Paul McCartney admonishes crowd for using phones at Liverpool Cavern Club gig
Sir Paul McCartney rolled back the years yesterday afternoon (26th July) performing a very special show at The Cavern Club in Liverpool.
The ridiculously intimate performance at the birthplace of The Beatles has widely been hailed as a triumph, however, Sir Paul had to stop the gig during the opening song to admonish the crowd using their smartphones.
After opening with a jam, Macca stopped his cover of Eddie Cochran’s ‘Twenty Flight Rock’ – the first song he played for John Lennon aged 15 in 1957 – to have a word with the audience.
Aggrieved individual members of the crowd were too busy filming and taking pictures rather than enjoying the moment, Macca said: "I think you've all been told not to take photos.
"And you're taking them, and you're taking them, and I don't want to get put off, and you're putting me off. So, you know, play by the rules, man!”
After finishing the song, he told the audience: “The phone thing, I went to a Prince concert and he really was serious about that, he wouldn’t start, you know. Put ‘em down! You know what I’m saying?”
According to NME reviewer Dan Stubbs, the incident “had the feeling of a parent scalding their children then instantly feeling guilty.”
The BBC reports that one fan was ejected for filming during the opening jam, before Sir Paul had even berated the crowd.
Sir Paul played a total of 27 songs during his two-hour set that was dominated by Beatles classics and featured several solo and Wings songs together with The Quarrymen’s ‘In Spite of all the Danger’ and the aforementioned ‘Twenty Flight Rock’ by Eddie Cochran.
He plays three sold out arena shows in Liverpool, Glasgow and London this December in support of his new album ‘Egypt Station’.
The setlist at The Cavern was as follows:
Jam
Twenty Flight Rock
Magical Mystery Tour
Jet
All My Loving
Letting Go
Come On To Me
Let Me Roll It
I Got A Feeling
My Valentine
Queenie Eye
1985
Lady Madonna
In Spite Of All The Danger
Things We Said Today
Confidante
Love Me Do
Who Cares
Birthday
I Wanna Be Your Man
Fuh You
Get Back
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Band On The Run
Hi Hi Hi
I Saw Her Standing There
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Helter Skelter