After
releasing his solo album McCartney in
1970 and the following year’s Ram
with Linda, Paul and his wife recruited former Moody Blues guitarist Denny
Laine and drummer Danny Seiwell to form Wings. Wild Life, their first album, flopped but the follow up, Red Rose Speedway – and the commission
to write the title song for the new James Bond film, Live and Let Die – re-established them.
With the
line up augmented by guitarist Henry McCullough, the ensuing tour brought
McCartney back to Bournemouth to play the Winter Gardens on 15 May 1973. He was
the first – and, until 2011 when Ringo played the BIC, only – former Beatle to
perform in the town.
The tour was a success and did much to restore McCartney’s
critical standing, giving him the foundation for Wings’ defining moment, Band On The Run, released that December.
The full Wings set list at the Winter Gardens was: Soily, Big Barn Bed, When The Night,
Wild Life, Seaside Woman, Little Woman
Love, C Moon, Live And Let Die, Maybe I’m Amazed, My Love,
Go Now, Say You Don’t Mind, The Mess,
Long Tall Sally.
As ever in
all things Beatles-related there are many more who know much more than your
humble narrator and I again bow to the greater depth of knowledge and insight
of the one they call Happy Nat at www.thebeatlesrarity.com
…
“Paul chose to limit his band’s live performances to
his home continent during these [early] years and play smaller venues such as
universities and town halls, allowing time to build up Wings and make a name
for themselves by getting at least a couple hit albums under their belts before
attempting anything on a larger scale. He certainly did not want to rely on his clout as a
former Beatle to sell Wings to the world and refused to include any Beatles
music in any of the concert set lists of 1972-1973. It wasn’t until after the
highly successful fourth Wings album Venus And Mars that Wings toured
outside of Europe with a short Australian tour that included seven shows over
the first two weeks of November 1975. It wasn’t until 1976 when Wings peppered
the set list with songs from their newest Wings At The Speed Of Sound
album and did a full fledged North American/ European world tour, which yielded
the only live Wings album.
This was actually a triple album set titled Wings
Over America which gave us a good two-hour sampling of the live
performances from the 1976 shows, however they were somewhat doctored up after
the fact."
:: More photos of Wings at the Winter Gardens can be found in Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Beatles & Bournemouth, available to order at the special price of £14.95 here.
:: Wings photo © Bavarian
Beatles Store, Ziegelfeld 1a, 85419 Mauern, Germany, www.bavarian-beatles-store.de
