Today concluded the most unbelievable, whirlwind musical weekend of my life. Brandon and I just got back from Hard Rock Calling Day 2, headlined by Paul McCartney, and came back exhausted and absolutely thrilled.
After a long, deep sleep, I woke up around 10:30 and got stuff ready for the trip back to Hyde Park. We left Regent's around noon and went to Tesco to get both lunch and dinner (sandwiches for each with crisps and lots and lots of bottles of water). We took the tube to the correct station this time and got to Hyde Park by 12:45. We made our way to about the same spot as last night and dropped our bags to claim our turf before having our lunch sandwiches. The show began in earnest and seemed to go quicker, at least musical act wise, than last night.
More Than Me, a new rock band from Buffalo, NY, opened the day with a great but fairly short set.
They were followed by Joshua Radin who is a folk music, indie rocker but played a really enjoyable, easy to listen to set.
Next up was Elvis Costello who, in his constant theme of reinventing himself, became a bluegrass musician. He was solid but I'm just not as much into his style of music.
My second favorite group of the night followed Elvis. They're called Crowded House and they were a very famous group from Australia who were huge in the 80s, then broke up, and recently got back together. They played a really great style of space and eclectic rock with excellent rhythms and the lead singer was a great showman. They were on while England-Germany was being broadcast on a screen behind us and England was losing pretty badly. He asked what he should do since there wasn't precedent for this kind of performance and someone yelled back at him "cheer us up!" So they sang for a while and were really great.
Crosby, Stills and Nash were the final act before the headliner and they were definitely a crowd pleaser but their harmonies just weren't as together as they should've been. It seemed like at some points they were going through the motions but at others, Crosby and Nash definitely tried to rock out. Still, their music was, again, not really my cup of tea and I just sat getting more and more excited for Paul.
Paul came out at 7:48pm and for the next two hours and 32 minutes Hyde Park was his - 50,000+ went crazy on Beatles nostalgia and loved the chance to see a living musical legend. Brandon and I were just 30 feet away and really loved every minute of it.
I was lucky enough to see Paul in the Back in the USA tour 8 years ago in St. Louis but he looked and sounded even better now than back then.
A little ways in, Paul offered the "show's only wardrobe change" and was proud to avoid any wardrobe malfunctions. After some great guitar sessions and Beatles classics, he jumped on piano to play some more.
Above is Paul performing Blackbird and before that was Gotta Get you Into My Life.
He continued with the song he composed for John Lennon and made an emotional speech about his good friend before the song.
He also paid homage to George Harrison with several Ukelele numbers, including George's famous "Something".
Paul's drummer, Abe Laboriel Jr, is definitely my favorite member of his band. He's a fantastic drummer but, even better, he sings backup falsetto tenor-1 vocals for Paul. I definitely remembered him from the show 8 years ago and was really glad to see him again.
As the night wore on, the performance just got better and better. Paul and the band wowed the crowd with a pyrotechnic show during "Live and Let Die", the famous Bond song.
After the fireworks were over, Paul and the band led the massive crowd in "Hey Jude" before leaving the stage to a thunderous ovation, begging them to come back.
They quickly came back to the crowd's delight for an encore with Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da, Day Tripper and Yesterday.
After these songs, the group left again but came back for one more encore with a raucous Helter Skelter and then Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to say goodbye.
Be sure to click on any of the photos if you want to see them bigger.
After the show, Brandon and I slowly made our way back to the tube station and were held up in a giant queue of people trying to cross the road. The police officer who was overseeing the crosswalk was surprisingly blunt but also really funny. "We're holding you here for your own safety so the tube station doesn't get too congested... and also for my own entertainment. You in the back of the line... that's funny. Come see what your tax dollars do at work! Thanks for contributing to my salary."
After a long hike to take a really short tube trip, we finally got back to Regent's and promptly hit the showers to wash off a day of crowd gunk and sweat from the hot, hot London day.
Time for more Mrs. Dalloway. Wish me luck!
-Simon
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