian Ray on guitar and bass, Paul "Wix" Wickens on keyboards, and Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums, along with the brass trio Hot City Horns. Originally planned for fourteen stops on the tour, a second date in both Oakland, California, and Boston were later added, [5] [6] for a total of sixteen concerts across the United States. On July 31, 2023, McCartney announced he would resume the Got Back tour, beginning with seven shows in Australia, followed by a Latin American leg.
The Got Back tour is McCartney's first series of live shows since 2019. [7] The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the cancellation of the final European leg of his previous tour in 2020, [2] which included a planned performance at Glastonbury Festival as the final show. [3] During the pandemic in 2020, McCartney recorded and released his 18th solo album, McCartney III . [2] In 2021, the three-part documentary series The Beatles: Get Back , directed and produced by Peter Jackson, was released on Disney+. The series covers the making of the album Let It Be by McCartney's former band the Beatles, utilizing footage and audio captured for a 1970 documentary film of the same name.
The dates for the Got Back tour were announced on 18 February 2022. [7] [8] The tour was originally planned to have fourteen stops. On 25 February 2022, it was announced that a second concert would be held at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, on 8 June, in addition to the already-announced concert on 7 June. [5] On 11 March, it was then announced that the concert planned for 6 May at Oakland Arena in Oakland, California, would be followed by a second concert in the same venue on 8 May (Mother's Day), [6] bringing the total number of planned stops on the tour to sixteen.
Following the conclusion of the North American leg of the tour, McCartney headlined at the Glastonbury Festival on 25 June, in a 160-minute set, with special guests Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen. [9] [10]
The setlist for the Got Back tour consists of over 30 songs, including songs by the Beatles and Wings, as well as songs from McCartney's solo career. Each concert runs for around 2 hours and 40 minutes. [11] [12] [13] The pre-show featured a scrolling video slide show of images of McCartney and the Beatles, [14] culminating in an animated image of McCartney's Höfner bass. [15]
The sixth song on the setlist is Wings' "Let Me Roll It", which segues into a snippet of "Foxy Lady" as a tribute to Jimi Hendrix. [12] [16] The ninth song on the setlist is "My Valentine", a song from McCartney's solo career, accompanied by a video of Natalie Portman and Johnny Depp gesturing in sign language. [12] The 16th song on the setlist, the Beatles' "Blackbird", features McCartney singing while playing acoustic guitar, elevated about six metres (20 feet) in the air, in front of a large LED display. [16] [12] "Blackbird" is followed by another acoustic performance, "Here Today", a song which McCartney wrote about his former Beatles bandmate John Lennon after Lennon's murder in 1980. [17] [18] The 22nd song on the setlist, the George Harrison-penned "Something", begins with McCartney playing a ukulele which Harrison gave to him. [16] The 28th song on the setlist, Wings' "Live and Let Die", involves the use of pyrotechnics, including flames and fireworks. [12]
The Spokesman-Review and The Dallas Morning News noted the absence of the Beatles song "Back in the U.S.S.R.", a usual staple of McCartney's live concerts, from the setlist, [19] [20] in light of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. [20] Immediately preceding the encore at each stop on the tour, McCartney and his fellow band members left the stage and each returned with a flag: the flag of the United Kingdom, the flag of the country they were performing in, an LGBT pride flag, and, in 2022, the flag of Ukraine, [20] as well as the state flag of whichever US state the concert took place in (for example, the flag of Texas at the show in Fort Worth, Texas, [20] and the flag of Florida at the show in Hollywood, Florida [21] ).
The encore of the show is composed of the Beatles songs "I've Got a Feeling", "Birthday", "Helter Skelter", and "Golden Slumbers" / "Carry That Weight" / "The End". "I've Got a Feeling" was originally written and sung by McCartney and John Lennon and included on the Let It Be album. The performances of this song during the tour included a "video duet" between McCartney and Lennon, using footage restored for the Get Back documentary of Lennon performing the song with the Beatles during their 1969 rooftop concert. [22] Jackson had isolated the vocals of Lennon after conceiving the idea of having Lennon "sing" along with McCartney and his live band; he told McCartney, "We can extract John's voice, and he can sing with you," to which McCartney replied, "Oh, yeah!" [2]
On the final stop of the North American leg of the tour, on 16 June at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, McCartney was joined on stage during the concert by New Jersey-born musicians Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi. [23] [24] Springsteen, with McCartney and McCartney's band, performed the Springsteen song "Glory Days", as well as the Beatles' "I Wanna Be Your Man". [23] [24] During the show's encore, Bon Jovi appeared on stage with balloons and sang "Happy Birthday" to McCartney, who turned 80 years old on 18 June. [23] [24] Springsteen returned during the final song, "The End", playing guitar. [23] [24]
Reviewing the 13 May concert held at Inglewood, California's SoFi Stadium, Chris Willman of Variety commended McCartney's singing voice and made note of the show's structure: "a rocking opening stretch highly reliant on '70s rockers [...] a partially acoustic, 'Storytellers'-like magical history tour of the Beatles' rise as the backbone of Act 2, [...] and then, letting the third hour be birthday songs, na-na-na-na-na-na-na-ing and Abbey Road medley-izing. That structure indisputably works, and so, as part of a winning formula, does a band that has now been together for many more years than the Beatles ever were". [15]
The Charlotte Observer 's Théoden Janes, reviewing the 21 May concert at Truist Field at Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, praised the show, calling the setlist "thoughtfully curated" and writing that "the entire night was one big nonstop highlight". [12] However, Janes suggested that the production "skip the music video that plays during 'My Valentine,'" stating, "We want to think about someone we love during that song. Not about Depp and Amber Heard"; they also criticized the heavy traffic around the stadium and the management of it by stadium officials and local police. [12]
Grant Albert of the Miami New Times , in a review of the 25 May concert held at Hollywood, Florida's Hard Rock Live, wrote that McCartney "can't hit the high notes like he used to. Still, his 60-plus year discography, showmanship, and influence didn't stop the nearly 7,000 attendees from enjoying the rock polymath perform"; he added, "McCartney injected loads of humor, visuals, lasers, and a genuine intention to put on a good show". [21]
Reviewing the 7 June concert at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, Marc Hirsch of the Boston Herald noted "some small noticeable vulnerabilities from age" in McCartney's singing voice, "But it otherwise maintained its essential McCartneyness". [13] Hirsh also wrote, "Eleven days shy of turning 80, he was spry and up for the endurance challenge of playing upward of 30 songs over the course of two hours and 40 minutes at the first of two sold-out shows." [13]
Rusty Anderson (Backing vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar) | Paul McCartney (Lead vocals, bass, acoustic guitar, piano, electric guitar, ukulele, mandolin) | Brian Ray (Backing vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass, electric sitar) | ||
Paul "Wix" Wickens (Backing vocals, keyboards, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bongos, percussion, harmonica, accordion) | Abe Laboriel Jr. (Backing vocals, drums, percussion) |
"The Long and Winding Road" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1970 album Let It Be. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. When issued as a single in May 1970, a month after the Beatles' break-up, it became the group's 20th and last number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States.
"Back in the U.S.S.R." is a song by the English rock band the Beatles and the first track of the 1968 double album The Beatles. Written by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership, the song is a parody of Chuck Berry's "Back in the U.S.A." and the Beach Boys' "California Girls". The lyrics subvert Berry's patriotic sentiments about the United States, as the narrator expresses relief upon returning home to the Soviet Union, formally the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
"I've Got a Feeling" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1970 album Let It Be. It was recorded on 30 January 1969 during the Beatles' rooftop concert. It is a combination of two unfinished songs: Paul McCartney's "I've Got a Feeling" and John Lennon's "Everybody Had a Hard Year". The song features Billy Preston on electric piano.
Paul Is Live is a live album by Paul McCartney, released in 1993 during his New World Tour in support of his studio album Off the Ground, released that same year. Paul Is Live contains live recordings of McCartney and his touring band—which at the time included his then-wife Linda and guitarist Robbie McIntosh—performing songs by McCartney's former bands The Beatles and Wings, as well as songs from his solo career. The tracks included on the album were recorded at various concerts during his New World Tour, in several American cities and in Australia.
Back in the U.S. is a double live album by Paul McCartney from his spring 2002 Driving USA Tour in the US in support of his 2001 release Driving Rain. It was released with an accompanying DVD to commemorate his first set of concerts in almost ten years.
"I Wanna Be Your Man" is a Lennon–McCartney-penned song first recorded and released as a single by the Rolling Stones, and then recorded by the Beatles for their second studio album With the Beatles. The song was primarily written by Paul McCartney, and finished by Lennon and McCartney in the corner of a Richmond, London club while Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were talking.
"Don't Let Me Down" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, recorded in 1969 during the Let It Be sessions. It was written by John Lennon and credited to the Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership. The band recorded the song with keyboardist Billy Preston; the single release with "Get Back" was credited to "the Beatles with Billy Preston". Originally released as a B-side, producer Phil Spector excluded the song from Let It Be. The song's first appearance on an album was on the 1970 collection Hey Jude.
Let It Be is a 1970 British documentary film starring the Beatles and directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. The film documents the group's rehearsing and recording songs in January 1969 for what was to become their twelfth and final studio album Let It Be. The film includes an unannounced rooftop concert by the group, the last public performance of the four together.
The Wings Over the World tour was a series of concerts in 1975 and 1976 by the British–American rock band Wings performed in Britain, Australia, Europe, the United States and Canada. The North American leg constituted band leader Paul McCartney's first live performances there since the Beatles' final tour, in 1966, and the only time Wings would perform live in the US and Canada. The world tour was well-attended and critically acclaimed, and resulted in a triple live album, Wings over America, which Capitol Records released in December 1976. In addition, the tour was documented in the television film Wings Over the World (1979) and a cinema release, Rockshow (1980).
In 1993, Paul McCartney and his band embarked upon The New World Tour, spanning almost the entire year and almost the entire globe. This tour featured a controversial pre-concert film, which was shown before all of the concerts and had graphic animal test footage in the film. The tour incorporated painted stage sets, projections, and promotional material designed by a regular McCartney collaborator, the artist Brian Clarke.
Sir James Paul McCartney is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One of the most successful composers and performers of all time, McCartney is known for his melodic approach to bass-playing, versatile and wide tenor vocal range, and musical eclecticism, exploring genres ranging from pre–rock and roll pop to classical, ballads, and electronica. His songwriting partnership with Lennon is the most successful in modern music history.
"Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five" is a song by the British–American rock band Paul McCartney and Wings, released as the final track on their 1973 album Band on the Run. It has been featured on the 2001 documentary DVD Wingspan and Paul McCartney and Wings' 1974 TV special One Hand Clapping. A 2016 remix of the song was nominated for a Grammy Award. The song was referenced in Brett Easton Ellis’s novel Glamorama, driving a group of fictional supermodels to extreme terrorist acts.
The Paul McCartney World Tour was a worldwide concert tour by Paul McCartney, notable for being McCartney's first tour under his own name, and for the monumental painted stage sets by artist Brian Clarke. The 103-gig tour, which ran from 1989 through 1990, included a concert played to what was then the largest stadium crowd in the history of rock and roll.
The Up and Coming Tour was a concert tour by Paul McCartney. The tour began on 28 March 2010, at the Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Arizona, northwest of Downtown Phoenix. As with McCartney's other concert tours as a solo artist, the setlist for the Up and Coming Tour was composed of songs by his former bands the Beatles and Wings, as well as songs from his solo career. The tour included two concerts at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, followed by concerts in Miami and San Juan, the latter marking both McCartney's first concert in Puerto Rico and the first visit by a member of the Beatles. The tour ended on 10 June 2011 with a show in Las Vegas, Nevada.
On the Run was a concert tour by English singer-songwriter Paul McCartney. The tour began on 15 July 2011, with McCartney's first two concerts at Yankee Stadium in New York City. McCartney's appearances at Yankee Stadium occurred nearly two years to the day after his 17, 18, and 21 July 2009 concerts at Citi Field, documented on the Good Evening New York City CD/DVD.
Out There was a concert tour by English singer-songwriter Paul McCartney lasting from 4 May 2013 to 22 October 2015. Some notable nights of the tour included concerts at Warsaw's National Stadium, Verona's Roman Amphitheatre, and Vienna's Happel Stadium, the latter of which he would play for the first time since 2003's Back in the World tour. McCartney played in Belo Horizonte, Cariacica, Goiânia and Fortaleza, all in Brazil and in Japan for the first time since the Driving World Tour back in 2002.
On 30 January 1969, the Beatles performed an impromptu concert from the rooftop of their Apple Corps headquarters at 3 Savile Row, in central London's office and fashion district. Joined by guest keyboardist Billy Preston, the band played a 42-minute set before the Metropolitan Police arrived and ordered them to reduce the volume. It was the final public performance of their career. They performed nine takes of five new songs as crowds of onlookers, many on lunch breaks, congregated in the streets and on the rooftops of nearby buildings to listen. The concert ended with "Get Back", and John Lennon joking, "I'd like to say thank you on behalf of the group and ourselves, and I hope we've passed the audition."
One on One was a concert tour by English musician Paul McCartney that began on 13 April 2016 and traveled through the United States, Canada, Argentina, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand, ending on 16 December 2017. The tour marked McCartney's first-ever performances in Fresno, South Dakota, and Arkansas. Prior to the announcement of the tour, McCartney revealed two European festival dates for June 2016 at the Pinkpop Festival and Rock Werchter respectively.
Freshen Up was a concert tour by English musician Paul McCartney that commenced on 17 September 2018 with a four-concert leg in Canada. The tour was McCartney's first tour after the release of his album Egypt Station, which was released on 7 September. As with McCartney's other concert tours as a solo artist, the setlist for the Freshen Up tour was composed of songs by his former bands the Beatles and Wings, as well as songs from his solo career.
The Beatles: Get Back is a documentary television series directed and produced by Peter Jackson. It covers the making of the Beatles' 1970 album Let It Be and draws largely from unused footage and audio material originally captured for and recycled original footage from the 1970 documentary of the album by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. The docuseries has a total runtime of nearly eight hours, consisting of three episodes, each of duration between two and three hours covering about one week each, together covering 21 days of studio time.