Paul McCartney - Back In The World

25.03.2003, Paris, "Palais Omnisports"; France

Thanks for the review to Jean-Baptiste Pintus from France / Danke für den Konzertbericht an Jean-Baptiste Pintus aus Frankreich 

The show was just fantastic. 18,000 people there. Bercy sold-out. Paul was in great spirits et al. It is widely discusssed in the press over here, on radio and TV mainly. I haven't seen the papers yet. Some songs were broadcasts on radio and maybe TV as soundboard recordings, although I wasn't able to record any. But I'm sure we'll see this popping up very soon. Count on me to locate a copy of the radio RFM that had inteviews with Paul before the show and followed the soundchecks and the entry on the stage (they have promised). RFM was to broadcast Hello Goodbye live from soundboard. When returning home a 2 am in the car, RTL (Radio Luxembourg) broadcast Hey Jude and I'd bet anything it was from Paris. My VCR is ready to roll... 

I wanted to tell you the setlist was much the same as the BITW cd except 'Mother Nature's Son' wasn't performed, nor any fakeouts before Hey Jude and after Something; the crowd was fantastic and pressed Paul to ad lib 'Give Peace A Chance' after 'Here Today' and 'Birthday' was performed after 'Can't Buy Me Love', it was one of the highlights of the show abd the performance was better than the 1990 ones imo. Brian Ray said after Birthday it was (in french) un jour tres special pour moi. Was it his birthday ? Paul was very receptive to what the crowd said to him and he really had 'private' jokes with some of the members at the front rows. I was about 10 meters from him, just in front of him. Fantastic ! At the end the crowed (after The End I'd rather say), the crowed sung "She Loves You' ! and Paul returned to the mike to sing a line of 'Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah' :-) The show that lasted 3 hours is described on TV and Radio as the best gig to be seen in France for 10 years ! It begun 30 minutes late as many VIP's and stars went there and arrived after all the 'normal people' went into Bercy, even though we've been told the delay was caused by the high traffic in Paris.I saw maybe 25 people well known in France like tennis players (Henri Lecomte,...) Actors, Politicians (Bernard Kouchner who had to care for the Kosovo after the war), Singers (David Hallyday, Laurent Voulzy, Members of the group Telephone, Ophelie Winter, Dick Rivers our french Gene Vincent...) and journalists (Michel Drucker,...). Oh yeah : Sting was there too. Amicalement, Jean-Baptiste