Back in the world tour, Antwerp Sportpaleis, April 1st 2003
Paul in Belgium
This was the third concert Paul gave in Belgium. The first concert was in on 22 august 1972 in Antwerp. I was born on the same day (some hours before the concert began). Since then, the price of tickets has been multiplied by 10 (75 euro in stead of 7.5 euro) just like the number of spectators (15000 this time). There are about 1000 hard-core Macca fans in Belgium (there exists a study from a Belgian university on Beatlesfans) and although there is no official Belgian McCartney fanclub (anymore), most of them are pretty active. It was the famous concert promotor Herman Schuermans who was able to get Paul to Belgium for 2 concerts. Initially Paul was supposed to come together with Heather Mills, although the latter canceled her reservations (including her demands for a saxophone and a fitness instructor.
Paul waving a Belgian flag, while Rusty is making big gestures in the background
Sportpaleis Antwerp
Paul was initially supposed to arrive at the airport of Antwerp on tuesday but because his chartered airplane (an Airbus 319) was to big to land with the strong winds, they decided to land in Brussels. Because of the gigantic traffic jams between Brussels and Antwerp, it took him more than 1,5 hour to get to Antwerp, even with a police escort. As a result, Paul did a very short soundcheck on tuesday. The crowd on tuesday was MUCH more quiet than in Paris, hardly anyone danced or jumped. Only from Let it Be on, people stood up from their chairs (even the arena had chairs). As you can see I was in row 11 so it wasn't difficult to move quickly to row 2 at that moment.
Paul spoke a lot of Dutch (he called it Belgian - which doesn't exist), and honestly, he pronounced the sentences he read from the monitor very well. The tracklist was the same as usual except that he started picking up 'Yellow Submarine' which the crowd had started singing after 'Something'. After the concert, Paul went to his hotel in Brussel, the band on the other hand had their hotel at the Plaza in Antwerp.
Paul always has 2 Hofners ready behind the stage. It takes John Hammel about 45 minutes to tune all the guitars before the concert...
OK, the crowd was not making a lot of noise, but does that justify the faces Paul and Rusty make here during Sgt Peppers?
This concert of the 'Back in the world tour' was well worth all the effort and I hope to see you all on
one of the coming events,
tijl.vanbrabant@chello.be
P.S. Please e-mail me whenever you like!
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