After not playing live on stage for six years, Paul had a big decision to make
Paul McCartney and his wife Linda (1941 – 1998), who performed together as Wings after the break-up of the Beatles(Image: Getty Images)
The Beatles made the decision to stop touring in 1966, playing their final gig on August 29 at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park. Other than an unannounced rooftop concert at their Apple Corps headquarters in London on January 30, 1969, the four did not play live as a band again.
The decision came as the band were fatigued after years of playing live shows and wanted to devote time to working on their innovative ideas in the studio. The ‘Get Back’ sessions in 1968 and 1969, which became ‘Let it Be’, were meant to inspire an all-conquering return to being a live band- on Paul McCartney’s suggestion – but The Beatles’ split in 1970 meant this did not materialise.
As such, when Paul, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison went their separate ways and took their solo projects on the road, they had not played live for some time. Paul had released two solo albums – ‘McCartney’ and ‘Ram’ before he formed the band Wings in 1971.
Wings’ first line-up included Paul’s wife Linda McCartney, drummer Denny Seiwel and guitarist Denny Laine. They released the album ‘Wild Life’ in 1971 and ventured out on tour in 1972 – Paul’s first proper live performances since 1966.
Part of Paul’s reasoning for establishing Wings was that he wanted to start playing live on stage again. He had floated the idea in the final days of The Beatles that the band should play unannounced gigs at pubs – something he did at the Philharmonic on Hope Street in 2018 – but his bandmates rejected the idea.
The 1972 tour began small, with a number of gigs around UK universities in February, before they went around bigger venues in continental Europe and then UK theatres in 1973.
Paul made the decision not to play Beatles tracks on these tours, so as not to add any extra pressure, but this made him nervous about the return to the stage. About playing live again, he told Rolling Stone magazine in 1974: “The main thing I didn’t want to face was the torment of five rows of press people with little pads all looking and saying, ‘Oh, well, he’s not as good as he was.”
He added: “We decided not to do any Beatle material, which was a killer, of course, because it meant we had to do an hour of other material, and we didn’t have it, then. I didn’t have something like ‘My Love’ that was sort of mine. I felt like everyone wanted Beatles stuff, so I was pretty nervous on that.”
However, he got over the nerves after the early gigs went well. He explained: “By the time we did the British tour I knew we could get it easily and that I could get it going.”
He added: “Everyone digs it, and there’s enough stuff not to be nervous.” Nowadays, Beatles and Wings tracks are staples of Paul’s tours, filling setlists for his near-three-hour shows.