{"id":75284,"date":"2026-10-19T14:00:36","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T14:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/19\/paul-mccartney-wraps-up-his-best-post-beatles-tour\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T14:00:36","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T14:00:36","slug":"paul-mccartney-wraps-up-his-best-post-beatles-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/2026\/10\/19\/paul-mccartney-wraps-up-his-best-post-beatles-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul McCartney Wraps Up His Best Post-Beatles Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tFour years before <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/paul-mccartney\/\" id=\"auto-tag_paul-mccartney\" data-tag=\"paul-mccartney\">Paul McCartney<\/a> wrapped up their 1976 \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/wings\/\" id=\"auto-tag_wings\" data-tag=\"wings\">Wings<\/a> Over the World\u201d tour with a three-night stand at Wembley Arena (then known as Empire Pool), the band played a much smaller show at a hillside venue in Ollioules, France. They\u2019d only been gigging for a few months, and these were under-the-radar shows designed to road-test new material and get McCartney in front of live audiences for the first time since the final Beatles tour in 1966.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Paul McCartney &amp; Wings - Live Antwerp Belgium 1972\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/6O0loE8RLrY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<em>Guardian<\/em> writer Robin Denselow was not impressed by what he saw in Ollioules. \u201c[It was] one of the most depressing, almost embarrassing concerts I can remember,\u201d he wrote. \u201c[Linda McCartney\u2019s] nervousness and her obvious lack of talent seem contagious, for the band were out of tune, awkward, and generally dreadful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThis is pretty harsh, and doesn\u2019t really stand up to scrutiny when you listen to tapes from that tour, but it did reflect much of the disappointment fans felt after seeing those early Wings shows in 1972. The band was indeed pretty green, they were largely playing material from 1971\u2019s underwhelming <em>Wild Life<\/em>, and McCartney was unwilling to throw even a single Beatles song into the set.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tQuite a bit changed by the time the band returned to the road in late 1975. The success of 1973\u2019s <em>Band on the Run<\/em> and 1975\u2019s <em>Venus and Mars<\/em> gave them hits like \u201cJet,\u201d \u201cLet Me Roll It,\u201d \u201cMrs. Vanderbilt,\u201d \u201cBand on the Run,\u201d \u201cListen to What the Man Said,\u201d and \u201cVenus and Mars\/Rock Show\u201d to add to the set, along with their theme song to the 1973 James Bond movie <em>Live and Let Die<\/em>, which was basically designed to be an explosive arena\/stadium anthem for decades to come. Midway through the tour, they dropped <em>Wings at the Speed of Sound<\/em>, and the hits \u201cSilly Love Songs\u201d and \u201cLet \u2018Em In.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThings had gone so well for Wings in those few years that McCartney no longer felt the need to pretend that the <em>other<\/em> band from his past didn\u2019t exist, and he agreed to perform a handful of their songs on the \u201cWings Over the World\u201d tour, which took them to arenas across Europe, Australia, and North America between September 1975 and October 1976.<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ editors-pick-module lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Paul McCartney and Wings - Live in Wembley (London) (October 19th, 1976) - Stef04&amp;apos;s Remaster\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HGFmgYnfrrc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAnd so when Denselow walked out of Empire Pool on Oct. 19, 1976, he felt like he\u2019d essentially seen a different band from the one he\u2019d found so dreadfully disappointing four years earlier. \u201cThey played non-stop for more than two hours and gave one of the happier, most exhilarating, and most brilliant rock concerts London has seen in recent years,\u201d he wrote in <em>The Guardian<\/em>. \u201cIt was a show so well executed, so well performed, so well lit, and with such excellent sound, that one came out with all the old enthusiasms for McCartney as one of rock music\u2019s true geniuses rekindled.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tHe couldn\u2019t have picked a better point in the entire history of Wings to see them live. After 62 concerts across 13 months, they had finally gelled into the band McCartney always knew they could become. There had been very few chances to see any Beatle in concert since 1966, and George Harrison\u2019s 1974 tour, which only hit North America, was such an underwhelming fiasco that it did little but increase public demand for a fan-friendly experience that didn\u2019t feature an extended Ravi Shankar set and nightly renditions of \u201cIn My Life\u201d so bizarre and off-key they bordered on the sacrilegious.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Wings - Venus And Mars \/ Rock Show (Live \/ 1975)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/P0FIkmJ79Aw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe Wings show opened with several of their recent hits (\u201cVenus and Mars\/Rock Show,\u201d \u201cJet,\u201d \u201cLet Me Roll It\u201d), along with \u201cMaybe I\u2019m Amazed\u201d and the <em>Venus and Mars<\/em> deep cut \u201cCall Me Back Again.\u201d When that one ended, McCartney addressed the crowd. \u201cThis one goes back a bit,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is for the over-fourteens in the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tHe then led the band into \u201cLady Madonna\u201d as the crowd erupted with joy. Like many of the best Beatles songs, they never had the chance to be played in a concert setting. And for much of the crowd, both the over-fourteens and the under-fourteens, this was their first opportunity to see any member of the Beatles play an actual Beatles song live.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tBefore the applause could die down, McCartney kicked into \u201cThe Long and Winding Road.\u201d This is another Beatles song written long after they stopped touring, and it\u2019s a particularly sensitive one since Phil Spector added strings, horns, and a choir to the original recording without McCartney\u2019s consent. The version played here is the stripped-down one he originally hoped to release, which eventually saw the light of day on 2003\u2019s <em>Let It Be\u2026Naked<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe energy at Empire Pool stayed high after the Beatles double shot, since it was followed by \u201ca song about a British agent named 007,\u201d in the words of Linda McCartney.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Paul McCartney Live At The Wembley Empire Pool, London, UK (Tuesday 19th October 1976)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jtlq8dkyXuw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe mic was handed over to Denny Laine for a cover of Simon and Garfunkel\u2019s \u201cRichard Cory,\u201d back to McCartney for \u201cBluebird,\u201d and then it was Beatles time again for an unplugged trio of \u201cI\u2019ve Just Seen a Face,\u201d \u201cBlackbird,\u201d and \u201cYesterday.\u201d That latter song was hardly a surprise, since he\u2019d been doing it all tour, but the place still went insane. It\u2019s the equivalent of Bob Dylan playing \u201cBlowin\u2019 in the Wind\u201d on the 1974 reunion tour with the Band or CSNY breaking out \u201cSuite: Judy Blue Eyes\u201d later that same year: a potent dose of 1960s nostalgia for an audience desperate to go back to that time.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Paul McCartney &amp; Wings - Yesterday (Live in 1976)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nhDfX299wCM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tBut five Beatles songs was McCartney\u2019s limit. The back half of the show focused on the Wings catalog, with a brief diversion into Laine\u2019s tenure as the original Moody Blues frontman for \u201cGo Now.\u201d It wrapped up strongly with \u201cBand on the Run,\u201d \u201cHi, Hi, Hi,\u201d and \u201cSoily.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cThe band\u2019s control of their material was staggering,\u201d read a review in the <em>Evening Standard<\/em> under the headline \u201cWings Conquer Wembley.\u201d \u201cEvery number was meticulously constructed, with the four-piece brass section adding a new dimension to some of the earlier numbers. Yet each song still managed to sound fresh and spontaneous\u2026No one can underestimate the impact of Wings on today\u2019s scene. They are a band who knows exactly where it\u2019s at\u2014without forgetting where it\u2019s been.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThis is the exact kind of review McCartney dreamed of reading when Wings formed, and it took quite a lot of hard work to get there. But the next few years didn\u2019t go quite as he planned. The band started sessions for a new album in 1977, but the process was interrupted by Linda\u2019s pregnancy and the departure of guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and drummer Joe English. They replaced them with guitarist Laurence Juber and drummer Steve Holley, and eventually finished 1978\u2019s underwhelming <em>London Town<\/em>. Instead of touring it, they opted to rush out a greatest-hits record and begin work on 1979\u2019s <em>Back to the Egg<\/em>.<\/p>\n<section class=\"brands-most-popular \/\/ recirculation-modules trending-in-article lrv-u-margin-tb-2 lrv-u-border-a-2 u-box-shadow-5-5 lrv-u-padding-lr-1 a-span1 u-padding-b-1@tablet u-overflow-hidden\">\n<h2 id=\"section-heading\" class=\"c-heading larva  lrv-u-text-align-center u-border-color-black a-font-theme-primary-xxs lrv-u-color-black lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-letter-spacing-0063 lrv-u-padding-t-050 u-padding-b-0375@tablet lrv-u-padding-b-050@mobile-max lrv-u-border-b-2\">\n<p>\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Paul McCartney &amp; Wings - Every Night (Live in London 1979) (Official Version)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YfUbwWE19ZY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t<em>Back to the Egg<\/em> was another flop, charting even lower than <em>London Town<\/em>. They still toured it, since they\u2019d been off the road for three years by then. A global odyssey similar to the 1975\u201376 one was envisioned, but McCartney was busted with marijuana at the Tokyo airport after a series of U.K. shows and tossed into prison for 10 days. This was the end of not just the <em>Back to the Egg<\/em> tour, but also Wings. When the Eighties began, McCartney decided to focus full-time on his solo career and leave Wings forever a relic of the prior decade.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tBefore that decision became public, footage from the North American leg of the \u201cWings Over the World\u201d tour was released in the 1980 concert film <em>Rockshow<\/em>. It hit theaters just four years after the tour ended, but it seemed like a dispatch from another era of rock history. McCartney was already writing innovative new songs like \u201cTemporary Secretary,\u201d and an entirely new phase of his career was on the horizon.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube\">\n<p>\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Temporary Secretary (2011 Remaster)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5EeTkF-SLxE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/music\/music-features\/50-years-ago-paul-mccartney-greatest-tour-1235644027\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Four years before Paul McCartney wrapped up their 1976 \u201cWings Over the World\u201d tour with a three-night stand at Wembley Arena (then known as&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":75285,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","article","has-excerpt","has-avatar","has-author","has-date","has-comment-count","has-category-meta","has-read-more","thumbnail-"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicianvoice.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}