Search Results for: paul mccartney

Paul McCartney defended his decision to reverse the order of the famous Lennon-McCartney songwriting credit and on Wednesday urged Yoko Ono not to overreact. After 40 years of second billing to John Lennon, McCartney has turned the tables on his late Beatles collaborator in his new project. “Back in the U.S. Live 2002,” a two-CD live album, includes 19 classic Beatles songs billed as written by “Paul McCartney and John Lennon.” “There’s no question this is an attempted act of Beatle revisionism,” said Elliot Mintz, spokesman for Lennon’s widow, Yoko Ono. “And it does appear to be an attempt to… Read more »

Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney (news) said on Sunday he would postpone the final and biggest concert of his current world tour in Melbourne out of respect for the victims of the Bali bomb blasts. The only Australian show on November 23 in front of over 30,000 fans was to be McCartney’s first date Down Under in more than a decade, but the singer’s spokesman said a nationwide tour was now under consideration for 2003. “As a mark of respect to both the families who have lost loved ones and to the families of the injured, I have decided to… Read more »

Rock veteran Eric Clapton has organized an all-star tribute concert for his late friend and fellow guitarist, George Harrison, with the former Beatle’s two surviving bandmates slated to perform. The benefit concert, planned with the help of Harrison’s wife, Olivia, is scheduled to be held at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Nov. 29, the first anniversary of Harrison’s death, organizers said in a statement issued on Thursday in Los Angeles. Joining Clapton on the bill will be former Beatles Sir Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and two other recording stars who performed with Harrison in the 1980s supergroup The Traveling Wilburys… Read more »

Paul McCartney leads the way so far this year on making money from concerts, but Green Day and Blink-182 win for the number of people who show up. The concert industry magazine Pollstar reports McCartney is at the top of the mid-year list of highest-grossing tours. He brought in $52.8 Million. However, tickets for that show averaged about $130 each. The Green Day/Blink-182 tour is seventh in earnings, with $19.7 million this year. A ticket to that show averages $31.56. That tour has sold more than 623,000 tickets so far, beating out all other tours. The average price overall for… Read more »

An international media horde gathered Thursday at a remote Irish castle hotel, where the owner announced that Paul McCartney and his fiancee, Heather Mills, would have their wedding reception next week. “We are told vaguely it is next Tuesday, but it is all secret. I have to keep it dead-secret,” said Sir John Leslie, owner of Castle Leslie, an offbeat luxury hotel in County Monaghan bordering Northern Ireland. “They might do something at the last minute or change it. You never know.” Leslie, 84, sporting a green beret with a peacock feather, added that McCartney had visited the hotel last… Read more »

Former Beatle Paul McCartney won a last-minute court order yesterday (April 29) preventing the auction house Christie’s from selling his handwritten lyrics to the song “Hey Jude.” The sheet of note paper with the scrawled lyrics had been expected to fetch up to $116,000 at an auction scheduled for today, but McCartney took the matter to the High Court, claiming the piece had disappeared from his home. The lyrics will remain at Christie’s London headquarters until ownership is decided by agreement or a trial. Richard Meade, a lawyer for McCartney, said the sheet of paper with the lyrics was either… Read more »

Former Beatle Paul McCartney, reflecting on Hollywood’s patriotic mood after the September 11 hijack attacks, said on Monday it was important that Americans won this year’s Oscars. McCartney, who along with compatriot Sting lost out to Randy Newman in the best original song category, said: “This year – with what happened in America – I think maybe it was kind of important that a lot of Americans had to win.” “And you know I don’t blame them – I wouldn’t take that away from them,” he told Sky News after the show where he had made his Oscar debut performing… Read more »

Tickets for former Beatle Paul McCartney’s first American tour in a decade sparked a stampede among fans on Saturday, selling out by telephone and Internet within 30 minutes of going on sale. A spokesman for the British performer said fans snapped up all 75,000 tickets for the first five shows on the “Driving USA” tour of the United States and Canada. “Maccamania is here again,” a spokesman for the American promoters, Clearchannel, said. “We knew the gigs would be hot but this demand is boiling.” The 15,000 tickets for McCartney’s show in Toronto, the first to go on sale, sold… Read more »

Paul McCartney’s ultimate hero is… the late fellow Beatle, John Lennon. “I’ve got a few heroes, but if I really have to plump for one, well howsabouts…. John?” McCartney was quoted as saying in a celebrity poll published in Wednesday’s music magazine Mojo. “But I have to add the reservation that it could also be the other Beatles – or Elvis. Or Little Richard. Or Nat King Cole.” Of Lennon, who was shot to death in 1980 outside his New York apartment building, McCartney reportedly said, “What I admire in him was massive talent, great wit, courage and humor. He… Read more »

Paul McCartney is hitting the long and winding road again for the first time in nearly 10 years. The former Beatle announced in a statement Monday that he is to launch a North American tour in early April. The “Drivin’ USA” tour – from California to New York – will take in 14 concerts plus one show in Canada. “I’m very excited to be getting back on the road, playing with a new band and including in the show some songs that I haven’t played live before,” he said. The statement said that McCartney, who will then tour Europe in… Read more »