Paul McCartney ends Australian tour with explosive Gold Coast finale
As one of the greatest entertainers of all time, Paul McCartney knows exactly what we want, and he gives it to us — as 220,000 Australian fans across his Got Back tour will attest.
Mere minutes after he stepped off stage on Saturday night, Paul McCartney remained a matchless figure in motion, as a police escort helped to spirit him away from the venue pronto.
Outside Heritage Bank Stadium on the Gold Coast, a small group of lucky people in the right place at the right time caught one last glimpse of the world’s most famous rock ’n’ roller.
Standing at the front of his tour bus with a hard-earned cocktail in hand, he waved and raised a toast, having led his band through another mighty shift before about 26,000 fans.
As with the six previous dates on his Australian Got Back tour, what transpired on Saturday night was a relentlessly entertaining 39-song setlist that approached three hours.
McCartney opened with Beatles classic Can’t Buy Me Love, and closed with a storming, emphatic take on The End – the penultimate track of the famed British band’s 1969 album Abbey Road.
The maestro’s unrelenting high standards for himself, and for all who labour beneath the banner of his name, mean that his concerts are delivered in predictably pristine fashion.
As one of the greatest entertainers of all time, he knows exactly what we want, and he gives it to us, night after night. At the Gold Coast finale, though, there were a couple of historical oddities.
One day earlier, the final Beatles song, titled Now and Then, had been released worldwide – an unusual event that McCartney mentioned briefly when introducing a mid-set Quarrymen tune named In Spite of All the Danger.
“This is the first song The Beatles recorded – and now we’ve got the last song The Beatles recorded,” he said, drawing a roar from the crowd. “It’s a long way, baby.”
As well, while introducing his piano ballad Hey Jude, McCartney said there was someone in the audience he’d always wanted to sing the song to; cameras pointed into the crowd showed that special someone was British actor Jude Law, who was reportedly in town to begin work on a Ron Howard film titled Eden.
At set’s end, McCartney thanked the crowd and gave his customary farewell – “All that’s left to be said is, ‘See you next time’” – as confetti cannons fired and fireworks bloomed overhead.
It’s a showbiz maxim to leave the audience wanting more, and to avoid speaking in absolutes wherever possible.
No one close to him wants to think in terms of finalities, either: after selling about 220,000 tickets across Australia, McCartney and co move onto two shows in Mexico City, followed by eight dates in Brazil.
Mathematics and common sense suggests that the Gold Coast finale will mark his last performance on Australian shores, having begun his touring history here with The Beatles in 1964.
Then again, at 81, the sheer fitness, musical dexterity, vocal adroitness and casual showmanship we have seen from him in recent weeks is beyond compare.
The wildly ambitious performer clearly gets a kick out of busting norms. While he can play, he will; he loves it, and he knows we do, too.
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