Paul McCartney

Electric Ballroom, London

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Thursday, June 8, 2007

โ€œItโ€™s a long time we did a gig like this,โ€ says McCartney part way through tonightโ€™s not-so secret gig, and youโ€™d imagine even the most devoted Beatlesโ€™ scholar would be hard pressed to recall the last time Macca played a venue with the word โ€œBallroomโ€ in the title โ€“ let alone any venue with a capacity of a 1,000.

Certainly, the last time Macca played the UK was when he headlined Glastonbury in 2004. Tonight, then, is clearly something of an event, and though ostensibly part of the promotion for his new album, Memory Almost Full (his first rock record since 2005โ€™s Chaos And Creation In The Backyard), he engages enthusiastically with his bejewelled back catalogue, playing no less than 10 Beatlesโ€™ songs. The audience comprises competition winners and fan club members, though the balcony is packed with celebrities, presumably rattling their jewellery by way of appreciation.

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Dressed in a long-sleeved grey t-shirt and dark trousers, and flanked by a band who look like their auditioning for a reality TV show to be the next Razorlight, Macca arrives on stage at 8.30 sharp and plays for almost two hours. Itโ€™s fantastic, almost surreal, to see him playing such a small venue, performing โ€œDrive My Carโ€, โ€œThe Long And Winding Roadโ€, โ€œBack In The USSRโ€ (complete with aeroplane sound effects) and โ€œLet It Beโ€. More than, say, Dylan and the Stones, his songs are hardwired into our genetic make-up โ€“ children are born able to sing along to โ€œHey Judeโ€ โ€“ and to hear them in a venue of such relative intimacy by the standard of usual Macca gigs connects us directly to some kind of etheric record, the public consciousness.

Thereโ€™s no point โ€“ and, indeed, why should he? โ€“ for Macca to try to escape the shadow of The Beatles, and on โ€œThat Was Me,โ€ he sings almost incredulously about โ€œsweating cobwebs under contract/In the celllar/On TV/That was meโ€ฆ [Itโ€™s] pretty hard to take it in.โ€ Introducing โ€œIโ€™ll Follow The Sunโ€, from Beatles For Sale, he remembers โ€œwriting this in a houseโ€ฆ thatโ€™s now a National Heritage thing.โ€ After a heart-stopping version of โ€œBlackbirdโ€, he dedicates โ€œHere Todayโ€, from Tug Of Love, to โ€œJohn, George and Linda.โ€

Between songs, his banter occasionally become cringe-worthy, whether it be the faux Jamaican patois into which he frequently lapses, a daft explanation of how Camden got its name, or doing bad impressions of Harry Enfieldโ€™s Scousers.

The final leg features a blistering cover of Carl Perkinsโ€™ โ€œMatchboxโ€, โ€œGet Backโ€ and โ€œHey Judeโ€, the latter becoming both the end of the main set and the start of the encore, only a heartless churl incapable of being swept along with the โ€œNa na na na na na naโ€ chorus. โ€œLet It Beโ€ is followed by โ€œLady Madonna,โ€ and he closes with โ€œI Saw Her Standing Thereโ€, indelibly and magnificently locating us back to 1963, at the birth of everything.

MICHAEL BONNER

Full set list:

โ€˜Drive My Carโ€™

โ€˜Only Mama Knowsโ€™

โ€˜Dance Tonightโ€™

โ€˜C Moonโ€™

โ€˜The Long And Winding Roadโ€™

โ€˜Iโ€™ll Follow The Sunโ€™

โ€˜Calico Skiesโ€™

โ€˜That Was Meโ€™

โ€˜Blackbirdโ€™

โ€˜Here Todayโ€™

โ€˜Back In The USSRโ€™

โ€˜Nod Your Headโ€™

โ€˜House Of Waxโ€™

โ€˜Iโ€™ve Got A Feelingโ€™

โ€˜Matchboxโ€™

โ€˜Get Backโ€™

โ€˜Hey Judeโ€™

โ€˜Let It Beโ€™

โ€˜Lady Madonnaโ€™

โ€˜I Saw Her Standing Thereโ€™

Pic credit: Rex Features