Paul McCartney - Apollo Theatre, Glasgow, Britain, 12-17-1979

This is a pretty key album when it comes to live Paul McCartney material. In the early 1970s, he toured a lot, and I've captured just about every song he played live then on the "Wings Over Europe" album I've posted. In 1975 and 1976, he had one huge tour, which is well documented on the official live album "Wings Over America." Then he didn't go on tour again until 1979. The best full concert recording from that tour, by far, is this one.

I had to double and triple check this hadn't been officially released in some format yet. It was the last night of the tour, and it was professionally recorded with the intention of releasing it as a live album. But McCartney didn't feel satisfied with the tour, so it's not too surprising he didn't approve the live album idea. In fact, his band, Wings, only played one more concert after this. (It was at the end of the month, as part of the "Concert for Kampuchea.") This concert has often been named "Last Flight" on bootlegs, since it was the second to last show for Wings.

A few songs from this concert have been officially released. He played one song that was unreleased at the time, "Coming Up." That would be his big hit on his next album, "McCartney II." In Britain, the studio version was released as the A-side, and an edited version of the live version from this concert was released on the B-side. But in the US, the live version was the A-side, and went all the way to Number One. Then nothing else was released from the concert for a long time until a deluxe edition of his 1970 album came out, which had "Every Night," "Hot as Sun" and "Maybe I'm Amazed" from this concert added as bonus tracks.

I think what makes this album most interesting to fans is that he played a bunch of songs in it that he never played live before or since, except on this tour. Given the sheer number of classic songs he had by this time, his choices are rather odd. For instance, who would expect a version of "Hot as Sun," a little noticed instrumental from an album released ten years earlier? By the way, his wife Linda McCartney sang "Cook of the House" and band member Denny Laine sang "Go Now."

There were two minor flaws in the recording. There was no applause at the end of "Spin It On," and part of his banter before the start of the next song, "Twenty Flight Rock," appeared to be missing. So I patched that up by adding about ten seconds of banter taken from the "Concert for Kampuchea" concert mentioned above to what banter still remained. I also added in the missing applause. The other flaw was in the last song, "Band on the Run." There was a skip in one line. So I patched that up with the "Concert for Kampuchea" version.

As an aside, I found a comment about the concert from one of the band members, Laurence Juber. So I thought I'd share that:

"The highlight of the tour from a musical point of view was that last Glasgow concert. That was the point on the tour when we were really cooking as a band. It was also a more complete set than Kampuchea. And to be honest, if you listen to the Last Flight bootleg CD, the version we did of 'Let It Be' in Glasgow was even better. I’ll never forget the audience reaction to the bagpipe band marching through the audience that night."

The last comment refers to the performance of the song "Mull of Kintyre." Although it was never a hit in the US, it was one of the biggest hits of all time in Britain when it was released a year before this concert. The song sounds like a classic Scottish tune, complete with bagpipes, so naturally it was especially appreciated in Glasgow, which is part of Scotland. A Scottish pipe band in full kilt and regalia joined in for the song.

This concert is an hour and 35 minutes long.

01 Got to Get You into My Life (Paul McCartney)
02 Getting Closer (Paul McCartney)
03 talk (Paul McCartney)
04 Every Night (Paul McCartney)
05 talk (Paul McCartney)
06 Again and Again and Again (Paul McCartney)
07 talk (Paul McCartney)
08 I've Had Enough (Paul McCartney)
09 talk (Paul McCartney)
10 No Words (Paul McCartney)
11 talk (Paul McCartney)
12 Cook of the House (Paul McCartney)
13 talk (Paul McCartney)
14 Old Siam, Sir (Paul McCartney)
15 talk (Paul McCartney)
16 Maybe I'm Amazed (Paul McCartney)
17 talk (Paul McCartney)
18 The Fool on the Hill (Paul McCartney)
19 talk (Paul McCartney)
20 Let It Be (Paul McCartney)
21 Hot as Sun [Instrumental] (Paul McCartney)
22 talk (Paul McCartney)
23 Spin It On (Paul McCartney)
24 talk [Edit] (Paul McCartney)
25 Twenty Flight Rock (Paul McCartney)
26 Go Now (Paul McCartney)
27 talk (Paul McCartney)
28 Arrow through Me (Paul McCartney)
29 talk (Paul McCartney)
30 Wonderful Christmastime (Paul McCartney)
31 talk (Paul McCartney)
32 Coming Up (Paul McCartney)
33 talk (Paul McCartney)
34 Goodnight Tonight (Paul McCartney)
35 Yesterday (Paul McCartney)
36 talk (Paul McCartney)
37 Mull of Kintyre (Paul McCartney)
38 talk (Paul McCartney)
39 Band on the Run (Paul McCartney)

https://www.imagenetz.de/dVqbK

The cover photo comes from a London concert in 1979. I happened to find a good one showing both Paul and Linda McCartney. I thought I'd use that for variety's sake, since I have so many album covers of just Paul.