Back in the world tour, Earls Court London, April 18th 2003
Bringing the show back home
When I arrived at Earls Court (or the Court of the Earl as Paul called it) on friday, the first thing that impressed me were the very large pubilicty screens for the Show. I waited all afternoon for Paul to arrive in his car but he clearly arrived at any of the other 3 entrances at Earls Court because I didn't see him arrive. At street level it was impossible to hear anything of the sound check. All day long, the box office was still selling tickets in all categories. When I picked up my tickets at 6 pm I tried to sell one of them on the street (my girlfriend couldn't make it to the concert) but without any luck. I was a bit surprised that demand for tickets was much lower than the offers. In fact, even the professional ticket salesmen sold theirs for half the face value. If you didn't have a £75 ticket it was almost impossible to get rid of it.
The concert started early because the city wanted the concert to end before 11:45 pm so that local habitants could go to sleep in time. And so Paul appeared on stage shortly after 8 pm. I had a £45 seat on the tiers, so unfortunately i missed the 'groove' of the concert i liked so much in Paris and Antwerp. I you are able to, try to have tickets in front, so that you are able to watch Paul himself and not the video screen. For me this make a whole different world and I'll sure do anything i can to stay away from the cheaper tix for the next concerts. (btw, some Macca-lister had premium £170 tickets)
He wore a light blue jacket, which he got rid of after a couple of songs accompanied by the striptease riff from Rusty. Compared to the other concerts in France and Belgium, Paul talked a lot between the songs. I guess he feels more at ease joking in his own language, knowing that people will understand even insider jokes. At one point he 'complained' to the public saying how hard it is to concentrate on chords and words when people in the first rows are showing signs like 'my mom saw you in '65 in Shea stadium'
Could this be 'Here, there and Everywhere? Pyrotechnics during Live & Let Die
Paul dedicated your loving flame to someone special in the audience: Heather. Paul also said during one of the songs: "one great thing about being on tour is that you have a lot of massages. In fact I had so many of them that I could write a book "Massages I Have Known" or "Massages Around The World". Some of them clearly stick to my mind like that massage from a heavy guy in New Orleans. He asked me to sit on the massage table and he looked into my eyes saying: "I want to you relax and think your leg is hollow and made of bronze". After a few moments the guy added "I want you to imagine your neck is like the neck of a giraffe.... how do you feel now?" And Paul answered "I feel like a giraffe with a bronze leg" (laughter). Then Paul explained that he told this story all around the world in the hope that the story would go back to New Orleans and that the guy would stop doing that to other people. After all, Paul said, he asked for a massage, not for a relationship. (more laughter). Paul also told the same story as during the poetry readings about the Japanese woman giving him a massage in Tokio (not not *THAT* time he said quickly to the public referring to the events in 1980, causing more grinning), while singing Yesterday in a Japanese version.
When Paul introduced Michelle he told the usual story about his efforts as a youngster to impress girls in L'pool pretending to be French and wearing a black sweater. As a reaction to the female screams he shouted quickly "and long boxers too" (laughter again).
The intro and outro stories for 'Something' were similar to the ones at the other UK concerts. Not only did he explain what a big George Formby fan George was (when Paul told this story in America about 1 fan in the back would shout a 'yeah' out of recognision), visiting the annual convention in Blackpool where certainly 50 of these fans would gather. After dinner, the ukeleles would come out and they would play them all together (Paul giving an impression of what it must've been like). Paul said that he once went to George and after dinner they played some ukelele. He told George he knew a song on ukelele. Abruptly Paul broke of the story and said "and tonight I'm gonna play it for you'. After playing "Something" (sung along very well by the audience especially the i-don't-knooooww-part) Paul continued his story and said "George listened to my version, took the ukelele and said "no, no, no, it should be like this: (Paul playing a speed up version prolly sounding like George Formby) (laughter).
Compared to the setlist in France and Belgium "Coming up" was replaced by "Two of us" with Abe now whistling at the end (the end being a bit unnatural without the usual fade-out like on disk). "Driving rain" was replaced by "i've just seen a face" and "Maybe I'm amazed" was replaced by "Things we said today".
Heather Mills
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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