Gig review: Paul McCartney

Published on Monday 21 June 2010 19:03

PAUL McCARTNEY *** HAMPDEN PARK, GLASGOW

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

The show got 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 band 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.

He 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 A Day In The Life, before he rolled out the anthems.

The lighter-waving Let It Be and Hey Jude sandwiched a storming, pyrotechnic Live And Let Die, then came a simple, affecting rendition of Yesterday and a full pipe band version of Mull Of Kintyre, exclusively for the Scottish audience.