Hello,

In the spirit of Christmas and goodwill to all IORRians, I ask you to indulge me with this Macca photo-fest!
A pair of back-to-back shows in the North West of England to close his tour were an early Christmas present to everyone who could attend.

Monday 19th December, 2011. M.E.N. Arena,

1.Magical Mystery Tour
2.Junior's Farm
3.All My Loving
4.Jet
5.Got to Get You into My Life
6.Sing the Changes
7.The Night Before
8.Let Me Roll It (segue into "Fox(e)y Lady" )
9.Paperback Writer(The Beatles song)
10.The Long and Winding Road
11.Come and Get
12.Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
13.Maybe I'm Amazed
14.I'm Looking Through You
15.And I Love Her
16.Blackbird
17.Here Today
18.Dance Tonight
19.Mrs. Vandebilt
20.Eleanor Rigby
21.Ram On
22.Something
23.Band on the Run
24.Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
25.Back in the U.S.S.R.
26.I've Got a Feeling
27.A Day in the Life (segue into "Give Peace A Chance" )
28.Let It Be
29.Live and Let Die
30.Hey Jude

Encore:

31.The Word (segue into "All You Need Is Love" )
32.Wonderful Christmastime
33.Day Tripper
34.Get Back

Encore 2:

35.Yesterday
36.Helter Skelter
37.Golden Slumbers
38.Carry That Weight
39.The End

2 hours and 50 minutes. Goodness!

A few dodgy photos from that outstanding Manchester show. Still reeling, hah-hah!







































Some band.

And Tuesday 20th December, 2011. The Echo Arena, Liverpool.

1.Hello, Goodbye
2.Junior's Farm
3.All My Loving
4.Jet Play
5.Drive My Car
6.Sing the Changes
7.The Night Before
8.Let Me Roll It (segue into "Fox(e)y Lady" )
9.Paperback Writer
10.The Long and Winding Road
11.Come and Get It
12.Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
13.Maybe I'm Amazed
14.I've Just Seen a Face
15.I Will
16.Blackbird
17.Here Today
18.Dance Tonight
19.Mrs. Vandebilt
20.Eleanor Rigby
21.Ram On
22.Something
23.Penny Lane
24.Band on the Run
25.Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
26.Back in the U.S.S.R.
27.I've Got a Feeling
28.A Day in the Life (segue into "Give Peace A Chance" )
29.Let It Be
30.Live and Let
31.Hey Jude

Encore:

32.The Word (segue into "All You Need Is Love" )
33.Wonderful Christmastime
34.Day Tripper
35.Get Back Play

Encore 2:

36.Yesterday
37.Mull of Kintyre
38.Helter Skelter
39.Golden Slumbers
40.Carry That Weight
41.The End

Around 3 hours and 5 minutes. Jaw-dropping at times.































































































Thanks for your patience folks and I wish every IORRian a happy Christmas ans all the best for 2012.

Cheers,

Simon.

Some of your best shots ever Simon. Great to see and thanks for sharing. Have a great Christmas.

Hi Mike,

Bless you Guv'nor! The amount of eye-contact with the crowd by Macca was something that my mate picked-up on: I sort of took it for granted.

At the risk of getting my ass kicked on the Stones board, these really were extraordinary shows for anyone even remotely fond of the pre-Fab Four.
Anyway, all good (if not great things) for 2012.

Cheers!

Simon.

Can't believe he did Ram On and I'm Looking Through You. I'd have loved to have heard The Night Before and Come And Get It too. Next time I'll be there. Not sure how many times he's done Penny Lane either. Brilliant stuff.

fantastic...was going to go to the manchester show but finances wouldnt stretch to it so near xmas, Thanks for the photos and set lists

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SimonN
Hi Mike,

Bless you Guv'nor! The amount of eye-contact with the crowd by Macca was something that my mate picked-up on: I sort of took it for granted.

At the risk of getting my ass kicked on the Stones board, these really were extraordinary shows for anyone even remotely fond of the pre-Fab Four.
Anyway, all good (if not great things) for 2012.

Cheers!

Simon.

Great stuff as always Si!

"It's just some friends of mine and they're busting down the door"

nice pics
has anyone got any audio for these gigs?

Great review............... 3 hours and 5 minutes !!!!!

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Great photos. Lucky git!

Wow, you're a lucky man. Liverpool must of been very special. Thanks for sharing the pictures.

Great photos - he is quite extraordinary and no doubt will continue to play in 2012.

Hello,

Thanks for the nods: in all honesty any berk with a camera and a pair of arms couldn't fail to take anything worthwhile at such a gathering!

I was gonna write a wee report as is my wont after seeing a show but the honest answer is that I was

a) knackered, and
b) anything that I wrote wouldn't accurately reflect what I saw and felt: after all, how many times can you hear "Awww, Paul is great, blah-blah-blah..."?

With that caveat in mind I do want to put down a couple of points for my own benefit, if no-one else's.

The thing about those shows was that the artist did not take the audience's almost-guaranteed adulation for granted: right from the off he worked, worked and worked some more to entertain as did his four colleagues. I'd bet that there is not a harder-working or concentrated five-piece out there. Period.

I suppose he has this in common with a lot of his contemporaries but I've seen him at close quarters 3 times in the last 18 months and this an obvious feature of his persona.
If you marry this ethic to his near-genius (What! Only near?) at songwriting and superb technical ablities as a singer (yes, still hitting the higher notes and still shredding when required) and guitarist and pianist then there reasonably is only one outcome.

He seemed to really let himself loose on the extended jams when he was thrashing away on a beautiful sunburst L.P.: the racket that they made was surprisingly heavy and sounded so, so good! Yeah, I think I enjoyed that part as much as he did.

All I can say is that if he is still continuing to tour in 2012 and if you can get a reasonably close seat then break the bank and go see what I'm trying to tell you about, hah-hah!

In closing, I wish all the people on the most enjoyable Stones (music) forum a great Christmas. I'll raise you all a glass later on: here's to 2012 and hopefully a Rolling Stones show or two!

Cheers,

Simon.

Great photos, thanks for sharing them. I was at the o2 show in London a couple of weeks ago, which was fantastic as always, but, jeez, that Liverpool setlist is amazing, and clocking in at over three hours, that's got to be McCartney's longest ever show.

Really pleased to see Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End back in the setlist after 21 years, and amazing to hear Come and Get It, The Night Before and The Word. The version they are doing on this tour of 'I Will' is beautiful.

He really is incredible, we're lucky he's still out there giving us these amazing shows.

_____________________________________________________

What's your favourite flavour?...........Cherry Red!!

I can't believe he did Mull of Kintyre! I was soooo hoping for that at CitiField this past summer!! Love that song!!

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Captainchaos
nice pics
has anyone got any audio for these gigs?

Quite a few videos in varying quality here:
[www.youtube.com]


"As we say in England, it can get a bit trainspottery"

Thanks for the photos.

The guy is truly amazing!

I've never been a big fan of McCartney or the Beatles but I saw him in NY city this summer and he put on one of the most joyful concerts I have ever witnessed. He was also quite good with the crowd (of over 60,000), telling stories, etc - a great showman and I would probably see him again if given the chance.

That is possibly the world's most priceless bass he's dicking around with.

I read his guitar tech said that Macca throws it at him.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-12-22 15:51 by GravityBoy.

Yeah, and there would be no interest in a Beatles revival! Yeah, sure.

Saw Macca at Fenway a couple of years back and he was amazing. Can't believe he played 41 songs. Last time I saw the Stones in Foxboro I think they played 19 songs.

Absolutely stunning setlist for fans. Glad you had a chance to see the shows.

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James Kirk
Saw Macca at Fenway a couple of years back and he was amazing. Can't believe he played 41 songs. Last time I saw the Stones in Foxboro I think they played 19 songs.

Paul is absolutely amazing. Still has that youthful Beatle look. Just needs to dump his drummer and two guitar players and replace them with his son, Sean, Julian, and Dhani. Ringo and Zak can share the drum duties. Also, needs to put The Beatles: Act II on the bass drum.

Gotta make an effort to see him in 2012.Almost a certainty these days we will see Macca in the U.K. every year.He realy deserves his time off and would not begrudge him a year off touring as there is a certain band I would love to see again live,but the build up (by us fans more than anything by the band)seems to last for ever.Thanks for the great piccys Simon and the informative comments. Let's hope a lot of us on IORR will meet up again in the New Year to see The Rolling Stones live.I am sure it will happen. ><

Great photos. Great report. So cool that he's playing The Word.

What more can you say about Sir Paul at this point?

Absolutely stunning.

Set list looks amazing.

It's great to see him do that lost Beatles number "Come & Get It".

It would be the equivalent of the Stones playing live and Keith singing "Coming Down Again".

How on earth can a man of seventy-odd years of age sing for three hours - largely upbeat, energetic songs to boot - and then come back the following night and do the same again? Phenomenal. What a geezer.

Declan

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thewatchman
Yeah, and there would be no interest in a Beatles revival! Yeah, sure.

Not really possible with two of the principle members deceased.

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thewatchman
Paul is absolutely amazing. Still has that youthful Beatle look. Just needs to dump his drummer and two guitar players and replace them with his son, Sean, Julian, and Dhani. Ringo and Zak can share the drum duties. Also, needs to put The Beatles: Act II on the bass drum.

Why should he do that? The band he has know is a crackin' good one. The Beatles were of their time and Paul pays great homage to them in his live show.

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tomcasagranda
Set list looks amazing.

It's great to see him do that lost Beatles number "Come & Get It".

It would be the equivalent of the Stones playing live and Keith singing "Coming Down Again".

Actually not a Beatles tune, but Badfinger. While it was released on Anthology, it is McCartney playing all the instruments and singing with no other Beatles on it. Great to see it in the set list, very interesting! Also of note is bringing back Ram On to the set. Nice! I saw him do that in Utah two summers ago. I wish he would do more from Ram, and I am stoked to see the upcoming deluxe release of Ram! I can't wait!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011-12-23 04:14 by whitem8.