Here, There and Everywhere, April 10^th 1999


    Sir Paul, looking amazed at an almost fainting Tijl!!

    On Saturday 10^th of April '99 I left my home in Leuven at 11.00 a.m. and drove to Calais, France where I took a Ferry to Dover (met a great Australian chap on the boat) and from Dover to London Victoria by train. I arrived at 7 pm and I ran immediately to the RAH. I was a little worried since I still didn't have a concertticket but the first man I saw at the RAH offered me a ticket for 75 pounds. We tossed though and I won 10 pounds so I got my ticket for 65 UKP.


    Macca concerts, a good investment: this ticket doubled it's value within two weeks


    I had a seat in the arena area wich I preferred over the box seat I had during Standing Stone. When I came into the RAH, pictures of Linda were being shown on giant moviescreen on stage. This is what I recall, thanks to George, from the setlist (we didn't remember all songs 'cause it was a 3 and a half hour concert):

Eddie Izzard	presentator
Prentenders	Message of Love
Johnny Marr	meatless murder
Lynden David Hall	Here, there and Everywhere Abraham Martin John Foxy Lady
Des'ree	Blackbird
Ladysmith Black Mambazo	Amazing grace gospel song
Sinead O'Conner	Bridget Diana
Neal Finn	The dream is over
Heather Small	Wonderfull world INTERFALL
Pretenders	Back at the chain gang
Tom Jones	She's a woman Green green grass When a man loves a women
Marianne Faithfull	Vagabond waves As tears go by
Chrissie Hynde	Wish you love
Elvis Costello	Warm and Beautiful That day is done Peace, love and understanding
George Michael	Eleanor Rigby The long and winding road Faith
Paul McCartney	Going down to lonesome town All my loving Let it be

    My favourite singers were Chrissie Hynde (but that's because I was a fan of her before), Neal Finn, Tom Jones (great version of She's a woman) and Elvis Costello. I must say that Elvis really impressed me with his live appearance, more than on his records (although Veronica is in my top 10 songlist)

    But when Paul came on stage, the entire RAH just went nuts!!! We knew Paul was in the building since about 3 pm and yet it was still a surprise to see him on stage after all this time. Paul speeched for a few minutes, saying that he wasn't sure to come to this concert because he was affraid people would't understand (I think what Linda ment for Paul). He pointed to a 'go(ne) veggie' banner in the audience and then pointed to his kids who were in one of the boxes. He also said that his newborn grandchild was in the building!

    Then Chrissie Hynde came on stage and gave Paul his Hofner Bass. Paul said he'd play a Ricky Nelson song that he and Linda used to listen to in the fifties, each at one side of the ocean... I have some pictures of Paul speeching but I forgot to take pictures while he was playing! All my loving was just wonderfull and Paul seemed to enjoy it very much. The final song, Let it be, should have been rehearsed by some folks on stage before (not Paul, he knew the words!). Before Paul left the stage, he took a big hartshaped banner from someone in the first row which had one name on it: Linda. He waved with it to the audience and then went off.

    After the concert I met friends from Belgium who had been looking for me all afternoon because they had an extra ticket for me (they were able to sell it to someone else, luckily) and I met George Tebbens and Barb aka macca67 as we were all waiting at Paul's car who was parked at the front of the RAH.

         Tijl, sitting in front of Paul's car


    When the car was driven to the back to let Paul get into the car, I walked back to the intersection I knew from that Standing Stone rehearsal in October '97. After a long time I finaly saw the Mercedes coming up to me. This time Paul didn't open his window before the car had fully stopped. Lucikly he wasn't on the phone so we had a little chat:

Tijl:	Paul, can I take a picture?
Paul:	yes, but don't come to close
Tijl:	huh, eeeuh, it's a flash
Paul:	OK
Paul:	Did you like the show?
Tijl:	It was magnificent, I traveled 8 hours to see this concert and it was just great!
Paul:	Thank you
Tijl:	Thank YOU!

    By this time the red light became green and Paul closed the window. I even didn't realize Stella was in the back! And I would have loved to see her once because we gonna see Paul quite often in the near future, but I reckon Stella doesn't have the time to be with Paul all the time. Still I'm very glad with the picture I took: Paul looks FANTASTIC!. Last time I also took pictures but I was soo nervous I didn't use a flash. I was so frustrated I bought another camera wich has an automatic flash. Some people on the list will recieve a copy of this picture by default within 14 days, if you also like this picture, send me an e-mail.

    After the concert I was invited by Barb and George to their hotel. It's great to have such fine friends! I know there were other listers at the RAH, but I didn't see them. Unfortunately I lost my macca-l badge (the golden heartshaped one from the macca-l gathering at Standing Stone) :-(
The Linda Tribute Concert 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!

You can also read what the UK papers said about the concert.

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