Bob Gannon, who took many of the great pictures of Paul McCartney on the Up and Coming Tour we've featured both here and on the Paul McCartney Examiner page, has written a lengthy summary of the tour, which we've broken into three parts. With each part, we'll feature a slideshow with Bob's pictures from the spots he talks about on the tour.

Take it away, Bob!:

"Hi Gang,

"It's been tough settling back into work without the promise of the next show around the corner. But with every request from fans for a special photo of their moment sends me back to thinking what a very special tour this has been! I mean the musical effect alone on us as fans is monumental but the side personal stories from this tour are genuinely heart warming as well. So I decided to do something I rarely do and actually think back at the tour as a whole as my reports are generally show to show. And since I was in a reminiscing mood, I decided to write it down and bring you all along with me.

"March 30th and 31st Hollywood Bowl -- Well this one right off the bat was one that I could not pass up. Seeing McCartney in a venue that the Beatles played such a monumental concert....absolute no brainer. The only disappointment was no being able to go to opening night in Arizona. Being that I had booked Beatlefest in New Jersey I had decided to stick with my original plans and stay there as planned. I usually try to catch the opening show because it is the one time that you can truly be surprised at the setlist. But I must admit, reading the post concert reports and the promise of some great song additions to the show made my excitement level rise quite a bit. And
leaving Monday morning following Beatlefest right for the airport to fly to Los Angeles left me beaming at the show I was about to see. The Hollywood Bowl shows did not disappoint at all. Great shows, one of the best venues that i've seen a show in and of course a ton of my friends to share it with. Then with Mexico City announced, I tried unsuccessfully to get tickets to both shows so I knew I would have to wait until Dublin to see him again.

"June 12th Dublin, Ireland -- Initially I had planned to only attend this show as I had decided to build a fantastic two-week vacation in Ireland. Although most of my friends had decided to do Glasgow, I was supposed to be traveling with a friend who had never been out of the country and with him not really being a huge fan I thought it would be a little much to ask him to fly to a second country to see Paul a second time. But I was fine with the choice as the venue in Dublin was the smallest of the European leg of the tour and I was able to get a third row seat for cost. As the trip neared, my friend had difficulties with his passport and wound up not being able to travel. So I went it alone. Having seen Paul in Dublin in the past, I knew the Irish crowd would once again be a fantastic spectacle and they sure were! Concert was amazing and then I settled into the sight seeing aspect of my vacation freshly rejuvenated from an amazing show. I spent an amazing two weeks in Ireland visiting such sites as Dublin, The Giants Causeway, Belfast, Galway, The Cliffs of Mohr, The Ring of Kerry, The Burren, Cork, Blarney Castle and of course I was able to trace my family's roots in County Mayo.

"I hired a private car and made a short list on things that I wanted to see having heard so many stories from my grandfather and my Irish aunts. First up was the religious site of Knock that is a pilgrimage place for Catholics where the Virgin Mary appeared for two hours in front of numerous witnesses in front of the wall of the church. Next up, was the town where my grandfather was born and where my great grandmother's family still resides in Balla. Just amazing rural countryside area and as my driver and me neared the area where my family lived, we stopped by and asked some of the neighbors for a bit of help. Let me tell you, Irish folks are amazingly friendly and invited us into their homes to chat and boy can these people talk your ear off. However, every home that we stopped, they knew my family. I heard some great stories of my aunts and great grandmother as well as the other side of our family who were known because they were very musical. Although the actual structure of the house my grandfather was born in was no longer standing, I was amazed of how beautiful the piece of property was overlooking the greenest grass that I have every seen in my life with rolling hills and right next to this beautiful lake. The last stop was the picturesque town of Cong which is best known as the filming site for John Wayne's classic film "The Quiet Man". All the while in Ireland, my friends kept emailing me trying to convince me to come to Glasgow so in the middle of the trip and having found that my friend would not be able to join me...I decided to take the leap and do a day trip to Glasgow.

"June 20th Glasgow, Scotland -- Arrived in Scotland the day of the show. Easy decision to go see Paul perform "Mull of Kintyre" in the country that inspired the song. Upon arriving at my hotel, all my friends happened to be in the lobby so we caught up and made plans for the show. Front row tickets even made this show more exciting. After not playing here in over 20 years, the crowd was in great form and Paul and band turned in a stellar performance. On a personal level, this was a great show to take photos at as in many of the photos I took Paul spent an unusual amount of time on Brian's side of the stage mainly right in front of me and even posed for photos for me. A
lot of my shots show Paul looking right at me. And of course, the big payoff in encore #1 as Paul started strumming and began to sing "Mull of Kintyre" as the large crowd sang along. As the bagpipes began to march on stage I just felt shivers up and down my spine. A totally cool moment for me as it is one of my favorite Macca solo songs. Flew back to Dublin the next morning and spent my last day walking around the city. The next morning I flew home..tired from being away from home for so long but just simply on cloud nine at the two amazing shows that I had seen and the incredible personal voyage of seeing Ireland.

"July 5th Ringo and the All Stars at State Theater..New Brunswick, N.J. -- My first peek at the new All Starr line up. Although I was more excited about the upcoming show at Radio City on Ringo's birthday, I took a good friend to this show as a birthday present with 2nd row seats. Met a bunch of friends early for dinner and some Beatles chat. The show as better than I had expected which left me excited about what surprises were in store for the birthday show. With so many big names with homes in New York, the possibilities were endless.

"July 7th Ringo's 70th birthday show Radio City Music Hall -- There was an incredible buzz in the crowd even prior to the show. Would Paul show up? As celebrity sightings mounted (Yoko sat four rows behind me) the promise of a very special show mounted as it drew nearer until finally ... Ringo takes the stage. The show went on as usual until the encore.

"During "Photograph," long time musical director of the All Starr tours, Mark Rivera joined Ringo on stage on saxophone. We get to "With a little Help from my friends" and out on stage comes so many former All Starr Band members. Quite a site seeing Ringo sharing a mic with Yoko Ono singing "Give Peace a Chance". As the crowd roared and the the stage slowly emptied as Ringo exchanged hugs with a lot of the guests, his son rolls out a drum kit that was actually a cake. As the crowd sang "Happy Birthday", Ringo thanked everyone for coming. As he strolled off the stage he sang "Happy Birthday to Me!". Well, house lights didn't go on and you could see stage hands quickly moving things around. I saw a guy in the dark holding what appeared to be a Hofner bass guitar and he kneeled next to a huge amplifier. Upon looking closer, I recognized Mark Hamel and now I knew that this would be one for the books! The band came back out with Joe Walsh on guitar and started playing "Birthday."

"Suddenly from stage right comes Paul grabbing his guitar coming stage center and hamming it up for the crowd. As he started singing, Ringo came running out from stage left and jumped on his drum kit. Paul's voice was strong and sounded amazing. I've been to a lot of shows in this venue and the thing I will always remember about this show is that when Paul came out, you could feel the building shake. The crowd was simply amazing! As they ended the song and Ringo ran down to the stage and embraced Paul, exchanged "I love you's" and the look on Ringo's face was priceless. It was easy to see how this 50-plus year friendship has endured."

(To be continued)

RELATED LINKS:

• The most complete coverage of Paul McCartney's Up and Coming Tour
  

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Beatles Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/x-2082-Beatles-Examiner
Paul McCartney Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/x-34954-Paul-McCartney-Examiner
Vintage Rock 'n' Roll Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/x-19248-Vintage-Rock-n-Roll-Examiner
TV on DVD Examiner: http://www.examiner.com/x-10254-TV-on-DVD-Examiner
 

(Coming in part 2: More from the Up and Coming Tour.)