Paul McCartney leaves Manchester spellbound as he belts out his hits on the first night of his UK tour

Paul McCartney returned to Manchester on Saturday for his first performance in the city in over a decade, delighting more than 23,000 fans with a career-spanning set featuring songs from his Beatles, Wings and solo catalogs.

At the first of two sold-out shows – part of his acclaimed Got Back tour and his first UK appearance since 2018 – the veteran artist “duetted” with the isolated vocals of his late bandmate John Lennon and paid tribute to his wife. Nancy, who was sitting in the audience with his daughter Stella.

“We traveled around the world; We were in South America and now we are back in the North! And it’s nice to be back,” the octogenarian told his audience. He chose to open with a rollicking version of the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night,” the title track from their third album, which celebrated its 60th anniversary earlier this year.

The 82-year-old showed no signs of fatigue as he neared the end of his Got Back tour after kicking it off on April 28, 2022 in Spokane, Washington. Sixteen stops later he was headlining the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival, where he was joined by surprise guests Bruce Springsteen and Dave Grohl.

Since then, he has played in Australia and Europe and made two appearances in Latin America, including a show in Uruguay, where he debuted a live performance of “Now and Then.” Announced as the final Beatles song, the song was released in November 2023 using AI technology that separated Lennon’s singing and piano playing from a recording he made at his home in New York around 1977.

Outside the Co-Op Arena, which is in full swing after a somewhat chaotic opening in May this year, fans were in high spirits despite the rain and December cold as they spoke with awe and joy about one of the greatest songwriters of all time.

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The couple Stefan and Steffi from East Germany held hands on the way to the arena, as they said The Independent about how they met 23 years ago in the Beatles Museum in Halle. On Saturday they saw McCartney together for the 20th time.

“His music is the soundtrack of our lives,” said Steffi, while Stefan recalled: “We loved seeing him play in Liverpool. “He’s at home, everyone there loves him… You can feel it.”

Sisters Eleanor and Gillian flew in from Drogheda, Co Louth, as a tribute to their late father Tony Rogers. A huge Beatles fan and local hero, he ran a taxi company in the city for 30 years until his death at the age of 62 during surgery in Istanbul, Turkey. Tragically, he never got to see his hero play, but his daughters came to Manchester in his honor, carrying an Irish flag with his name and photo.

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“He was loved by everyone – his funeral took over the city,” said Eleanor, who was named after Tony’s favorite Beatles song, “Eleanor Rigby.” “He was a pillar of the community.”

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McCartney also paid tribute to his loved ones during the show, including his former bandmates, as he played the first song the Beatles wrote together, “In Spite of All the Danger,” while three additional microphones were set up on stage. Immediately afterwards, 23,000 people sang “Love Me Do”, the first song they had written with the “fifth Beatle” George Martin. Later there was a moving rendition of “Here Today”, his imaginary conversation with Lennon, written after the singer’s death in 1980.

He dedicated his performance of “My Valentine” to his wife, Nancy Shevell, whom he met in 2007. The song was included on his 2012 album My Valentine. kisses on the butt, and was inspired by a secret trip they took early in their relationship where “it rained the whole time, but Nancy said, ‘I don’t mind!'” he told the audience.

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The Got Back tour is part of a particularly productive period for McCartney, which also included the release of the Grammy-nominated “Now and Then” – performed for the first time ever in the UK tonight – and its accompanying music video, directed by Peter Jackson .

“It’s really great,” McCartney said in the tour’s program notes about the feeling of playing the song live. “When you introduce a new song, even if it’s an old song, like ‘Now and Then,’ the first reaction is that people aren’t quite sure what it is or what you’re doing.

“But during the concerts they come up with the idea. The news is spreading on the internet, you know? So the reaction is really strong now… it’s especially great because it’s a John song. And that’s why it’s very emotional for me. I love it. I love doing it and the audience seems to love it too.”

In addition to Now and Then, McCartney also worked with Jackson for the 2021 documentary series The Beatles: Get Back, which used specialized film and audio technology and examined the making of the Fab Four’s 1970 album, Let it be.

This year saw the release of another Beatles documentary – the one produced by Martin Scorsese Beatles ’64about the arrival of Beatlemania in the USA – as well A hand claps, David Litchfield’s previously lost 1974 film, which followed McCartney and Wings as they worked on a possible live-in-studio album.

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McCartney previously explained how he goes about choosing from such a stunning collection of songs: “When I see a movie and then hear one of my songs in it, I think, ‘Oh, I should do that.’ Sometimes it gives me the push to actually look at the song and think about doing it.”

He continued: “One of my own Wings albums, I’m like, ‘Well, it didn’t do that well, so maybe it wasn’t that good,’ and then you realize some kids are playing like crazy. They say, ‘ This is a great album,’ so it brings me back to it.”

Fans certainly seemed excited about the setlist on Saturday as they joined McCartney’s rousing sing-along of “Something,” which he opened by playing a ukulele gifted to him by the late George Harrison (“a ukulele enthusiast”) . He got into the festive spirit with a surprise performance of “Wonderful Christmastime,” complete with “Snow” confetti and a local children’s choir.

By this point in the tour, many of the social media-savvy fans in the audience knew they were anticipating the moment when McCartney appeared to “explode” Spinal Tap-style as smoke machines and pyrotechnics bombarded the musician for “Live and Let Die.” concealed. , Wings’ James Bond theme for the 1973 film of the same name.

Then there was another sing-along, this time to “Hey Jude”, before an encore with the famous “duet” with Lennon in “I’ve Got a Feeling”. It was a “nice feeling for me,” he told the crowd, “because I get to sing with John again.” McCartney was truly back and his fans couldn’t have been more thrilled. “There’s only one thing left for me to say,” he said at the end of the program. “See you next time!”