April 9 Paul McCartney Rocks Manchester!
Looked overcast when I got up but it cleared up by the time we left though still a bit chilly. Drive was uneventful and we reached Manchester by about 3:30. The Petrol Gods were good to us. At the beginning and at the end of the journey Chris was positive we were going to run out of gas but the Smart Car and the Gods stayed with us and both times we managed to find a station in time. We stopped in the Sedge Linn in Chorlton for a cold drink because Annie was going to be out until about 4. Headed over and found the house in disarray as Louise, the owner was in the middle of decorating. Annie arrived home, Chris had a bit of a nap then the three of us went to the chippie before heading to the McCartney concert.
Yes! Annie told me Paul McCartney was appearing in Manchester so I rearranged my schedule to be there and Alan got us all tickets. We stashed Annie in the little luggage boot of the car and headed to the MEN Arena, dropping her before we got to the arena proper. We found a side lot, avoiding the multi storey car park because it would have taken Chris hours to get out of there after the concert. Alan met us outside the arena and in we went, into the throng. The crowds inside were unbelievably thick. The bottle neck in some parts of the mezzanine was a bit scary when you felt like you might get carried along with the crowd. It’s easy to see how bad things can happen and if you were claustrophobic you would have been in a panic attack I think! But luckily the crowd was not pushing or shoving much and we made it to our seats ok, seats that were up near the top of the upper bowl of the arena on the side. Sounds far away but actually we had a pretty good view straight down to the stage and there were large video screens as well.
Cirque du Soleil did a half hour opening act, all the performers dressed in Louis XIV court costumes mostly and performed to McCartney’s Ambient project music. Then a big guitar showed on the back drop and the shadow of someone behind it raising a guitar up… and there’s Paul McCartney on stage!!! He wore a black jacket over a red tshirt but the jacket wasn’t long in coming off.
The concert
Was amazing! He sang many classic Beatles songs, some Wings stuff I loved andn some I didn’t and some solo stuff I didn’t know. He did electric and acoustic sets and two encores. His concert in Sheffield was cancelled just a few days ago due to a sore throat but he sounded near perfect and you would never guess it was a 60 year old man singing. It really did take awhile for it to sink in that I was actually hearing THE Paul McCartney with THAT voice – you know the one, the one you’ve heard and known all your life!
He started off with “Hello Goodbye”, “Jet” and then slid into “All My Loving”….and then there it was, that *classic* high pitched “Ooooooh!” THAT’S when I knew it really was PAUL! Now I never was a Beatles fan though I liked most of their music well enough. But how can you miss out seeing a Beatle, especially Paul, seeing as there are only two of the four still alive. The sound was a bit echo-y at first but during the acoustic set it settled down and was pretty good after that. Hard to have really good sound in an arena that big. I’ve never been in one that size before, which, for a sold out concert, was seating about 30,000 people. There was a very good light show as well, with old photos, clips, colour and patterns flashed on the backdrops and some of the video screens, different for each song.
Paul played a variety of keyboards and guitars but when it was him on the bass guitar the whole building just reverberated! The backup band was really good too and performed excellent vocals and harmonies. Paul told a few funny stories and reacted well with the crowd.
After about 7 songs, the band left the stage and Paul began a long acoustic set, beginning with “Blackbird”. He sang a variety of old and new and dedicated a song to John Lennon and brought out a ukelely and did a cute version of “Something” as a tribute to George Harrison. He dedicated a song to his current wife Heather and one to his deceased wife, Linda. The band joined him again for a semi acoustic set starting with “Eleanor Rigby”. He did “Michelle” so well it sounded like it was lifted right off the studio recording!
The band returned to crank up the electrics with my two favourites, “Band on the Run” and “Back in the USSR” but ruined that momentum by playing two awful Wings songs, “Let Them In (Someone’s Knocking on the Door)” and “My Love”. He partially redeemed himself with a touching “She’s Leaving Home” and then brought the audience to it’s feet with “Can’t Buy Me Love”! Quite a number from the floor moved to the stage and the security guards went a little bonkers but all anyonen wanted to do was have fun and get a little closer. They were dancing in the aisles. After powering through “Birthday” they rocket launched “Live and Let Die”, complete with a pyrotechnics and fireworks show and a big explosion at the end.
Things got serius now – the piano comes out again and Let It Be wafts out across an ecstatic audience. A few dozen people sparked their lighters. Yep, they must all be at least my age lol! I looked around behind me and someone above was swaying with a lighted mobile phone!!! I chuckled at the idea but of course, as Annie suggested, the man was probably holding an open line to a friend. I prefer to think of it as just the sign of the changing times!
And man oh man, did I ever think that would be me na-na-na-ing with 30,000 other people to “Hey Jude” with Paul fucking McCartney!!!!??? Heck as like, I did! What a feeling! You really do get caught up in it all don’t you?
The end of the main set had people standing, thundering for more. First encore was “Long and Winding Road” and “I Saw Her Standing There”. Once more the crowd insisted on more and once more back on stage, just Paul this time with an acoustic “Yesterday” that had tears streaming down my face. They finished with “Sargeant Pepper reprise/The End”
Chris left about halfway through to make the journey down to Worcester so unfortunately missed the best bits. Alan, Annie and I walked over to Piccadilly Gardens raving all the way and we caught the last bus home, going on adrenalin for the next 2 hours, Annie and I. I finished writing up about the concert at 2:45 a.m. but had one more story…
Before the concert, our row was full and a few people came along and through we were in their seats. Comparing tickets, we saw they were looking in the wrong section so off they went. I leaned to Alan and said “It happens” to which he replied, “Yes if you can’t read” which we giggled over. But the couple sitting next to him then looked at their tickets and realized they too were sitting in the wrong section as well!!! And they had certainly heard Alan’s remark! We were in puddles laughing over that one!
Ok, that’s it for concert mania… off to bed now.
April 10 The Lowry
It was quite cold and overcast today. We got up mid morning when the plumber arrived to start installing the boiler. Oh yes, no boiler, no heat lol thankfully the shower is electric so lots of hot water. Annie and I left about noon, heading for the Lowry Gallery over in Salford. The best way to get there is by the Bury tram, getting off at the Harbour City stop, walk across the canal and past the multi storey car park. The Lowry is a modern complex built for the millennium and houses a lovely theatre, a few bars and a café.
There is a gallery that is the home of the works of Lawrence Lowry, a local Manchester 20th century artist. His paintings portray the way of life in gritty industrial northern England earlier in the 20th c. The people in most of his pictures are almost cartoonish, but nearly shadows, pale with shod feet and practically scribbled hands. The sky is always pale, gray and grimy with the smoke from many smoke stacks. A few portraits of individuals are haunting with tragic, sunken, red rimmed eyes peering out of lined and tired faces. The exhibition we saw had a lot of pencil, charcoal and even felt tip marker drawings that were sketches for paintings. Some of the drawings had the associated finished painting hung alongside making for interesting comparisons between the concept and end result.
There is a designer factory outlet shopping center across from the radically designed steel plated building which overlooks a dramatic footbridge across the Manchester Ship Canal linking industrial Manchester to the sea, 56 miles to the east. This is the relatively new development called the Salford Quays and has attracted upscale housing and tenants. There is also a new northern branch of the Imperial War Museum across the canal from the Lowry. The Lowry itself is a very interesting building both on the inside and outside, although because the day was so gray, the steel tiled exterior sort of faded into the sky. The Promenade Gallery was closed when we were there as well, getting ready for a new showing.
When we first got there, we decided we needed lunch first so we had a nice hot pizza at the Pizza Express in the shopping center first. After perusing the Lowry galleries we had a drink in one of the bars where I had the most artistically designed dessert (strawberry mille feuilles )I’ve ever been served! It was almost too pretty to eat!
Back into Manchester on the tram which was filled with teenagers in school uniform. The theatre had been packed to the rafters with school kids there for an afternoon matinee of “Of Mice and Men”. We were apprehensive at first, you know…. Disdainfully rolling our eyes over all the “Kids!!!!” but in the end we were delightfully entertained by their well behaved yet enthusiastic patter. One curly haired corker (“If I ever marry me boyfriend I’ll be ‘Zara O’Hara’”) of a girl near us at the end of the tram car even had the nerve to change into her street clothes, shielded by two of her mates LOL!
Tonight we headed for the Sedge Linn pub to meet up with John and Nikki and later Bonn, Louise and Alan. A reunion of the gang and we had a great evening and a pretty good meal as well. It was curry night and we all watched John carefully as he tucked into a chicken phaal, one of the hottest curries you can get, but he didn’t even break a sweat! Wow! :)
Back at Annie’s, we chatted in her room for awhile as well as dropping in to the irc channel to say hi for a bit. Tomorrow’s plans are a bit up in the air so we’ll see what we feel like doing. Jane will be arriving in the afternoon so will get to the Bed and Breakfast around her arrival time. I think it looks like Jane and I will be on our own in the evening as party preparations are under way at John and Nikki’s and Annie had a prior engagement .
Salford Quays, Manchester
More Manchester
Photos here
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