LAST NIGHT, 7 June, Camden’s eternally scuzzy Electric Ballroom played
thoroughly incongruous host to Paul McCartney’s first full UK gig in four
years. Before a 1000-strong invited, and reliably adoring, audience Sir
Thumbs Aloft played a sprightly two-hour set that mixed tracks from his
current album, Memory Almost Full, with a clutch of Beatles standards.
There is much that is surreal in watching McCartney in such environs.
Attempting to avoid Emma Thompson whilst the über luvvie jigs around like a
newborn foal, or bumping into erstwhile James Bond, Pierce Brosnan, at the
bar for starters. But watching – and indeed contemplating – the man known to
one and all as Macca is utterly captivating.
When, for instance, did the Fab One begin to look so much like a mildly
curious owl? And how odd, or crushing, or frustrating for the nation’s most
famous 64-year-old must it be to plough through the pleasant-but-uninspired
songs from yet another pleasant-but-uninspired new album, knowing with utter
certainty that one and all would far rather he get on with The Beatles
business. So it was as McCartney and his well drilled, blow-dried session
band trotted out such humdrum fare as House Of Wax and Only Mama Knows.
But of course, this matters not a jot. Whatever McCartney has done in the
intervening years, be it The Frog Chorus or the entirely wretched Give My
Regards To Broadway, he is forever more one quarter of history’s greatest
band, and one half of its greatest song writing partnership. When he sings
Drive My Car, The Long And Winding Road, Back In The USSR and Blackbird, as
he did at The Electric Ballroom with the sort of perky, puppy dog charm that
has become the staple of his twilight years, you are, inescapably, watching
A Beatle. And, damn it, there’s still something magical about that.
The five songs McCartney concluded his set with were as follows: Get Back,
Hey Jude, Let It Be, Lady Madonna and I Saw Her Standing There. Come the
latter, he’s waving that vintage Hofner bass around and shaking his head
from his side to side on the chorus. As finales go, it takes some beating.
Paul Rees
That Macca setlist in full
Drive My Car
Only Mama Knows
Dance Tonight
C Moon
The Long And Winding Road
I’ll Follow The Sun
Calico Skies
That Was Me
Blackbird
Here Today
Back In The USSR
Nod Your Head
House Of Wax
I’ve Got A Feeling
Matchbox
Get Back
Hey Jude
Encores
Let It Be
Lady Madonna
I Saw Her Standing There
More Macca? Click here.
9:43 AM | 08/06/2007
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