Last Flight - Ultimate Archive Collection

Hide track details

Track list

Disc 1

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

Disc 2

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

---

About

From the liner notes by peeves:

CD 1 + CD 2 tracks 1-3 Wings, recorded live at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow, Scotland, on December 17, 1979. Relased on bootleg as Last Flight.

While the plan was to release this concert as a live album, only a handful of songs were officially released. A reason for this can be found in the book Blackbird, by Geoffrey Giuliano (1997).

Steve Holly [sic] recalls stopping by Paul and Linda’s dressing room one evening during the tour to remark how great he thought the show had gone over that night. “It sucked,” replied McCartney, suddenly as depressed as the drummer had ever seen him. “Paul hated the whole tour,” Steve commented to this author during a 1990 interview. “He felt all the performances were bad. About a quarter of the way along I got the distinct feeling that he was just going through the motions. Musically, there were definite problems with some of the band as well. I think Paul felt he was rather ‘dragging the dresser,’ to quote an old northern phrase.” Holly [sic] also speculated that after the triple platinum success of Wings Over America, McCartney might have been expecting a bit too much. “Maybe we just went out too soon. I know Paul was under pressure not to lose any of his new fans.” Holly also stresses that originally the tour was rehearsed and staged for smaller venues, while they ended up playing four nights at places such as Wembley Arena. “We were like tiny little ants up there on that great stage,” he remarked laughingly.

In another interview Steve Holley recalls fondly the evening the show was recorded for the planned follow up to Wings Over America.

“My personal favourite moment was playing the Glasgow Apollo, which coincided with the soccer final with Scotland and England. Paul had decided that he would wrap himself in the flag of the winning team. We had the Campbeltown Pipe Band, in full kilts and regalia, underneath the stage for the performance of “Mull of Kintyre”. That was a very excited crowd, and Scotland won that night”. Coming back on stage for the encore, McCartney cranked into the opening of “Mull” and the doors swung open to allow the pipe band, with drums and bagpipes blasting, to walk through the audience and onto the stage. It was just one of those incredible emotional highpoints you can never really adequately describe. I, for one, remember becoming a little teary-eyed myself, and I’m not even a Scot. I think that, more than anything, begins to explain the absolute magic of the man.”

CD 2 tracks 4 -14 Recorded on December 29, 1979, on the last night of a series of five benefitconcert in the Hammersmith Odeon in London.

(from Wogblog) ‘Concerts for the People of Kampuchea was a series of concerts organized by Paul McCartney at the request of the UN and their children’s organization Unicef. Originally, Kurt Waldheim approached Paul to ask for a Beatles reunion concert in aid of the victims of war-thorn Cambodia, a country which recently had changed the international spelling of their name to Kampuchea. The idea of a Beatles reunion didn’t appeal to Paul and the others, but Paul organized a series of concerts at the Hammersmith Odeon in London featuring Queen, The Clash, The Pretenders, The Who, Elvis Costello, Wings and others in aid of the charity. Rumours were ripe during the night of the Wings performance that George, Ringo and John was to appear alongside Paul, speculations that compere Billy Connolly did nothing to qualm. But, [of course,] it was never to be.’

Instead, the final night concluded with an all-star jam by ‘Rockestra’. This was an amalgam of members from most of the above-listed bands as well as three-quarters of Led Zeppelin.

The event was recorded and filmed, and an album with highlights was released in March 1981.

The TV-film was also just compiled of highlights, and was shown on TV in various countries worldwide. The contents of the film varied from country to country. The concert was never released on cd, nor video cassette or DVD.

[…]

In Daytrippin’ Beatles Magazine, Wings guitarist Laurence Juber looked back on the tour:

“The highlight for me was the whole second Glasgow concert. Kampuchea was a stage highlight in terms of getting to play with all the rock luminaries and (laughs) having Pete Townsend looking over my shoulder on “Let It Be.” At a certain point, I realized no one out of this huge band was going to step forward to play that solo and I’d been doing it for the whole tour, so I just went for it. It was one of those moments in my career where I was able to say, “Well, I got to do that…” It was a magical moment. But the highlight of the tour from a musical point of view was that last Glasgow concert. That was the point on the tour when we were really cooking as a band. It was also a more complete set than Kampuchea. And to be honest, if you listen to the Last Flight bootleg CD, the version we did of “Let It Be” in Glasgow was even better. I’ll never forget the audience reaction to the bagpipe band marching through the audience that night.

Last updated on April 4, 2022