Paul McCartney's Concert at Unipol Arena, Bologna, Italy

While being abroad last week I managed to see Paul McCartney's concert in Bologna, Italy on 26/11/2011. The event was the first of the European gigs on his "On the Run" tour and I hope this article could give a good overview of what to be expected from Paul's subsequent shows. Because I don't like sitting at the sides of a venue and since there were not any seating places in front of the stage in the case of Unipol Arena, I had to get a standing ticket. And because all of these tickets were sold out at the time I knew I could go to the concert, I made the mistake to use Seatwave.com aftermarket ticket service, which unfortunately appeared to be among the most amateurish services I had ever used in my entire long-lived Internet experience. Due to the latter fact as well as for some Bologna traffic problems on the way to the venue, my position in the hall was not among the best and although I had a direct view to the stage, it was mainly for the presence of a couple of big screens that I was able to see Paul McCartney and his band in good proportions.

The gig started with a small (normal) delay and continued for not less than two and a half hours. Sir Paul McCartney was in a relatively good shape considering his age. He changed half a dozen of musical instruments including bass and 6-string guitars, piano, mandoline and a small size guitar. McCartney's band comprised of good players who were almost constantly smiling and apparently having a good time on the stage. Because of Paul's frequent instrument changes some of his fellow musicians were also able to demonstrate skills on various instruments.

The audience counted about 20 thousands of fans. They were of all ages but I was surprised that the number of young people was considerable. I saw several persons that almost lost consciousness but I would attribute this to their inexperience in crowded areas rather than some 21st century "Beatlemania".

The sound was not at its best in the beginning of the show but after a couple of songs it got better and was decent until the end of the gig. The lighting was Ok and as mentioned already the big video screens were of huge help for many of the attendees. There were not numerous lighting or pyrotechnic effects. There was not any fancy choreography. The major part of the show was just great music, dedicated performances, a lot of smiles and just occasionally there were some remarkable special effects. It was just as it had to be for a performer who created (many of) the most recognizable songs of the 20th century.

As for the songs, many of Paul McCartney's masterpieces were there. He played more than 20 songs of the Beatles, 5 songs of his great Band on the Run album plus several other gems from his long career. Of course, in a setlist comprised of just 35 tracks (otherwise, more than enough for a single concert), Paul could not include even every big hit he had ever written. But it was nice to hear many of the songs which had made the Beatles such a significant phenomenon and some of McCartney's Wings and solo greatest hits. Sir Paul McCartney tried to include a bit of everything. There were plenty of ballads as well as many harder rocking tracks. He sang a song for John Lennon ("Here Today") and included a part of "Give Piece a Chance" at the end of "A Day in the Life". He sang "Something" for George Harrison. He played a small tribute to Jimi Hendrix (a piece of "Foxy Lady"). There were some fireworks on "Live and Let Die" and of course, the recent Grammy winner "Helter Skelter" was also included in the set list. Several times, Paul tried to spoke a little bit of Italian as a kind gesture to the public and at the end he performed his usual two small sets of encores.

The gig was a good value for money, something I would naturally expect from Paul McCartney. The only thing I have to stress and it is not a fault of McCartney's or his crew is that if you are a fan of a particular performer or a band, you should try to be closer to the stage, either sitting or standing, because the emotions are completely different there. I almost always manage to achieve a good position (if I care for the artist) but unfortunately, I was not able this time which spoiled the gig a bit for me. Apart from this personal reason, Sir Paul McCartney and the concert as a whole were great and I would definitely recommend attending one (or more) of his "On the Run" tour gigs if you have the chance.

At last, below are the songs Paul McCartney played in Bologna, not ordered in the particular setlist's sequence (note that "Come and Get It", a song first recorded by Paul at the end of the Beatles' era, was performed live by McCartney for the first time ever).

The Beatles songs: A Day in the Life / Give Peace a Chance, All My Loving, And I Love Her, Back in the U.S.S.R., Blackbird, Day Tripper, Eleanor Rigby, Get Back, Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight / The End, Got to Get You into My Life, Helter Skelter, Hey Jude, I'm Looking Through You, I've Got a Feeling, Let It Be, Magical Mystery Tour, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Paperback Writer, Something, The Long and Winding Road, The Night Before, The Word / All You Need Is Love, Yesterday

Paul McCartney / Wings songs: Band on the Run, Come and Get It, Dance Tonight, Here Today, Jet, Junior's Farm, Let Me Roll It, Live and Let Die, Maybe I'm Amazed, Mrs Vandebilt, Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five

The Fireman song: Sing the Changes

The Beatles Achievements: Part I

It has been well-known for years that the Beatles are the most successful band in the history of rock. Maybe, it's not so known that they are widely considered the most influential band ever. And definitely, it's much less known what the Beatles achievements are in fact.

John Lennon met Paul McCartney at one of the Quarrymen's performances in 1957 and Paul showed him how to tune a guitar. You should know the rest anyway so we are not going to tell you the story of the most famous Liverpool rock band. Instead, we'll try pointing out how much those boys grew up and evolved since that lucky for mankind meeting event happened. With some of the band's greatest musical achievements and influence over the rock history we hope at the end, you'll have at least a small idea what the rock world has got with the Beatles and that it would never be the same without them.

A self-contained rock group

Have you noticed that there are still some performers that do not write their own songs but rather play somebody else's material. This tendency depends on the genre or the country, which the performer is coming from but in general such artists are not a rarity. Well, 50 years ago, it was nearly a rule for the rock bands: almost no band performed its own songs. So, in that time (1963) the Beatles released a first album containing 8 (out of 14) songs written on their own. They continued in this direction and when the time for their third album A Hard Day's Night came in 1964, the record was completely compiled of material written by the band members. To stress that fact, note, that it was 1964 again when the Beatles' main competitors in the 60s, the Rolling Stones, issued their first album and it was almost entirely comprised of songs written by other authors. Elvis Costello said about the Beatles: "They made writing your own material expected, rather than exceptional."

Rock music as international phenomenon

While nobody denies that rock music came from the United States, the British Invasion was the force that made rock internationally popular music genre and established the basis for rock to become the most successful musical monster ever. Of course, the British Invasion started with Beatlemania and sure, the main suspects for the latter were the Beatles. Their first album Please Please Me, loaded with infectious melodies and harmonies topped the British charts for 30 weeks. It was replaced at the top slot by With The Beatles, their second LP record. The latter stayed at the top of the charts for 21 weeks helping for the total of 51 consecutive weeks in which the quartet held the 1st place on the album charts. The United Kingdom had been constantly amazed for a year when the time for conquering the world came. The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964 and Beatlemania arrived in the United States too. It was spreading so fast and widely that in the first week of April 1964, the Beatles had the top five spots on the best-selling singles charts in the States plus the first two entries on the album charts with other entries spread throughout the Billboard Top 100 also. They became monstrously popular all over the world and they traced the route for other British bands like the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, the Animals, the Who, etc. to storm and take the USA and the whole planet almost effortlessly.

Read the second part of our article by following the link The Beatles Achievements: Part II.

John Lennon: A Short but Extraordinary Life

If John Lennon was alive, he would become 70 years old today. Unfortunately, he had only 40 years to live but what an extraordinary life it was. You can hardly find many people having more sterling lives and achieving so much as John Lennon did. He was a very bright star for the half part of his existence and he continues to be so bright even 30 years after his death. To show that he really had an exceptional life, let's write about some of its most prominent aspects.

Undoubtedly, if we should point just one thing about John Lennon, it would be his participation in the Beatles. He was the founder and together with Paul McCartney one of the two most important members of the band. How immensely crucial were the Beatles for the development and success of pop and rock music has been constantly discussed by analysts for several decades already and you may also read about the greatest achievements of the Beatles by following the link, but in brief: the Beatles were responsible for establishing the pattern of self-contained rock band (writing their own songs); transforming the rock music into an international phenomenon; introducing many technical innovations in the studio recording; experimenting in new musical directions and making new pop and rock styles popular; and as a result of everything becoming the most successful pop/rock band ever while simultaneously gaining the all-time biggest sales numbers and universal critical acclaim. If John Lennon was not there, all of that fascinating story would not happen.

The Beatles broke up before John Lennon had even turned 30 years in 1970. After their split, John was arguably the most critically respected member although not as productive as, e.g., Paul McCartney. John created a good portion of famous and well-crafted songs during his solo career, some of them becoming eternal anthems of peace, love or personality.

John Lennon was an activist of the peace movement and used his celebrity status together with his wife Yoko Ono to promote peace messages to broad audiences. Instead of using a standard intellectual approach and writing manifestos or articles on the subject, he used his honeymoon to talk about peace while staying in bed with his wife. He used his sense of humor to attract more people to anti-war ideas. He wrote lyrics on peace themes. Imagine, Give Peace a Chance, etc. are still songs remembered by millions of people. Happy Xmas (war Is Over) sends an anti-war message while at the same time remains as one of the best Christmas songs ever.

Besides being a peace activist, John Lennon issued one of the most personal albums Plastic Ono Band that reached such a broad audience. It is often voted in different polls to be amongst the best albums of all time. While being not commercial at all, the album reached many people due to Lennon's celebrity status and showed some of the most personal messages John had shared with us throughout his fruitful career. He sang about Mother, Isolation, God and Love along very touching lyrics and simple but memorable melodies. He continued his strong works with the album Imagine, which while not being such a personal effort, still contained some of his greatest songs, e.g., the title track or Jealous Guy.

For the exceptional presence of John Lennon could be also judged by Paul McCartney's respect concerning John. Although being often blamed for the ending of the Beatles (which is not very precise) by many people including Lennon, Paul has been always sympathetic to John showing his respect in various songs or interviews. But how could you not like the man singing "Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans". Paul even sang John's song Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy) containing that famous quote on an occasion to show his esteem for John Lennon.

At the end, we must point that even John Lennon's death has been extraordinary in terms that not everyone dies by murder. Sure, it was quite ironic, the person that was fighting against killing people to be killed. Life is often unfair to its greatest men. But fortunately, people remember geniuses long after their death.

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