Sir Paul McCartney rolls back the years in Cavern comeback (but no phones please)
Image copyright Sonny McCartney/MPLMore than six decades have passed since Sir Paul McCartney first performed at the Cavern Club, but the Beatles legend returned to roll back the years at a "secret" gig there on Thursday.
Around 250 people crammed into a sweaty Cavern to hear the 28-song set.
The set list ranged from classics he performed when the Beatles started out at the Cavern in the early '60s to songs from his new solo album.
"Coming back here is pretty amazing for me," the 76-year-old told the crowd.
He skirted over the fact that the original Cavern was filled with rubble in 1973 and the venue for Thursday's show was a more modern live room attached to a replica Cavern that was built nearby.
"Imagine this for me - all these years ago when we played the Cavern we didn't know if we'd have any future," he said. "But we did OK."
Skip Twitter post by @PaulMcCartney
It was fabulous and brought back loads of beautiful memories and reminded me of where we started @cavernliverpool #PaulMcCartney #EgyptStation pic.twitter.com/9kUFNCWU6Y
— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) July 26, 2018
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End of Twitter post by @PaulMcCartney
The crowd included 175 lucky fans who had to race to collect the free tickets from the Echo Arena box office when the show was announced on Thursday morning.
Tom Gilchrist, 28, from Liverpool, started waiting outside the Cavern first thing after hearing rumours of the gig. But they jumped in a taxi when they heard they had to get to the arena.
They joined others running to the box office, and saw one woman faint in the process. "It was like Beatlemania all over again," he said.
Friend Chris Clements described the concert as "probably the best thing that's ever happened to me in my life".
He said: "We were so close he could have been in my lounge at home."
His girlfriend Dana Fischetti, 22, happened to be visiting from Connecticut, USA. "I'm so lucky," she said. "The chances of this happening are so long. It doesn't feel real that this is really happening. I love The Beatles."
Phones 'putting me off'
Sir Paul greeted the crowd by harking back to the lyrics from the song Michelle, saying: "Liverpool! Cavern! These are words that go together well."
After an introductory jam, he launched into "the song that got me in The Beatles" - Eddie Cochrane's Twenty Flight Rock, which Sir Paul played as his audition for John Lennon in 1957.
However he stopped the song halfway and showed a rare bad mood when he berated the crowd for filming him and taking pictures on their phones.
"I think you've all been told not to take photos," he said. "And you're taking them, and you're taking them, and I don't want to get put off, and you're putting me off."
After completing the song, he said he had been emboldened to crack down on phones at gigs after watching Prince live.
"The phone thing - I went to a Prince concert and he was really serious about that," Sir Paul said.
"He wouldn't start. He would not play. You know what I'm saying? Come on."
One fan was ejected for filming during the opening jam, even before Sir Paul had made his first plea.
Smartphones weren't an issue when The Beatles played at the original Cavern almost 300 times between 1961-63.
Since then, Sir Paul has only played at the current Cavern once, in 1999.
Thursday's show was part of the promotional campaign for Sir Paul's new solo album Egypt Station.
The Cavern Club concert comes weeks after he played a surprise show for about 50 fans at the city's Philharmonic pub for James Corden's TV show.
On Monday, he also performed at Abbey Road Studios - where The Beatles famously recorded - watched by stars including Kylie Minogue, Johnny Depp and Stormzy.
Set list
- Jam
- Twenty Flight Rock
- Magical Mystery Tour
- Jet
- All My Loving
- Letting Go
- Come On To Me
- Let Me Roll It
- I Got A Feeling
- My Valentine
- Queenie Eye
- 1985
- Lady Madonna
- In Spite Of All The Danger
- Things We Said Today
- Confidante
- Love Me Do
- Who Cares
- Birthday
- I Wanna Be Your Man
- Fuh You
- Get Back
- Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
- Band On The Run
- Hi Hi Hi
- I Saw Her Standing There
- Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
- Helter Skelter
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