Yesterday -- Great -- Today -- Brilliant
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Torbay Express
September 13, 1975
The Beatles might be dead, but they are not forgotten -- at least not by Paul McCartney. Those Torbay fans who, like me, are loyal made the trip to Bristol's Hippodrome this week to catch Wings only West Country gig as part of their first British tour in two and a half years, must agree that McCartney was everything and more a former Beatle should be.
Looking ageless, his timing, singing, guitar, and keyboard playing were faultless, and the numbers he gave us during the two-hour performance were well chosen. McCartney took us into the Beatles' glory days with "Long and Winding Road", "Lady Madonna," and "Blackbird Singing in the Dead of Night," and "I've just seen a face" which all came over in that unmistakable style of his. But you couldn't help but wish George, John, and Ringo were up there playing as well. The highlight of his trip down memory lane was when McCartney took up an acoustic guitar and, with the stage to himself, sang "Yesterday".
But, although it was nice to hear those old sounds, McCartney has shown himself to be a wealth of talent since the breakup of the Beatles in 1970, and it was his music with Wings that he wanted to play most. And what we wanted to hear most.
The Band on the Run album featured prominently throughout the act with the live sounds of "Jet", "Let Me Roll It", and the title track, which brought the concert to a climax, receiving rapturous applause and cheering from 3000 strong fans.
Despite its personal problems over the past few years, Wings seems to have found where it's at with founder member and former Moody Blue Denny Laine and young Jimmy McCulloch (Thunderclap Newman) on guitars. drummer Joe English and Linda McCartney, showing that she can play keyboards and sing despite what the critics have said, each had a share of the limelight. With Laine again, taking us back a few years with "Go Now" and McCullouch's "Medicine Jar" from the latest Wings album, Venus and Mars, illustrated the amazing ability he has to make a guitar work.
The new album also got an airing, and a few of the Wings hit singles. By the end of the session, the fans just wanted to rock in the aisles, and so when the end came, it was something many found difficult to come to terms with.
After five minutes of chanting for more, McCartney looking far from exhausted, returned for an encore with "Hi Hi Hi."
For one young American girl, though, it was just another of his concerts to be crossed off the list. She had come all the way to Britain just to follow his tour, as she had done in 1973, which made the pilgrimage from Torbay look like a short bus ride.
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