Paul McCartney leaves Manchester spellbound as he rolls out the hits on first night of UK tour
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At the first of two sold-out shows – part of his celebrated Got Back tour and his first UK gig since 2018 – The Beatles legend ‘duetted’ with his late bandmate, John Lennon, and gave fans an early Christmas present. Paul McCartney got back to Manchester for his first show in the city in over a decade on Saturday, regaling more than 23,000 fans with a career-spanning set comprising songs from his Beatles, Wings and solo catalogues.
![[Eleanor and Gillian Rogers came to see McCartney in honour of their late father, Tony Rogers]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/15/00/newFile.jpg)
At the first of two sold-out shows – part of his celebrated Got Back tour and his first UK gig since 2018 – the veteran artist “duetted” with the isolated vocals of his late bandmate, John Lennon, and paid tribute to his wife, Nancy, who was in the audience along with his daughter, Stella.
![[Double vision: the view of McCartney from the back of the arena]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/14/22/98588f15-db1f-4b7e-aeef-7117b4e48f9d.jpg)
“We’ve been travelling around the world; we’ve been in South America and now we’re up north again! And it’s good to be back,” the octogenarian told his audience. He chose to open with a rollicking version of The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night”, the title track from their third album, which celebrated its 60th birthday earlier this year.
![[Festive form: the 82-year-old is now on the English leg of a two-year world tour]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/14/22/47dd4298-56ad-442a-bc2e-fa464d21ce4b.jpg)
The 82-year-old showed no sign of fatigue as he drew closer to the end of his Got Back tour, having launched it on 28 April 2022 in Spokane, Washington. Sixteen stops later, he was headlining the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival, where he was joined by surprise guests Bruce Springsteen and Dave Grohl.
Since then, he has played in Australia and Europe, and embarked on two Latin American legs, including a show in Uruguay where he debuted the live performance of “Now and Then”. Billed as the final Beatles song, it was released in November 2023 with the help of AI technology, which separated Lennon’s vocals and piano playing from a recording made at his home in New York around 1977.
