David Summer was excited yesterday at Paul McCartney’s sound check, shortly before the former Beatles gave the first of his two concerts at the WiZink Center in Madrid. The singer and bassist of Hombres G, a “crazy” Liverpool fan for decades, acted as ABC’s infiltrated correspondent in this special preview screening for VIP fans, in which journalists were not allowed entry.
«It started late because it seems that the man was spoiled. A doctor even came to see him, but the truth is that he then went out and sang like a motherfucker. Better than I expected, because I had seen videos of this tour and I saw it as a joke. But it has been very good,” says the musician.
McCartney announced these two performances in July and tickets flew a few minutes after going on sale, as expected: 45 euros for the cheapest and 165 for the most expensive. As he did on other tours, however, he included a third option available to a few lucky followers with possibilities: a special pass of 1,000 euros that included, in addition to a VIP seat for the subsequent concert, a t-shirt, a sheet of the tour and, above all, access to the sound check.
This privileged entrance has been named ‘Hot Sound Packages‘ and it ends up being one more performance, 60 minutes long, that the former Beatles member performs, at 82 years old, one before the big event. The man from Hombres G says that he has already seen it three times. The first, in 1986, and the last, in 2016, in which he was also invited to the sound check. “Tomorrow I’ll come too!” he exclaims.
Indeed, the sound check was announced at 5:00 p.m., but McCartney did not appear until 6:30 p.m. «The opening of doors has been delayed by one hour. I don’t know what the doctor gave him, but he appeared very well. “I’m sure the concert is great,” says Summers shortly after finishing the sound check, which began with five minutes of improvisation with the former Beatle on guitar and not bass.
He then performed, in a more intimate setting, a lot of songs that were not played in the subsequent concert. A repertoire that included ‘Blue Suede Shoes‘ and ‘matchbox‘, composed in the 1950s by Carl Perkins, who greatly influenced the Beatles. Then ‘Coming Up’, from their album ‘McCartney II‘ (1980), and ‘Day Tripper’, which he wrote with John Lennon in 1965, one of the first singles.
McCartney ended his little performance with ‘Ram On’, greeting the followers. “Very nice Paul, as always,” adds Summers, who recognizes that Hombres G does the same with his followers… “but for 300 bucks.”
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