Paul McCartney’s O2 Arena gig was the best of my life – he’s unbelievable at 82
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Gently swaggering onto the O2 Arena stage last night at the age of 82, Sir Paul McCartney’s silhouette looked much like it always has – save for a slightly gravity-inclined head and neck thanks to 60 years of strumming on guitars. Incredibly, he sounded just about the same too, even though he’s two years into his lauded Got Back tour. In recent years Sir Paul’s voice has been criticised as being a ghost of its former glory, but there wasn’t a whiff of shakiness last night: he swung through those iconic swooping Beatles notes like an eagle on a hunt.
![[Musician Paul McCartney performs during his 'Got Back' tour in London, Britain, December 18, 2024. REUTERS/Toby Melville NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_233687282-f4c9.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
After greeting each section of the London arena like a final curtain call, Sir Paul took a moment or two just to let the atmosphere sink in, and then he hit it right back at us over three hours of Beatles, Wings, and Macca magic. ‘Let’s crack on,’ Sir Paul said four songs deep. And crack on he did, as the whole set was a mammoth 33 songs-long, a feat for even the youngest of rockers. But not, apparently, for Sir Paul.
![[A Hard Day's Night]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/GettyImages-106494030.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Opening with one of the most toe-tapping Beatles classics, Can’t Buy Me Love, set the tone for an evening of jigging down memory lane. Tender moments cut through the head bobbing with the quietly hopeful but utterly heart-wrenching Let It Be – for the entirety of which I weeped. Dippy-hippy 60s classics like Love Me Do and Mr Kite were dispersed by pavement-strutting rock n’ roll riffs chewing over every gritty note in the likes of Let Me Roll With it.
![[Musician Paul McCartney performs during his 'Got Back' tour in London, Britain, December 18, 2024. REUTERS/Toby Melville NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES.]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_233688127-4517.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
The set list did not disappoint, although the Beatles’ catalogue of bangers is so absurdly massive there’s always going to be a whole load of personal favourites that didn’t make the cut (Penny Lane, Come Together, Twist and Shout, Here Comes The Sun, to name a few).
