On the Wings of a Storm! (Detroit 1976)

 On the Wings of a Storm!

By Pauline McLeod

Daily Mirror

May 23, 1976

    The lead guitarist, Jimmy McCulloch, was slumped against a wall, exhausted, staring into space. Drummer Joe English was chatting with well-wishers. Denny Laine, rhythm guitarist and keyboard man, was playing darts with a couple from the horn section, and in the middle of the chaos, Paul and Linda McCartney were perched on a tabletop, enthusing about America. 

    Wings were coming back to earth in a barely furnished room backstage at the Detroit Olympia. The success of the evening showing on their faces. The 17,000-strong audience had gone wild when the band appeared on stage. They rushed into the aisles, climbed on each other's shoulders, and a stood on the seats. They reached fever pitch and were still screaming for more 20 minutes after the show was over.

     Detroit was the third stop on the band's 31-date tour of the United States and Canada. This tour is McCartney's return to the American stage after 10 years. The last time he was in San Francisco  in 1966 as a Beatle. 

    "Tonight was incredible," he said. "The kids gave us such a feedback that we did not want to finish the show. We are achieving what we hoped for."

     "I think a lot of people came to see Paul the Beatle, even though he's dead and gone, but I feel sure they left the place tonight with Wings on their brains." Linda, his 33-year-old wife, broke off from explaining to an earnest young man that she and Paul are not tax exiles to flash a bundle of snaps of the latest addition to the McCartney household, Lucky Star, an 18-month-old stallion bought in Texas. 

    "We'll be shipping him over to our home in Scotland, and I'll start breajubg him in when we get back," she said. "But that won't be much before the end of June. "

    The whole American trip is rife with rumors that the other ex-Beatles will be joining Paul to do a quick turn. Paul's reaction is to laugh lightly and ask, "What will they think of next?"

     And he said, "I'm not sentimental about it, and thinking, 'oh Christ, but it's not like the 60s.' I've moved on to other things. That period of my life is over, but I don't feel sad about it.

    " I've seen John in New York, and of course I'd love him to come to a concert, but he's not really into that sort of thing now. He wants to stay at home with his family. I don't really think he would feel very comfortable if he was to come to one of the shows, but I understand that entirely and respect him for it. I haven't heard from the other two. I don't know where they are at present."

     On May 24 and 25th Wings play New York's 20,000 seater Madison Square Garden. "What a night that will be with all the Daily Mirror Pop Fan Club there," said Paul. "We'll flood the place with the British."