Paul McCartney - The Live Experience

The Up and Coming Tour Takes Paul And His Band To Their 200th Performance Salt Lake City Tuesday 13th July 2010

Paul and his band started their Up and Coming Tour in March of this year in Phoenix, US. It quickly established itself as THE live experience of 2010. Playing massive sell-out stadium shows across US, Mexico, Ireland and the UK, the show has been picking up amazing reviews from music fans and critics alike. The tour has broken sales records, took in a show at the White House in front of President Barack Obama and been this summer's hottest ticket with audience members including a superstar line-up; Chris Martin, Jack Nicholson, Kanye West, Neil Young, Dave Grohl, The Jonas Brothers, Kings Of Leon, John Paul Jones, Willie Nelson, Samuel L Jackson, David Walliams, Stephen Merchant and many more. The tour also found time for a fundraising show for The Old Vic theatre and Meat Free Monday campaign at Battersea Power Station, which included a stage invasion from ultra fan Kevin Spacey.

This tour took the band to a new benchmark. Paul McCartney's concert in Salt Lake City today, Tuesday 13th July marked this line up's 200th show together.

Paul McCartney, Paul 'Wix' Wickens (keyboards), Brian Ray (guitar/bass guitar), Rusty Anderson (guitar) and Abe Laboriel Jr. (drums) have been touring together since 2002s Back In The World Tour. Over the last 8 years the band have travelled the world and played some groundbreaking and headline-making shows together. Stand out moments have included 2003's performance to over 500,000 people outside the Coliseum in Rome and Paul's first show in Red Square, Moscow. In 2004 the band gave the Glastonbury Festival its most legendary moment to date. 2005 saw Paul and the band making history again as he performed live to the International Space Station to wake-up NASA astronauts. 2008 saw a series of special one off concerts, headlining the Liverpool Sound concert at Anfield, the largest ever outdoor music event in Kiev, Ukraine, with over 500,000 people lining the streets to watch the show. A show in Quebec city's national park, The Plains Of Abraham, to 300,000 people to celebrate Quebec's 400th anniversary and September took them to Tel Aviv for Paul's first ever concert in Israel. The Beatles were banned from performing there at the height of Beatlemania in the 60s. In 2009 Paul and the band toured US throughout the summer and Europe in the winter. The tour commenced with the inaugural run of shows at New York's Citi Field Stadium, which was the site of the former Shea Stadium where The Beatles made history in 1965 when they played a concert that set the precedent for the modern day stadium rock show. Critics hailed the Citi Field performances (seen by over 100,000 people) as the concert experience of a lifetime. 2009 ended with a sell-out show at London's O2 Arena, Paul's first ever concert at the legendary venue.

Speaking about the band Paul said: ‚"The great thing is that we have grown into a band. It's funny because I always felt we were a bunch of guys playing together and were very lucky because we made a good noise that we found ourselves excited to be in the middle of. Last year I just suddenly said to myself, Wait a minute, you have been playing with these guys for, like, nine years now.‚ Whether you like it or not that makes you a band and that is the great thing. That is what happened to us, we have become a band almost without noticing."

As for how many live shows Paul himself has played, records indicate it's well in excess of 3000. In a lifetime of performing, Paul has played an impressive range of venues and locations. From pub gigs to huge outdoor parks and stadiums, from unannounced stripped back university shows with Wings to performing at Buckingham Palace, Moscow's Red Square and the White House. Paul's live shows have reached a new legendary status in recent years, garnering unprecedented reviews from fans and critics alike wherever he goes. He's pushed boundaries, performed to millions and made global news with countless monumental shows.