Photos Of The Day - The Fans.

Here's something a little different, here are a selection of crowd shots from some of Paul McCartney's recent 'Out There' tour shows by Paul's photographer MJ Kim....

Marseille, France, June 5th, 2015

Columbia SC, USA, June 25th 2015

Columbia SC, USA, June 25th 2015

Columbia SC, USA, June 25th 2015

Oslo, Norway, July 7th 2015

Fan Stories: Adriana Tabisova

Adriana with her big sign and fab shirt at Paul's Stockholm concert.

Today we have another fan story! This time all the way from Slovakia! We are excited to welcome Adriana Tabisova on the blog with her story of going to see Paul McCartney in Stockholm, Sweden. Adriana is 16 and is a huge fan of the Beatles and is also Slovakia's Ambassador to The Beatles Story Museum in Liverpool! So, we have a VIP on the blog today!

So, without further ado, here is Adriana in her own words...

Hello! I'm Adriana from Slovakia. I'm 16 years old and I'm a huge fan of The Beatles. I'd like to tell you my story that I've  experienced recently! I'm very lucky to say I've experienced one of the Out There tour concerts. I went (actually flew) to the one in Stockholm, Sweden which is more than a thousand miles from my home in Slovakia, but it was certainly worth it! This was the second time I've been to see Sir Paul and I knew this time I had to do something more than just go to his concert. I wanted to meet him. I started to look for blogs and videos giving advice on how it would be possible to meet Paul, but I thought all the people that met Paul were just pretty lucky and it wouldn't happen to me. I made a huge sign saying "The Beatles Story Ambassador Here, CAN I HAVE A HUG?'' because I was hoping Paul would call me on the stage as he does to many people. 

 

Adriana gets excited to see Paul in Stockholm.

 

 

I'm an Ambassador for the Beatles Story in Liverpool for my country, Slovakia, so I thought that may be a reason he would invite me on the stage. I messaged Brian Ray (Paul's guitarist), thinking there's no chance he would get back to me. But he did! I almost fainted! He told me Paul usually comes at 4.30 - 5.00 pm to the arena for sound check and I should be there and wait for him if I want to see him. Brian is such a nice guy! So I went there pretty early. There were a few people in front of the arena and I didn't give great odds to it. I also had no idea where to go. Then I asked a nice security guy if he knows where should I go to see Paul and he told me to go behind the arena! So I ran there like crazy and there were few people wearing Beatles shirts and stuff like that. I tried to ask them if they knew anything but they all had no idea. 

 

Adriana's wonderful shirt!

 

A few minutes after that, Paul's road manager came and he told us to go a bit further. Nobody trusted him, they thought he was shoo-ing us away! but I knew who he was, I'd read about him on the blogs,  he is a such a nice guy and you should trust him if you want to see Paul drive in. So I did and I started to really think that something unforgettable was going to happen! We waited there for maybe an hour which isn't that long and then Paul came! He drove past! It was only a few seconds, but it was precious! He sent us air kisses, he played air bass (his typical gesture), waved at us, smiled and he was so nice! We all screamed, shouted 'I love you Paul' and 'Thank you'. 

 

Adriana waves at Paul during his drive into the venue.

 

It was just amazing. If you're ever going to Paul's concert, just do this! You will never forget it! I can't even describe how I felt. I know that you understand it well! Who else if not you? 

 

Then, full of euphoria, I went to the concert. I found the playlist of the concert before I went there, but Paul changed it quite a lot and I really liked that. He added 'One After 909', 'Got To Get You Into My Life' and many other songs I love! He told us funny stories, he was in such a great mood, dancing, joking and all the other stuff I'm sure you know about when you've seen Paul. 

 

I realised how much his music connects people, although it's kind of sad that people only scream when he starts to play 'Hey Jude' or 'Let It Be', but on the other side, it's so nice to realise that everyone loves that song and thousands of people sing it together!

 

Adriana's view of the stage.

 

I cried a lot when he played 'Maybe I'm Amazed' (I adore Linda), 'Here Today' (This doesn't need any words), 'Something' (Same with this one), 'The Long and Winding Road', 'Band on The Run' (The best song Paul has ever written, in my opinion!), and during 'Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/ The End' because these songs are very extraordinary for me! But I also felt like crying the whole concert! It's just so wonderful to see Paul McCartney! 

 

The thing with my sign didn't work out, but he didn't invite anyone on the stage. I then realised I don't really know if this is the way I would like to meet Paul anyway. I mean, it would be really cool, but if I had the choice, I think I would prefer to just personally tell him big THANK YOU when there was no one else around. But this doesn't happen every day. 

 

 

 

Anyway, it was a great night, show, great band, people, the best cultural experience of my life and I'm happy to share it with you! 

 

 

Adriana proudly wears her 'Out There' Tour shirt.

 

I also have my blog on Facebook if you'd be interested in more of my crazy Beatle life: www.facebook.com/beatleadriana

 

We'd like to say a huge thank you to Adriana for telling us her story! Be sure to check her out on Facebook! If you want to tell us your Beatles experience, please get in touch with us!

Paul McCartney's Memories of Liverpool in the Echo.

Macca is Back: Ahead of his return to Liverpool, he spoke to the Echo about the city.

Macca is due to play Liverpool this week and he recently spoke to the Liverpool Echo about his memories of the city he grew up in. Here are some quotes from the Interview:

"I love that journey, The thing I always do is give whoever I’m with the tour. I go along and I say ‘this is where we played our first gig’ and ‘that’s where John’s mum lived’ or ‘that’s the old Garston gas works’. We always go down Forthlin Road and I’ll see if there’s anyone outside. Last time there was a fella there saying I didn’t really live there. I wound the window down and said hello."

That must have been an awkward moment for the fella!


"Growing up in Speke I have so many memories of that area. All the old stories come out,
I remember John and I going up to the airport on our bikes to watch the planes. It makes me smile to think that named the airport after him."

On the question of what John would think of the airport being named after him, he said this:


"I think he would have been well chuffed. He wouldn’t have believed it when we were kids on our bikes. In later life he would have been chuffed."

He went on to talk about how his memories of being a kid are sharper and how he occasionally has to pinch himself and take the mickey out of himself because of this great life he's led. On meeting Elvis, despite rumours and reports to the meeting between the Beatles and the King being a slightly muted and tense affair, Paul remained upbeat about it:


“He was great. A lovely man. That was before he went to Vegas with all the rhinestones. He was so talented, so charismatic. A real star, you know. Just like you’d hope he’d be.”

On his routine before a show, Paul says he chills out in his dressing room and apparently does a thing with hot water and Olbas oil to help his voice. He admits that the ritual is probably useless but it makes him feel better.

I personally feel that Paul should drink at least some water during the show. Not TOO cold because that tends to be detrimental. I understand he might be worried about needing a pee during the set and wouldn't want to leave the stage before the encores but surely a little water wouldn't hurt?

Lastly, we are looking forward to hearing all about your experiences at the shows in the UK! We hope you all have a great time and TBTTY knows you will!

Paul McCartney Performs 'Another Girl' Live in Japan.

Macca rocks the Budokan in Tokyo, Japan. 49 years after the Beatles played there in 1966.

Paul McCartney has played, for the first time, the Beatles' track 'Another Girl' at the Nippon Budokan hall in Tokyo, Japan.

This is newsworthy because we at TBTTY have been saying we'd like to hear more from the Help! album live and this is one of those tracks that just was begging for it! We are very excited he's included it in the set list! Here's the original Beatles track, Paul himself played lead guitar on it:

Fans from the US and Europe are hoping to hear Macca perform this track at the shows he's due to play there this summer. His set list does change slightly from country to country, this is notable in the shows he does in the UK and Canada (Canada has a large Scottish heritage population) when he sometimes inserts 'Mull of Kintyre' into the list, which was a massive hit in the UK in 1977 but didn't quite reach in the USA.

What tracks would YOU like to hear him play that he hasn't already done? Are there any that you think he definitely should be playing? Let us know!

Paul is "Out There" In Liverpool This May, Will You Be Seeing Him?

He's Out There: Macca returns to Liverpool this May, Will you see him?

CALLING ALL MACCA FANS!

Paul is going back to his hometown of Liverpool! He'll be playing the Echo Arena on the 28th of May and the gig is SOLD OUT. Which is expected as it's bloody Paul McCartney!

What I want to know is, who is going to see him and who will do a guest review of the concert for this blog? I know how hard that is for some of you after seeing Paul McCartney live. All you want to do is scream, cry, scream, twist, shout, cry, watch back your footage you took and/or go on you tube and watch Paul videos of the concert you saw because you simply NEED to relive it again.....and again......and maybe again....and again.....one more time......

I keep in contact with some of you and know a lot of you are travelling from far and wide to come in for this concert. Some of you may be going to the two nights at the O2 Arena in London and the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham? Sadly, that's going to be his only dates in the UK.....for now at least!

But this concert in Liverpool is the most coveted. Paul McCartney, playing in his hometown, the place where he started out on the road to success, only a few miles from where he first met his songwriting partner John, it's going to be overwhelming for some of you I know.

Since we sadly cannot attend this concert, we've decided to reach out to the fans who are going so you can tell us all about your experience seeing this wonderful man in concert in his hometown of Liverpool. We want to know EVERYTHING. The sights, the sounds, the songs, every little thing.

So, if you are interested, please contact me on Twitter or on Facebook and we shall talk all about Paul!

Paul McCartney Collaborates With Kanye West, SNL Turns 40

McCartney, Rhianna and West in the video for 'Four Five Seconds'

 It's been a busy first couple of months of 2015 for our Paul. He performed an intimate show at Irving Plaza in New York City on Valentines Day for just under a 1000 lucky people, He performed 'I've Just Seen A Face' with Paul Simon and 'Maybe I'm Amazed' on the Saturday Night Live special commemorating it's 40th anniversary, and what else? Oh yeah, he collaborated with Kanye West & Rhianna.

Much has been said about the collaboration between Paul, Rhianna & Kanye as well as Paul's collaboration with Kanye on his song 'Only One'.

Musically, 'Only One' has Kanye singing while Paul plays some chords on an electric piano. Kanye's voice is going through auto-tune, which many see as an indication that he can't sing at all. Furthermore, Kanye's commentary on his own artistic merit and his actions, particularly at the Grammys, has led many to dismiss him entirely. 'Four Five Seconds' features Kanye and Rhianna sharing vocal duties while Paul strums chords on an acoustic guitar.

I don't listen to Kanye West's music and the only Rhianna song I know is "Umbrella...ella...ella...ella...eyyyy!" and I find myself singing 'Four Five Seconds' chorus quite a lot now. Is that the Paul McCartney effect? Perhaps so.

Say what you want about Kanye West, the fact remains that he wanted to work with Paul McCartney. Which shows that he acknowledges and respects Paul and his work which deserves a nod of appreciation, however grudgingly.

Macca, Rhianna & Kanye performed the song 'Four Five Seconds' at the 2015 Grammy Awards. There was a bit I liked when Kanye acknowledged Paul halfway through the song. All in all it was a solid performance and it wasn't as bad as many people wanted it to be. Twitter blew up with all kinds of trolls who were there to rile up the Beatles fans with tweets such as "Who is this Paul McCartney guy? He's going to be so big now because of Kanye!" all of which were extremely tongue in cheek.

....I hope.

The Two Paul's perform the Beatles' classic 'I've Just Seen A Face' on SNL40.

Paul's appearance on SNL's 40th Anniversary show was also great. Paul at first performed an impromptu version of the Beatles' 1965 song 'I've Just Seen A Face' with Paul Simon as a joke audition, after failing, Paul Simon said to McCartney: "I told you we should have done 'Sound of Silence'!" referring to the Simon & Garfunkel hit from 1967.

Later in the show, Paul and his band performed 'Maybe I'm Amazed'. Perhaps not the best song to sing after a gig the night before but Paul, as usual, proved he didn't need any help and hit notes that many in their prime couldn't hit.

Paul performs 'Maybe I'm Amazed', his debut solo single from 1970, on SNL40.

The after party proved to be another rocking affair with Paul jamming on a borrowed left handed bass and rocking out with Taylor Swift, who was undoubtedly delighted.

2015 is going to be an interesting year for Paul McCartney, he already has his 'Out There' tour plans for Asia and perhaps this year will be the year that Paul takes his show down under to Australia? Fingers crossed for all your Aussie fans!

Live: Paul McCartney at the American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX 13/10/2014

Getting Out There: Paul's pictures scroll on the Jumbo trons before the show.

This is more of a picture blog because there are really no words to describe the exhilaration and thrill of seeing Paul McCartney in concert.

I have seen Paul a total of 3 times in 3 consecutive years now. All in the United States too. He LOVES it over here and the United States loves him.

Just to give the people who have never been to a Paul McCartney concert an idea of what to expect when they do attend, here's what goes down:

When you take your seats, the jumbo trons scroll a collage of pictures and film, some never seen before and probably from Paul's personal collection which is accompanied by remixes of Beatles songs and Paul's solo stuff. Right before he's about to come out, the Hofner in lights appears on the Jumbo tron and then the arena goes dark.....

Just before the show begins....

And then he just walks on stage. The place goes WILD. And I mean you will hear a single tone of "WOOOOOOOO" for several minutes straight.

Macca begins his show with the Beatles 1965 classic 'Eight Days A Week'

He waves casually to the audience and then he turns to his band members, Guitarists Rusty Anderson & Brian Ray, Drummer Abe Laboriel Jr and Keyboardist Paul 'Wix' Wickens who have backed Paul on tour now for almost 15 years. Wix is the longest serving member, having accompanied Paul on his 1989/90 and 1993 world tours.

After leading us through one of his songs from his just released 'New' album 'Save Us' and then the Beatles 1963 classic 'All My Loving' and then the 1975 Wings rocker 'Listen To What The Man Said' Paul switched to the electric guitar and took his jacket off to rock out on 'Let Me Roll It' from 1973's 'Band On The Run' which ended with a snippet of Hendrix' 'Foxy Lady' and a story about Hendrix and Eric Clapton!

It really is a shame Paul doesn't get on the electric guitar more often as he can really let rip with his riffs.

Then he treated us to 'Paperback Writer' on his famed Epiphone Casino. This is his favourite electric guitar, he got it in 1964 and the casino can be heard on the aforementioned song, 'Ticket To Ride', 'Taxman', 'Another Girl' and many more Beatles tracks! Paul played lead guitar on a few Beatles songs.

This last pic I snapped rather quickly as Paul decided at the end of one of his new songs 'Everybody Out There' to strum it on the fretboard and sing the refrain again for a second. It was an odd moment and spontaneous. I suppose he just felt like doing it and he could, because you know what? HE'S PAUL MCCARTNEY! HE CAN DO WHAT HE BLOODY WELL LIKES!

As you can see from the last two photos during the Hey Jude singalong, It got very smoky in there due to his performance of Live & Let Die. That one is extremely invigorating. Explosions and fireworks galore!

After Hey Jude the band leaves the stage, making people who are not familiar with this practice and this is their first Macca gig believe the show is over..... 

 It's not over. A couple in front of us got up to leave but we shook our heads at them and told them to wait....

Paul and the band run out with flags. Since Paul was in Texas, he held the Lone Star state flag, Rusty has the US flag and Wix holds the UK flag.

After the flag waving, it's back to the music. Paul took us through Daytripper, Get Back (I wish he'd play I Saw Her Standing There', next time though!), Yesterday, which he did on his Epiphone Texan and finally 'Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End"

After a bow from the band and a "Thank you! See ya next time!" from Paul, the confetti explodes. I captured this last picture and the confetti is in the shape of a heart. Not sure if this was intentional on their part or not but it makes for a pretty awesome shot!

Thank you Paul McCartney. For everything you have done and continue to do. Yes, we do want to keep on rocking.

"And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make"

Get Well Soon Paul!

Getting Better: Paul is extremely sorry that he's had to cancel his shows due to illness.

As you've probably all heard, Paul is not very well. Shortly after arriving in Japan to start the Asian leg of his 2014 Out There tour, Paul came down with a virus, the full extent of which is not yet known. Paul has had to cancel all his Japan dates and his first ever concert in South Korea and, according to some reports, he has been hospitalized in Japan so doctors can run some tests.

This will be worrying many fans and especially since there are some wild, unsubstantiated rumours flying around about what state he's in. Paul has released a statement which can be found on his website and reads as follows:

"Since contracting a virus last week that led to the postponement of tour dates, Paul received successful medical treatment at a hospital in Tokyo.

He will make a complete recovery and has been ordered to take a few days rest.
Paul has been extremely moved by all the messages and well wishes he has received from fans all over the world."

So you see? Paul will be back to doing what he loves in no time. I am going to see him in Dallas on June 16 and am very much looking forward to it so I'm taking this opportunity to wish Paul a speedy recovery and hope he can get back to wowing audiences with his precocious talent soon.

Get Well Soon Paul!