Hi ! As a 30 year "young" O.P.B (Officially Pronounced Beatlemaniac) it was obvious for me to attend the concert in Vienna. So here is my review of Maccaīs Gig in one "of the most beautiful cities in the world" (copyright Paul). A great evening started with chaos ! Absolut Chaos caused by the organizers. The full crowd (12 000) waited outside for nearly 2 hours before finally at 20.00 the gates openend, but nobody told us, that we could move to the other side of the venue to a smaller enrtrance to get in. They were hopelessly disorientated, but things like that is kind of normal for the austrian mentality - No stress ! So everything started a bit late. It was also announced that Paul got stuck in a Traffic Jam !! What a lame excuse !! I was a little bit worried, that after the fantastic concerts in Rome he wasnīt into the "normal concert routine" at all, but thankfully I was proven wrong. The show itself was more or less the same than all the others, so I am not going into much details about the setlist. No surprises there. During the first part people from behind suddenly ran towards the stage (security once again not in control!), but as a result the audience was great, really enthusiastic. So everyone who paid for their ground floor seats had to stand up !!! I would be pretty pissed, but I was watching from above ! Hehehe ! Paul was wearing his red Long Arm sleeve and black trousers. His voice was in a great shape, he almost :-) knew all the lyrics (he messed up up a little bit during YOU NEVER GIVE ME YOUR MONEY but ELEANOR RIGBY was right on!) He smiled, laughed, joked - One of the last great Frontman in Showbusiness! The Foxy Lady Intro was there, he dedicated his Love Songs to Heather (YOUR LOVING FLAME), Linda (MY LOVE) & "alle Liebenden [=Lovers]" (MAYBE I AM AMAZED) and also someone shouted "What about Ringo??" after Georgeīs Tribute and so Vienna sang the short YELLOW SUBMARINE Part . Paul then said, after the first time that happened he called Ringo and told him that "They were yelling for you. He liked that" What always caused an unwanted laugh from the audience was, when he was reading from his german translations at his feet. It just looked funny to see Paul read his introductions from the bottom. But it was great ! The highlights were definetly the classic early Beatles stuff as well as LET IT BE & HEY JUDE !! Vienna sang that chorus for "hours" !! The Band was in a great mood and sounded absolutely fantastic and enjoyed the evening. Rusty & Brian looked, played, jumped and moved around like they were part of of an "Old School Hardrockband" like Guns NīRoses. The Girls went absoluteley Bananas for them. A great and funny moment was their Genesis "I Canīt Dance" Walk while playing and Paul was was sitting above at the piano and smiling. Rusty also had his little tape recorder and said, that it was his first time in Vienna and that he canīt speak German oder "Austrian" and he has a message for the audience. Then you could hear a female voice in "Austrian" saying something like "Good Evening Vienna. We just want to inform you, that it is forbidden to hide any kind of chewing gum under your seats" which recieved a great laugh. Wix mentionend, that he studied at the Vienna Conservatory of Music for which he also got an extra applause !! But THE audience favourite of the Band was defniteley Abe. He just looked "sweet", thatīs what all the girls in my row told me. When he was doing the background vocals at the front of the stage his "dinosaur movement" - thatīs what I called it - was so funny to watch. But that shows his passion for music ! Great Drummer ! Great Singer ! Great Guy ! Thumbs Up for Abe ! The crowd also cheered up, when Paul mentionend that Abeīs brother extra flew in from America to see his brother play this show. Big respect also to the stage & sound guys ! Fantastic Sound at the Stadthalle (=City Hall) which normally has a terrible Sound Problem (I ve seen many concerts there) but I donīt know, they somehow managed that. Stage design - great Idea ! Simple, but effective !! The show ended after 2 1/2 hours with Paul wearing the Austrian Flag around, picking up Flowers from the stage and signing some autographs. Before he disappeared he said "Thank you for the great evening. See you next time" I asked myself: When would that be ????????????????????? The only thing that scared me after the gig was, when I thought that Paul īs Age is 61. That man has such a tremendous energy level. Unbeliveable! I hope can achieve that as well and will not go the usual way at that age listening to crap folk music ! So, to everyone out there: Go check him out - even if itīs expensive - it is worth it !!! Best regards,
Wolfgang J. Hofer O.P.B.
And from Mirko:
A short review of Paul's concert on Wednesday in Vienna:The local promotion did nearly not exist,the second planned show went to Budapest,and tickets were still available, the concert was not sold out! Only a little advertising in some newspaper,minimum coverage on T.V or radio.Paul and his management should not rely on that kind of local promotors!
The whole evening started with a surprise: the show should start at 7.30 p.m. but at that times the doors were closed! No information about the reason. At 7.40 two (!!) gates opened to let 10000 people in! Security check was amateurish outside. The reason for the delay was said to be a traffic jam (?!?),but Vienna is not L.A. You can reach the Stadthalle very easy and if a superstar like Paul is 90 minutes late...but I dont want to blame him for that. The pre-show started after 8.30 interrupted by some of the audience coming in.I was sitting in the 6th row (126 Euro) and when the concert started everybody jumped up but sat down during the first song. Unfortunately the inside security did not allow to leave your seats and rush to the stage. I noticed one person who tried it beeing thrown out! After having finished "Every night" there was a nice moment. I was waving my hand just at the moment when Paul looked at me,he laughed and waved with both hands back! How beautiful! After one hour we were allowed to run to the stage and I was in the 1 1/2 row,only 6 meters apart from the man. The sound was very clear,the band was powerful and did a fantastic and outstanding performance. Pauls voice was in extraordinary shape,very clear and powerful even the high notes - wow. At the beginning he promised to talk a lot in Austrian ( he really said oesterreichisch and not German!) - and he did ! Had a laugh at "We can work it out",when people where clapping ,but stopped at the middle eight - which is a waltz. He said "You should be able to do that - Vienna is the city of waltz!" Had nice eyes contact during "..you and I had memories..(Two of us),that really made me shiver. After "Here Today " and "Something " he told us "When I played that version on the ukulele to George he said:"no,no,you are doing it wrong! It goes like this:"" And he played a few bars twice as fast! After that the crowed shouted "What about Ringo?" and he replied:" There is always someone in the crowed who shouts "What about Ringo" and I called him on the phone and I told him - and he likes it!" I shouted "Goodnight Vienna"- which is more suitable for Austria but the band played a little bit of "Yellow Submarine". At one point when he took his jacket off he held his bass in a way between his legs,what made the girls scream ;-)). Had an original Abbey Road Studio t-shirt with me and showed it during "Hey Jude" and when he noticed that he sent a big grin to me. That scene was caught on video and been seen on the videowall. The most moving scene for me happened at the end . When the lights went out someone threw a "Sgt. Pepper " Cover on the stage. That happened exactly in front of me. Paul signed it,looked at me (I cant be wrong at a distance of 2 meters) and asked me "Is it yours?" For a moment I was in a mess.Should I lie and have a Sgt .Pepper LP signed? But if that man is looking in your eyes you can`t lie ,so somebody else (I hope the true owner) got it. Conclusion: great show,outstanding performance,but the local promotors were a mess. Thumbs up for Macca - Goodnight Vienna. Keep on with your great homepage - I visit it every day. Cheers & Tschuess,
Mirko