“This opening is pretty good,” says Paul McCartney, having already burned through “A Hard Day’s Night”, Wings double “Junior’s Farm” and “Letting Go”, plus “Drive My Car”. “I’m going to take a little moment to enjoy it for myself.” Hands clasped in front of him, leaning back as if to admire a work of art in a gallery, McCartney has every right to indulge in a spot of jocular self-appreciation. Tonight’s show in Manchester – his first UK gig since headlining Glastonbury in 2022 – is a triumph on every level.
“This opening is pretty good,” says Paul McCartney, having already burned through “A Hard Day’s Night”, Wings double “Junior’s Farm” and “Letting Go”, plus “Drive My Car”. “I’m going to take a little moment to enjoy it for myself.” Hands clasped in front of him, leaning back as if to admire a work of art in a gallery, McCartney has every right to indulge in a spot of jocular self-appreciation. Tonight’s show in Manchester – his first UK gig since headlining Glastonbury in 2022 – is a triumph on every level.
He’s here at the 23,500-capacity Co-op Live (playing the first of two sold-out performances) as part of the European leg of his global Got Back tour, having wound through Latin America over the last couple of months. This week, two nights at London’s O2 beckon. “It’s good to be back,” he declares, clearly in the mood for a celebration.
And a celebration is exactly what we get. A jubilant “Got To Get You Into My Life” plays out against a backdrop of animated scenes from The Beatles’ career, a flash flood of cultural revolution. It’s just one of so many songs familiar enough to serve as waymarkers of our own lives, not just McCartney’s, lending the show – despite its size and scale – the feel of an intimate communal experience.
The tributes come thick and fast, too. Jimi Hendrix gets a nod after a particularly fiery climax to “Let Me Roll It”, McCartney riffing freely on his Gibson as the whole band (keyboardist Paul Wickens, guitarists Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray, all-action drummer Abe Laboriel Jr and the three-piece Hot City Horns) leaning into an extended jam. Closer to home, the intro spiel to “Love Me Do” – “the first song we recorded with George Martin” – is the signal for house lights to dim and mobile phones to torch up.
The latter lands between “In Spite Of All The Danger” and the mandolin-led “Dance Tonight”, forming a through-line from The Quarrymen to early Beatles to 2007’s (i)Memory Almost Full(i), with McCartney and the band huddled close in an approximation of a skiffle band busking for spare change.
The Got Back setlist has seen the introduction of “Now And Then”, the restored Beatles tune that John Lennon first demoed around 1977. It makes its UK debut tonight, complete with Peter Jackson’s AI-assisted video, featuring clowning Beatles past and present. Coming after 1982’s “Here Today”, written about McCartney’s relationship with the recently-deceased Lennon – and played solo on acoustic guitar here – it’s a fitting, poignant tribute to his old friend.
And then there’s George. Whipping out a ukulele, McCartney recalls Harrison’s membership of the George Formby fan club as a youth. “He used to go up to Blackpool, thousands of them in one room,” he marvels, before strumming the opening verse of “Something”. The band strike up behind him on cue, elevating the whole thing beautifully.
It’s party time from thereon in. “Live And Let Die” – the greatest ever Bond theme, no question – is a pyrotechnic spectacle, fireworks popping and flames bolting upwards. Bouncing gleefully, “Ob La Di, Ob La Da” puts us in mass singalong territory. But this is nothing compared to “Hey Jude”, McCartney taking his place behind his multi-coloured piano, the entire crowd lost in “na-na-na na” rapture.
The 82-year-old’s energy reserves still seem fully intact as he leads an unstoppable encore of “I’ve Got A Feeling” (duetting with Apple-rooftop John on the screen behind him) and a “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” that segues into the white noise of “Helter Skelter”. Over two-and-a-half hours since he started, it all comes to a close in the only way it can: the Abbey Road triptych of “Golden Slumbers”, “Carry That Weight” and “The End”. “And in the end / The love you take / Is equal to the love you make,” sings McCartney, beaming. Tonight offers absolute proof.
SETLIST
A Hard Day’s Night
Juniors Farm
Letting Go
Drive My Car
Got To Get You Into My Life
Come On To Me
Let Me Roll It
Getting Better
Let ‘Em In
My Valentine
Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five
Maybe I’m Amazed
I’ve Just Seen A Face
In Spite Of All The Danger
Love Me Do
Dance Tonight
Blackbird
Here Today
Now And Then
Lady Madonna
Jet
Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite
Something
Ob La Di, Ob La Da
Band On The Run
Wonderful Christmas Time
Get Back
Let It Be
Live And Let Die
Hey Jude
ENCORE
I’ve Got A Feeling
Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band / Helter Skelter
Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight / The End
