Wednesday, April 30, 2003
Concert • By Paul McCartney • Part of the Back in the World tour
Last updated on May 16, 2019
Location: Preussag Arena
Concert Apr 27, 2003 • Germany • Cologne
Concert Apr 28, 2003 • Germany • Cologne
Concert Apr 30, 2003 • Germany • Hannover
Interview May 2003 • Paul McCartney interview for MOJO
From The Macca Report:
Paul’s Mercedes got to venue just after 5pm. At the concert, Paul wore a black Nehru jacket with an embroidered collar and cuffs and a banded embroidered edging at the bottom of the jacket (like at the Paris show) He had on a long sleeved red T-shirt and baggy, blue jeans.
The 10,000 (sold out) strong Hannover audience like previous German audiences took time to warm-up. They were on their feet when McCartney took the stage, then sat down. By the second half of the show the German audience rocked. Beatles numbers got a more enthusiastic response. The crowd was on it’s feet for “Back in the USSR.”
Paul did the fake at the beginning of “We Can Work It Out” singing “When I was walking down the road…” adding more lyrics to the song before he stopped himself and said, “No, that’s not the one!” He messed up the words to the beginning “We Can Work It Out” so badly that he made up nonsense words to fill-in. He had a big grin on his face embarrassed by how badly he screwed up. He was able to recover and get back on track with the proper words to the song.
At the beginning of “Blackbird” his voice cracked showing signs of a lingering cold. For the rockers his vocals sounded fine but on the ballads he had strained vocals.
Rusty had the pocket English to German translator but he forgot to re-program it for Hannover because it welcomed the Cologne audience.
Some of Paul’s dialog/jokes were left out because of the non-English speaking audience. For “You Never Give Me Your Money” Paul sang the correct words. He did all the intros to the songs (German/English) as at the previous German gigs.
For “Hey Jude” Paul led the singalong, “Zuerst die Maenner!” (first the Men )”Und jetzt die Frauen!” (and just the Women) “Alle zusammen!” (everyone together) After the song he pointed to people and said, “You were great and you were great…”Paul signed one autograph at the end of the show that was a sign that someone up front had made.
Sign in the audience: “You Rock! Thanx” Paul acknowledged the sign by nodding grinning at the sign holder.
This was the 1st and only concert played at Preussag Arena.
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