Paul McCartney, the Kaiser Chiefs, the Zutons, Dave Grohl
Liverpool Sound Sun June 1 Anfield Liverpool
Liverpool Capital of Culture 08
We’d been looking forward to this concert for ages. Pretty powerful stuff; going to see Paul McCartney in Liverpool, as part of the Capital of Culture celebrations in Anfield stadium!!! The tickets had been allocated in a raffle ages ago. We hadn’t been drawn in the first run of the raffle but were lucky in a second draw where both Laura and I were drawn so we could buy two tickets each. Hence four of us; me, Laura, David and Mari went along to this one.
There’d been lots of rumours about the support acts for this concert. Initial promises of lots of international stars didn’t materialise; the story seems to be that the organisers at the Capital of Culture couldn’t deliver on these initial promises and that Paul McCartney’s management came in a late stage to help with organisation. The final line up of Paul with the Kaiser Chiefs and the Zutons plus a “special guest” seemed fine to us anyway. One thing had become clear, Paul was going to perform a pretty full set and not just a few songs as Ringo had at Liverpool the Musical earlier in the year.
We drove down to Liverpool, stopped off at our Travelodge to check out our rooms and arrived at the stadium in plenty of time. We joined a pretty long queue to get in; some people had been there for several hours to make sure that they got a good spot in front of the stage. When we got in Laura and I found some seats in one of the stands, while David and Mari decided to take to the pitch and see if they could get close to the front.
First up were the Zutons. The Stadium is still filling up at this point. David and I had seen them once before at the Leeds Wireless festival on a bill supporting the Who and like last time they were pretty good. Its never easy warming a crowd up when most of them have come along to see the main act, but they did go down quite well.
Next up were the Kaiser Chiefs who were great and are now pretty used to working up a stadium size crowd. They had just done a triumphant home-coming show at Elland Road the week before, and were ready to take on the Anfield crowd. Ricky had the crowd doing mexican waves, and was really working things up. It took the crowd some time to get really warmed up but by the end of the set, everyone was singing along to Ruby, I Predict a Riot and Oh My God. They played for just under one hour, and couldn’t have been much better. Laura, David and I have seen them before at a home gig in Millenium Square Leeds.
Paul came on just after 9pm and gave us some surprises from the start. Hippy Hippy Shake was the first one up. He probably hasn’t played this one since the Beatles days. I’ve certainly never seen him play it on any of his UK tours. Then it was into a set which was pretty similar to his last UK tour apart from Penny Lane which I don’t recall seeing him sing before. The atmosphere was great; the whole stadium singing along to all these classic tunes. You really can’t get much better than singing Beatles songs in the heart of Liverpool with Paul McCartney!! Dave Grohl was the “special guest” and joins Paul and the band for Band on the Run and Back in the USSR (the Foo Fighters are playing in Manchester the next day).
The big surprises come in the encores, when Paul comes back to do A Day in the Life, followed by Give Peace a Chance as a tribute to John Lennon. Yoko is in the audience singing along with us; it doesn’t get much better than this. The verdict from all four of us was that this was a pretty special show and a pretty special day. We drive back to the hotel and watch the highlights on the TV.
programme for the event
my ticket
Paul Set list:
Start time: 9:08PM
1. Hippy, Hippy Shake
2. Jet
3. Drive My Car
4. Flaming Pie
5. Got to Get You Into My Life
6. Let Me Roll It (tease “Foxey Lady”)
7. My Love
8. C’Moon
9. The Long and Winding Road
10. Dance Tonight
11. Blackbird
12. Calico Skies
13. In Liverpool
14. Follow the Sun
15. Eleanor Rigby
16. Something
17. Penny Lane
18. Band on the Run (with Dave Grohl on guitar and vocals)
19. Back in the U.S.S.R. (with Grohl on drums)
20. Live and Let Die
21. Let it Be
22. Hey Jude
23. Yesterday
Encore:
24. A Day in the Life
25. Give Peace a Chance
26. Lady Madonna
27. I Saw Her Standing There (with Grohl on drums)
End time: 10:56pm (Total time 1 hour 48 minutes)
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