CLUB SANDWICH 69

back to visit, particularly the South Island of New Zealand. Wix and his wife Margo -were the only two who got a chance to go and swim with dolphins and we were all envious.
            America was brilliant. We had a real good time, and there were one or two very special shows there. For the Paul Is Live album we found that Boulder and New York were two that had been particularly good, although we pretty much got a track from all of the gigs that were recorded.
            Japan was very nice - even though we weren't intending to go there. Basically, what happened was that we realised halfway through the New World Tour that there had been budgeting mistakes. It's usual to spend less than the amount raised by ticket sales - that's simple business sense - but due to one thing and another there were mistakes in the budgeting department. This was like a double-edged sword: on the one hand it meant that we had to play for longer than we intended, which we thought might be a bit of a bummer, but on the other hand the places that we added, Japan and South America, were among the highlights of the whole tour. Anyway, in the end we turned the budget situation around and everyone got paid. Not that I need the money, but I still like to feel that if we bother to get out there then, like everyday working people, we'll see some sort of reward. The Beatles once played for "all the Coca-Cola you can drink" but for a while on the New World Tour it was looking as if we weren't even going to get that.
            The only possible hiccup on the tour was when we got to Norway. It was well known that our anti-whaling stance would cause a few problems there and I did a couple of TV interviews making clear my thoughts on the subject. Generally, though, I thought they were quite fair in listening to our point of view.
            It was always interesting to see how the pre-show film was received. Sometimes there would be huge cheers for the Greenpeace boat, sometimes the reception was lukewarm. All in all, though, it was successful, and I still think it was quite brave of us to do; we were nervous in the beginning but it worked out well in the end. The very worst it did was create debate, and that's always a good thing.
            I don't really like to compare the World and New World tours against each other. This time around possibly felt better because the band had been together longer, and we all knew a bit more about what to expect, whereas the first time it was a new band and we "were feeling our way. But it really depends on -what show you saw: there were concerts on the World Tour that were better than some on the New World Tour. And it depends, also, on what you think makes a great show. Many of the crew thought the South American dates were the best because they were the wildest. Some might even say that Paris was the best because I forgot the words to 'Penny Lane'. The first and second verses aren't interchangeable - they both lead to different places - so when I tried to change them, to get out of my panic, I found myself in a worse panic and actually had to stop the performance, something we never had to do elsewhere. But we had a few friends at the show and they said later that it was the best bit, and on radio the next day the man was saying, "There was this marvellously human moment where Paul totally forgot the words"! In fact, one of my friends said I should deliberately do the mistake in every show, to which I replied, "You're kidding! I'm going to have a heart attack every night just so you can have a bit of fun?"
            Yes, it was a great tour, and there was a lot of emotion. We're really happy that we did it.