Leeds

After a day off, Wings was ready to play Leeds.

On February 10, they had stopped in Leeds, where they intended to play at Leeds University. But the plan failed.

The press was made aware of their plans to play Leeds, and their contact at the university wanted a proper contract and a £250 fee. They decided to change their plans and left Leed to go to York.

After Nottingham, we decided to go pro and ring Leeds ahead, but it never came off because the fellow wanted a contract, proof of who we were, assurances. So sod it. We went back to the old idea – random. We carried on to York.

Paul McCartney – From the “Wings Over Europe” tour book

We had a few problems on the university tour – At Leeds, for example, we got some stick from one of the promoters because we split and didn’t go through with the concert. The students had been getting a bit ‘busy’ and the moment that happened, we just wanted to leave. So we came back and did the gig two days later [6 days later]. But it wasn’t so good. On the whole, though, we finished up pretty happy about the response that we’d got.

Denny Laine – Interview with Record Mirror, August 12, 1972

They had arrived the day before and had found an arrangement to play at 2 pm in the afternoon, at the Town Hall. It was the only non-university date of the tour. They were also in front of their largest audience yet, as 1200 people gathered.

During the show, Linda forgot how to play the first notes of “Wild Life“. She turned to Paul who also didn’t remember!

Paul McCartney in "Wingspan: Paul McCartney's Band on the Run":

The Students’ Union in Newcastle [sic – Leeds] had booked the City Hall, which was quite a big gig – a few thousand people. It wasn’t big by today’s standards perhaps, but it was big for us then. We went to play “Wild Life” and I said, ‘Ah one-two-three..’ Nothing. Just silence. I looked around at Linda and she mouthed to me, ‘I’ve forgotten the chords. ‘By this time the audience was starting to giggle, thinking we were doing a comedy routine. So I walked over to the keyboard and when I got there I also couldn’t remember the bloody chords. By this time the audience were rolling with laughter. Then suddenly Linda remembered them and we went into the song, our hearts beating fast. There were quite a few moments like that. That was the problem of going back to square one – you’ve got to go through the baptism of fire. Eventually we got a bit better, started to actually know our songs and even perform more than eleven of them.

Linda: ‘I made a mistake at the beginning of “Wild Life” – forgot the chords. But I didn’t feel bad about it.’

Denny L.: ‘The Leeds audience have seen everything. They’re very critical. They were being cool, not us. But we got them up at the end.’

Linda: ‘It’s a big intellectual chit-chat now, rock and roll.’

Paul: ‘But you can change it just by shouting at the audience. No-one’s done anything to counter it.’

Henry: ‘Some of the gigs were like rehearsals, but Leeds was like a gig! Fifteen hundred people sitting waiting for you to come on. They were a bit scary.’

Trevor: ‘They said no one had gotten up off the floor in four years, but they did this time.’

From the “Wings Over Europe” tour book

Linda broke down one night because she couldn’t face the whole thing of everyone being down on her. She felt totally out of place. But she had to start somewhere. We stuck by the idea in the group but two of the guys, Henry and Denny Seiwell, would say, ‘What are we doing with her?’ And I would say, ‘I don’t quite know. I can’t put it into words, but I know there’s a good reason for her being here.’ I know it is right, whether it is for the general confidence or to give it some innocence for the group. I like innocence myself… With Wings, I was the band leader, the business manager, the this, the that. We didn’t have an Apple, we didn’t have Brian Epstein, we didn’t have anything. It was me doing it all. That was the biggest mistake. In The Beatles, I had been free of all that; we had a manager and we had three other guys, but now I was the only one in control.

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles: Off The Record 2 – The Dream is Over: Dream Is Over Vol 2” by Keith Badman

I remember one terrible night on the tour of the universities we were doing, just to get some practice, we were going to start the tune ‘Wild Life’ and Linda was to start with the chords on the electric piano. I looked around and said, ‘One, two, three,’ nothing! I looked to see a glassy stare in her eyes and she’s looking at me, mouthing, ‘I have forgotten the chords.’ The audience thought it was part of a comedy routine we were working into the act. So I walked to the keyboards, showed Linda the chords and got a great laugh. Christ, if all we ever had in the world was perfection, it would be pretty boring.

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles: Off The Record 2 – The Dream is Over: Dream Is Over Vol 2” by Keith Badman

After the show, Paul and Linda were interviewed for Radio Leeds.

About the setlist

The exact setlist for this concert (and for most of the concerts of the Wings’ university tour) is unknown. Only two audience recordings surfaced on bootlegs (one for the first concert of the tour, in Nottingham, on February 9, 1971; the other one for the concert in Hull, on February 11, 1971), even if all the concerts had been taped by the band.

The gigs were pretty much the same. We taped them all.

Denny Laine

We didn’t have many songs. To be precise, we had eleven, which – at about three minutes a song – is a 33 minute act. They wanted longer so we repeated things. ‘We’ve had a request to do Lucille. We did it earlier but now we’re gonna do it again for Jenny Babford on the science course’. Whatever. We just repeated things, especially our new single Give Ireland Back to the Irish. The gigs went quite well but it’s funny to look back and realise that we had such little material.

Paul McCartney – From “Wingspan: Paul McCartney’s Band on the Run“

The setlists were a mix of new songs, oldies and some blues jams. Paul McCartney made sure to not play any Beatles song. It’s likely the setlist of this concert was similar to this:

• Lucille
• Give Ireland Back To The Irish
• Blue Moon Of Kentucky
• Seaside Woman
• Thank You Darling
• You’ve Got To Help Me Darlin’
• Some People Never Know
• The Mess
• Bip Bop
• Henry’s Blues
• Smile Away
• My Love
• Wild Life
• Long Tall Sally

Leeds Town Hall

This was the 1st and only concert played at Leeds Town Hall.

Setlist for the concert

The setlist for this concert is incomplete, or we have not be able to confirm in an accurate way that this was the setlist. If you have any clue, pls let us know and leave a comment.

1. Wild Life

   Written by Paul McCartney, Linda Eastman / McCartney

See song statistics for “Wings University Tour”

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