The Irish Times - Friday, October 23, 2009

McCartney to bring 'big band' show to town in December

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RONAN McGREEVY

FORMER BEATLE Paul McCartney is to play the O2 in Dublin on December 20th.

It will be the first indoor concert he has played in Dublin since the Beatles’ celebrated appearance at the Adelphi Cinema during the height of Beatlemania in November 1963.

His O2 concert will be only McCartney’s fifth time playing Ireland despite his Irish roots on both sides of his family. His only other solo performance in Ireland was at the RDS in 2003.

Tickets for the O2 concert will go on sale next Wednesday, October 28th, and are priced at between €86.25 and €156.25. The show will be both seated and standing. Concert promoter Peter Aiken said the prices were good value given the scale of the production. “The costs are enormous. He has a big band and he is coming in with 23 trucks,” he said.

The price, he added, compared favourably with Whitney Houston who has already sold out three nights at the O2. Tickets for those concerts cost between €76.25 and €106.25.

“It will be as good a show as we’ve ever seen in the old Point or the new O2. I think it is good value for a two and a half to three-hour show. You must consider that most of his set will be Beatles music and you are talking about one of the greatest rock stars in the world.”

His concert is one of eight in a European tour called “Good Evening Europe” tour and will start in Hamburg where the Beatles honed their music 50 years ago.

Speaking about the tour, McCartney said: “This is my chance to bring our current show home to where it all began. Starting in Hamburg, ending in London and rocking everywhere in between.”