‘I’m just going to take a little moment to enjoy it for myself,” says Paul McCartney, standing aside to take in an atmosphere which is like an arena-sized Last Night at the Proms, with Beatlemania. This extraordinary first of two nights at this venue, as McCartney’s Got Back tour reaches the UK, delivers so much.
It opens with A Hard Day’s Night and ends two and three quarter hours, 36 songs later with a sublime three-song suite from Abbey Road. The newest song (in a way, at least) is 2023’s “final Beatles single” Now and Then, completed from John Lennon’s old demo and performed in this country for the first time. The oldest is pre-Beatles band the Quarrymen’s lovely skiffle era In Spite of All the Danger. McCartney talks about civil rights for Blackbird and emotionally sings with an onscreen Lennon in I’ve Got A Feeling. The visuals are stunning throughout and even Ebenezer Scrooge might be moved by a seasonal Wonderful Christmastime, complete with children’s choir and descending “snow”.
Perhaps on a mission to remind the world that his songbook stretches well beyond the Beatles, McCartney explores its many moods. Some highlights come in unexpected places. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da is far from the Fabs’ most celebrated but triggers spontaneous mass joyful dancing. Wings’ sublime overlooked Letting Go is more than a match for arena-sized rockers Jet and Band On the Run, or a dazzling pyrotechnically enhanced Bond theme Live and Let Die. He shows his romantic side with 2012’s solo My Valentine (dedicated to “my wife Nancy, who’s here tonight”) and an epic Maybe I’m Amazed. Let It Be, with audience choir, is just humblingly beautiful and Hey Jude may be the loudest sing along ever.
At 82, McCartney and audience know full well he won’t go on for ever and his voice has lost some power and timbre. Still, he doesn’t look anywhere near his age and convincingly roars through Helter Skelter well after the two-hour mark. Clearly and wonderfully, for as long as he is able he will give everything he can.
• At Co-Op Live, Manchester, 15 December; and O2, London, 18/19 December.
