Paul McCartney tour review: a raw and relatable five-star triumph
Paul McCartney tour at the 02 review:★★★★★
There is a cognitive dissonance between Paul McCartney the 82-year-old and The Beatles. Anyone vaguely young surely struggles, as I do, to be understand that this funky grandad is the same flesh and bones as that young man who strutted across Abbey Road (‘Paul is Dead’ conspiracy theories aside).
McCartney, giving off the vibe of someone 20 years younger, bolsters this sense of dissonance. Performing non-stop for over two-and-a-half hours, he trills spontaneously, not to prove he still can but because, I assume, he finds it good fun. The voice is matched by the energy: McCartney looks strong and nimble, tossing guitars over his shoulder in-between songs in a diverse set that was spliced with plenty of Beatles nostalgia, reminiscent of Macca’s last live show, his barnstorming headline gig at Glastonbury in 2022.
Paul McCartney tour: nostalgia meets modernity in ecstatic live show
His yearning for the past goes beyond The Beatles: it’s all of us who miss the people in our lives from the 1960s who are no longer with us. Macca, with his progressive take on modern mental health and astonishing life lived, has that kind of power. I wept.
You get the feeling he’s craving a chat, but peering out into the 02’s foggy white light and without a catwalk jutting into the audience, there’s limited potential for intimacy. But he tries; when he hears an echo on his mic he gets excited, mimicking it and playing around, doing a little dance that is not (I’m going to say it) a million miles from the sort of dad moves you’d see from Trump. He’s looking for excuses to break the formality of the set. He’d do well with a run of smaller shows, where the rock spirit – clearly still thriving – would feel punkish and alternative. Still, we take what we can get.
Walking on with his band, not before them, McCartney is still in the band mindset. Can’t Buy Me Love earmarked the beginning of a set rich with Beatles and Wings classics. Followed up by Junior’s Farm and Letting Go, he kept the tempo high with Drive My Car before settling into a long stretch of fan-recognisable tracks swerving his biggest hits. They included Let ‘Em In, Maybe I’m Amazed and Come Onto Me.
Read more: Paul McCartney live at Glastonbury – review
With the stage raised, he began with the raw emotion where he excels best. Blackbird was an arena-silencing experience before roaring through the hits; Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Lady Madonna, Band on the Run, Get Back, Let It Be, Live and Let Die, and closing with Hey Jude – as he has loved to for decades – with Wonderful Christmastime. The encore felt unconventionally light in mainstream bangers, although it featured Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise), Helter Skelter, Golden Slumbers and ended, fittingly, with The End, with its reprise of “and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”
It was apt: the hippy spirit is perhaps more alive now than it has been since the 1960s. In his octogenarian years, McCartney seems to miss John Lennon and George Harrison incredibly. He shares stories, and has mocked up ‘modern day’ videos of the four playing together. He reminisces about how, back then, it wasn’t en vogue to say “I love you, man.”
Alongside the stories and videos, his yearning goes beyond The Beatles: it’s all of us who miss the people in our lives who are no longer with us. Macca, with his progressive take on modern mental health and astonishing life lived, has that kind of power. I wept. An astonishing night.
The Paul McCartney tour continues at the 02 this evening and tomorrow