Gig review: Paul McCartney

Published on Monday 21 June 2010 02:15

PAUL McCARTNEY HAMPDEN PARK, GLASGOW

WITH John Lennon long passed and George Harrison now with him at the great Cavern gig in the sky, the Beatles' legacy is Paul McCartney's to mess up.

Hardcore fans weren't best pleased when he turned up on The X Factor singing a medley with the contestants, for example. But, like it or not, a McCartney gig is the purest expression of that legacy in action – even if it was preceded at his first Scottish date in 20 years by crass Jive Bunny-style remixes of material from throughout his career playing over the PA.

The ironically titled "Up And Coming Tour" is McCartney's no-nonsense (or little-nonsense) celebration of a 50-year career – one which thankfully favours the first decade and a half above all else.

However, in Glasgow there was a slight change of plan. "We're going to start off with a technical error," quipped Macca, as road crew swooped into action to rectify the hitch and get the show off the ground with Wings' Venus And Mars.

The following Jet was a little short on fuel, but proceedings picked up with the first Beatles selection, All My Loving, accompanied by footage of the young Fab Four larking about.

Over the next three hours and 30-plus songs, McCartney and his serviceable band of rockers delivered enjoyable, though hardly definitive, renditions of Beatles classics, a healthy proportion of Band On The Run-era Wings tracks plus a sparing sprinkling of recent material. The voice was a little ragged round the edges, though the passion and sincerity won out on The Long and Winding Road, a skiffly take on I've Just Seen A Face and a solo Blackbird.

As the set progressed, the Beatles strike rate increased. McCartney paid tribute to his former bandmates with a risky but rewarding version of Harrison's seminal Something on ukulele and a burst of Lennon's Give Peace A Chance bolted on to the end of A Day In The Life, before he rolled out the anthems in the closing stages.

The lighter-waving Let It Be and Hey Jude sandwiched a storming, pyrotechnic Live And Let Die.

After this, his cursory brandishing of a saltire seemed like an unnecessary overture, especially when he still had a simple, affecting rendition of Yesterday (on acoustic guitar) and a full pipe band version of Mull Of Kintyre, exclusively for the Scottish audience, in his back pocket.