Here's the second part of Bob Gannon's tour diary of his adventures following Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney's tours. This installment covers McCartney's Salt Lake City and Nashville concerts:
"July 13th Salt Lake City -- Well, back on tour with Paul and this one was really a personal struggle to get to. All the way until getting on the last plane to Salt Lake, it appeared as the show that I was not going to make. I had planned a switch with a co-worker from him to come in early to cover the last two hours of my shift so I could run for the airport and catch the plane. I was flying standby and the flights were very dicey as the day of travel neared but we decided to give it a try. The guy who was supposed to come in for me overslept and never got there.
"After realizing that he was not coming, I frantically made phone calls to have another officer come in early and I finally found someone to come in which now made me late. I drove to the airport and luckily hit no traffic, got through security check at record speed and met my friend at the gate for the flight to Chicago. Flew to Chicago and got to our gate for our connect flight to Salt Lake City. As we go in O'Hare, we found that due to some bad weather, flights had been delayed an hour and a half. Ours was supposed to be the 2:45 p.m. flight out but by that time, the 1:15 p.m. flight was just taking off. Well as the 4 p.m. flight people started checking in and found that their flight had been delayed until past 6 p.m. They began to fill up the earlier flight bumping us off the flight.
"As it neared 8 p.m. and the 6:30 p.m. flight was loading (and the last flight out that night), things looked hopeless as they screen showed five empty seats on the last flight with a waiting list of over thirty people (I was #24 and my friend was #28) so we started figuring out what we would do as it looked like we would not make it out. We decided to wait it out and then decide whether to fly back to New Jersey or stay over night and try to fly out the day of the show. Problem being was that the flights the next day were all booked up as well. As they loaded the plane, they got to the point where they started calling the stand by passengers. They kept calling name after name and nobody seemed to be going up until around #9, three of the spots were filled by passengers.
"Things looked dismal with two seats left and still 16 people in front of me. As it got closer and closer to me, my friend told me that if I got on to go without her and she would just fly back to New Jersey. To my surprise, I got on and was assigned my seat. As I nervously waited to see if my friend would make the last seat, I began to think whether I should just go home with her as I looked up to see her walking down the aisle with a smile ear to ear. Next day we tracked down Shelley and upgraded to soundcheck. It was extremely hot that day and as Paul played he kept moving the VIP people closer and closer to the stage to keep them in the shade. This was the closest that I've been during a soundcheck and made for some incredible pictures. Paul also played some great songs.
"We went to dinner and then saw another great show but I think some of the roadblocks we faced made it better for us personally. The crowd was great and Paul was very interactive with the crowd. My favorite sign was "Paul, welcome to Salt Lake City, Marry Us!!" to which Paul answered "all of you?" Paul's people had also upgraded us to front row center which made all of the negative stuff disappear.
"July 26th Nashville -- From the day that this show was announced, I wanted to attend it. Although I had a big roadblock at work. I was scheduled to travel out of state for a week to attend a police supervisory school with another co-worker so although extremely disappointed, I had to let this dream go even though it was a city that I had always wanted to see. I thought with Paul's history that we may get a surprise song in soundcheck or the show and that Paul may enjoy playing there since the last time he was there. As the week grew closer, I found out that the other supervisor had gotten out of the class due to a family conflict. So now, not only was I not getting to see the show that I really wanted to see, I was going away for a week to a school where I would not know anybody.
"Five days before I was slated to leave, I decided to roll the dice and to ask the Chief if I could cancel the class. I was surprised when he agreed to let me out of the class and said that he understood my reasons. After work, I rushed home and began looking for tickets. I was able to get a 12th row at the last minutes to the side and then quickly booked flight and hotel. I immediately emailed my buddies who were going that I would now attend. Again, I upgraded to soundcheck and Paul played a bunch of goodies. I then went to the show where I must say was possibly the most fun show that i've seen. Paul was just super interactive with the crowd and Paul and band were laughing throughout.
"Paul was very playful as he brought up a young kid to sing with him on "Get Back". I was there in Philadelphia in 2005 when Paul brought out the triplets in the Sgt. Pepper costumes and that was a great moment but I think this one blew it away due to a slight language barrier and the banter between Paul and kid. Plus his little dance, it was simply off the charts! Paul was so chuffed that he continued to do the dance at different moments for the rest of the show. It looked as if the kid was only going to do his little dance but to my surprise he seized his moment and sang during the chorus sharing a mic with Paul!! Wow, talk about great memories to carry through life. He then brought up a girl with a Hofner tattoo and signed her back. Nashville was also a fun place to site see...of course Printer's Alley looking for Sally G, Country Music Hall of Fame, a tour of RCA studios where Elvis recorded so many of his songs and we topped it off with a ghost tour of Nashville in the back of a hearse!! Great trip!!!"
(Stay tuned for part 3)
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