Paul McCartney Still Inspires Beatlemania (St. Paul 1976)

That is "Blond Brenda" in the lower right corner

 Paul McCartney Still Inspires Beatlemania

By Mike Newgren

Post Bulletin

June 7, 1976

    Having grown up during the apex of Beatlemania, listening to "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand" for hours on end led me to consider Paul McCartney more than just another rock star. That would easily explain why I've spent the last month eagerly awaiting Friday night's Paul McCartney and Wings concert at the St. Paul Civic Center. My wait was well worth its duration after watching the former Beatle perform for two hours.

    

     Oh, the voice is fading, and there are a few wrinkles on his boyish-looking face, but that didn't matter. It was Paul McCartney, resplendent in a yellow t-shirt, black satin suit, and white-and-black shoes, and that in itself was enough. 

    I arrived at the Civic Center at 5:28pm, two and a half hours before the concert was scheduled to begin, thinking that would give me plenty of time to avoid the rush before the doors opened at six. I was wrong. There were 1000s of people milling around the building when I found my way to one of the doors marked 'entrance'. Some had sleeping bags tucked under their arms, and one man in his mid 20s said he had driven down from Montreal to see the concert. It was obvious that I wasn't the only person who remembered how the shaggy-haired, blue-eyed boy from Liverpool set hearts fluttering over a decade ago, when he, John, George, and Ringo were the idols of millions of teenagers. 

    The doors opened at 6:03, and there was a mad rush to get inside to grab a seat as close to the stage as possible. By 6:30, the place was half full. Approximately 17,000 people attended the concert. As the minutes slowly ticked away towards 8 o'clock, the rumors began to trickle through the civic center. 

    Someone said they saw John Lennon. "I hear Ringo Starr's going to sit in on drums for a couple of numbers," a teenage boy kept repeating. Lennon and Starr never showed, but it made little difference whatsoever to the audience. It came to see McCartney the leader of Wings, a band that includes his wife, Linda, didn't let his fans down.

     He pranced out on the stage at 8:04 and sang two songs, "Venus and Mars" and "Jet", before uttering a word, but when he did speak, the crowd went wild. "Thanks a lot, St. Paul", he said, almost being drowned out by a thunderous ovation. "You're great. How are you doing? All right", and then he flashed a big smile, gave the peace sign, and shouted, "Welcome to Minnesota!"

     "Listen", he added, after singing, "Maybe I'm Amazed," "It's really nice for us to be here this evening, so just enjoy yourself, because I know we will."

     And enjoy himself is exactly what McCartney did. It was evident that he was having a good time, as he joked with the audience, gave numerous thumbs up and number one signals to the crowd, and stomped his feet on the stage after most of the songs.

     In addition to his most recent hit records with Wings, McCartney also sang five numbers that were recorded by the Beatles. "Lady Madonna", "I've just seen a face," "Yesterday, "" Blackbird, and "The Long and Winding Road."

     "This is where we have a little sit down and play our acoustic guitars," McCartney said shortly before breaking into "Yesterday", which is perhaps the most popular song ever recorded by the Beatles. When he finished, he held two guitars high in the air to acknowledge the standing ovation from the audience.

     "I can see those big blue eyes all the way up here!" one woman sighed from the balcony.

     "Say, listen," McCartney explained at 9:58. "We're getting near the end of the show, and you've been a grand wee bunch. Thanks for coming."  With that, Wings played "Band on the Run", and the concert was over. 

    "I don't care if the Beatles ever get back together again", one girl told her friend as they left the Civic Center and headed for the parking lot. "Paul McCartney will always be a Beatle, as far as I'm concerned."

Paul McCartney is in a Class By Himself (1976 Cincinnati)

 

Paul McCartney is in a Class By Himself

By Bruno Bornino

The Cleveland Press

June 4, 1976

    "We've been amazing ourselves," said Paul McCartney in his dressing room following an incredible performance by his band, Wings, at Cincinnati's Riverfront Coliseum. 

    "Our first US tour is going much better than we expected, or even hoped for. We'll be back."

     With that happy news, McCartney, who hasn't set foot on a concert stage in this country since the last Beatles performance 10 years ago, sank back on a couch and put his arm around his wife, Linda.

     "It's just been lovely," agreed Linda, who doubles as Wings keyboard player and backup vocalist. "We couldn't be happier."

     And no wonder. This initial Wings Over America tour, which began in Fort Worth, Texas, on May 3 and will end in Los Angeles on June 23, will play 34 sold-out dates in 21 cities. Total tour attendance will exceed 600,000. That includes the 20,731 fans who saw Wings perform in the Cleveland Richfield Coliseum on May 10, and the 18,500 who watched the show in Cincy's Coliseum on May 27.

     Wings, which, besides the McCartneys, include Denny Laine, Jimmy McCulloch, and Joe English, will gross more than $5 million. However, the 33-year-old multi-millionaire McCartney doesn't appear to be too impressed with money. He was dressed in a loud Hawaiian-print shirt, new, unfaded jeans, and worn-down rubber-soled desert boots. His 34-year-old wife wore a two-piece black suit with a skirt, a lavender blouse, and was shoeless. 

    When I told him that Roger Daltrey of The Who said each of their (The Who's) shows cost $30,000 to put on,  and that I thought that the Wings concert was even more lavish and probably more expensive to produce. McCartney just shrugged his shoulders and said, "I don't have any idea how much each of our concerts costs to produce. I never get into the money thing; someone else takes care of that. I'm just interested in the show being right, and yes, I guess that does take a lot of money."

     McCartney, who appeared on the cover of last week's Time magazine and this week's Rolling Stone, People, and literally every rock publication, was good-natured about the first inevitable question about the Beatles reunion. By his own admission, he's prepared a number of stock answers; take your pick. 

    "I would never participate in a reunion for money." The Beatles reportedly have been offered between 30 million and 50 million for one concert.

     Rolling Stone: "We maybe could be together for a thing, but it always feels to me like it would be a bit limp. The truth is just that since we split up, we've not seen much of each other. We visit occasionally. We're still friends, but we don't feel like getting up and playing again. You can't tell that to people. You say that, and they say, 'How about the money, then? ' and you end up having to think of reasons why you don't feel like it.

     "I tell you, before this tour, I was tempted to ring everyone up and say, 'Look, is it true we're not going to get back together? Because we all pretty much feel like we're not. And as long as I could get everyone to say 'No, we're definitely not', and I could say "It's a definite no-no", but I know my feeling, and I think the others' feeling, in a way, is we don't want to close the door to anything in the future, we might like it someday."

     Chicago Tribune, and many other newspapers, "You can't reheat a soufflé."

     New York Times:  "It's 'probably not' with the possibility of a 'maybe'. No one wants to shut any doors permanently, but by the same token, no one wants to start any rumors. Before we left England, I thought I'd better think of some brilliant answer to that question. If you think of one, go ahead and use it, and I'll agree with it. 

    "It's like a divorced couple, the friends of the couple keep hoping, but the reality is that the two, or the four in this case, aren't coming together again unless they feel the hots for one another."

     In Cincy, McCartney was asked if, when he formed Wings, he had any trouble concentrating on specific goals due to the success of the Beatles. Pausing before answering, he said, "Yeah, I sure did. It's a question of how to follow that kind of success. What I realized I wanted to do most, basically, was to sing. So we decided to get something together, and what we finally got together was Wings."

     Prior to seeing and hearing Wings, if someone had asked who was the world's number one rock personality, I wouldn't have hesitated a moment before choosing among Elton John, Mick Jagger, Elvis Presley, and Bob Dylan. Now that same question would get an immediate response: Paul McCartney. One word: class separates these five superstars, and only McCartney has it. 

    Elton, Mick, Elvis, Dylan, and Paul have each sold millions of records, play only sold-out concerts, and are adored by music lovers the world over. Only McCartney, however, has made himself readily available to the press, and, ironically, he has the most to fear from the media. 

    He not only does interviews following his spectacular two-and-a-half-hour show, but also seems genuinely interested in doing everything right.  Among other rock stars, that definitely puts McCartney in a class by himself,

So Long New York City

 

May 26, 1976 

Paul and Linda pack up and leave New York City -- ready to tackle the rest of the Wings Over America Tour 

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."

Wing Concept Extends Beyond Beatles Magic (Atlanta 1976)

 Wings Concert Extends Beyond Beatles Magic

By Jerry Schwartz & Sally Smith

The Atlanta Constitution

May 19, 1976

    Paul McCartney hammered down the opening three piano chords of "Lady Madonna," and the Omni roared. Until that instant, McCartney and Wings had been cruising through the repertoire of Wings material to an enthusiastic but less than overwhelmed response from the jammed arena, but the instantly recognizable Beatles tune galvanized the 1000s of rock fans at the Omni and showed the unmistakable power the Beatles still exert over rock music nearly a decade after their demise.

     After "Lady Madonna," the Wings concert took flight. There were two more Beatles numbers, but the rest of the material was strictly Wings. There was clearly more power and a heavier rock line in the live performance than the Wings recordings have shown. And that pleased the crowd. 

    Tuesday night was the first of two Atlanta Wings concerts. The second is Wednesday night. Both were sold out within hours after the tickets went on sale.

     The crowd Tuesday night was enormous. The chicly dressed young people began arriving as early as 5:30pm. Three hours later, just before the music began, the crowd had jammed every seat in the Omni and was beginning to spill over into the aisles

    Wings burst onto the stage as clouds of purple smoke whooshed across the platform, and millions of bubbles floated from the ceiling. It was not the only theatrical effect. Flash pots exploded, strobes winked wildly, and a green laser cut patterns through the auditorium as the band performed the title song from the James Bond movie "Live and Let Die."

     But the theatrics were secondary to the music, and the music was crystal clear thanks to an incredibly engineered audio system with the power of 75 awesome 600-watt Crown amplifiers. Every instrument and every vocal could be heard with a clarity unique for rock concerts. Even horn solos, usually drowned in rock concerts, came through perfectly. 

    The middle section of the concert was devoted to numbers performed on an acoustic guitar left alone on stage. McCartney said to the audience, " See if you remember this," and started to sing, " Yesterday, all my troubles seem so far away." And what is perhaps the nearest thing to a classic rock music has produced. After the group did an extended version of "Band on the Run", accompanied by a movie in which the Band on the Run album cover came to life, Wings left, but they were called back by the screaming, jumping audience for two encores. 

    In the audience, opinion was divided on just what Wings' drawing power is.  It is Wings' music alone that would have brought the 1000s to the Omni? Some, like Lisa Cowley of Marietta, said, "I doubt it. It's really McCartney and the Beatles. It's great to see Paul. It would be even better if John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr were here."  But others were there strictly for Wings. "I think McCartney is fantastic. It's not the Beatles that brought me here. It's McCartney," said one young woman. "It's obvious he was the real talent in the Beatles."

     Immediately after the concert, Paul and his wife, Linda, collapsed, flushed and exhausted, in their dressing room backstage. "The reception's been wonderful everywhere," McCartney said, "and we're really pulling together, working tight. It's fine. In fact, when we first set out on the tour, it felt like a holiday. Everybody was so high, but...." He rubbed his eyes and shook his head. "Now the traveling is starting to get to us."

     McCartney was enthusiastic about the future of rock. "I suppose a lot of people do get blase about rock music about the age of 30, but I've always felt that rock was a mating thing, a physical thing, and there's a certain age group that's always going to do that."

Reunion Wouldn't Surprise Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney (1976)

 Reunion Would Surprise Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney 

Associated Press

April 28, 1976

    Paul McCartney and the Wings group he formed after the Beatles broke up begin their delayed tour of the United States on May 3.  McCartney won't be surprised if the audiences include John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, and maybe the four Beatles will even come around to performing together again.

     A spokesman for McCartney said Tuesday, "If the former Beatles do meet up with one another again, it would be no surprise. They tend to turn up at one another's concerts." The spokesman said, "Paul would be delighted to see them. They are all friends despite their old disputes."

     McCartney was unavailable for comment, but the spokesman indicated that if the Beatles do meet again during the Wings tour, it's a safe prediction that they will discuss the possibility of a reunion on stage. "Paul McCartney's answer to the question, 'Will there be a Beatles reunion on stage?' is a definite, maybe", the spokesman said.

     In New York, however, McCartney's American lawyer and father-in-law, Lee Eastman, cautions Beatle fans against counting too heavily on seeing the four play together again. "At this point, there is absolutely no plan of any kind to get together," he said. "That may vary tomorrow, but at this moment, there is no decision by any of the four to get together."

     McCartney and the other former Beatles have been offered millions of dollars, primarily for television, radio, and recording rights to play together on stage again, even for a single evening. The Beatles broke up in 1972. [sic]  

    McCartney has emphasized that although he is interested, music, not money, is what counts with him. He has also said he is very happy with Wings, whose members include his American wife, Linda Eastman. The Wings tour opens on May 3 in Fort Worth, Texas.