Perhaps the greatest songwriter there ever was, the influence of Paul McCartney spans generations and means something personal to each of his fans. How did this one fan deal with coming face-to-face with her idol?
The Beatles were the first band I ever became a fan of. The first Beatles album I ever bought, the Blue compilation double CD was one of my most treasured possessions as a teenager, which was pretty wild stuff given I didn’t even own a CD player to listen to it. I remember having my first real young adult conversation at 13 with my mum as we drove down to her farm in Margaret River with The Beatles for Sale playing in the car and myself covered in chicken pox. I’ve seen The Beatles Anthology documentary so many times it’s like cracking the spine of a favourite dog-eared book. In 2009 I heard the Love album and 3 years later when we actually saw The Beatles’ Love show in Las Vegas I considered it a dream come true believing it to be the closest I would ever get to a Beatles experience.
Having now seen Paul McCartney in concert and been fortunate to meet him, there is no way to overstate McCartney’s impact on music and fans alike. Name another concert where every song is a familiar hit, where the setlist spans the better part of the century? As the tour made its way around Australia, I went from delirious anticipation to keen observer as every city he performed in led to glorious, unabashed adulation by fans and media alike.
In my travels as a music reviewer, I’ve seen a number of shows and been up close to a number of well-known people along the way but I don’t get starstruck that easily. However when I received a DM from Frontier Touring telling me I had won the opportunity to meet Paul McCartney, whilst I was making dinner and listening to Wings mind you, I screamed so loud and long that Macca may have well have heard as he practiced down the road at The Regal Theatre.
The Saturday before the concert I was in my backyard in the late afternoon sitting in front of a wall of purple bougainvillaea recording myself so that I could enter this competition to meet Sir Paul McCartney. Speaking loudly, trying to not look crazy and probably causing my neighbours concern since our yards are close together, I mumbled at one point, “fuck this is embarrassing” then admonished myself, knowing this was once again one of those times I had to really go for it. Once I uploaded the video I knew that was as good as I could do yet I also thought, if I don’t win, however disappointing it may be, that would be okay too. I was already going to the concert (which was already a huge life goal) so if I was supposed to meet him I would. That subsequent DM threw my world into a dervish as I couldn’t stop veering from sobbing to jumping around the house as I processed the enormity of what this meant to me.
Luckily on the day I didn’t cry in front of him, not that I felt like it, I just felt stunned as he said ‘Hiya’ and shook my hand, and then cheerfully answered questions from fans and several awestruck reporters. Then as he and his band started a private performance it wasn’t until I’ve Got A Feeling that I felt like I was gonna break as my mind flitted like a Rolodex through the hundreds of moments where his music has touched my life. I never thought I would ever actually see Paul McCartney in concert, let alone stand in front of him and actually have his gaze fall upon me as I giddily made my way through asking a question or have him perform metres away from me. I’m making it sound dramatic I know but he is one of my surrogate-guardians. From the age of 8, his music has comforted me, made sense of my world, provided perspective, or given me escape when life got too hard.
This is in part why music has been so important to me and why when he strolled out on stage at NiB Stadium on the 2nd of December with that slopey gait, I felt complete elation. But I wasn’t alone, I was one of 24,000 who had a dream come true that night. Forget he played for three hours, forget he played without break or did an eight song encore coming in at around 40 songs by night’s end. What he gave, on his One On One concert, was a stage show that was as huge as his legend like the visual spectacular of Live And Let Die, and in the smaller moments felt as intimate as listening to McCartney in private such was his simple delivery of Blackbird. Buffered with stories that he must have told hundreds of times before but were received by the audience like the first sip of wine, it was a concert that was engaging and personable.
Several years ago I saw Kanye West give a flashy show that was a self-indulgent, bloated ego stroke with West finishing the night with a “Perth… you’re welcome”. I think West is an amazing artist but that doesn’t extend to performing. When I saw Prince last year at the Perth Arena, he captivated 14,000 with just his personality and a piano by connecting with people from the front row to the back. It’s this unique ability that makes for a magic concert, something that McCartney has mastered.
At the end of the concert I must have looked bereft but I was just emotionally spent at knowing that I had just seen the greatest concert in my life because when you know, you know. As my friends and colleagues all began to debrief their thoughts and reviews over the oncoming hours and days, it was the same for them too. Everyone mentioned that they had witnessed something extraordinary and a stage show that won’t be matched for a long time.
Since the 1960s McCartney has gotten up on stage, Hoffner bass in hand, and given himself up to the full brunt of energy from thousands of people. For a long time, it was a manic craziness but later it became adulation and gratitude from the millions of people he’s affected. At the heart of it, it’s people from all walks of life offering him love for those 3 hours, which he in turn gives back to every concert-goer with performances that really have no comparison. Simply, McCartney practices what he preaches which is “in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make”.
Comments