Not to long ago, in a comment section from an article at tnocs.com, many of you were talking about your experiences attending concerts.
And all I could say… with embarrassment…
….was that I actually had never been to a real concert.
But…
It turns out that a few months ago, Sir Paul McCartney announced he would visit Mexico with his “Got Back” tour.
On a certain day in late June while I was with my mom, she answered a phone call from my brother. She put him on the speaker. He said:
“Paul McCartney opened a second date for a concert and I’ll buy tickets, our sister will go too, do you want to go?”
“YES!” I answered. (Without thinking!)
Finally, I would be able to be in a concert – and I would live it with my siblings. All I had to do was pay monthly to my brother’s credit card.
But first, I’ll talk about the place of the concert:
The Estadio GNP Seguros (from the name of an insurance company from Spain,) recently changed its name from Foro Sol, which is inside the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, where Formula 1 races had been hosted in the past few years.
Foro Sol (back then only known as Autódromo Hemanos Rodríguez) had its first concert in November 1993, when Madonna came as a part of “The Girlie Show” world tour.
Later that month, Paul McCartney gave two concerts from “The New World Tour,” during his first time in my country. The reason that this stadium was built is because that even when Michael Jackson gave concerts in that stadium Estadio Azteca had refused to allow the McCartney concerts there,
Sir Paul returned to Mexico until 2002, and later again in 2010 and 2012.
(That time he was at the Estadio Azteca and the historical free concert at the Zócalo, and the latter concert that was broadcasted by the Coca Cola site.) He also performed in 2017 and this year.
Coming back to the subject, I should say that time went fast since my brother bought the tickets, and a month before we were agreement in details… like transportation:
A bus that would take us with a large group of people from my city and come back the same day after the concert.
I had the advantage of having several days left of vacation from my job. Unfortunately, my siblings, due to their work rules, were not allowed to ask for days off before a holiday, and the concert was going to be before the most important holiday of November.
Anyway, my sister admitted that she was excited about the concert, and she shared with us a playlist from the songs that Paul had been playing in the tour.
Since he started the Latin American leg of the tour, “Now And Then” had been part of the setlist. He sang it for the first time live in Uruguay last October.
The big day came:
The siblings and I reunited early where the bus was going to be.
My sister gave us matching customized t-shirts with Paul’s image, and we went to the adventure.
Thankfully, my brother had previous experience going to concerts when the venue was known as Foro Sol; he had seen Macca and Pearl Jam there before.
We arrived in Mexico City. After dealing with traffic and some time to eat, the bus organizer gave us some information about places to go. We went to the nearest mall (a small one actually) and yet we had to walk a little. After we finished, we returned and found some complications and misinformation, because my brother remembered that we had to cross a bridge to be able to get into the stadium.
After lots of steps in the bridge later we realized that we were going on the wrong way…
– and had to return to where we started.
This felt specially heavy since I don’t have a good physical condition or any whatsoever (yes, not exercising has consequences…)
We realized that we had to be on the line to pass through a filter where the tickets had to be scanned and people had to be checked… but we had to wait more than two hours on the line. Meanwhile, we drank water, and took some selfies.
My brother bought memorabilia: a cute cap.
Finally, we could enter the stadium. The excitement returned, but first had to find the right entrance and going to more steps to get to our seats. The siblings were as exhausted as I, so they wanted to drink beers. I didn’t want to drink because I didn’t want to go to the bathroom constantly… and yet I drank a few times from their drinks (they bought beautiful special plastic cups).
After 8:00 a DJ played mixed versions of Paul’s songs, and the Beatles’ songs covered by other artists.
Between 9:15 and 9:17 the concert began. That was the second setlist that was shared in some social media groups, with a few songs variations but mostly the same.
When he sang “Blackbird” I noticed that my sister was shedding some tears. During “Now And Then” I shed some tears too… hey, after all: the G’s are a little sensitive sometimes…
After his homage to his late friends, the energy started to raise – and people never stopped singing. My personal favorite moments were “Band On The Run”, “Live And Let Die” and especially “Hey Jude.” While he was singing this one, my sister video-phoned to my mom with her other cellphone, and I recorded these songs with my phone. I know that people say that you should just enjoy a concert and forget about recording with the cellphones, but… you know, they will be part of your memories, after all.
All I can say is that I really admire Sir Paul’s energy.
At 82 years old, he practically never stops in the concert, only to move from one instrument to another.The rest of his musicians are full of energy, too.
And he even made an humble effort to speak Spanish to the audience.
After the encore…
- “I’ve Got A Feeling”
- “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”
- “Helter Skelter”
- “Golden Slumbers”
- “Carry That Weight”
- and“The End”
…the concert came to an end. It took like an hour to get out the stadium and getting back to the bus to return home.
(Jesus, 🙏 ! We even had a full moon!)
I share the playlist, with the exception of “Birthday”, almost all of them were played.
It may have been a hard day’s night…
But what a night!
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Glad you got to finally experience a live concert, and McCartney no less! I’ve never seen any Beatle live, and it would be so surreal to be there and hear all those Beatles’ songs actually sung by Paul. I’ve been having weird music dreams lately, and I had another one last night where I was in an alley with good acoustics, so I broke out with the beginning of the refrain of “Michelle” and somebody nearby completed it. When I woke up, I was wondering what people in France thought of Paul’s French on that song, so I have to ask. Was his Spanish any good?
Actually @rollerboogie, his Spanish was decent, and he was helped by a teleprompter I suppose, but the thing that I liked was it included local expressions, which it made him sound cool.
I have seen both of the living Beatles at different times. They both have tremendous energy, not just for their ages, but for any age. They are also both still touring. Maybe there is something to this vegetarian thing.
Great stuff Edith! A great choice for your first ever show – even it took some getting into.
I saw Paul in 2004. Hard to believe he was already in his 60s then and is still going now. His voice isn’t as strong but what do you expect from an 82 year old and he still puts on a show like you say.
Great set list as well, plenty of obvious choices but also a good selection of the not so well known from throughout his career.
I could live without Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da but other than that I’d be happy to hear any of them.
Awesome! I’m glad I got to see Sir Paul back in 1990. Interesting that he played “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite”, since that’s a John written song, isn’t it? I wonder what other John written songs he’s performed over the years.
It is a John song. When I saw him I don’t think he did any where John was the prominent songwriter though he did talk about and pay tribute to him. He did though, play All Things Must Pass in honour of George.
I’m going to take a guess that “How Do You Sleep” would not be one of them.
When I saw him in 2009, he performed “Day In the Life” (which I consider a John song) and “Something”
I’m so happy for you! What a first concert! But I warn you, now the bug has bitten you, you’ll want to go to more.
Thanks for the shout-out. Happy to have been even a small part of your inspiration.
If there were one artist to see (and Springsteen wasn’t available), Paul McCartney would have to be it. Congratulations! Great write-up, Edith.
My gratitude for @mt58, because he could successfully post this piece in a short time, and for being able to find the reference to my past comment.