Madrid, Spain - Vicente Calderon Stadium -June 2 - ARCHIVE
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(too long for be on another thread, i think, but if you mods feel like it's got to be merged to another thread then do it) FANTASTIC! yeah, but how? ok, whole story 1 . Pre show DJ Remixed Beatle and Paul songs. But 90 % of them were Beatle songs. I was great to hear lots of people singing Revolution or Come Together. But also got me thinking like it was a Beatle tribute thing, forgetting about Paul's career you know. Has it's good and it's bad. The best tracks were not the originals with a drumbeat but the covers played, like some Motown-style covers (Wilson Pickett?) of Get Back, Paperback Writer, I saw her standing there... 2. Show from A Hard Day's Night to 1985 this was the setlist http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/paul-mccartney/2016/estadio-vicente-calderon-madrid-spain-3bfedcec.html The 3 first songs were full of band noise and people singing so, no way to hear Paul's singing. Madrid people don't sing so much as Barcelona anyway... In Letting Go, Paul's voice was audible and it was great!, in spite of whatever rumours or whatever happened in the past, it was really great. I can't remember a better version of Letting Go. Let Me Roll It and I've Got A Feeling were more about guitars than vocals... quite noisy... Don't get me wrong, Paul's band is a great band but I think most go to Paul's concerts mostly to hear Paul's singing and not drums, guitars or harmonies over it. That's what I dislike the most. Lots of sound over Paul's voice. I know sometimes that's on the original record too and they're trying to mimic the sound but in the end you can't hear Paul and if you get to hear Paul's voice he's sounding BAD (yes!) cause he's not hearing himself either!. But when the noise is out and Paul can listen to himself, and so we, it's just fantastic. In I've Got a Feeling he got to sing the hard part, you know. Sounding rough... like the original is deliberately rough, like the bridge of Oh Darling or Maybe I'm Amazed. Most critize he sings rough in songs he deliberately recorded sounding rough, yet most people use to like that studio parts. I'm not a fan on that singing style in those songs, but if most like it on the studio, why not live??? Noise and rough 1985, but the big surprise was a big high C like the ones on the original!. The angry kind, you know. 3. From Here there and everywhere to Blackbird Paul started singing Here, there and everywhere at the piano and that's when the people surrendered to him/got people at the palm of his hand... I mean people thanked that version with a long ovation and was with Paul the rest of concert. (Hey, I did a piano version of the song not so long ago, maybe he got the idea from... lol) Maybe I'm amazed, noise, as I said, the most audible things were the perfect falsetto acrobatics. In Spite of All the danger was a chance to hear Paul again, cause people don't know the song, except for the Who-oa-oa. And he sounded perfect, he even did some little Elvis like things that he can only do when he is as his best. Paul was as his vocal best in the concert EXCEPT in the noisy parts, as I said. And If he would have been at his best at those we wouldn't be able to hear it anyway... Paul re-started "In Spite", to hear the audience doing that little chorus again. The audience did football stadium singing celebrating Paul and the show. Paul guessed the chords to them with the guitar and joined in. Then, too much of Beatles... "In Spite" is not Beatles really, lol, and he sang Blackbird great in spite of his usual struggles in the past with it. 4. From Here Today to Let It Be Here Today was something else. The usual tribute to John, u know. After the first "I love you" people did a long ovation, so long that Paul couldn't keep playing for a while, and the rest of the song was really special. The stadium went mute, the highest sign of respect here (we like to sing everything, u know, just like in Italy). Paul sounded like he was alone in the studio it was ultra-moving. Paul ended the song in tears, and so I! And it's not easy to make me cry. The most moving version of the song I've even heard. After the song, in the crowd many started singing Give Peace A Chance (as we did in 2004 and so they do in Paris) and Paul and the band joined in. People sang a lot with Queenie Eye but not a thing with New. The first is made for live shows and the 2nd is for room listening. Fool on the hill, Lady Madonna, Eleanor Rigby... boring for me. I noticed they played Lady Madonna in a slower way, so they don't do the Abe metronome thing to copy the beat of the original so they sometimes play a song faster sometimes slower. Band on the run was more celebrated than the Beatle songs before it (Obladi, MrKite, Something, etc) prove that is not that people only enjoy the Beatle songs! not true at all. Just before Let It be Paul told a story of he playing in the Red Square and talking there with Russian ministers (don't know if the goverment of 2004 of people of the communist regime) and they told him they learnt English with the Beatle songs (as we Spanish did too lol)... so they did things like shooking hands and saying "Hello Goodbye", lol. Then he went to Let It Be and I went to tears, for all the song, really strange in me. I was kind of ill, a stomach thing, but I decided to go to Madrid anyway, I knew I wasn't gonna ENJOY much, cause Beauty is half is the eye on the beholder and the other half is the eye on the beholded. And I can tell beauty wasn't much inside of me 2 days ago. But sure I was moved. And I got to enjoy some parts. 5. From Live and Let Die to The End In live and let die Paul struggled singing the ballad part, but not the rocker. The band was terrific and the song was very celebrated, people singing along the guitar parts, it was crazy (and is not a Beatle hit, u know!). Paul was a great at the piano in the song and all night too, but not so great at guitar. Hey Jude, Paul voice again was hard to spot with all the noise and people singing. The end of Hey Jude was the most sung part of all the concert (so it's not about getting rid of all Beatle songs either...). The now the men/now the women was the most hilarious version I've heard, and I've heard a few online... The men went ultra-macho and the women went ultra-silly or whatever you call it, It was a joke. It didn't have the magic of other Hey Jude singalongs, I guess it depends much on the audience. People didn't keep on singing the song when Paul stopped (in many places like Paris, Barcelona... people goes on...). Band goes out of the stage. And Paul comes back to do Yesterday with a huge ovation after the song. No way to hear him well, I think people thank him for creating the song and for the recording, not for the performance, it's not a "live song" anyway (unlike Hey Jude). Lots of noise in Birthday but in Hi Hi Hi Paul's voice was clear and great, of course he sounded rough... in the parts he have always sung that way in the song. And.... Paul you know, don't ends with a hit but with a song that's not even a song, and not even in a single greatest hits album of The Beatles. Yet people seems to like it a lot. The ending with The End is still a thing that can't be beated. That ending verse and Paul doing male AND female operatics at the end, dedicated fot the people that thinks he has no voice now... or that he is finished... etc. I've been to 3 Paul concerts, 1994, 2004 and this one. So next review probably on 2025 or so. After writing kind of a milion words in this board, I felt I should write a lot after attending to a Paul show and so it's done. I do it for myself too, so I can keep the memory in a better way. I would like to have a copy of the show (audio, video, whatever...) but I may never find one!. CONCLUSION: Everything superb, except for, too much noise of the band, so trouble for Paul voice sometimes and trouble for we to be able to hear it. But I guess many like that to be that way. These days bands do lots of noise you know, and the singer sounds like just another instrument, not the main one. And too much Beatle stuff, or too little solo stuff. Just as Paul in the 70s did too little Beatle stuff. 2:
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Nice review! Muchas gracias!
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De nada!
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Thanks for sharing! Really looking forward to seeing Paul again in August! I sent you a PM.
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RMartinez:
Nice review! Muchas gracias!
"Everything superb..."
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moptops:
RMartinez:
Nice review! Muchas gracias!
"Everything superb..."
"Everything superb, except..."
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21st Century Paul:
moptops:
RMartinez:
Nice review! Muchas gracias!
"Everything superb..."
"Everything superb, except..."
Ok...ok fair enough.
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21st Century Paul, Thank you so much for writing about your experience,! I really enjoyed reading it and it stirred up fond memories. Those memories will last you a lifetime. We must think positively and be grateful for what Paul shares with us. With so many famous people passing on lately, it makes us appreciate HIM being with us even more.
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~lady*madonna~:
21st Century Paul, Thank you so much for writing about your experience,! I really enjoyed reading it and it stirred up fond memories. Those memories will last you a lifetime. We must think positively and be grateful for what Paul shares with us. With so many famous people passing on lately, it makes us appreciate HIM being with us even more.
Yes. We must think positively. Where's the koolaid??
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One On One in Madrid
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Thanks for the review. Was anyone at the soundcheck in GA ? Was wondering if it was as hectic to get to the front as in Paris ?
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~lady*madonna~:
21st Century Paul, Thank you so much for writing about your experience,! I really enjoyed reading it and it stirred up fond memories. Those memories will last you a lifetime. We must think positively and be grateful for what Paul shares with us. With so many famous people passing on lately, it makes us appreciate HIM being with us even more.
Well, now i remind the details, so writing them down I will remind the whole thing in the future. I am musician, so most of what I've wrote is about music... not about Paul's face, looks, dance, attitude, etc... I don't care much bout that. Paul took some couple to stage for a marriage proposal, I forgot that. One thing we can be sure. He is doing THE REAL THING and we must appreciate that. He could do playback shows, like many. He could show one hour shows, kind of like the Stones. He could change the key of all songs. Not that he does for free, lol, but he also could do little shows with very expensive tickets in the Streisand way... or play in Las Vegas... yet now the world can get to be on a Paul McCartney rock and roll concert.
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here is a very good video of the ultra moving version of Here Today in Madrid (at the start are the "Paaaaulll Paaaull" coming from the audience
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and this was the magical Here there and everywhere
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one of the best versions of the night, Letting Go
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the one that got me crying, Let It Be
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so this man must retire? The Beatles retired at 1970, I wouldn't like to see the same thing happening again.
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live and let die, not his best singing, but terrific band!
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a great hi hi hi
and the Abbey Road's end with Paul singing as a tenor and as a soprano at the end -
He can perform till the cows come home for all I care.