Interview for paulmccartney.com

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Are you excited/nervous about playing your sell-out show at The O2 London?

Paul: Excited, you go to America, do concerts there and I am always conscious that people in Britain ask are you coming here and I am not always able to give a satisfactory answer, so I’m really glad to have the opportunity to bring the show, that we have been doing all over the world, back to my home land.

Is it still a buzz that tickets sell-out so quickly?

Paul: Yeah, it really is great. You know if that happens that people in the audience really want to see you, so it helps when you do the shows to get a connection between you and the audience. I can really look at the audience and think, you tried really hard to get here and I’m grateful for that. That adds to the excitement of the evening.

During the Memory Almost Full campaign you played some tiny shows, this year you have been packing out stadiums and you have even played to space before, which kind of show do you prefer and is there a different type of approach?

Paul: I like both kinds of shows. If you play a small gig it’s exciting because it’s intimate, instant and it reminds me of how I started out, but the problem can be that sometimes people say, oh I couldn’t get in, so that’s the advantage of doing a big show, you pretty much know that everyone who wanted to see you in that town will be able to get in. The approach has to be different for the stadium shows as you have to think bigger, so we use big screens mainly so the person at the absolute back can see the show clearly and therefore can feel involved.

Lots of speculation in the chat rooms about ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ being in your set, any chance this could happen?

Paul: I must admit that the closeness of a couple of the shows to Christmas gives me the opportunity to do ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ which is great as it would be out of context for the rest of the year, it could be interesting to revive it for the Christmas shows.

You are opening the tour in Hamburg was that a deliberate choice and how special is Hamburg to you?

Paul: It was suggested by my promoter but I like the idea very much of opening there because it echoes the opening of my career with The Beatles. The idea of going back to a city that I have so many fond memories of, so many early stories about is one that I am very happy about.

Can you give us a word or sentence about each city you will be playing on the tour?

Q) Hamburg Paul) Memories

Q)Berlin Paul) Wall

Q)Arnhem Paul)Poppies

Q)Paris Paul) Romantic

Q)Cologne Paul) Aftershave

Q) Dublin Paul) Irish ancestors

Q)London Paul) Capital

Is there a particular track in your set that you look forward to?

Paul: At the moment it’s ‘Sing the Changes’ from The Fireman album.

Opening Citi Field must have been an amazing feeling considering your history with Shea, was playing ‘I’m Down’ a particularly poignant moment?

Paul: Yeah it was good to be able to include it in the set, because of the fact it was something I remember very well from the original Shea concert and to do it now and be thinking of then at the same time was quite a tribute really.

In the DVD ‘Good Evening New York City’, 75 hand held flip cameras were used in the filming, was this an idea you had been pursuing for a while and do you Flip?

Paul: Yeah, I had one given to me as a gift and they are very neat and extremely handy and great quality. So they idea of capturing the atmosphere from the audience point of view arose out of that.

Congratulations on your Broadway debut, is there anywhere left you haven’t played that you would like to?

Paul: Lots of places!

Would you ever consider playing one of your albums in its entirety? a ‘Band on the Run’ or a ‘Memory Almost Full’ night?

Paul: Yeah, I have thought about doing that after reading about other bands like Phish doing the whole of the White Album, which I think they once did. I just wonder if it might be a tad boring, but you never know, it’s certainly a nice idea and the fun would be choosing which album to do. I think the less obvious albums would be more fun.

You end the year on a high with the tour and the O2 show in London – is there any message you would like to give the users of PaulMcCartney.com about this year and what they might expect next year?

Paul: My message to cyber viewers is first of all thanks for being there and paying attention. Secondly thanks for those of you who came to our shows. It’s been a very interesting year, I have had a lot of fun on and off stage and I hope to do more of the same in a different way next year.

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