Hi there!!! I know that my written English is not that good but I want to send a review of the outstanding show of Paul in Hamburg...

Please correct me, but as far as I found out, it must have been the 282nd show, that Paul played in Hamburg. Okay, he had 40 years time since his first gigs at "Indra" or "Kaiserkeller", but still unbelievable. And although 40 years older, Paul and the crowd were still crazy after all these years. I saw a lot of people wearing old "Star Club" shirts and on the TV interviews a lot of people said, that they saw Paul and his mates at the beginning of the sixties down in the small club at the Reeperbahn.

This time it was much bigger. 25000-30000 (depends on which newspaper you trust) gave Paul a very cheerful reception as he entered the stage at AOL Arena. And again the old mystic: As Paul startet, the rain stopped. Okay, it was only a bit of rain. For me it was after Paris and Hannover the third show of the tour so there weren't many surprises. Paul and his great band did the same set as on the "Back in the World" CD, but putting in "I've just seen a face", "Birthday" and "Two of us", dropping out "Mother natures son", "Coming up" and "Driving Rain". Pauls voice was great, even at the end of the tour. I never heard a more powerful version of "Maybe I'm amazed" before. At the end of "Let me Roll it" the band went into and instrumental "Foxy Lady", this time very long. Unbelievable. During "Yesterday" he shortly stopped singing and let the audience did his job. Great! Somewhere in the middle he said "It's good to be home". One song (I think it was "I've just seen a Face") Macca dedicated to his "old friends Horst and Tony" - Horst Fascher and Tony Sheridan were supposed to be in the crowd. Paul recitited the German poem "Jakob der Rabe" but he also did this in Hannover and I guess everywhere else in Germany before. I personally love the new intro of "Band on the Run". Good choice! It made the crowd going mad. From this song on most of the audience left the seats and stood up. Good idea, I hate these strictly seated concerts anyway. The newspapers all called the show in Hamburg "concert of the year". Paul must have been in very good mood. He quoted sings in the audience "Mach Schau!" and joked with people in the first rows.

Paul had not a lot time to spend in Hamburg this time. He arrived at 3.30 pm and drove directly from the airport to the soundcheck. The next morning he left early for St. Petersburg I guess. No time for Reeperbahn. Only Wix told the crowd, that he spend a day in Hamburg. He visited the Steinway-Pianoworks which are located in the city. "I watched very carefully how they build these pianos. So I can save a lot of money and bulit my own Steinway. It's only 12000 parts" he joked.

New to me was indeed one small thing: The videos at "Back in the USSR". At the beginning of the tour, they used pictures of soldieres, now they changed over and show Putin, Jelzin and Gagarin. I guess it was changed espiacially for the Moscow gig.

And finally: Paul kept his promiss and learned the words by the end of the tour. "Yellow dog is slow, nowhere to go" - you never give me your money. I hope that Paul will keep another promiss: "See ya next time" he said as he left the stage in Hamburg while fireworks startet. What a great day and a beautiful night...

(5/23/03) From Tore Waskaas:

Hello Steve!

I attended the show in Hamburg on May 21st. and it was more or less identical as every other show (I compare it with reviews I`ve read on this site, and I attended the show in Copenhagen on May 2nd. ). The setlist was identical to Copenhagen.

Here is some small interesting things that happened:

- He sang the correct words for You Never Give Me Your Money.

- He dedicated Here Today to both John, Horst (probably Fascher) and Tony (probably Sheridan).

- The audience started to sing Yellow Submarine and Paul joined in. After a few bars he stopped it and said something like: "Every time they ask me: What about Ringo?"

- He read signs in the audience which said "Mach Shau" and "Please Come To Poland". To the latter he commented: "What? Tonight? Yeah, we`ll all go to Poland tonight!"

- He made a fatal error on the Jet intro: He played the wrong notes on the bass (sounded horrible).

All the best,
Tore Waskaas, Norway
www.norwegianwood.org