The May 27 and 28 Mexico City dates were attended by over 100,000 of the most enthusiastic McCartney fans on the planet. Featuring the first ever performances in Mexico of The Beatles’ “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” and the Fireman’s “Highway” and “Sing The Changes,” among numerous other highlights, the twin 2-hour-plus marathon sets found McCartney turning the 100,000-plus-attendance doubleheader into an intimate affair: The first date alone saw a local man’s dream come true as he joined Paul for an impressive soundcheck duet of “I Saw Her Standing There,” while later that night a female fan whose “I Want To Dance On Stage” sign caught Paul’s eye was invited to do just that for an encore of “Get Back.”
Macca will be anything but idle in the month leading up to his next U.S. run: On June 2 The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song was presented to McCartney at a special concert in the East Room of the White House. The performance, featuring Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Jack White, Dave Grohl, Faith Hill, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris and more will air on PBS stations nationwide on Wednesday, July 28 at 8 p.m. EDT (check local listings) as “Paul McCartney: The Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song In Performance at the White House.” The Gershwin Prize for Popular Song was created by the Library of Congress to honor artists whose creative output transcends distinctions between musical styles and idioms, bringing diverse listeners together, and fostering mutual understanding and appreciation.
Beginning June 12, McCartney’s Up and Coming Juggernaut will swing through Dublin, the Isle of Wight, Glasgow and Cardiff before concluding with a June 27 headline at London’s Hyde Park.
The Up and Coming 2010 Tour continues to target cities McCartney has never played before as well as historically significant markets from which he’s been absent too long: The July 10 show will be McCartney’s first concert within the city of San Francisco since The Beatles wrapped their last ever tour at Candlestick Park on August 29, 1966, the July 13 date will be McCartney’s first-ever performance in Utah, and July 26 as mentioned will mark McCartney’s Nashville debut. Elsewhere, the July 15 show at Denver’s Pepsi Center and August 8 date at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre will be Paul’s first appearances in both regions in approximately five years, July 24 at Kansas City’s Sprint Center and August 12 at Montreal’s Bell Centre will end a 17- and 20-year absences from those markets respectively, and July 28 at Charlotte NC’s Time Warner Cable Arena marks Macca’s first show in the city since 1993. The current run will conclude with a pair of engagements in Pennsylvania: August 14’s return to the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia and the August 18 opening of Pittsburgh’s Consol Energy Center, on which Paul will christen the new venue with his first Pittsburgh show in over two decades.
McCartney’s live shows have reached a new level of status in recent years, garnering unprecedented reviews from fans and critics alike. He’s pushed boundaries, performed to millions and made global news with monumental shows including performances in Moscow’s Red Square, outside of the Coliseum in Rome, the largest outdoor show ever in the Ukraine, his first performance in Tel Aviv and a live performance transmitted to a NASA space station. The Up and Coming dates, which kicked off in late March, are McCartney’s first U.S. shows since his Summer Live ’09 Tour, which was prefaced by a triumphant sold-out headline set at the 2009 Coachella festival and a surprise Late Show with David Letterman mini-concert on the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater (inside which The Beatles made TV history decades ago) that drew throngs packing Broadway from Columbus Circle to Times Square. Summer Live ’09 began in earnest with an already legendary inaugural run of shows at New York’s Citi Field Stadium, the site of the former Shea Stadium where The Beatles played the 1965 concert that set the precedent for the modern-day stadium rock show. The Citi Field shows have since been immortalized on the gold-certified Good Evening New York City CD/DVD, released November 17 2009 by Hear Music/Concord.
Garnering rave reviews the world over, the Up and Coming Tour 2010 set list draws on two-plus hours’ worth of selections spanning the catalogues of The Beatles, Wings and Paul’s solo career, including tracks from The Fireman’s 2008 album, Electric Arguments, and has featured material never before played on U.S. soil.
Stay tuned to PaulMcCartney.com for information on tickets, additional shows and other announcements.
PAUL McCARTNEY
UP AND COMING TOUR 2010
06/12/10 – Dublin, Ireland – RDS
06/13/10 – Newport, UK – Isle of Wight Festival
06/20/10 – Glasgow, UK – Hampden Park
06/26/10 – Cardiff, UK – Millennium Stadium
06/27/10 – London, UK – Hard Rock Calling
07/10/10 – San Francisco, CA – AT & T Park
07/13/10 – Sandy, UT – Rio Tinto Stadium
07/15/10 – Denver, CO – Pepsi Center
07/24/10 – Kansas City, MO – Sprint Center
07/26/10 – Nashville, TN – Bridgestone Arena
07/28/10 – Charlotte, NC – Time Warner Cable Arena
08/08/10 – Toronto, ONT – Air Canada Center
08/12/10 – Montreal, QUE – Bell Center
08/14/10 – Philadelphia, PA – Wachovia Center
08/18/10 – Pittsburgh, PA – Consol Energy Center
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