Time to Celebrate

 October 21, 1976 

Paul and Linda pass the Credibility test (1976)

Paul and Linda Pass the Credibility Test

No Writer Listed

Daily Express

October 20, 1976

    Paul McCartney was back at London's Empire Pool last night, very much on his own terms. The last time he played the 8000 capacity stadium was with the Beatles at the height of their fame 10 years ago.

     Now with his group Wings, the homecoming was a moment of triumph after a 12-month, 66-city world tour, which has been watched by 2 million fans. At 33, he has had 14 years' experience at the top, achieving world ratings all over again with Wings, and is his own new material with the group, which has brought him acclaim in 1976. Songs like "Venus and Mars," "Jet," and the recent hit "Let 'Em In," which had the audience shouting its acclaim.

     He introduced a couple of old Beatles numbers, which he never used to do when Wings was formed five years ago. The classic " Yesterday," which he sang crouched cross-legged on the floor underneath a single spotlight, had the crowd reminiscing. But "Band on the Run" soon reminded everyone that those days were long over. 

    Certainly, this was the coming of full credibility for Wings in Britain, especially perhaps for Paul's much criticized wife Linda. "We were always aware of the heavy criticism," said Paul. "It could be very hurtful, and it was rough at the beginning. But I think it's now over."

     After tonight and tomorrow's sellout at Wembley, it will be back to their Scottish farm for the McCartneys, where they will consider a script for a new fiction feature film. "Work, "said McCartney, "must never stop."

Ciggie in hand

 

Backstage in Munich

 September 27, 1976 

If You Can't Trust UNESCO Who Can You Trust? (Venice 1976)

 

If You Can't Trust UNESCO, Who Can You Trust? Says Paul McCartney at a Benefit Concert for Vience

By Alvin Shuster

Times News Service (Venice, Italy)

September 27, 1976

    It was hardly music to sail gondolas by, but it was music enough to enthuse more than 25,000 fans, raise money to help save Venice, and provide St. Mark's Square with an event unique in its long history.

     For the first time, a contemporary rock group, Paul McCartney's Wings, took over the Square for a live concert. Violinists, given to injecting the piazza with a heavy dose of "Three Coins in a Fountain" and other tourist sentiments, went home early Saturday night and abandoned it to the former Beatle and his group.

     McCartney's special effects included smoke, strobe lights, and speakers across the sides of the square, and attached even to the walls of the doge's palace beyond. Famous pop people rarely come to Italy these days, so 1000s of Italians, mostly young but some old, crowded into the Square to applaud with their hands over their heads, and shout "Paolo" at the group's leader, and concluded at the end that it was all "fantastico."

     The purpose of the concert was to help the city by raising funds for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which is working to stop decay here, restore works of art and buildings, and prevent the city of canals from sinking.

     The Wings concert yielded about $50,000 for the cause after some costs. UNESCO and the city, for example, paid for the construction of the huge stage and electricity, a total of about $40,000. But the rock group, apart from contributing the talent, paid for transporting the heavy equipment, which arrived in trailer trucks sailed down the canals on ferry boats to the Square. 

    "They told us that our concert would help keep the city going," said Paul afterwards. So he said, "Fine, take the profits from the show and lift a building up. I hope it doesn't cost us too much, but if you can't trust UNESCO, who can you trust?"

     The for the the 34 year old musician incidentally added that the Beatles were definitely a "past thing," and that efforts to revive the group, even for one performance, appeared doomed to failure. "We have just been separated too long," he said. "We are still all friendly. There's no animosity."

     The performance Saturday, which included songs from all the recent albums of Wings, plus a solo by Paul of the Beatles' song "Yesterday", was the climax of a week-long effort by UNESCO to focus public attention on the continuing needs of Venice. Earlier in the week, there were performances in less dramatic surroundings by La Chunga, the Spanish dancer, Ravi Shankar on the sitar, and other musicians. 

    Not a vacant hotel room was to be found in Venice all weekend, and Peter Asdonov, who presided over a UNESCO gala Sunday, watched the chaos in the hotel housing the Wings Saturday night, said it "resembled the stock exchange on the day of collapse."

     "We wanted to alert public opinion to the problems of Venice," said a spokesman for UNESCO. "We all want solutions urgently, and we thought Wings could raise at least a symbolic sum that would go to restoring something." 

    The money from the concert will be turned over to city authorities, who will decide how to spend it after talks with the UNESCO officials. The organization's consultative committee met here last week and decided that it was not satisfied with the pace of work here so far. By all accounts, work is lagging. There has been some progress. The land has apparently stopped sinking, but UNESCO, which is coordinating many of the programs, is now trying to instill new life into the salvage efforts; obviously, the violinists of Venice need no help. The square was cleared overnight, and they were back with the sentiment Sunday afternoon.

Wings plays Venice

 

September 25, 1976 

Wings Over Yugoslavia

 September 21, 1976 

Red Rose Wings

 

I think this a great photo of early Wings.  I bet they all wore black and red to promote Red Rose Speedway and purposely sat on the red chairs, but they look so cool!  Why does Denny S. have "Red Rose Speedway" (is that a sticker?) on his boot?  Check out Linda's heels!  

Howie's sax

 

My Love Does it Good Part 2 (1975)

My Love Does It Good

By Cindy Rosenthal

The Write Thing

Jan/Feb 1976

    My other big day was in Manchester. We were at a hotel checking on prices. It was just down the street from the theater. Prices were too high for us, and we wondered if Paul would stay there. Then we saw a sign that said the Mel Bush organization would be in a certain room at 3:30.  Mel Bush was the promoter of Paul's tour. We went and checked out the room mentioned on the sign and found it set up for a press conference. We were waiting to see when they'd get there. Ken and Madeline were also waiting, so we were talking to them.

     Suddenly, the bus drove up. I hadn't really expected them to show up. MaryAnn and I ran into the foyer area, and off stepped Linda. She smiled at me, and I took her photo. Then Paul stepped off, looking ever so good. Stella was right behind him, and as she got off, she started to cry a little. Paul picked her up, and she got a kiss from both her parents. Paul was holding a Wing sign about the size of a card that was usually passed out at concerts. Stella had obviously drawn all over it. They stood and posed for a real photographer, so we had a chance to take photos too.

     As Paul came near me, I said "The concerts were great!"  I said it with a lot of feeling. He asked, "Did you like that?"  And I said "Yes!"  We almost touched hands, but he had Stella in his arms. I felt we touched mentally, though.  Good vibes. Then he let me take a close-up of him. Linda thanked me for the badges we had given them the night before. That surprised me too. 

    Inside, Paul put Stella on the receptionist's desk, and he was standing with his hands in his pockets and yawning. He looked like he had been sleeping on the bus. Mary was running around. I noticed she has freckles on her nose. She kept going outside, and Stella yelled, "McCartney!" Linda yelled, "Mary!" And she came back in. I just stood watching them because I didn't know what to do. I'd run out of film. 

    They had all went upstairs. We were standing there deciding what to do next when suddenly Brian, Paul's manager, yelled, "Are you going to the sound check now?" to someone behind us, I turned around and there was Paul and Linda, arm in arm, walking toward the front door. Paul said, "No, we're going to get something for Stella (it was her birthday that day, September 13.) He was bopping at a fast pace. Outside, some fans stopped them to get a photo, so we took the opportunity. Also, when Paul saw a crowd beginning, he said, "Hurry up, John!" to the guy taking their picture. Then they waved across the street. Well, they walked across the street, and when they stopped at the corner, he turned around and bowed and waved. I have a blurry shot of that one. What a ham! They went down to a bookstore and then bopped out of view. He looked so good. No one on the street even recognized him,

Photo taken by Cindy Rosenthal in Manchester
Copyright held by Sara Schmidt 

     At the concert that night, the Macca kids were sitting two rows in front of us. Mary was directly in front of me. Mary was posing toothlessly for me. She got the same expression as her dad and  the same wide-eyed look. Mary was waving at her parents most of the concert, but only Stella got a hello from Mum. They were clapping to the music and having a great time.

     It would take me 1000s of words to go through every concert and every day. I can only mention special moments, special rare moments. In my mind, the concerts are all one blur. Too much happened too fast. I remember the hours of waiting for tickets and riding on trains, and then the fleeting moments that made all those hours worth it. In Bristol, I was standing by the stage door in the falling rain. Suddenly, the maroon Rolls drove up, and I saw Paul point at me. I'll never really know why he pointed at me, but I had on a Venus and Mars shirt, so I imagine he was pointing at that.

     Then there were the frustrations of knowing he was staying six miles outside the city, so I couldn't go see him at all. But the concert meant more to me for some reason. I got very frustrated when I did see him at hotels because I wanted to be more than just a fan among the crowd greeting the star. I had those two days to say something to him, and as usual, I couldn't remember all the things I wanted to ask him. I was usually in awe when I saw him, and if he said something to me, I would be dumbfounded.

      Whenever I did see him, he looked great, always dressed so nicely in a suit, and in Liverpool, he had on the red and white T-shirt that he had worn 10 years before. I never got the feeling that the kids were bothered by the chaos around them; the only time there was a hint of that was in the hotel, after the Manchester concert. I was in the lobby with camera ready, and Stella came walking and yelling, "Pictures, pictures, pictures."

     The concerts were always the best, and forgetting all the hours of waiting and hunger, my eyes would be glued on all five feet 11 inches of him on the stage. He has the same facial expressions as he did 10 years ago. The cute smiles, the look sideways or upwards to the balcony. He usually got into the music more than you could imagine. Some nights he seemed very loose, and others a little uptight. When mistakes happened, he handled them with poise and charm. There weren't that many, but concerts would be boring if they were all perfect. The music was so good that I can hardly bear to listen to his album now, because the songs just don't have the power that came from the stage. 

    He was always aware of the fans; unless he was being filmed, then you could see him put everything into his performance, forgetting that we were out there being trampled on. In Newcastle, I was right up front, almost in front of him, and the crowd was just too rowdy for me. I'd already had a hard day's night. I could barely take photos, and the sweaty bodies next to me were making me go crazy. I was seriously thinking about getting out of the crowd. I had had enough of crowds by then. I was making strange faces as I got pushed, pulled, and stepped on. Just as I was contemplating how I was going to get out, Paul winked at me. It was almost as if he knew how frustrated I was getting. It wasn't just a wink in my general direction. It was for me. Believe me, If you've ever been winked at by Paul, you would know it.

     And at the last concert, he was acting awfully sexy, if you can describe it like that. During "Jet", he looked at MariAnn and me with this look, and my mouth fell open, but Paul does that to you if you let him. It's just fleeting moments like these that I wish would last forever. I could go on and on. I only wish it had never ended. I really miss those concerts. They were the best 13 nights of my life

    . I'm sure I could go on talking about the little things that happened at concerts and stage doors, but words can never describe the feeling. I just know that Paul still has that something that makes him a star. Fans are still going crazy over him. In the Manchester Hotel, a small crowd waited for Wings to arrive from the concert. Despite a van full of coppers and warnings to get lost, the minute Paul arrived, he was swarmed. All I saw was Paul and Linda trying to get in the door with fans pulling on them, and Paul laughing the whole time. The fans were all left on the outside as Wings disappeared. I turned and saw a girl crying her eyes out on her friend's shoulder while she sobbed. "I can't believe I saw Paul". It could have been 1964 all over again.

My Love Does It Good Part 1 (1975)

 

Photo by George Tebbins

My Love Does It Good

By Cindy Rosenthal

The Write Thing

Jan/Feb 1976

    When I found myself in Southampton, I had the excitement of 11 years of waiting inside me. I had seen Paul a couple times and been to England once before, but I had never been to a concert, be it Beatles or Wings. Seeing Paul in concert had been my only dream since the Beatles broke up, and so it came to be. 

    MaryAnn Dolphin went along for the thrill of it all. I had also met George Tebbins by phone two days before I heard about the tour, and since I liked the lad, I offered to write for tickets for him too. We were all determined to see Macca in concert, even if it meant giving up our jobs. 

    We were to meet George in Southampton. When we went to the theater to get our tickets, the ticket lady told me George had already been there looking for us, and that he was by the stage door. I had a sneaky suspicion he was inside when we didn't find him. I was right, but we didn't have the nerve to go in and look for him. We went and searched hotels and guest homes for him. We did find out which hotel Paul was going to stay at by accident. Off to a good start.

     After a change of clothes, we went back to the hotel Paul would arrive at. George was already waiting there, and I was glad we finally found him. We decided to get flowers for the Maccas at a flower shop a few blocks away. I was afraid we'd miss their arrival while we were gone. 

    On the way back, we ran across a busy street in front of a bus. George yelled, "That's Paul in that bus!" I looked up and saw Mary Mac in the bus, which was being followed by two Rolls-Royces. We ran to the hotel and got there as the band appeared. Paul looked so damn good. He was in a gray suit with a matching vest and a black shirt. Linda was in a maroon dress. I was in shock. I told MaryAnn to give them the flowers while I started taking photos. I was shaking so badly. I'm surprised any of them came out. 

    When MaryAnn gave Paul the flowers, he handed them to Linda, but he kept our card and read the names. Suddenly he asked, "Who's Cindy?" I almost fell over, but instead I raised my hand. He looked at me and said, "We get letters from you from America." What could I say? I think I shook my head yes and smiled. I couldn't believe he remembered my name!  Then I started trying to take photos. If wasn't shaking before; I was shaking now. 

    Mary and Stella were running around and playing with the revolving door. Darling kids. MaryAnn went to get his autograph, and I said, "Let me take a picture of you two together." He looked up after I took the photo. Blimey! Linda smiled at me and seemed nice enough. A bellhop was trying to ask me questions while all this was going on. Couldn't he see I was going crazy?

     Finally, they went inside after Paul looked at some of George's photos. As Paul was going in, Mary ran back outside. He said, "Come this way, Mary." She answered, "I don't want to come your way." He pointed a finger at her and said, "Trouble!" in the cutest way. Mary ran back inside. 

    Needless to say, I was shaking very badly, and we went back to our guest house to see Crossroads. The now famous theme came on at the end and sounded great.

Photo by George Tebbins - taken at the Southampton concert 

     Off to the theater for the first concert. We missed the band arriving, but we got to listen to their sound check. All that was between us was the door. This was the first time I'd heard Paul live, and I was loving it. Got inside, and they told us we couldn't take photos during the concert. I was so upset. I had to check my camera. The management told us it was Paul's orders, but that was a lie. George snuck his in, though. 

    When the curtain rose, I felt a lot of emotions. There was Paul on stage with guitar in hand, just like in so many pictures and films I'd seen. It took a while for me to grasp that I was seeing him for real. Finally, a bit later, when he started singing, Maybe I'm Amazed," the tears came to my eyes. He sounded so damn good. I wanted to cry, and all my emotions were hitting me hard. This first old song was "Long and Winding Road." Well, that song really made the tears flow. I was in heaven. I was watching Paul now, and I could see him in Let It Be as well. I could remember all the good years I've had with him. It was a beautiful feeling. 

    I was quite mad at this British audience for acting so bored. I wanted to get up and bop when he did the rockers. The whole band was so tight and sounded so good. The sound system was perfect, and the show never got boring. I loved seeing them sitting in chairs with acoustic guitars and singing songs like "Blue Bird" and "I've Just Seen a Face."

     When Paul started "Junior's Farm", I couldn't take it anymore. I was standing up with MaryAnn, dancing and clapping to the music. We were the only two standing, but Paul couldn't see us. I don't know how anyone can sit calmly through songs like this one. They didn't even clap their hands. Anyway, when the end came, and fast numbers started, the fans finally ran down front. This was the most fun because you could bop to the music, or just stare at his perfect face or his body, or watch the sweat fly off his face. He seemed to love having the fans come down, digging his music. He always looked happiest then.

     At the end, the band came and threw flowers to the crowd. Then they were gone. You would be left in a daze, hot and exhausted. 

Rude Studio

 July 20, 1971 

By the way -- you can see the Rude Studio sign on display right now at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio 

McCartney Tells His Fans Linda Stays in Wings (1976)

 

McCartney Tells His Fans Linda Stays in Wings

By Colin Dangaard

The San Francisco Examiner

July 11, 1976

    Paul McCartney wound up a block-busting tour of the US recently. A new $6 million minstrel.

     "I love it, I love it!" Paul said at the end of the Golden Road. "Before I came here, people were saying I was just another ex-Beatle, but now they've accepted that the new group these days is Wings. At last, the Beatles are history."

     McCartney also winds up a lot richer emotionally. He's sure he loves his wife, Linda, even if some of the fans showed they do not. "She got a terrific hate later letter this evening," He admitted. "Oh God! It was awful!"

     Said Linda, her arm in his, "I don't mind. I really don't. I just think it's silly for somebody to be involved with something they're not even living."

    Despite criticism from fans over Linda, Paul insists there was no question that she would be part of the group when he formed it 18 months ago. "Linda and I teamed when the Beatles split, and we've been making music together ever since. She was a natural for Wings, although she got a lot of flack, but now the criticism seems to be a thing of the past. Generally, people in the beginning did not want her. They would say, 'We don't like Wings, and we particularly don't like Linda.' Now, after a show, people don't say that. 

    "I think it works with Linda, and anyhow, I love her! And I put that down in writing. I commit my bloody self! I do." Then he said, "I don't know what it is about Linda and I. We never intended to hook up with a person and stay with that person forever. It's just the way it happened with us. 

    "Now we're always with our kids. We enjoy each other. We're not show business types at all, really. We may seem to be show business, but we're not. I see Liz Taylor and Richard Burton leaping around Africa and all, but we're not like that. We're not the party crowd. We like to sit at home, put our feet up, turn the telly on."

     He laughs the way a man does when he has just trucked 6 million new dollars to the bank, the gross from the Wings tour. 

    Then he adds, "But you never know, blimey, I don't know whether we're going to stay together. Neither of us knows if it's going to keep together."

     McCartney has no doubts about his marriage to Wings. "When you think about it," he says,  "the Beatles were together eight years before they made a record. Wings has only just started. We're still getting to know each other. 

    "I don't particularly want Wings to achieve the same stature as the Beatles. It's not what we're aiming for. We just want to produce good music, the type people like. If people like us as much as they like the Beatles, I'd be happy, but that's not our objective."

     Not since the last Rolling Stones tour has the US seen such sellouts. In Fort Worth, Texas, $8.50 tickets were selling outside for $50, and everywhere lines stretched and stretched, but, strangely, the crowds were not riotous. When Wings was due in Seattle, the police chief there immediately phoned his counterpart in Chicago, the city Wings had just left. He asked if 60 men would be enough to keep Law and Order at the concert. As a result of that conversation, he assigned 30. 

    The crowds were evenly divided between young married couples who remembered the Beatles tour and teenagers who came to look at a legend.

     Asked one more time if he thought the Beatles would get back together, McCartney mimicked the voice of Muhammad Ali and said: "The Beatles split in '69 and since then they've been doing fine, and if that question doesn't cease, there ain't nobody going to get no peace."

     This week McCartney begins a vacation, after which he will write more songs and plan another Wings tour.

Wings Concert Soars -- Surpass Expectations (Los Angeles 1976)

 Wings Concert Soars - Surpass Expectations

By Matt Aragorn Pavin

Ventura County Star

June 26, 1976

    Mix an excited audience with a legendary artist, and the stage is set for a real concert event. Add a performance that surpasses all expectations, and the result is a night to remember. Such was the case Tuesday evening at the Fabulous Forum. It was the middle of a three-day Los Angeles engagement. It was the next-to-last stop on the most publicized tour since the Who's cross-country trek in 1973. It was one of the debut American appearances by the world's most popular group (Sorry, Elton): Wings. It was a legendary bassist, pianist, and guitarist named Paul McCartney, and it was good. 

    The aura of nervous anticipation surrounding the Forum was a sure indication that something special was brewing. 20,000 eager faces, mostly young, many older, shared this feeling as the house lights dimmed. The energy level inside the arena was a palpable buzz. It was exciting and breathtaking. The opening strains of "Venus and Mars/ Rock Show" were greeted by the second most tumultuous response this reporter has ever heard, the loudest occurring two and a half hours later, after Wings' finale, which was "Band on the Run."

     In between were two other displays of aesthetic approval, one following a horn-punctuated version of "Lady Madonna," the first of five Beatles selections, two songs later, a stunning rendition of "Live and Let Die" through even more applause, the dynamic James Bond theme was accentuated by a pair of incredible visual effects. Just as each of the tune's intense segments began, bright smoke bombs were triggered. For the remainder of these passages, an emerald green laser light was fired from the stage towards the far wall, where its computerized patterns danced like flames. A laser was also used during "Hi, Hi, Hi", similar to the one Genesis introduced at the Starlight Amphitheater on May 1.

     Other visual aids were also put to magnificent use. A small square-screen flash slides in a crushed crescent moon atop a candle for "Maybe I'm Amazed", an antique chair for "Picasso's Last Words", and three comic book characters for "Magneto and Titanium Man". A larger rectangular screen showed a short film during "Band on the Run". Additionally, all the platforms supporting Wings' equipment were under cabaret-type lights. The entire lighting system created a striking atmosphere. 

    Then again, the mere presence of Paul McCartney was striking. The ex-Beatle was in firm command from the outset. Although 10 years absent from American Halls, Paul showed no signs of either rustiness or awkwardness. McCartney's singing was beautiful, with the lone exception of "My Love," his voice possessed the same magic that helped launch Beatlemania over 13 years ago. Not surprisingly, Paul's vocal appeal was the strongest on "Yesterday". Note perfect is an inadequate description of his rendition, as the crowd was moved and mesmerized by his emotionally powerful lyrics.

     But McCartney was not alone. A four-piece brass section spiced up approximately half of the set's 29 songs.  Linda McCartney, dressed in black, provided excellent vocal harmonies, although her keyboard playing was rather lame. Jimmy McCulloch Wing's underrated lead guitarist consistently offered tasty solos as steady chord work. Drummer Joe English performed with sturdy dependency. 

    Yet the star of the sidemen was Denny Laine, one of the original Moody Blues. His ample instrumental talents included stints on guitar, bass, and various keyboards. Moreover, he handled the vocal chores on "Spirits of Ancient Egypt", the new "Time to Hide," and the unexpected, delightful "Go Now" with a fluid, slightly bluesy brilliance. Another unexpected number was Simon and Garfunkel's "Richard Cory"; the other three Beatles songs were "The Long and Winding Road," "I've Just Seen a Face," and "Blackbird."

     17 selections, however, were culled from Wing's last three albums. Those not mentioned above were "Jet", "Bluebird", and "Let Me Roll It" from Band on the Run. "You Gave Me the Answer", "Letting Go," "Medicine Jar", " Call Me Back Again ", and " Listen to What the Man Said" from Venus and Mars.  And "Let 'Em In," "Beware My Love," and "Silly Love Songs" from Wings at the Speed of Sound.

    For those of you who are counting, the 29th tune was the second encore, an unreleased rocker with a chorus of something like "Sorry, we've got to go."

     The overall sound production was as polished as the lights. Nevertheless, the horns and McCulloch's guitar improvisations added an element of spontaneity. Correspondingly, most of the songs had a rockier feel in concert than on the albums, yet melodies were never sacrificed, and the lyrics were almost always intelligible. My expectations, however, were surpassed easily. There is nothing so entertaining as a legend at his peak.

Rookie Photographer Tests Living Legend (San Diego 1976)

Photos by Kirk Christ

Rookie Photographer Test Living Legend

By Kirk Christ

Daily Times Advocate

June 27, 1976

    The gate holding back an odd collection of press and spectators slammed shut as the Cadillac limos backed down the San Diego Sports Arena stage ramp. An occasional scream pierced the purr of the engines. Chauffeurs nervously chatting, waited to take Paul McCartney, his wife Linda, and the Wings entourage away from the 14,000 roaring fans and me, a wide-eyed, nervous, anything but cool photographer, more used to watching rock concerts than recording them on film.

     The sounds from the arena were dying down as the audience, a strange blend of old Beatles fans and younger Wings fans, headed out to their cars for the beginning of the "Sports Arena 500." The race, famous to local hardcore rock fans, is a mad dash of nearly 10,000 cars vying for the 220-foot-wide exits. They call it the "500" because that's the usual number of fender benders that occur during the course of the event.

     If that wasn't bad enough, most of the drivers had been smoking some self-rolled cigarettes, drinking, or both, while listening to ear-splitting music and wondering when their sun yogurt would curdle. It is beyond most humans' capability to adequately function after such an experience. As the San Diego police guided these glassy-eyed motorists on their merry way, I waited to get a glimpse of a legend.

     By now, the backstage area was filled with workers busily disassembling equipment. McCartney himself was nowhere to be seen, a court of onlookers without its king. "I'm sorry, no one gets past here without authorization," shouted one older guard. 

    More and more people kept jamming into the small hallway as the exit became less and less visible. Someone suggested rushing the gate. It wasn't a bad idea, except for one thing: I was in front. It's not that I didn't want to lead these people on a mini Bastille day charge, but with my luck, if I didn't end up as a permanent ornament on the gate, I would face certain death at the hands of the two angry-looking 300-pound Samoan guards standing a short distance away. 

    I saw a faint light at the end of the tunnel (sorry Henry) and decided to get away fast onto the bar where John Denver had been spotted, and to have a few drinks. After a couple of rounds, it looked as if McCartney wasn't going to join the party. One of his agents, who had been keeping the press well in hand most of the evening, was the only one of the Wings group still visible.

     But to get back to the beginning, being a rookie at first, I wasn't sure what was status quo. I found out soon enough -Nothing. Minutes before the show started, the photographers were led to an area in front of the stage. There we were threatened with expulsion if we stood higher than the partition separating the audience and the stage. While talking to one of the six-foot-three-inch Hells Angel-type standing guards, I asked him if, on occasion, I could stand for a better shot. He said that was all right, but if he caught me, he would have to smash me. That posed quite a dilemma. I wasn't sure which I preferred: getting smashed beyond recognition right away or trying to explain to the boss why I didn't get any pictures and then getting creamed.

     In retrospect, I'm glad the guards were there. Being near the stage affords an unrestricted view of the audience. If that isn't frightening enough, it's unsettling to know that when a rock audience rushes the stage, which always happens, people will do anything to touch the star, including using a human body as a vaulting pole. Improvisation granted, but quite effective and deadly. The only somewhat pleasant aspect to this onslaught was that the guard, also known as Big Fist, would end up battling the fans to protect me.

     About an hour after the concert ended, the crowd in the bar was thinning out. I was still waiting for the legend, but also losing count of my drinks. Time to call it quits. As I walked out of the arena, a giant roar came from near the stage entrance. McCartney's  Cadillac procession was leaving, so Wings could catch a flight to Los Angeles, where there would be three more shows and possibly three more rookie photographers covering "rock and roll at the Hollywood Bowl."
 

Wings Covers America (San Diego 1976)

 

Wings Cover America

By Jim Guthrie

Daily-Times Advocate

June 27, 1976

    There he was all alone on the stage singing "Yesterday", and there I was in the last row with 14,000 people between us, trying to get the binoculars away from my wife. I'd had the binoculars when he started the song; they had basically been in my possession from the beginning of Paul McCartney's concert at the San Diego Sports Arena, which isn't exactly true. It wasn't just Paul McCartney's concert, it was one stop in the Wings Over America tour, and it was significant.

     The group was addressed in the billing, which indicated a certain symbolism and understanding by one of pop music's most eminent superstars of the idioms' integral relationship between the individual and those around him. McCartney's name alone would have been enough to guarantee the tour's success, but by itself it wouldn't have reflected what, in purely musical terms, the tour was all about. Where the man was now musically.

     There's a place in pop music for the solo performer, and time could be taken here to list a dozen or so names, any one of which, when placed upon a marquee, would be enough to sell out any auditorium in the country as fast as Wings sold out the Sports Arena. But after a while, every new Carole King or John Denver song sounds too much like the old ones, etc. etc.

     The reigning solo performer at present is Elton John, but he really isn't a soloist in a variety of senses. His music needs Bernie Taupin's lyrics, and that just isn't old Elton up there in those funny glasses, banging away at the piano. There are some very talented musicians backing him up.

     To be continually innovative and appealing, pop music requires an interplay of ideas. It has to be a cooperative effort to be truly great. Sure, Elvis was the single most important influence in pop music, but he was a style, an instrument through which the music of others flowed. He needed those others, just as they certainly needed him. And a guy named Dylan has been pretty important in pop music, too. But if he hadn't augmented himself with The Band, it's doubtful he could have gained superstar status as a performer. 

    The most important group in pop music has been the Beatles, but its members were human, and musically the Beatles broke up because John, Paul, George, and Ringo wanted to say their own musical things. They wanted to become Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr on their own terms, and they did for a couple of albums, a couple of years, but then what they were saying on their own wasn't all that important, or even all that entertaining. It became significant for its curiosity value, but tended to be disappointing musically. 

    McCartney, however, relearned the importance of interplay and cooperative effort, and so here it was six years after the breakup, and here was Paul, basically the lead singer in a new group, filling hall after hall, night after night, with both a single and an album number one on the charts. Of course, McCartney is more than a lead singer, and that is why I was trying to get the binoculars back. Through them, I had followed the trajectory of frisbees before the lights went out, and the four horn players mounted the stage in their glow-in-the-dark Wings T-shirts, followed by the five members of Wings themselves, illuminated by that shaft of shocking red spotlight. 

    I'd inspected the crowd carefully, noting a large part of it was made up of people as old as I was, and thus as old as McCartney. I searched in vain for braless teeny boppers boogying carefree in the aisles. While there was a younger element in attendance, I spied them looking curiously at my age group through the doorway of the crowded bar in the lobby, as we fortified ourselves with beer, scotch, and brandy before climbing to our seats. a burly guard informed us we were required to finish our drinks at the bar. We weren't allowed to take them out. Obviously, those kids staring in at us with those funny cigarettes in their hands needed to be protected from the likes of us.

     I had been afraid of having to deal with a bunch of pimply-faced weirdos trying to steal my seat. I had even prepared a speech about the fact that I had more of a right than they had to be there, because in part McCartney was, after all, of my generation, and why didn't they buzz off and come back when Pink Floyd was in town?

     But there wasn't any hassle. Everybody got along just fine, and the only tension between the generations occurred when a pre-teenage girl in the row in front of me looked at me funny while I tapped my feet during "Lady Madonna". We wound up smiling at each other, and later I noticed we were both clapping in time to "Band on the Run."

     But now he was singing "Yesterday", perhaps the watershed song in pop music. The song that made the kind of music that produced it respectable and listened to by all segments of the public. After "Yesterday", pop music became a sociological influence, not just a category. And although he had more to do with "Yesterday" than anyone else, the song isn't known as just a McCartney song; it's a Beatles song, and I'm sure he wouldn't have it any other way. 

    Still, one night stands out in my memory when a musician friend of mine was playing "Yesterday"on his flute. He stopped and said, "You know, McCartney is a musical genius," and then he went back to proving it, so I regretted that I had given the binoculars to my wife. I guess I wanted to be able to say what she did when he finished the song. "I've always wanted to see him sing that, and now I can say that I have." But at least I could hear him in the 18th row of section 20 C, and I was glad I was there. 

    However, "Yesterday" wasn't the high point of the concert.  Hearing it was nice enough, but somehow only in a nostalgic way. What made the concert memorable was the new McCartney sound. The sound of five musicians playing together as Wings.

     Wings is still developing as a group, and it may never reach the Beatles' status or preeminence. Probably no group ever will, but I can't wait for its next tour. By that time, I'm sure the Sports Arena won't be nearly big enough to hold all the people of all ages waiting. Wings will be closer to getting it all together then, and the people in the back row will need higher powered binoculars.

in defense of McCartney (1976 San Francisco)

 

In Defense of McCartney

By David Cheit

The Independent

June 18, 1976

    A Beatles reunion is a special fantasy. If it ever happens, its mere existence will transcend any of the more concrete details of a performance. The songs won't have to be good just so they could be. Period.

     Until the dream comes true, we have to settle for what we can get. Wings is no match for the Beatles, but when you can get Paul McCartney on stage, and he sings " Yesterday " for you, it doesn't matter much who he's playing with. 

    That incredible thirst for a taste, a drop, anything to bring back the Beatles experience was in shouting, arm-waving, foot-stomping evidence last weekend when Paul McCartney brought his band of the '70s to the Cow Palace. The inadequacies have been adequately covered in local reviews. Yes, Paul's voice was unable to make the highest notes. Yes, the sound system was inappropriate, almost to the point of distraction, and yes, the new group is a far cry from the old group, but under the circumstances, everybody went home satisfied.

     If a reunion is in the cards, this certainly was an encouraging preview. It showed that Paul is ready to return to the Beatles' music. He has said he couldn't face it for so long that he could only recently consider performing it again. It also showed his capability as a performer. True, the strenuous tour has taken its toll on his vocal cords, but the acoustic numbers, "Blackbird" and "Yesterday", were nothing short of entrancing. 

    The Wings tunes can't possibly be held in the same reverent light as the Beatles classics, simply because they're not Beatles songs, but they still stood up very well and were received with enthusiasm, with one or two dull exceptions. 

    Other criticisms of the tour have been aimed at Linda McCartney, whose vocal and instrumental contributions to the Wings are, to be sure, undistinguished, but that kind of pickiness doesn't do justice to the way McCartney has managed to preserve his image through the years, while John, George, and Ringo all went through various phases of what's sometimes perceived as weirdness.

     Linda is part of that image. She has helped make Paul something of an all-American Beatle. The spirit and unpretentiousness of the '60s remain, but now Paul is in his 30s. He's a dedicated family man. He's married to a pretty American girl. It's an appealing image, and none of the other Beatles has it.

     Paul hasn't changed much since the days when the Beatles represented a vaguely sinister presence with their funny long hair and odd slang vocabulary. It's everyone else who has changed.

McCartney Has Renewed Glow in the Limelight (San Francisco 1976)

 

McCartney Has Renewed Glow in the Limelight

By Steve Connell

The Sacramento Union

June 15, 1976

    The ex-Beatle Paul McCartney is no longer the boyish mop-top British idol of the 1960s, but thanks to his much-celebrated Wings Over America tour, he's once again in the limelight and very much alive and well. 

    He proved all that, plus much, much more here Sunday and Monday nights in the cavernous Cow Palace. Both shows were sold out far in advance, and Sunday's was like nothing I have ever seen. Incredible might not even be enough of a superlative to describe the affair. Even before the concert, the aura of anticipation hanging over the ticket holders and those who were frantically looking for someone with extra tickets for sale was in evidence.

     Some three hours before the show time, they were already lined up to the back of the huge parking lot, waiting and waiting in hopes of getting some kind of decent seat for the festival seat show. The air was buzzing with electricity, and when it finally got going, when Paul made his first triumphant rise to the stage, where he hadn't set foot in nearly 10 years, a roar of approval, so deafening I could hardly stand it, ripped through the hall like a tidal wave. Cameras were flashing in the darkness at a rapid-fire pace, like a million strobe lights blinking at once. I think every rock critic in California must have been there, and of course, there were people from everywhere and numbering nearly 20,000. 

    I talked to one fellow who flew out from Georgia just for the show; another drove from Seattle. I'm sure there were countless others who traveled just as far, and I doubt it was any of the throng walking away disappointed. 

    McCartney is indeed professional in every sense of the word. While I hadn't previously been too impressed with his band, Wings proved to be extremely talented. Paul's wife Linda plays keyboards and sings with Denny Laine and Jimmy McCulloch on guitars, Joe English on drums, and a superb horn section of four. And they blend nicely. They perhaps use too much volume, but the Cow Palace has never been known for good acoustics. 

    They started with newer Wings material, tunes off the Venus and Mars, and Wings at the Speed of Sound LP, plus tunes like "Maybe I'm Amazed" from Paul's first solo album. But when the evening wore on a bit, and McCartney and Company moved into a series of old Beatles, it was the crowd that went nearly ecstatic. These were tunes that brought back memories and tugged at the heartstrings, songs like "Lady Madonna", a very moving "Long and Winding Road," I've Just Seen a Face", "Blackbird", and the classic " Yesterday " with Paul soloing on acoustic guitar.

     A very psychedelic "Live and Let Die" with smoke bombs, blinding flash explosions, and flashing lights galore was an overpowering spectacle. In all, McCartney performed for over two hours, 28 tunes, including two rocking out encores (who said he wouldn't give the crowd its money's worth?)

     Throughout it, his distinctive vocals were pleasing and clear. His guitar and piano playing easily adequate. His bass work truly excellent, and he'll display those talents three more times on this tour in San Diego, Tucson, and Los Angeles. My advice to any rock music fan would be if you're going to be in one of those areas and come by any means, wangle a ticket out of somebody to go. It's a show that shouldn't be missed.

Fans Throng to See a Beatle Take Wings (Seattle 1976)

 Fans Throng to see a Beatle Take Wings 

By James Erikson

The News Tribune

June 11, 1976

    It wasn't Beatlemania. It certainly wasn't Wingsmania. Maybe it was a touch of Paul McCartneymania that lured more than 67,000 people to see him and his band in the Kingdome last night. 

    The Kingdome was filled with people and smoke, some smelling like stale perfume, long before the ex-Beatle and his group Wings made their entrance. 

    When the lights dimmed and the band members finally emerged on the stage, you didn't have to ask whom the people had come to see. "Oh my God! There he is!" shrieked one buxom blonde. "Oh, Paul! "EEEee OOOoo."

     Another girl just screamed. A patch on her jacket said it all. "I love Paul."

     What could have been a tragedy nearly occurred at that point, as skyrockets were set off in the Kingdome. One didn't go up, but instead fizzled, plunging as a molten fireball into the audience in front of the stage. People screamed and pushed against security guards on the other side of the rope. The guards pushed back, and some people fell down. Luckily, no one was trampled.

     The only screams reminiscent of the Beatlemania of more than 10 years ago came at the beginning of the concert, and for the few Beatles songs on the program. Emotional high points were the Beatles' songs "Lady Madonna" and "Yesterday", while the visual highlights came from "Live and Let Die", the song McCartney wrote for a James Bond film. A display of smoke, spotlights, and laser beams accompanied the latter. 

    Those who came expecting to capture a part of the Beatle past didn't. McCartney is trying to show where he is today. Those who came to hear rock and roll did.

He Seeks Wings Emergence From Wings Chrysalis (St. Paul 1976)

 

He Seeks Wings Emergence From Wings Chrysalis

By Jon Bream

The Minneapolis Star

June 8, 1976

    His eyes look the same-- big, brown, and expressive. His handsome, boyish face has grown fleshier, but his chin remains firm. His short, cropped hair is Beatle bang length on top and long in back. He is wearing a well-worn Hawaiian print shirt and blue jeans. Around his neck is a choker with ivory wings.

     Paul McCartney is a Wing, not a Beatle. It's Friday night, 15 minutes earlier, his group, Wings, finished a triumphant two-and-1/4-hour concert. McCartney is sitting on a couch in a dressing room at the St. Paul Civic Center Arena, smoking a cigarette. 

    For McCartney, it is a greater burden to be a former Beatle than it was to be a Beatle.  He says,  "A lot of people think that whatever happens can never be as good as the Beatles was. It's the kind of thing that's difficult to think about generally. Now I think it's there, and I'll go along with the people to a certain extent, but when it really gets to me, I finally remind them that I'm not in the Beatles anymore. You can't keep assuming I am, because then you're then living the myth, not me."

    McCartney is cordial, polite, and attentive. His brow furrows when he makes a point. He displays touches of the kind of silly humor seen in the Beatles movie Help and A Hard Day's Night. Since the Beatles dissolved in 1970, McCartney, the group's cute romantic melodist, has enjoyed the most commercially and critically successful career of the four Beatles. 

    John Lennon, the dark poet, formed the ad hoc Plastic Ono Band before going solo, singing politically oriented songs, and in the last couple of years, he has spent more time in court with various legal predicaments than with music.

     George Harrison, the shy mystic, has continued on his introspective ways in his solo career. His U.S. concert tour in 1974 was largely a disaster. Ringo Starr, the Good Timer, has had limited success recording novelty songs. 

    Only McCartney seriously pursued work in the context of a new band. Wings first appeared in 1971 on Wildfire, [sic] the third of seven albums McCartney has recorded since the Beatles broke up. 

    Wings frequently has changed personnel, except for McCartney and his wife, Linda Eastman McCartney, whom he married in 1969 and encouraged to pursue a musical career. McCartney has been preparing for his return to the States. In 1972 and 1973, Wings performed in Europe. In 1975, the band toured Great Britain, and earlier this year, it played in Australia [sic] and Europe. 

    "We had to gear it up for America," McCartney says. "American people don't seem to think of their country as big. It is the biggest place to tour on earth. We just did Europe with about 1/3 of this equipment."

     The current Wings tour marks McCartney's first U.S. performance since the Beatles' last concert in 1966 in San Francisco. The two-month tour will play 34 concerts before 600,000 persons and gross $5 million.

     McCartney is determined that Wings be recognized as a band on its own merits, not as ex-Beatle McCartney's new backup band. The tour's billed as Wings Over America.  On its record, the band is now identified as 'Wings', no longer 'Paul McCartney and Wings.'

     The singer-songwriter bassist has assembled a capable band that has more impact on stage than on record. In concert, the well-oiled pop recording group rocks in the good time spirit of Elton John.

     McCartney has a formidable sideman and New York drummer Joe English, British guitarist Jimmy McCulloch, formerly of Thunderclap Newman and Stone the Crows, and Denny Laine, co-founder of the Moody Blues, who also plays bass and keyboards on stage. Linda McCartney sings adequate schoolgirl harmonies and plays minimal keyboard fills. Her presence as a cheerleader for both the audience and the band seems to outweigh her musical contributions. McCartney is a personable, friendly, enthusiastic band leader on stage. He is a first-class showman who employs a tasteful array of stage effects, including laser, strobe lights, stage fog, bubbles, film, and smoke bombs. He has put together a top-flight show featuring Wings songs, Paul Simon's "Richard Cory" and five Beatles songs, including his classic "Yesterday."

 McCartney is plugging for Wings "because I'm in it. I have to want anything I'm in to be good."

    The last three of the five Wings albums, Band on the Run, Venus and Mars, and At the Speed of Sound, each have sold more than 1 million copies. At the concerts, concessionaries hawk Wings T-shirts, posters, and souvenir programs. A crew is filming the tour for a possible movie, yet McCartney emphatically does not want Wingsmania in the 70s to become the phenomenon that Beatlemania was in the 60s. "I'm sure it won't, and I hope it doesn't, and it really shouldn't, because I think we've moved ahead. It's a new time. The symptoms of these years are different, and the audiences are different. I wouldn't want to recreate the old audience and get it back to the '60s. That's been and gone. It was great. You don't really want to be back there. I don't, I don't think most people do like this sort of advancement."

     McCartney acknowledges that the Beatles were catalysts, partly responsible for the advancement of culture in the '60s. He feels it was unintentional, though. "I only came into it to make music," he says, "I don't think about it thematically, I just think about writing songs, writing tunes, writing music, getting into stuff I like. I have no control over how people take my songs."

     For instance, McCartney explains his purpose behind "Helter Skelter", a Beatles song he wrote that inspired the hideous crimes of the Charles Manson family. "I was writing sort of a down blues, and I wanted to get into a funky screaming thing as just sort of a release, but Manson took it very differently. I certainly didn't mean any of the things he says I meant, but I say (he raises his voice) tt has nothing to do with me, man!

     McCartney's goal for his life and career are simple: "just to feel that what I'm doing is right. I like to be happy," he says, "to satisfy my own personal standards."

     Since the Beatles' disbandment, McCartney, 33, has become a family man. His three daughters, Heather, 13, by Linda's first marriage, Mary, six, and Stella, four, are accompanying him and Linda on the tour. Critics have charged that all of McCartney's post-Beatles albums, except for the brilliant Band on the Run in 1974, have fallen victim to his marital bliss. Each of his first four albums had a strong single, but the albums are unmemorable. His singles, including non-album cuts like "Live and Let Die" and "Junior's Farm", have sold well consistently.

     One critic recently asserted that the pretty sweet balladeer harbors an ambivalence towards the culture to help deliver. "I don't agree," McCartney responds. "People spout off and think they've got the gist of it, and I don't pretend anyone's got the gist of it.

     "I like what happened and believe in what went on in the 6'0s, and still want to see wars come to an end. I want to see the kind of wrong things in life changed, but I don't necessarily want to see it change the way some other people do. So we differ."

     He is aware that to some people he's a hero and a legend, but McCartney feels no obligation because of that. "There is the hero side. It exists in the papers at arm's length. It's nothing I really get into. I don't want to have to behave like a hero all the time, cause I also know myself as a person, that's the real thing, so he contented.

     McCartney sings in his current hit, "Silly Love Songs:"  "Some people want to fill the world with silly  love songs, and what's wrong with that? I'd like to know, because here I go again...."

     On record, it's an infectious discotheque romp. In concert, "Silly Love Songs" becomes an exuberant rocker showcasing the superb melodist's exceptional gift for arranging. "It's just sort of an up song for love. I just write them, don't ask me to explain them." Today it's Silly Love Songs for McCartney. Tomorrow, there's another Wings album, some more Wings tours, and more unfounded rumors of a Beatles reunion.