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   CLUB SANDWICH 66

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I SAW THEM SMOKING THERE

PHOTOGRAPHS BY HARRISON McCLARY, MATTHEW DELLER, PETER FISHER, BEVIL KKAPP, STEVE ROBERTS, MARC SEROTA, STUART DE SUVA, KEVIN WINTER

Exercising his usual powers of understatement, Geoff Baker (The Publicity Terrorist) makes some observations about all of this tour business. So take a deep breath and ...

            So I'm standing in the middle of this stadium in Columbia, South Carolina, watching this pair of Levi's lads furtively dodging the patrolling state troopers as they pass this handmade "cigarette" between them.
            They've just been leaping up like manic bullfrogs, punching the air and shouting "WHARHEY! RARRRT ONNNNN!" as the last pyrotechnic punctuation of 'Live And Let Die' has filled the air with the stench of cordite. Now they've lit this "cigarette" and are rocking back and forwards as 'Let It Be' begins. Club Sandwich 66
            Suddenly the blond one says "shee-eet", looks at what he's smoking, looks back at where the stage was a moment before and chucks the roll-up in an "I'm not having anymore of THAT" sort of way.
            He thinks he's tripping, that this is a hallucination. But no, there actually IS a bloody great cathedral that's risen out of the ground where the stage used to be. It's a monster; 39,600 sq. ft. of stained-glass windows the size of an office block is now landmarking Columbia, SC.
            I'm not having you on. This is like nothing you've seen before; Steel Wheels, any Michael Jackson show, U2, Guns 'N Roses, all of them look so ordinary up against what The New World Tour is doing here. Never mind flashing lights and lasers - that McCartney plants continent-size cathedrals in his set, man, and I'm not smoking that stuff no more, no more.
            Really.
            You have to see this to understand. You have to understand the hugeness of this show. And seeing the last tour doesn't give you that perspective. The last tour was big, sure, it was recording-breaking, yes, but the last tour was about Getting Back. This tour is about being HUGE.
            You're not getting the point. The stage is the biggest ANYONE has ever sung from. It's a backdrop for monstrosity; changing image and shape like a child's whim - at one moment cathedralistic for 'Let It Be', the next it blows itself up on 'Live And Let Die' with explosions that are simply blitzkreig. S---, where's the Stukka? And the next it's a 360 ft. wide flashback as 'Sgt Pepper' kicks off into scenes that Timothy Leary never imagined in his dodgiest moments.
            It's massive, it's stormtrooping, it's...OK, imagine this: this is the size of your normal quality rock show, your Madison Square Garden show, this here is its size. And this is the size of the Get Back tour and Steel Wheels, this size. Right, now hang on tight because this is the size of The New World Tour show - THIS BIG.
            I can see your next question coming: great, if it's so bloody big I've got fat chance of enjoying it 'cos my seats are up in the stands where your nose bleeds and I'll just be looking at insects on stage all night.
            WRONG. Even up in the bleeders you're so close you can see the little green stone in the wedding ring on his left hand.
            Don't have me on. Praise by all means but don't take the p---.
            I'm serious. Astride the stage are these vast screens onto which synchronised images of Paul, Linda, Robbie, Hamish, Blair and Wix are projected to skyscraper height. Massive. So big that if we were playing on the waterfront of Manhattan, on a clear day you'd see it from Lisbon.
            You'd certainly HEAR it. Ask the folks in Anaheim, Los Angeles, about that. Fifty thousand got seats to that one and those that didn't were sitting around at home, watching Roseanne with a six-pack, the volume on the telly turned up to nine in order to hear over that rowdy bogger down the road when -wallop - he sings "well live and let ...BOOM!" and all hell lets loose in homes for 15 blocks around Anaheim Stadium. The percussion wave from the pyrotechnics shook homes and set off burglar alarms. Wisely, we left town. Sorry madam, what bang?

Club Sandwich 66