Hi,

I saw that someone mentioned that Paul ran around with the wrong flag in Arnhem. Indeed he did. It looked rather silly when he came back on stage with the RUSSIAN flag. I guess the only way he could make up for this would be waving the Dutch flag on Red Square!!

Update (4/29/03) From Andy Armour:

The 25.000 audience at the Paul's concert in Arnhem was enthusiastic and sang together with Paul from the first to the last minute of the gig. The show was great, with all those colorful screens behind and above the stage, although one can say that the pre-show was a little bit too long.

Without doubt, the best numbers out of 35 were Jet, Let Me Roll It, Band On The Run and Back in USSR (which was the top of the show, both musically and visually). Those songs really rocked! But there were also plenty of pop songs, which created that very special McCartney's eclectic rock/pop atmosphere serving to please everyone. The acoustic set was quite dull (except We Can Work It Out), but we love Paul so much that nothing is matter anymore - everyone just sang along.

I really don't know if it was necessary to repeat word in word all jokes and stories which he tells at every concert of the tour. In this context, especially the references to passed away John and George seemed to be in contradiction with what was going on. The use of Dutch for the chat was nice only at the beginning, since it became a little bit annoying after some time. And, after all, the phrase You Never Give Your Money sounded quite strange from the most commercially successful artist.

But all was saved by Paul himself - he was in a great form, good singing and trying to be not very serious. The latter was only highlighted by his funny mistake of waving not the Dutch but the Russian tricolor after the show. The general impression, at least for me, was, however, quite sentimental and can be stated in the four short words: the dream is over. Although the reality is not that bad at all. But it is just a reality.

(4/28/03) From Rieuwerd in Holland:

Arnhem, The Netherlands, 25 April 2003: At five o’clock already hundreds of people were at the Gelredome-stadium. At the beginning of the day, the concert was not yet sold out. However, there has been much advertising and radio-attention last week and especially yesterday, so I heard that finally, the show was (almost) sold out (there were 25000 people).

McCartney arrived at 18.30; soundchecking lasted from 18.35 until about 19.05. Soundcheck (not entirely in the right order): - Instrumental Jam; - Coming Up/Foxy Lady; - Honey Don’t; - C-Moon; - Celebrations (partly); - Blackbird (short mock-version); - Things We Said Today; - You Never Give Me Your Money (partly); - Band On The Run (new intro); - Lady Madonna (partly); - The Massage Song; - Jam. We were listening to the soundcheck outside of the stadium, but could here it perfectly. McCartney talked to the few lucky ones inside, and apparently there was a radio-crew in the building during the soundcheck. It was interesting to hear Coming Up – although Paul hit the high notes, he seemed to have some problems singing the song.

The concert started a little late. The setlist was the same as in London: instead of Coming Up and Driving Rain the band played I’ve Just Seen A Face and Two Of Us. I have also been to Antwerpen, 2 April. This was a totally different show. Whereas the atmosphere in Antwerpen was quiet, in Arnhem everybody was really enthousiastic. Time and again McCartney told us he liked the audience very much – something he did not say in Antwerpen. From the way he was playing one could see McCartney really enjoyed the show. Although his voice was better in Antwerpen, this was the better show!

Some details now: During Your Loving Flame McCartney played some time with his eyes closed, and when the backing vocals came in, he realised he got the words wrong and laughed. Not many people seemed to have noticed! Before We Can Work It Out, McCartney played a fake-intro. Like in Antwerpen, The Fool on the Hill started with a new intro. After Here Today, the crowd sang Give Peace a Chance and McCartney applauded. After Something, McCartney said: ‘Somebody in the first row said: What about Ringo’, and he sang the chorus of Yellow Submarine. Later on in the show, he started Yellow Submarine again, only to stop it immediately! Two of Us (which sounded really great – in my opinion he should play this song twice every show!) appropriately ended with ‘all roads lead to Rome’. Band on the Run was started with a new intro, followed by the entire song played as usual. One minor flaw: McCartney brought in the wrong flag, and we were not amused (he didn’t notice, I think…).

When I Saw Her Standing There was played, I (29 years old) think I experienced some Beatle-mania, since the entire crowd was yelling, singing, and dancing; no one was seated any more. It was a really great show!

From Kars Hazelaar:

Paul was at his best again. Although his voice at some points might be slightly less in the high range than a month before in Antwerpen (Belgium) his voice sounded strong overall. It was a fantastic show for 25.000 people. Very nice performance of 'Two of us' and 'She's leaving home'.

No changes in the songlist. He did another start for Band on the run. Did he d that earlier? It sounded like the new recording of Band on the run he made recently. Abe is a very good drummer and performer. Rusty got much attention from us (the people around me and me, 50 feet from Paul) because of his perfect en sometimes exploding guitar playing. Again Ringo got attention. The public sang 'Yellow Submarine' after Paul tribute for John and George and 10 minutes Paul bursted suddenly into the song again for a short while. After 'Here today' the public song 'Give peace a change' three or four times. Paul applauded. He did many words in good sounding Dutch, the public was enthousiast about it. 'See you next time' Paul shouted at us. You bet Paul, we sure will

From Hermann Kasel:

Here’s a short review on the Gelredome-concert in the Netherlands.

First the downside. The organisation was not good at all, not all entrances were opened up,so getting in took much longer than neccessary and the show started almost an hour later than planned. Thus ending the the show later, by what time some connecting buslines were not operating anymore. I just hope the people I walked back with into the city got their trains in time.

Not so important but notable was the fact, that Paul came on stage with the wrong flag. It was not the the flag of the Netherlands he waved, but that of Russia, wich has the same colors but a diiferent order.

Well now the upside!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Although the show had some trouble of becoming a sell-out as far as I could see and according to this mornings newspapers here in the Netherlands, it finally did. A crowd of almost 29.000 expecting fans.

Well, what can I say.

The mood was fantastic, a singalong from Hello Goodbye right untill The End.

The band is very good, maybe not like the band from the 1989 or 1993 World Tours who was technical excellent. This band certainly made up for that by enthousiasm en playing especially the solo-songs with a lot more drive. My eldest daughter (13) was very taken by Abe and his performance on drums. Paul voice was as strong as ever, sometimes in a lower key than in the old days, but hey who cares.

As far as the songlist is concerned. We got all the songs which are on the Back in the World-cd with the exception of Coming Up and Mother Nature’s Son, but instead of them Two of Us, I’vejust seen a face and Birthday and as special; before starting the standard-version of Band on the run a special short version as could be seen in a BBC promotion-clip for BBC-2 Radio, with Paul in his studio experimenting with different sounds.

Yes we did do a short Give Peace a Chance after Here Today and after Something when a guy in the front row asked, what about Ringo? Paul answer was a short impromptu of We all live in a Yellow Submarine.

Finally, my wife both my daughters and I had a great night out and to me two things stand out. First, yes he can still rock a crowd and appeal to young fans as well. Second, all those middle-aged fans round fifty, just like me, look at there eyes when they are on their way to the concert waiting in the lines. They all have that shine in there eyes and once they’re inside they are as they were twenty or thirty years ago and for some couples in the crowd just as much in love as then.

So, even as it is for just a few hours, Paul can turn back time, and isn’t that pure magic?????