MAGIC NIGHT WITH Sir Paul McCartney

@Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Canada- October 10, 2005

By Miki Narita, TBFC Canadian correspondent

Many people would agree with me that Sir Paul McCartney performed his best show up to date since his last Tour in 2002. What a show! What Magic! What an extravaganza! Sir Paul McCartney returned to our town, Toronto, and performed at Air Canada Centre, the only Canadian venue in his Tour at the entire sold-out audience of 15,000 plus who snapped up all the available tickets in 5 minutes back in May, on our Thanksgiving Day.

The show started the evening on a cool-looking, curved stage cut up into squares to resemble a crossword puzzle, and the colorful images constantly changing in the squares. The filmed retrospective his long career, beginning with black-and white footage of the London blitz and old photos of himself as a child with his parents and his younger brother Michael in Liverpool, including a copy of his birth certificate and in the opening montage were old photos of the late John Lennon and George Harrison, when they played with him in the Quarrymen and later in the Beatles, including that famous 1964 appearance on the ED Sullivan Show.

The 63-year-old music icon appeared on stage with youthful and friendly smile with his band, drummer, “Abe Laboriel Jr.”, Lead Guitarist, “ Rusty Anderson”, Guitarist “ Brian Ray” and the keyboardist, “ Paul “ Wix” Wickens”. “Greetings Toronto! Greetings Canada!” “It’s great to be here, great to be back in Toronto. We want to have a bit of fun tonight“” Happy Thanksgiving, Canada! “to excited, cheering and screaming audience who filled the venue. He looks youthful, energetic and friendly.

The show started about half an hour late due to lighting problem. Sir Paul’s paintings were shown in the giant screen above the stage one by one and the stage with a cool-looking, curved stage cut up into squares which colorful images/ blinking psychedelic lights constantly changing in them. The show kicked off from “ Magical Mystery Tour “ and “ Flaming Pie” and “ Jet “ but it seemed to take a little while to warmed up until a piano appeared from beneath a hole in stage to sing “ Fine Line”, “Maybe I’m Amazed” and “The Long Winding Road”. The Lead Guitarist, Rusty Anderson read from a Chinese fortune cookie he had saved from dinner earlier in the evening, It says, “ A pleasant surprise is in store for you”, with a smile, then, Paul and the band considerably loosened up then. Three early Beatles songs, “I’ll Get You” “Drive My Car” and “Till There Was You” and “Let Me Roll It” with nice guitar and keyboard work. He was left on stage alone with his acoustic guitar for a spirited “In Spite of All The Danger” – the first recording, he, Lennon, and Harrison made in the pre-Beatles days.” I Will”, the Chaos song, “Jenny Wren” and “For No One” “Fixing A Hole” and “English Tea” on piano. I liked the simple but beautiful images at the back, too. When he explained how he and late George Harrison- “ WEE GEORGE” he called him – used to play J.S. Bach on guitar, together which led them to write “ Black Bird” Before he played the song, he asked for a moment of appreciation for his friend, George Harrison. Tears in his eyes It was the touching moment. THEN ! “ Live and Let Die” –Wings’ big hit! !– excitement filled the air with explosions and fire bursts!

The another highlight of Toronto concert was that at the second anchor, he played “Mull of Kintyre” with the Peel Regional Police Pipe Band again. He appeared at the stage in a red “ No more landmines” T-shirt and waved a huge Canadian flag with his band members, with Ontario Regional flags and small British flags, the Peel Police Bag Pipe Band, 30 of them in the traditional Scottish costumes marched into the stage. It was dynamic and beautiful. Sir Paul did it again! It has been typical of Paul to do this gig with the local band in Toronto for already 4 times this year. Then the stage suddenly got dark and Sir Paul lit the candle on his piano. The retroactive images in the squares changed the candle lights, to sing “ Let It Be” The audience lit their lighters and sang with him, and when the song ended, he blew the candle off. It was so beautiful!

SET List:

1.         Magical Mystery Tour

2.         Flaming Pie

3.         Jet

4.         I’ll Get You

5.         Drive My Car

6.         Till There Was You

7.         Let Me Roll It

8.         Got to Get You into My Life  ( A piano appeared from a hole beneath the stage)

9.         Fine Line

10.     Maybe I’m Amazed

11.     The Long and Winding Road

12.     In Spite of All The Danger

13.     I Will

14.     Jenny Wren

15.     For No One

16.     Fixing a hole

17.     English Tea

18.     I’ll Follow The Sun

19.     Follow Me 

(Sir Paul played J.S.Bach tune and talked about his times with late George Harrison to lead “ Black Bird”.)

20.     Blackbird

21.     Eleanor Rigby

22.     Too many people

23.     She came in through the bathroom window

24.     Good Day Sunshine

25.     Band on the Run

26.     Penny Lane

27.     I’ve Got a Feeling

28.     Back in the USSR

29.     Hey Jude

30.     Live and Let Die (WOW! Big explosions and fire bursts- Extravaganza!)

ENCORE

1.         Yesterday (Nostalgic!  It brought tears into my eyes!)

2.         Get Back

3.         Helter Skelter

 

Second ENCORE

1.         Please please me ( Sweet old memories!)

2.         Mull of Kintyre ( with The Peel Regional Police Bagpipe Band- Great mixture of his vocal and dynamic yet beautiful Scottish bagpipes.)

3.         Let It Be ( Candle lights- romantic, spirited and beautiful!)

 

SGT Peppers reprise/ The End

Air Paul and the band appreciated the hard work and co-operation of the Sound/Technical/ Stage crews, Security Team, Air Canada Centre staff, The Peel Police Pipe

Well Steve, this is the 4th concert I have seen of McCartney in Toronto (1989, 1993, 2002 and now 2005) and I must say, although Paul sounded vocally terrific (I DO think he played a longer running set this time out ), he is looking a little bit older and to quote Revolution 9, "a little bit slower". However, that is the only negative thing I can say about the show. He played for nearly three hours and played some material that I never thought he would play live EVER (don't want to spoil the set list for those who do not know yet!). It was lovely, and a McCartney fan's dream.

A great surprise, although he has done this on every tour since '93, has been to invite the Peel Regional Police Core Marching Band out to the stage for MULL OF KINTYRE (note that it comes before LET IT BE in the usual set list - like McCartney, he does not stray too much in his sets from town to town. I had taken my older sister Mary, who was responsible for exposing me to Beatles music for the first time AND had never seen McCartney live before. Needless to say, she felt the same way I did in 1989...spellbound.

It was an amazing show, and although you can criticize McCartney whatever way you wish folks, he is still an amazing performer, a musical genius and one of our lifetimes' greatest musical treasures. Please remind your readers to pick up CHAOS AND CREATION - it is one of his best solo efforts to date, and JENNY WREN (played at the concert) is a new McCartney classic.

Well Steve, this is the 4th concert I have seen of McCartney in Toronto (1989, 1993, 2002 and now 2005) and I must say, although Paul sounded vocally terrific (I DO think he played a longer running set this time out ), he is looking a little bit older and to quote Revolution 9, "a little bit slower". However, that is the only negative thing I can say about the show. He played for nearly three hours and played some material that I never thought he would play live EVER (don't want to spoil the set list for those who do not know yet!). It was lovely, and a McCartney fan's dream.

A great surprise, although he has done this on every tour since '93, has been to invite the Peel Regional Police Core Marching Band out to the stage for MULL OF KINTYRE (note that it comes before LET IT BE in the usual set list - like McCartney, he does not stray too much in his sets from town to town. I had taken my older sister Mary, who was responsible for exposing me to Beatles music for the first time AND had never seen McCartney live before. Needless to say, she felt the same way I did in 1989...spellbound.

It was an amazing show, and although you can criticize McCartney whatever way you wish folks, he is still an amazing performer, a musical genius and one of our lifetimes' greatest musical treasures. Please remind your readers to pick up CHAOS AND CREATION - it is one of his best solo efforts to date, and JENNY WREN (played at the concert) is a new McCartney classic. I have enclosed a little digital pic of McCartney with the Peel band for your site or personal pleasure!

Thanks again for your amazing site, Steve! Cheers! Christopher Thanks again for your amazing site, Steve!

Cheers!
Christopher

Well folks:

Just got back from the Toronto show which happened last night ( Oct. 10 ). The show was delayed by about half an hour due to sound problems. The gates opened between 0700 pm and 0730 pm and I was lucky enough to enter through gate 1 fairly early.

I saw the white picket fence and figured that there would be keyboards hidden behind them. Later on, of course, the consoles were actually the DJ equipment set up for the pre-show. Since I own the "twin freaks" soundtrack, I suspect that the DJ was just going through the motions as the samples were taken directly from the LP.

The short Paul film was interesting - especially the unseen Wings footage.

Paul came on at around 0830 pm and just rocked my socks off. Without spoiling the set list, it was similar to the others with the exception of the traditional playing of "Mull of Kintyre" in Canada. The Regional Peel Band were the culprits as they were in 2002 for the Driving Rain tour and the 1993 New world tour.

Paul also chatted to the audience about the fact that the hole behind him concealing the grand piano had caused him grief, he chatted about how the audience signs distract him from the lyrics and finally he chastised some guy behind me who screamed "Penny Lane" while Paul was conversing with the audience. He told the guy that it was people like him who spoiled the show, although in true Paul fashion the statement was somewhat softened when Paul mentioned "...but I'm sure he's a nice guy" or something like that.

I noticed that "Mull of Kintyre" was slightly unrehearsed as Rusty Anderson helped Paul out at the end of the song by mouthing the proper phrasing when Paul unexpectedly started another verse and after the second bar realized the mistake and stopped.

I still can't believe how professional and how great the music sounded live with only five guys on stage. Paul McCartney is a freaking genius and I am so glad I went and once again was blown away. Highlights included all of the new material from "Chaos and Creation..." . The stories behind the songs such as the space shuttle story - you'll know what I mean if you go to the show - the J.S. Bach story , the story of "I Will", and I loved the way Paul called George "Georgie ".

A splendid time was guaranteed for all.

The concert lasted two and a half hours. I never saw Paul even sip a glass of water. Maybe I'm amazed.

Enjoy.

Yvan Tessier