Wings Over the World tour

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Wings Over the World tour
Tour by Wings
Dates August 9, 1975 -
October 21, 1976
Legs 6
Shows 66 in total

31 in North America
17 in the United Kingdom
9 in Australia
9 in Europe

In 1975 and 1976, Paul McCartney's band Wings embarked on the ambitious Wings Over the World tour.

Contents

[edit] History

In contrast to Wings' two low-profile, smaller-scale outings of 1972, this was a major, highly publicised concert tour that took place mostly in arenas. More than two million people attended 66 shows on three continents — Australia, Europe, and North America (where it was known as the Wings Over America Tour and represented McCartney's first appearances in concert since the last Beatles tour in 1966). Touring Japan was also planned, but was cancelled by that country's authorities because of McCartney's 1972 Swedish marijuana arrest.

The tour came upon the heels of two Wings album releases: Venus and Mars and Wings at the Speed of Sound. Both were described as "stadium rock" type albums, and the songs from both were heavily represented on the tour, as were numbers from the popular and critically-acclaimed Band on the Run. To emphasize that Wings was a real band and not just a McCartney showcase, Denny Laine sang several lead vocals, including "Go Now", which reprised his vocal on The Moody Blues' first hit from 1965. Jimmy McCullough sang lead on "Medicine Jar", and Simon & Garfunkel's 1966 song "Richard Cory" was also covered by Wings. But most noteworthy was McCartney's decision to perform a minimal sampling of five of his own Beatles songs - despite an earlier disinclination to do any at all. Performances of "Yesterday" and "The Long and Winding Road" used muted horn arrangements used rather than their original strings, in the latter case vividly emphasizing McCartney's strong objections to Phil Spector's heavy-handed strings treatment on the Let it Be album.

Wings' lineup for the tour was Paul and Linda McCartney, Joe English, Denny Laine, and Jimmy McCullough. They were joined by brass and woodwind players Howie Casey, Steve Howard, Thaddeus Richard, and Tony Dorsey.

[edit] Setlist

  1. "Venus And Mars"/"Rock Show"
  2. "Jet"
  3. "Let Me Roll It"
  4. "Spirits of Ancient Egypt"
  5. "Medicine Jar"
  6. "Maybe I'm Amazed"
  7. "Call Me Back Again"
  8. "Lady Madonna"
  9. "The Long and Winding Road"
  10. "Live and Let Die"
  11. "Picasso's Last Words" (start of acoustic set)
  12. "Richard Cory"
  13. "Bluebird"
  14. "I've Just Seen a Face"
  15. "Blackbird"
  16. "Yesterday" (conclusion of acoustic set)
  17. "You Gave Me the Answer"
  18. "Magneto and Titanium Man"
  19. "Go Now"
  20. "My Love"
  21. "Listen to What the Man Said"
  22. "Let 'em In"
  23. "Time to Hide"
  24. "Silly Love Songs"
  25. "Letting Go"
  26. "Band on the Run"
  27. "Hi, Hi, Hi"
  28. "Soily"

[edit] 1975

[edit] United Kingdom

Admission prices ranged from GBP 1 to GBP 2.80.

[edit] Australia

Admission prices ranged from AU$6.80 to AU$10.

[edit] 1976

[edit] Europe

[edit] Wings Over America

More than 600,000 people attended 31 shows in the United States and Canada. In order to reduce the stress of moving their young family around the country during the course of the tour, the McCartneys rented four houses in New York City, Dallas, Chicago, and Los Angeles. Each night, after the show was over, they would fly in a specially-chartered BAC One-Eleven back to the nearest one of the rented houses.

The beginning of the American leg of the tour was delayed for nearly a month because lead guitarist Jimmy McCullough broke his finger during rehearsals. This lead to more friction between McCullough and the rest of the group, especially McCartney.

A surprise was planned for one of the Los Angeles shows, and the fans in attendance were treated to the sight of McCartney's former Beatle bandmate Ringo Starr joining him on stage and handing him a bouquet of flowers.

Many of the concerts were professionally recorded at McCartney's request. The best performances would later be compiled (after adding necessary overdubs in the studio) and released as a Christmastime triple album late in 1976 called Wings over America. The album was very popular, reaching Number One in the US and Number Eight in the UK. A single was also released from the collection, "Maybe I'm Amazed"/"Soily", a top ten hit in America and a top twenty hit in the UK. In addition, in 1981 a concert film of the Seattle show was released under the title of Rockshow by Miramax.

TIME McCartney cover during Wings Over America Tour.
Enlarge
TIME McCartney cover during Wings Over America Tour.

[edit] Europe

[edit] "Wings Over Wembley" concerts

Admission prices ranged from GBP 1.80 to GBP 3.50.

[edit] See also

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