Going back to the top of the slide

Paul McCartney played the F1 concert event in Abu Dhabi this time last year.



This was my FB status then :

I understated the whole thing. The concert and the man both were much more than that ! 

The 70 year old king  did a three hour set of  breathtaking quality.It was flawless. The set list had lots Post'65 Beatles and  the best of his Wings stuff too. There were plenty of exciting moments :  pyro-show on Live And Let Die, laser on Band On The Run , psychedelia with Strawberry Fields Forever, Day In The Life and Helter Skelter, a sing-along chant to Give Peace A Chance, the stunning The End Abbey Road album closer ....the works

But if i had to pick one ,  it would be this version of Something  midway through the set. Ref. the You Tube video here. He began with something like "George might have played it this way..." and proceeded to play it with a ukulele. Didn't sound too good at first, so you think OK it's flagging a bit now. Good, some respite. Breathe. And then.

All of a sudden it goes all electric on you , ( around 1:25 in the video), that guitar solo comes in , it's back to the original album version. Except it's live in front of you and  in a wink you've died and gone to fucking heaven or something !   

The whole show was rock and roll at its best - and why not ! It's Paul McCartney , easily the most  musically accomplished of the four Beatles, the man who wrote game changers as soft and chamber as Eleanor Rigby and as hard a proto-Metal ass-kicker as Helter Skelter and to boot , the guy who's played bass , piano, drums and lead guitar on at least one Beatle recording.

Pardon banality but : Legend !  As i wrote on FB, thank you life !

I got to see another great band a couple weeks before that at the same venue , another one for the old times : Metallica. Macca happening so soon after that overshadowed it a bit but boy were they GOOD ! My  close friend, Joe flew down in from nearby Kuwait for the show and we rocked hell out . Also got very  wasted -  there was definitely more beer than memory in my head the next day. But i surprised myself by singing along to stuff like Blackened , a song I'd probably last heard when still a ....erm , let's say it was a long time ago ! Tight set throughout. Highlights : Master Of Puppets,One (goose bumps!) ,Enter Sandman

Gee ! My own Metallica Tee !

Oh , and 20 years after being a stuffed-shirt hippie snoot about Metallica T-shirts  when they were all the rage in college , I finally got my own for the show. In my defence to my old young self - it isn't a black Metallica T-shirt...

Got a bit downhill after Macca, I missed out on a lot of good gigs - Stanley Clarke, George Benson, Eagles - though I did catch Lady Madge (disappointing show though..).  Hope to be luckier this season