"This is the guitar I used on the Ed Sullivan Show" was the Paul's introduction to "Yesterday" on the final-final encore for the Houston Concert last sunday October 13th.
He performed an amazing show during two and a half hours for a lovely audience who really "loved him all the time". I were in both Texas concerts this year, Dallas in May and Houston last weekend; Both were a "Driving Texas" experience for me because I live in Monterrey Mexico, so I had to drive almost 10 hours to be there. The Song list was basically the same for this second leg of the tour, but there was a gift from Paul specially dedicated to Houston. He sang "Midnight Special", and McCartney himself told us after it: "I had to do that". There are some details to comment: Tour Programs were shipper than other cities $25 usd; Most of the people arrive at time, leave the Arena after the end of the show and don't move from their seats to go to snack area or restroom, and, of course, they participate on every song, in few words AN EXCELLENT AUDIENCE. The 3 new songs added for this leg were very emotional, During "She's Leaving Home" the band demonstrated that they do not only play their instrumets very well but know how to sing a song. The voluptuous drummer really rocks, Wix is the multi-instument on the keyboards, the guitar men are good...and Paul is in one of his best moments of his solo carrer. All the people around me was very surprised about his voice ,"The songs sounds as in the CDs" said a young woman seating on my left. The screens change a little not only for the newly added songs but for songs as "Lonely Road" in which there are now the video with the beautiful women on it. At the Compaq Center Entrance some guys were giving "A Hard Days Night" postcards, there were 4 different having each beatle-face in the front, just as in the new DVD cover. The flyers promoting the upcoming 2CD and DVD were in each seat of the Arena. Paul missed some words at the begining of "Hey Jude" after He sneezed, however , even with some little details as that , the whole concert was an amazing performance... If you're ever down in Houston
Boy, you better walk right
And you better not squabble
And you better not fight
Let the Midnight Special
Shine the light on me
Let the Midnight Special
Shine the ever-lovin' light on me Long Life Sir Paul
(10/15/02) From David English:
Just some random thoughts on the Paul show last night in Houston…..
Big lines outside the Compaq Center to get through security , but a free ‘Hard Day’s Night’ Paul postcard handed out to those in line. (Get there early if it’s like this at other cities if you don’t want to miss any of the show.) Big crowds at the T shirt stands, really good program for $25 (not $35 like I’d read in other reviews), T shirts from $35 to $75 – yes folks, it’s a rip-off! No other freebies (when he played the Astrodome in 93 a program was free!). As for the show itself – the ’pre-show’ as the program called it was pretty entertaining with all the different performers – I’d definitely not seen anything like that before at a gig. (But go with an open mind!) And it blends very well into Paul’s show, starting with a great silhouette effect… Paul’s setlist was just as we’ve been told before, with one exception (see later). His voice sounded great, he looked good, he looked happy, and the band are fantastic. The songs (50% of ‘em anyway) are Beatle songs – what more do you want?! Highlights for me – the opener (‘Hello Goodbye’), the Beatles video footage (during ‘All My Loving’ and ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’), ‘Something’ (with great George pictures on the screens), nearly all the rest of the acoustic set, ‘Back in the USSR’, and ‘Yesterday’. And the guitar jam during ‘The End’ was awesome…. J (But why no pictures of Linda during ‘My Love’ or ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’?). ‘Here Today’ was nice, but I don’t think many people had heard it before. The video screens were cool, nice effects and not too distracting. Well, the big surprise was the addition of ‘Midnight Special’ to the setlist. (Although I think he dropped ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ to fit it in – but maybe my memory is failing!).Yes, it was great! BUT I really don’t think many people in the crowd realized the significance of it. The line ’..if you ever get to Houston’ of course got a big cheer, so I was waiting for the next few lines ‘..you’ll be Sugarland bound’ (as he sings on Unplugged – the bootleg version), but for some reason he changed it to ‘…you’ll be penitentiary bound’. Seems like not many people know it’s about the jail in Sugarland judging by the muted reaction at the end of the song. Well, what do expect you from a crowd, the majority of whom could afford to pay $250 for a ticket? They were pretty quiet and motionless (at least upstairs, where I thought most of the real fans would be). Another gripe, having got to be second in line at 10am the day the tickets went on sale at Ticketmaster, and been told the only tickets left were $250, or a few in the rear of the second level at $90 (I think 4 people in line got these before they were ‘sold out’). So I got my $90 ticket, with the extra $10 service charge to Ticketmaster. Yes, of course we can give $50 or so to the wonderful Sam Goody for the privilege of joining their club and buying tickets early, but why should some corporate CEO get money for doing absolutely nothing (by the way, get Tom Petty’s new album, and read the lyrics – he’s got it absolutely right on the ‘big business’ of rock ‘n’ roll. And it’s good music too.). I wonder where the supposed $50 seats were – in the restroom perhaps? I expect the wonderful Houston scalpers got all the good tickets, thanks to their connections at Ticketmaster and the radio stations.... Anyway, my seat was good, nice view and all that, but….. So, where’s all this money going? Paul – you don’t need it….. do you? (Oh yes, caught a glimpse of Heather on the video screens singing along during the ‘na na na’ bit in Hey Jude (surprised she wasn’t backstage counting the money).) To sum up, if you get a chance to see this show for a price that you think is right – GO! It’s great. But, things aren’t what they used to be. The last Houston show at the Astrodome in 93 had reasonable ticket prices, a large diverse crowd, real fans, and was FUN. I would have loved to have seen him with Wings at the Summit (Compaq center) in 76 – I bet people were going nuts and it probably only cost the equivalent of an LP or two. (And I can only imagine what it would have been like to see the Beatles in Houston in 65!) (Next up, The Rolling Stones at Reliant Stadium for $50 - $300. I think I’ll stay home, listen to the CDs, and remember when I paid the equivalent of $3 to see them at Earl’s Court, London, in 1976. Now that was rock ‘n’ roll!).
From Rick Lindholtz:
Having seen Paul in Dallas last May, when I learned he would be coming to Houston (where I live) for the fall tour, I determined to scrape together the funds to buy tickets. I'm still scraping; however, the show last night was outstanding.
We had dinner pre-show at a place called Guadalajara's, and saw many people who were going to the show, with their "McCartney" or "No More Land Mines" shirts. (I was wearing a tye dye Paul shirt which I'd gotten in Dallas, and that's a pretty good story. The shirts on sale were priced too high and I passed on them, but before the show a guy came up to our (nosebleed section) seats with about 50 shirts. He said they were on special for 15 bucks. The guy sitting in front of me was interested so the seller laid about 12 or so out on the empty seat in front of my wife. A moment later 2 security guards came up and hauled the hawker off - my guess is that the shirts were knock-offs - the silk screening was rather poor. But in hauling him off, they left the dozen shirts on the chair. The prospective buyer grabbed them all, but later gave one to my wife and another to our friend.) I've been reading the reviews here on abbeyrd and hearing about how much improved the fall leg is. The spring show was the best concert I'd ever seen... until last night. It's true, Paul's voice sounded stronger most of the time - certainly opened stronger - and the band is sounding very good. The band members seemed to be featured more on live video feed than I remember in Dallas, which was very enjoyable. The three added songs were a real treat, though I might have preferred some off the beaten tracks like "You won't see Me" to "Michelle". And I did miss "Mother Nature's Son". Houston was treated to a rarity - Paul broke from the set list and gave us one extra song: "Midnight Special" - because of the line "If you're ever in Houston..." It was nice to get a little treat like that.