Tag: Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney at the United Center (Chicago) on Nov. 24, 2025

On November 26, 2025

In Music, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, travel

Paul McCartney at the United Center on Monday, Nov. 24, 2025.

I just returned to Austin from Chicago. I traveled to the Windy City to see Paul McCartney in concert at the United Center on Monday, November 24, 2025. Chicago was the last stop on McCartney’s “Got Back” tour.

The place was packed and nobody left early. Paul came onstage about 8:20 p.m. and sang until 11:10 p.m. At no time during his performance did he leave the stage and turn it over to a sidekick, so that he could go offstage and take a break. He was on his feet and climbing the stairs to his piano (which malfunctioned at one point) and seemed very “with it.” He did not sit down while playing (like B.B. King did in his final years) and his endurance was just as impressive as Mick Jagger’s.

During the evening, he pointed out a gentleman who has seen him 142 times and came with a sign that said so. There was another guy with a sign that said “124.” Many signs proclaimed the crowd’s love for Paul and he seemed to return that warm sentiment.

I’ve now seen Paul McCartney five times. I’d love to post video of a few songs from the show, but I’m not sure how that can be accomplished without repercussions for me, so I am posting only a few still photos.

PAUL McCARTNEY & THE BEATLES, Aug. 31, 1965

First time was in 1965 at the San Francisco Cow Palace (afternoon concert). Security was one guy and waist-high chicken wire. (Ineffectual). It was my very first concert. Girl from Iowa climbs on back of a Czechoslovokian motorcycle driven by Philadelphia boyfriend Colgate (William Hopkins), cuts class at Berkeley in the summer of 1965 (Aug. 31), and says, “Let’s go up and see if we can get tickets.” And we could. They cost $7. It is my belief that they had been saved for the Beatles, themselves, to use for friends and family, but now it was showtime. We were in the 7th row on the aisle with folding chairs. There was one guy guarding the stage, which had waist-high chicken-wire. Someone ran onstage and took Ringo’s drumsticks and John’s hat, when they finally showed up, late. I thought we were all gonna’ die during the exiting part, when I was moving but my feet were not touching the floor. People stood on the folding chairs, causing them to go down like dominoes. It was pandemonium, with teenagers passing out left and right.

At the time, the film “Hard Day’s Night” had just been released. Shirley Bassey sang the theme from “Goldfinger” and Cannibal and the Headhunters did their thing (making a train dance on the floor.) The National Anthem was played by King Curtiss. The Astronauts from California were supposed to be part of the lead-in, but they did not show up. The tickets cost $7 apiece, I repeat, because to go from $7 to $800 is quite a big increase, as you will agree.

PAUL McCARTNEY, 2025

The tickets for us in section 302 way up high in the United Center on Nov, 24, 2025 (12 rows from the top) cost $800 apiece ($1600 total) on Monday night. People on the floor had paid $3,000. (Talk about inflation!)

The show began with Paul singing “Help” this night and the lyrics were so perfect for anyone aged 83. At no time did his demeanor, voice, or ability to move about show his age, which was wonderful for me, someone only slightly younger than he is. I did notice that many members of the audience were brandishing canes, but, thankfully, Paul was not, nor was I. I was also grateful that almost everybody stayed seated until the finale, so we could all see. A teenager on the end of the aisle in front of me kept standing up to dance, which pretty much totally obscured the video screens that allowed the far-away fans to see the faces of the band clearly.

Paul McCartney, Nov. 24, 2025.

I took so many videos of his many hits that my phone died, which turned out to be a real problem when both my daughter (who had flown in from Nashville for the show) and I used up all of our phone charge and had to try to call an Uber or Lyft to get home. We had taken a Lyft to get there, which cost $14. There is now a building–run by Uber apparently—that you go to and make these calls for Uber or Lyft drivers. Cabs are like land lines and impossible to find. That building was not there in 2015.

We finally had to go outside and we found a “pirate” Uber driver who quoted us a price of $50 to drive us back to Indiana Avenue’s South Loop. The daughter had already called and been given a $47 price and a 20 minute wait from the normal Uber network. We had no idea what the building name was and there was talk of going to your driver’s “lane.” I last went to a show at the United Center in 2015 (Queen with Adam Lambert). I have been to the United Center to try to see Caitlin Clark play, for my July 23rd birthday, but I have not ventured out for a musical performance there, although I did see the Eagles with Steely Dan in Austin and John Mulaney here on Nov. 14, 2025. There was also a night back in the Quad Cities with the Tennessee comic Nick Bugazzi (sp?) at the Mark of the Quad Cities. But, with Elton John, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, et. al. fading into retirement, there are few musical groups I would spend the time or money to see (although I’d make an exception for Benson Boone or Adele or Bruno Mars.) And I did go see the Dave Matthews Band on June 27th of this year at Northerly Isle Pavilion, so now I see concerts in both states. (Not as many United Center runs.)

PAUL McCARTNEY & WINGS

The second time I saw Paul, my name was driven first in the state of Iowa for tickets at the Ames Hilton Colisseum football stadium in Ames, Iowa. Channel 6 anchor Paula Sands asked me if I could get her tickets for the July 31st show at the Ames Hilton Colisseum football field. I did, as I was allowed to purchase up to 8 tickets. That concert was Paul with wife Linda and Wings. Our tickets were in the 7th row from the front. I took my son and my college roommate and her daughter. July 18, 1990, is when Wikipedia says he played Ames, setting an Iowa record for concert attendance at the time. I’m not sure that is right, because that means that daughter Stacey was born, but only 3 years old. She attended with me on Monday night and she is now 38.

When I saw him at Wrigley Field on July 31, 2011, he was far away. It was his “On the Run” tour. The fourth time was at the Civic Center in Moline (the Mark of the Quad Cities,) on June 11, 2019. I know it was then called the Taxslayer Center, but it will always be known as the Mark of the Quad Cities to me. That entire concert was ruined by a drunk girl who insisted on trying to claim a seat in our row when her ticket was far, far away. I missed the entire fire-filled finale of “Live and Let Die,” so I was glad that it was incorporated into this show again (but not as the finale.) At the Monday show there were 6 encores, which were much appreciated by the assembled fans.

ME, @ THE MARSHALL FIELDS WALNUT ROOM PRIOR TO THE SHOW

It was truly a great show. Maybe not as historical as that day I suggested we cut class and drive up from Berkeley via motorcycle in 1965 to see the Beatles, but close. I don’t know if I can post any of the videos. If anyone has any advice there, the only way I know how to do it is to upload it to YouTube, which has become very finicky about a 30 second clip being the intellectual property of the group and, therefore, not to be posted. They actually threatened me over a 30 second snippet of Bryan Adam’s Candle in the Wind tour or whatever it was called. (“Summer of ’69”). Definitely dimmed my Bryan Adams fan-ship.

I haven’t posted since, but that particular song (“Summer of ’69”) was available elsewhere on the web and I used one of him in much younger days.

Paul was soooooooooooooooooo much better!

“Man On the Run:” Paul McCartney’s Post Beatles Life & Work Kicks Off 56th Nashville Film Festival

By Connie Wilson

On September 19, 2025

In Movies, Music, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews

“Man on the Run” is a terrific documentary about Paul McCartney’s career and life, post Beatles.

”Man on the Run” opened the 56^th Nashville Film Festival on Thursday, September 18^th at the Green Hills Regal Theaters. Based on access to never-before-seen archives of Paul and Linda’s home videos and photos, as well as new interviews with Paul’s children Mary and Stella and insights from John Lennon’s son Sean, director Morgan Neville documents Paul McCartney’s extraordinary life following the breakup of the Beatles and how the love he shared with Linda Eastman McCartney became his bedrock and influenced a journey that would lead to the formation of Wings and a second decade’s musical catalog of timeless classics.

PERSONAL ARCHIVAL MATERIAL

Listed as Executive Producer Paul McCartney, himself, has provided multiple home movies and personal photographs from his own and Linda’s archives. There is ample concert footage of “Wings” in concert, with the period from the end of the Beatles (1969) to the end of “Wings” (1979) providing the primary focus of what is often essentially a love letter to Paul’s deceased first wife, Linda Eastman. An analysis of what went through the mind of this central Beatle in the months and years following the celebrated split of the Beatles is included, but will be amplified with the release of Paul McCartney’s book next year.

ADULTHOOD

Paul McCartney in 2018.

Paul is asked, early in the film, about his goal in life and answers “Personal peace.” When asked if he can explain that enigmatic answer, he responds, somewhat abruptly, “Not really.” His input about the real time-line for the band’s break-up puts other theories to rest. In April of 1970 McCartney said, “My only plan is to grow up” and described the period immediately after the celebrated band’s break-up as “fear of being a grown-up.”

ALLEN KLEIN

Says Paul, “John broke up the Beatles, but I got the rap.” Paul then wrestled with the question, “Am I any good on my own?” A long-time dislike and distrust of former Beatles manager Allen Klein is explored. Klein replaced Brian Epstein when he died, but McCartney did not trust him, which turned out to be prophetic. Klein once said of McCartney, “All he ever did was ‘Yesterday,’”which gives you a rough idea of how much affection the two had for one another. The opinions of other musicians of the era, like Elton John and John Lennon, concerning albums that Paul created post-Beatles are also recorded for posterity.

JOHN LENNON

Of John Lennon himself, Paul tells the audience that he is grateful that he and Lennon reconciled in the years before John’s assassination. McCartney lovingly characterized Lennon as “a lovely, lovely crazy guy. He’s a crazy son-of-a-bitch.” Lennon’s son Sean lets Paul off the hook for a video clip where, when he is asked about John’s death, he comes off as callous and flip, chewing gum and walking off rather abruptly providing a diplomatic explanation for what some viewed as a lack of sufficient grief and emotion.

PAUL AS AUTEUR

Paul seems to realize that he was the driving force of the Beatles (and, after that, of “Wings”) saying, “I’m very enthusiastic, so it’s the original enthusiasm that gets it done.” Music lovers like me are very happy that McCartney got it done and did it so well. He’s been doing it well ever since his teen-age years, well over six decades. I still remember visiting the Liverpool Cavern where the Beatles started out and stopping on a drive from my hometown back to my college town to make sure that none of us returning to the University of Iowa missed out on the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. We had to take a detour from our 2 and 1/2 hour trip to stop at Patt McCardle’s aunt’s house where we co-opted her television set, so that we did not miss this performance (well before the days of videotape).

ED SULLIVAN

The Beatles’ first appearance was on February 9, 1964.
The show was broadcast live from New York City.
Approximately 73 million viewers tuned in, a record at the time.
This performance marked the beginning of Beatlemania in the United States.
They performed five songs during this iconic appearance.
The event is credited with launching the British Invasion in American music.

SUPER-FAN FROM THE ERA

I’ve seen Paul McCartney “live” four times and, soon (November 24, 2025) it will be five. I first saw him at the San Francisco Cow Palace in 1965 with the Beatles. “Help!” was their new release. and they were late in getting started that afternoon. The only security was a chicken-wire fence waist-high (and one arena employee). The flimsy barricade was quickly breached by a young man who ran onstage and stole John’s hat and Ringo’s drumsticks. There was a slight delay while Ringo’s drumsticks were replaced. Then the chaos really began. Around me, adults seemed bemused; teen-agers were freaking out.

THE BEATLES AT THE SAN FRANCISCO COW PALACE

First, there was the National Anthem, played by King Curtiss. Then came the lead-in acts, which, that particular day included Shirly Bassey (singing the theme from “Goldfinger,” which was then popular) and Cannibal & the Headhunters (who got down on the floor and did a sort of train-like scooting dance). We were also supposed to have heard the Astronauts from Denver, but they did not show up. My college boyfriend and I (William Hopkins, I called him “Colgate,” his college, all summer) had cut class at Berkeley without tickets, riding up on his purple Czechoslovakian motorcycle (no BART in those days). We went to the box office and were able to purchase two seventh row tickets for $7 apiece. (It is costing me $1600 for 2 tickets on Nov. 24, 2025, NOT in the seventh row.) I remember people standing on their folding chairs and those folding chairs collapsing en masse. Getting out of the building was a scary process. I was moving, but my feet were not touching the floor. (This has caused me to not want to be close to the front at subsequent shows for fear of a repeat of that frightening experience at my very first concert.)

WINGS IN THE 70s

Paul McCartney performing at The O2 Arena in London, England, on 19 December 2024 as part of his Got Back Tour, backed by former fellow Beatle Ringo Starr.

I then saw Paul with Linda and one version of “Wings” (there was more than one “Wings” line-up, as this film documents) in Ames, Iowa at Iowa State University’s football stadium. My name was drawn in a state-wide lottery to receive up to 8 tickets. That time, I was on the aisle, also about 7 rows from the front. The local female television anchor of NBC’s Channel 6 called me, asking me to purchase tickets for her and her husband, which I did. I was allowed to buy up to 8 tickets. I also took my college roommate, that roommate’s daughter and my son.

THIRD & FOURTH SHOWS

The third time I saw Paul McCartney was at Wrigley Field with my daughter; the fourth time was at the Moline Civic Center, formerly known as the Mark of the Quad Cities. Chicago will be my fifth time seeing my favorite Beatle (‘the cute one”) perform. Since he was born in 1942 and is now 83 years young, who knows if I will ever have the opportunity to see him perform “live” again? An expert celebrity voice in this film, Mick Jagger, put the situation this way, “All things must pass.”

THE GOOD

This film, which had extensive cooperation from McCartney and his children and many of his contemporaries, is remarkable in being able to access so much concert footage and so many home movies, but it also contains remarkably beautiful cinematography from the archives. In addition to scenes of McCartney’s bucolic pastoral farm life in Scotland (including three pot plants being carted off by the authorities), there are lovely ocean shots and a scary story about how Paul once almost drowned.

I counted more than 56 songs in the credits and many, many, many sources for the extraordinary footage. It runs 115 minutes. Director Morgan Neville (Oscar-winner for 2013’s “Twenty Feet from Stardom”) spent four years directing on “Man on the Run,” sitting down 7 times with McCartney himself. The editor, a Herculean task, was Alan Lowe.

CONCLUSION

The film premiered at Telluride in January, 2025, and Amazon MGM Studios plans to air the film in 2026, which is also when McCartney, himself, is set to publish his own 576 page book. That will be 2 years before Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes (2000, “American Beauty” and a nominee for 2020’s “1917”) releases a four-part study of the Beatles, with Paul Mescale. Mendes’ project will be released in 2028.

This was the perfect Nashville Film Festival Opening Night film for me. I’ve been a fan through all of Paul McCartney’s musical iterations. While he’s been making music since the sixties, I’ve been non-stop reviewing film, almost as long (55 years). I may be one of the few reviewers working today who can honestly say that they have seen him in each and every one of his iconic periods.Kudos to Morgan Neville for this gift to McCartney’s longtime fans, especially as a wonderful gift for this reviewer, his contemporary.

“Beatles,” Live: And You Are There (And I Was)

By Connie Wilson

On April 21, 2021

In Music, Pop Culture, travel

Paul McCartney, “Live” at Wrigley Field, Sunday, July 31, 2011

By Connie Wilson

On August 1, 2011

In Music, News, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews

Chicago, IL, July 31, 2011 Sunday, July 31, was my son’s birthday. When he was a teenager in the ‘70s, I took him to see Paul McCartney and “Wings” at Ames’ Hilton Coliseum. Tonight, I took my daughter (age 24) to see Paul McCartney, paired with his new sidemen, who include a fierce-looking drummer with earrings and a bald head (Abe Laboriel), Paul “Wix” Wickens on keyboards, and Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray on guitar. Even with slight heels, McCartney was by far the smallest musician, physically, but the biggest talent onstage.

I first saw Paul McCartney “Live” at the San Francisco Cow Palace in 1965, and I was struck with how often he would toss his head. He and Ringo seemed to have all the moves, while George was an absolute stick-in-the-mud and John did little of the crowd-pleasing physical stuff. I next saw McCartney “Live” in concert in Ames, Iowa in the 70s, with my son in tow. It was son Scott’s 43^rd birthday this day, and he pronounced Paul to be over-the-hill, so I took his much younger sister, who will remember this concert many years from now.
It was a sultry, hot night and Sir Paul sweated through his long-sleeved blue shirt and removed his blue jacket by the time he reached the 6^th song (of 37, total). His first song was “Hello, Goodbye” and later on, Paul would relate a story about how, when playing in the Soviet Union, a man came up to him and told him, “I have learned the English language from your records. Hello. Goodbye.” After the first song, “All My Lovin’” followed, with Paul telling the eager crowd that he was “glad to be a part of the history of Wrigley Field.”

“Baby, You Can Drive My Car,” his fifth song, was a hit, with the people in the infield seats standing the entire time. Jacket removed, Paul swung in to “The Night Before” (“Treat me like you did the night before.”). A priest in the crowd held up a sign that said, “I’m a priest. I’d like to do your wedding,” a reference to the recent announcement of Paul’s intention to marry his girlfriend Nancy Shevell.

Wrigley Field Concert on Sunday, July 31, 2011.

Moving from a normal guitar to a red psychedelic one, Paul played “Let Me Roll It” (Wings) and, in a tribute to Jimi Hendrix, “Foxy Lady.” He shared with the crowd a memorable night when Jimi Hendrix asked Eric Clapton, sitting in the crowd, to come up and tune his guitar. Paul switched back to a more normal-looking guitar, declaring it to be the one he had used on “Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”

“Paperback Writer:” ended with one of the guitarists showing the word “Thanx” to the enthusiastic crowd and Paul then moved to the piano to play “The Long and Winding Road.” That was followed by “1985” (Wings); “Let ‘Em In”; “Maybe I’m Amazed”; “I’ve Just Seen a Face” (Beatles); “I Will” (Beatles); “Blackbird” (Beatles); “Here Today”; “Dance Tonight”; “Mrs. Vanderbilt” (Wings); “Eleanor Rigby” (Beatles); “Something” (Beatles); “Band on the Run” (Wings); “Ob-Ladi, Ob-La Da” (Beatles); and a rocking “Back in the U.S.S.R.”

It was some time in the middle of Paul’s touching rendition of “Blackbird” that a very loud man in the upper stands began shouting (“A______”) at a person standing in front of him, and that was to the detriment of all, but motivated by the older crowd who came to hear the 69-year-old Beatle play only to have their view blocked by members of the younger generation who stood up in front of them well before the final songs.

“I’ve Got a Feeling”; “A Day in the Life;” “Give Peace a Chance” and “Let It Be” followed (ironic that 4 girls—all young—began fighting in the stands near me soon after this). Then came the pyrotechnic high point of the evening, “Live and Let Die” from the James Bond film, complete with fireworks and flash pots exploding behind the proscenium. (This was Song #30)

Paul and the band left, but were soon lured back by enthusiastic applause to sing “Hey, Jude,” “Lady Madonna,” “Day Tripping,” and “Get Back.” When that 4-song encore didn’t shut the crowd up, Paul and company played a second encore of “Yesterday,” “Helter Skelter” (Remember when it was said that playing this backward you heard “Paul is dead?” Not to mention the fact that Charles Manson will forever be associated with the title); and, finally, “Golden Slumbers/Carry that Weight.”

The concert, scheduled to start at 8:00 p.m., lasted over 3 hours and Paul McCartney, like his contemporary Mick Jagger, has not lost a step in all of his 69 years. A truly memorable concert.