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Irish Examiner
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
In pictures: Rory Gallagher's early years - confirmation, first press shot, Taste
Cork Rocks For Rory is a citywide event that marks the 30th anniversary of Rory Gallagher's passing in June 1995. A number of exhibitions, concerts, discussions, etc, will take place in Cork over the next few weeks. Confirmation Day, South Mall, Cork, 1960: Rory Gallagher and his mother on his confirmation day at the South Mall in Cork. Picture courtesy of the Gallagher family 'Rory and his mother, Monica, on the day of his confirmation, standing on the South Mall, looking back towards Cork City Library in the background. Rory is wearing short pants, which all schoolboys would have worn at the time, a cap from his school, the North Mon, and a suit my mother bought for him, although for Rory, even in his showband days, wearing a uniform was never the done thing for him.' Competition Winner, Academy St, Cork, 1961: Rory Gallagher on the roof of the Irish Examiner building on Academy Street in 1961. Picture: Irish Examiner Archive 'Rory won a talent contest at Cork City Hall. It was part of the Ideal Homes exhibition. They had heats for it up in the balcony, which was curtained off. They built a small stage. I remember being there with him. He did two numbers, including Lonnie Donegan's The Grand Coulee Dam. The guy doing compere said he couldn't get over the fire and energy that Rory put into the performance. Somebody from the Evening Echo wanted to get a picture of Rory so he was brought to the Examiner's Academy St office. The photographer took him onto the roof because the light was better. It was Rory's first photo in the press.' Showband Days, The 32 Club, North London, 1965: Rory Gallagher, second from right, on stage with the Fontana showband in the 32 Club in London in 1965. Picture courtesy of the Gallagher family 'This is a picture of the Fontana showband. As far as I know, it was taken at the 32 Club, which was a venue for showbands in north London. Rory must have been 17 years' old at the most. Rory is on the right-hand side, behind the microphone. You can tell it's him because of the guitar – he's got this Stratocaster. The band used to go over and play gigs in England, usually at Lent, because they couldn't play in Ireland during Lent.' Cavern Club, Leitrim St, Cork, 1966: Rory Gallagher with the Taste outside the Cavern Club on Leitrim Street in Cork in 1966. Picture courtesy of the Gallagher family 'This is Taste on Leitrim St in Cork. You can see the chimney stack in the background, which is the old Murphy's brewery. Rory's on the left. The centre guy is Eric Ketteringham, the bass player, and on the right, Norman Damery, the drummer. They're outside the Cavern Club where they did a residency. Behind them is their old VW van, with its split screen. At that time, the band would have been booked around Munster, the odd gig in Dublin, and then trying to break through up to Belfast. I did travel in that VW van with them up to Belfast. It was quite fun, but cold in the winter though because of the engine being at the back.' Isle of Wight Festival (on stage), 1970: Rory Gallagher and Taste at the Isle of Wight festival in 1970. Picture courtesy of the Gallagher family 'This is a backstage shot at Taste's Isle of Wight performance, taken looking out at the audience, which no one could put a number on. I've seen figures suggesting it was 100,000 people, with people camped up on the hills. Oddly enough, it was the day the band decided to split up. Rory was unhappy with the management. There was a lot of tension. There was a very early start, getting out of London, to get down to the ferry to get out to the island. When they got there, the manager was there and there were all sorts of disputes, but it was the biggest day of their lives. They put things to one side. They said, 'OK, this will be the last one. Let's make the best of it,' which they did. The band did several encores. They stole the show.' Isle of Wight Festival (backstage), 1970: Rory Gallagher and Taste at the Isle of Wight festival in 1970. Picture by John Minihan, courtesy of the Gallagher family 'This is Rory in his check shirt. Richard McCracken is in the middle with his arms around both guys, the drummer, John Wilson, being on the right. That picture was taken by the famous photographer, John Minihan. John was there at the Isle of Wight festival covering it, probably for the Daily Mail. It's backstage after their performance. They played in the afternoon. John was so proud, being Irish. He made his way backstage. He wanted to get the picture.' The exhibition, Rory's Early Impact - Rory Gallagher's Early Years in Cork up to Taste MK2, is at the Atrium, Cork City Council offices, June 14 to July 4, as part of the Cork Rocks For Rory event. Cork Rocks for Rory Gallagher's 30th Anniversary: Five highlights Rory Gallagher's Early Years in Cork up to Taste MK2, Atrium, Cork City Council's New Civic Offices, June 14-July 4: photographic exhibition capturing images of Rory Gallagher's rise, including his showband apprenticeship, up to 1970 and his years with Taste. 'The Continental Op' – The Global Musician, Cork Public Museum, June 14 – December 2025: exhibition cataloguing Rory Gallagher's tour memorabilia, concert posters and some of his guitars, music instruments and amps. Lyrics, Vinyl & Visuals – Rory Gallagher; the Man and His Interests, Cork City Library, June 14 – August 24: exhibition examining Rory Gallagher's influences, including hand-written drafts of his songs; his private record collection, among them Buddy Holly and Muddy Waters albums, and his book collection. Taste at the Isle of Wight 1970, Triskel Arts Centre, 7pm, June 26: screening of Oscar winner Murray Lerner's iconic documentary of Taste's performance at one of the all-time great music festivals, including rare footage and interviews with Bob Geldof, The Edge and Brian May. Joe Bonamassa Plays Rory Gallagher, Live At The Marquee, 8pm, July 1-3: legendary American blues guitarist runs through the canon of one of his heroes. Promises to be three special nights. Read More Rory Gallagher and the town he loved so well: Early days in Cork
Daily Mail
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Mail Sport hits the streets of Liverpool where fans are ready party like it's 1990! after missing out on a proper celebration during their last Premier League title win
It is just before 7.30am and we are about to embark on a tour of Liverpool and the surrounding areas to get a feel for the enormity of the occasion that awaits at Anfield on Sunday. We will head to the training base at Kirkby to talk to Arne Slot before heading to the stadium, the pubs and cafes of the L4 postcode, before zipping across to the city centre and waterfront, strolling past the Royal Liver Building and the Cavern Club. But the best place to start when looking to paint a picture of how much Sunday means is the back garden. Not any garden in particular, but just to have a think about the backyards of Liverpool fans. Why? Because these were the location for thousands of parties across Merseyside on June 25, 2020, when Liverpool's 19th title was confirmed. The coronavirus pandemic and lockdown rules meant it was not possible for fans to congregate in their usual spots, although plenty tell us how they did bend the guidelines. Our opening gambit to every fan we speak to is to ask how much winning number 20 will mean to them — and the reply from nearly everyone starts with a tale about how the parties, parades and sense of euphoria were stripped away by Covid. 'It was just me and my dad in our garden playing You'll Never Walk Alone over the neighbours' fence,' says Abigail Rudkin, a local artist. 'It was bittersweet, it felt quite lonely in a way that we could not celebrate together.' Another fan, a school teacher who asks not to be named, recalls: 'I'd bought a decent bottle of vintage champagne and had some smoke bombs. I let them off and drank my champagne out of the bottle in the back garden. The three of us who sit together at the match did a group call and had a virtual drink together.' John Gibbons, a presenter on the excellent Anfield Wrap podcast, says: 'I went round to my friend's house, there were four of us sitting in different parts of the garden all spaced out on these deckchairs, drinking cans of lager. Although it was a great night, we missed out on a lot. We couldn't go to Anfield to welcome the champions and enjoy them. 'What I am looking forward to on Sunday is to just say "thank you" to the players. It is a celebration, but I want to clap them, cheer them on and sing their names.' It is clear Liverpool fans never got to fully enjoy that last title win. So in many ways, Sunday — if they get a point or more against Tottenham — will be their first proper celebration of becoming champions since 1990. Many of those we speak to were not even born in 1990. Plenty of others are no longer with us. Some were sitting on their dad's shoulders back then, but will now have kids of their own alongside them at the game. On Sunday, glasses will be raised to those who have indeed been lost along the way. This win will be for them as much as the new generation of supporters. 'What I told my lad this week was to celebrate each trophy like it is your first and last,' says Terry Burke, sporting a high-vis jacket on a cigarette break near Anfield. 'When I was his age we were winning machines — I never thought I'd have to wait half my life to see another title!' Another, 85-year-old Jim Doyle, will toast a 15th league title of his lifetime. He recalls doing a Zoom quiz with his two sons when they won it in 2020 and, when asked if he ever foresaw such a long wait between 18 and 19, says: 'No way. 'When you consider the players we've had, and I am talking about local players such as Steven Gerrard, Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman, Michael Owen and Jamie Carragher, we should have won it at least once. 'We nearly won it under Gerard Houllier, Rafa Benitez and Brendan Rodgers, but it was just a lot of nearlies. This one puts us equal with Manchester United on the number of title wins, so that's always a good thing!' A younger fan, 27-year-old Tommy Harper, says: 'For most of my childhood I thought we would never win it. The Roy Hodgson days, the near misses with Rafa and Rodgers — it seemed like it never would come. 'Then Covid hit and we walked the league with no fans there to experience it — imagine that. Now we can win it, at home, in front of fans…finally…hopefully.' All these anecdotes are heart-warming and most of them have happy endings. Our smoke bomb friend has told his neighbour she can safely leave her washing out without it ending up smelling this weekend as he will be at Anfield. Abigail will be present too, with her dad — and her mum will be at a local pub to soak up the atmosphere. 'It means everything to me, getting to be in the ground with my dad,' she says. 'I don't think they will be able to get me out of the ground!' There has been a sense of expectation in the city for weeks and a sense of dread for Evertonians. Those going to London for the Toffees' match at Chelsea might be best advised to make a weekend of it, as Liverpool will be painted red. The Home Baked bakery in the shadows of the Kop is getting prepared, with a special edition pie that reads 'Champions 20' on the pastry. Pubs are prepared to be drunk dry, though one barman — we will not name the pub to save his job — says: 'I am tempted to pull a sickie on Sunday if we win it so I can have a night on the ale in town! I am joking, of course, but it will be one of the days of our lives.' The police are ready, too. Merseyside Police declined to comment on Friday when asked, but there will be a greater presence on the streets. Parties will go on long into the night if Liverpool become champions, but the police are not expecting much trouble. That will be helped by the fact the opposition are Tottenham. With a Europa League semi-final on the horizon, Spurs fans will certainly not mind watching Liverpool celebrate as that will mean their bitter rivals, Arsenal, are the nearly-men again. Tickets are reselling for mega-money. The cheapest one Mail Sport could find online was £675, though the club are clamping down on touts, with lifetime bans for those breaking rules. One man who has had to give up his ticket is Peter Clarkson, a Main Stand season ticket holder since 1990. He is at his godson's wedding near Middlesbrough and genuinely looked into getting a helicopter back to Liverpool to make it in time. Clearly this is a city on edge, but in a good way. It is not over until the fat lady sings, but she is warming up her vocal cords. How the Anfield crowd will sing, too, belting out their anthems. Fans are all a bit giddy, but there is one bloke who is staying calm — manager Slot. Asked about being an inch away from glory, he said: 'Yeah, but I prefer to get my mind on that inch and not on what happens afterwards, because there is still an inch to be done.' Slot, whose family will be at Anfield for the match, has kept a low profile in his first year as boss, but is mobbed by selfie and autograph hunters when he does pop out, as he did on Thursday to visit a supermarket. The champagne is on ice around the city and corks may well be popped at around 6.30pm. For many, it will signify the end of a 35-year wait to properly party — and the start of one of the best nights of their lives.
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Previously unheard 'Liverpool anthem' to be played for first time at Cavern Club
A single Gerry Marsden recorded shortly before his death is to be played for the very first time. A private event will be held at the Cavern Club before being opened up to the public for everyone to enjoy. Gerry, who was born in Toxteth, was best known for the hit song You'll Never Walk Alone, the world famous anthem of Liverpool FC. He shot to fame as the leader of Merseybeat band Gerry and the Pacemakers, whose legendary hits also included Ferry Cross the Mersey. The single, 'On Merseyside, The Pool of Life', was written and produced by Gary Murphy. This included Mike Pender (The Searchers), Ray Ennis (The Swinging Blue Jeans), Tony Crane & Billy Kinsley (The Merseybeats), Brian Jones (The Undertakers), Dave Berry (The Cruisers), Mike McCartney (The Scaffold), and Gerry Marsden (Gerry and The Pacemakers). READ MORE: Full list of 108 Post Office branches to be offloaded as Liverpool sites to be affected READ MORE: His victim had no clue he'd been committing wicked crimes for nearly 20 years The album was produced by guitarist Gary Murphy and engineered by Alan Lewis. Fans will be able to hear it and the single in full as the backdrop of a new documentary from LA Productions, which is due to be released in spring 2025. Gerry's friend Arthur Johnson told the ECHO: "I met with Gerry a few times before he died to talk about new projects. "There will also be a video of the last time he performed, plus the album and the new single at the event. This is an anthem about Liverpool, about the city, which he loved." A pre-order is available now and the official release lands Thursday, April 10. The track will be heard for the first time in a private event in the Cavern Club's live lounge followed by a public opening after 6pm. The single will be available to order at the Cavern Club event along with albums of the Philharmonic night and an album of original Merseybeat hits. Entry is £5 on the door. The studio album, live concert, and Gerry Marsden's EP recording will all be released in April 2025 from Last Night From Glasgow.
Telegraph
04-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
John Lennon's sister: ‘Of course a Liverpudlian should play him'
As an acoustic rendition of John Lennon's Imagine rings out from the stage of the Cavern Club, a petite lady strolls unnoticed through the thickening Wednesday lunchtime crowd of Beatles fans. If the pilgrims gathered here in the subterranean epicentre of Liverpool's Fab Four-themed backstreets, located just eight miles from the city's John Lennon International Airport, had cared to observe the 78-year-old's features – her piercing brown eyes, her strong chin, her centre-parted shoulder-length hair, her familiar nose – they'd have realised that the closest thing to a Beatle they're ever realistically likely to meet was walking among them. Julia Baird is Lennon's half-sister, sharing a mother – also called Julia – with Lennon, who was six years her senior. She's strikingly similar to him in personality as well as appearance. For the nearly two hours that we chat in the Cavern's backstage green room, she's as sharp, acerbic, funny, feisty and bruised as her famous sibling, who was killed by an assassin's bullet in New York nearly 45 years ago. He was, she says, 'a brilliant older brother, very bossy – a family trait'. We've met to talk about Live Odyssey, an immersive pop music 'experience' that opens in London's Camden in May and will, it promises, take visitors on a 'journey through British music history'. As well as David Bowie's microphone from Glastonbury and holograms of The Libertines, Live Odyssey will feature a multi-sensory exhibit about Lennon's unorthodox early life, created in collaboration with Baird. Just hours before we meet, Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes announced the cast of his four upcoming Beatles biopics. They'll star Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison and Harris Dickinson, recently seen opposite Nicole Kidman in Babygirl, as Lennon. Baird, it must be said, seems spectacularly nonplussed. 'I haven't seen anything. I've got a dog to walk,' she says drily. Previous attempts to capture The Beatles on film have lacked authenticity, she feels. With Mendes' celluloid Paul and Ringo hailing from Ireland and John and George coming from London, does Baird thinks that Liverpudlian actors should have been cast? 'Yes, of course. No one else can get that Liverpool intonation. Nobody,' she says. No pressure, boys. Baird has nothing to do with the films and is not a decision-maker regarding Lennon's estate – it's run by Sean, his son with second wife Yoko Ono. Still, I wonder what advice she'd offer Mendes to help him capture how life as a Beatle really was. 'He's never going to ask me! I'm the last person he would want to talk to because then he can't make it up,' she says. But nothing – and I mean nothing – about Lennon's life needs making up. His early years are an extraordinary tale of circumstance and tragedy that explain his insecurities and temperament but also his drive. What looks on paper like a complicated family history was made vastly more turbid by the social mores of the time. 'Nobody talked about anything… Rarely were the men mentioned,' Baird says. Lennon's mother Julia and his father, Alfred, met as teens in Liverpool's Sefton Park. Despite her family's disapproval, they had a decade-long relationship, got married and had John in 1940. By now a merchant seaman, Alf went AWOL in 1943. Having grown up in an orphanage, Baird says Alf's own history made him 'incapable of creating the home that my mother and John needed'. Alone, Lennon's mum had an affair with a man called Taffy Williams and became pregnant with a daughter Victoria, born in June 1945. Victoria was immediately given up for adoption after pressure from Julia's ashamed father and oldest, formidable sister Mimi. The loss of Victoria 'destroyed' Julia, Baird says. Less than a year later, Lennon – aged five – went to live with his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George in their house, Mendips. Around this time, Julia got together with John Dykins, and together they had Baird, in 1947, and her sister Jackie, in 1949. Julia was killed when she was hit by a car driven by an off-duty policeman in 1958, when Lennon was 17 and Baird was 11. Baird is categorical that her mother didn't want Mimi to take Lennon. She talks of screaming matches and tears between the women. It was messy. Once, prior to Lennon's permanent move to Mendips, Alf turned up when Lennon was staying there and took him to Blackpool, with the idea of them relocating to New Zealand. Julia and Dykins tracked them down and gave Lennon a choice: do you want to be with your daddy or your mummy? He said 'Daddy' then ran after his mother. Baird is aghast that Mimi let this happen. 'So she's just stolen [John] and then lost him,' is her take. She describes Mimi, who didn't have children of her own, as 'opportunistic' in later taking Lennon in full-time. 'This little boy needed extra help and she was right on hand to provide it,' says Baird. All this had a big impact on Lennon, who could get aggressive and angry. Boys were warned by parents to keep their distance. 'He was a naughty boy. You can see why,' says Baird. As poignantly described by her, their family history is a lesson in causality. Absent Alf, struggling Julia, opportunistic Mimi… all these streams converged in Lennon, the confluence of this knotty history that, despite the pain, was filled with love and best intentions. Lennon would visit his mother and Baird's home regularly. Baird was there on July 6 1957 when 16-year-old Lennon famously met 15-year-old McCartney at the St Peter's Church fête in Woolton, where Lennon's skiffle band The Quarrymen were playing. Among the police dog demonstrations and candyfloss stalls, musical history was made. Mischief was made too as the Quarrymen's wobbly decorated lorry-cum-stage entered the churchyard. 'John was trying to take this really seriously and he went and sat on the tailgate so he could play. Jackie and I went up, had a leg each and tried to pull him off,' says Baird, her eyes lighting up. 'My mother was saying 'Leave him alone, girls' because at home we just crawled and jumped all over him all the time. He was going 'Mummy, get them off.'' Lennon met the visiting McCartney as the band were humping their gear inside the church hall for the evening show. Lennon was taken by the talented younger teen. He was slightly calculated too. 'John said he did look a bit like Elvis, so he would have been jealous of that but he realised it was good for the group,' says Baird. The pair would often rehearse at Lennon's mother's house as Mimi had strict rules. 'Mimi only allowed John – and sometimes John and Paul – to play their guitars in the porch with the door closed, and if you've been in the porch it's about the size of this cushion,' gestures Baird. 'So my mother picked up an instrument' – a banjo – 'the minute they got [to our house] and joined in.' Despite John living elsewhere, his mother had instilled in him a love of performance. 'My mother was a wordsmith, an artist, a singer, a dancer and a painter. She was everything that John was plus [more],' says Baird, adding later: 'I'd say the origin of The Beatles was my mother and John. Stage two is John and Paul.' The Beatles' success was a slow burn. It was five long years between the St Peter's fête and debut single Love Me Do being released, much of that time spent in the sweatboxes of Hamburg. At its height, Beatlemania was 'utter madness', Baird says. She recalls the social – and physical – ructions that accompanied the birth of The Teenager in those post-war decades. 'It started with Frank Sinatra, galvanised with Elvis and was firmly locked into place with The Beatles.' At a Beatles concert at London's Finsbury Astoria in January 1964, having hung out backstage with the Rolling Stones ('all drinking Coca-Cola' – how times would change), Julia and Jackie insisted on sitting in some empty rows at the front of the venue. Lennon warned them that the seats were being kept empty deliberately but they persisted. When The Beatles came on stage, the surging crowd engulfed the girls. From the stage, Lennon instructed two burly security guards to extract them. They were dragged out on their stomachs. Once safely stage-side, Lennon cast a brotherly ''Told you so'' sideways glance in their direction. Baird had a lot of time for Cynthia, Lennon's first wife, who he married in 1962 and divorced in 1968. 'I met Cynthia when I was 12… She was adorable.' Baird is diplomatic when I ask whether she met her next sister-in-law Yoko Ono, who Lennon married in 1969. 'Cynthia couldn't wait to meet us. Yoko couldn't wait not to meet us. That's about the best way you can put it,' she says and we move on. There are two things Baird won't discuss. One is the accident that killed her mother. 'Absolutely not,' she says pointedly. She mentions, though, that McCartney also lost his mother young, at 14. In the early Beatles days Julia Lennon 'felt sorry' for Paul because ('ironically') his mother had died. 'She would say 'Oh bring that poor boy for tea, his mother's died.' And that of course was a huge bond between John and Paul [in later life],' says Baird. And she won't discuss Lennon's shooting by Mark Chapman on December 8 1980. At the time she hadn't seen her brother for years due to his hectic life and relocation to New York in 1971. But they spoke on the phone regularly between 1975 and 1978. Lennon 'hadn't got over' their mother's death, Baird says. 'He was beginning to heal. But it didn't take much of us talking for us to fall apart.' They last spoke on November 17 1980 when they planned a family reunion. Three weeks later he was dead. Baird shares Lennon's pacifist tendencies. 'Imagine not having drones, wouldn't that be wonderful,' she says, unwittingly suggesting another alternative line to her brother's most famous song. And she has abundant social empathy. We discuss Netflix hit Adolescence and the forks in the road faced by troubled young working class men. When Lennon reached those forks, I ask, what stopped him marching towards trouble and sent him down the path to becoming, well, a Beatle? 'Ambition,' she says. Lennon famously said that he lost his mother twice: once when he went to Mimi's and once when she died. I suspect Baird feels she lost Lennon twice: once to fame and once to a gun. She admits that life has given her a 'very tough shell'. But her warmth and protective instincts shine through. And then she says the most loyal and heartbreaking thing you can imagine. 'To be John's sister is a privilege that I couldn't begin to describe to you. But given the choice I wish he'd never seen a guitar,' she says carefully. Why? 'Well, then he might have been an art teacher and he'd still be here.'
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Paul McCartney gives once-in-a-lifetime show at surprise NY gig: Review and setlist
NEW YORK – Sometimes, even the larger-than-life Paul McCartney likes to scale things down. Inarguably the most esteemed contemporary musician on the planet, McCartney stepped away from the stadiums that have been his playground for decades to enthrall a crowd of about 500 at the Bowery Ballroom Tuesday night. The surprise show was announced earlier that day, with tickets only available to purchase in-person at the box office and, as one might expect, sold-out in minutes. A few hours after the concert was announced, the fabled club on the Lower East Side of Manhattan – an unholy trifecta of grungy, elegant and cool that has witnessed many a megastar on its small stage – welcomed an icon among icons and his longtime band of ace players. The 100-minute set started with that guitar note, the one that even dogs can probably identify as 'A Hard Day's Night,' as a grinning McCartney gripped his left-handed bass and bobbed his head with the same enthusiasm of 60 years ago. At 82, McCartney was still a vision of graceful nonchalance in his fitted black jacket and crisp white shirt, hair grayed at the temples but still boyishly brushing the back of his collar. The intimate environment evoked memories of The Beatles' earliest gigs at the dank Cavern Club in Liverpool, and McCartney and his quartet generated high spirits and energy early with Wings' 'Letting Go.' 'I feel like letting go tonight! The Bowery! New York City! Yes, I do!' McCartney yelled after removing a pick from his mouth and leading the crowd in an overhead clap. If an artist of McCartney's stature opts to pop up for a tiny show, it usually is tied into a new release (see: The Rolling Stones promoting "Hackney Diamonds" at RacketNYC in 2023) or a tour announcement. But this night seemed to be solely about the musician, two days removed from a Super Bowl appearance in New Orleans and a little over a week after his 19th Grammy win, wanting to enjoy playing at a club like the ones that nurtured his career. 'So here we are, New York City,' McCartney said three songs into the night, later mentioning that he and his band had only rehearsed once the day before. 'Some little gigs. Why not?' No one needed more of an explanation when a few seconds later they kicked into the sumptuous 'Got To Get You Into My Life,' a mellifluous romp punctuated by the brass of the Hot City Horns nestled at the back of the stage. Though McCartney's voice occasionally sounded a bit gruff on the high notes, he also hit some beautiful ones. Behind his upright piano decorated with a kaleidoscope of colored streaks, he evoked a lounge vibe on 'My Valentine,' a song written for wife Nancy, and uncorked the ragged cries of devotion in 'Maybe I'm Amazed.' Following his urgent piano playing on 'Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five,' McCartney propped his elbow atop the piano and with chin resting on hand took a look around the cramped club. 'I can't believe we're here. But we are. We are here. Doing this,' he said. It's amazing that performing still provokes such a genuine response in him. The pristine sound at the Bowery matched with the band's intensity as they dabbled in many eras of McCartney magic, showcasing the cheerful bop of 'From Me to You' alongside Wings' escalating frolic 'Mrs. Vandebilt' (a song McCartney said was a favorite when they played it in Ukraine years ago) and a hushed 'Blackbird' spotlighting McCartney solo with an acoustic guitar. Following the poignant ballad, he told a story about The Beatles refusing to play in Jacksonville, Florida, when they learned the audience would be segregated. 'We put it in our contract that we would never play a segregated city (or venue),' he shared. A kinetic 'Get Back' ('Girls, give me a Beatles scream,' McCartney joked) and playful 'Obi-la-di, Ob-la-da' engaged a crowd that spanned generations. On. Feb. 2, The Beatles won their first Grammy since 1997 for 'Now and Then' (best rock recording), a song McCartney and Ringo Starr deemed the last 'new' Beatles song cobbled from an old John Lennon demo and previously recorded George Harrison guitar and assembled with the help of Artificial Intelligence. McCartney played the song Tuesday – a definite rarity – from behind his piano, with horns adding texture, Rusty Anderson handling the slide guitar solo and all of the band faithfully recreating the harmonies from the recording. 'Thank you, John,' McCartney said wistfully at song's end. 'New York City. He loved it so much here. Let's hear it for John!' After sweet renditions – and singalongs of the prayerful refrains – of 'Let it Be' and 'Hey Jude,' McCartney, Anderson, drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., keyboardist Paul 'Wix' Wickens and guitarist Brian Ray returned for an encore of his usual show-closer, the famed 'Abbey Road' medley of 'Golden Slumbers,' 'Carry That Weight' and 'The End.' The final line – 'the love you take is equal to the love you make' – was especially fitting as a lot of love left the Bowery and headed into a snowy night. A Hard Day's Night Letting Go Got to Get You Into My Life Let Me Roll It My Valentine Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five Maybe I'm Amazed I've Just Seen a Face From Me to You Mrs. Vandebilt Blackbird Come on to Me Jet Ob-la-di Ob-la da Get Back Now and Then Lady Madonna Let It Be Hey Jude Encore: Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Paul McCartney surprise New York concert: Review and setlist
