100 Club • Friday, December 17, 2010

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From paulmccartney.com, December 14, 2010:

Hot off the heels of rocking the world-famous Harlem Apollo Theatre in New York last night, today sees Paul announce details for his most intimate show of this century and for what is set to be rock ‘n’ roll‚ most sought after ticket ever. After a year of performing in stadiums to millions of people across the world on his record breaking‚ Up and Coming Tour, Paul and his band will take it back to basics with a special stripped-down show at London‚ famous 100 Club.

Paul and his band will play a lunchtime show at the historic venue this Friday, 17th December, in what will be his smallest show since his headline-grabbing gig at the Cavern Club in Liverpool back in 1999. This show, which is a prelude to Paul‚ two UK shows on the 18th and 20th of December, is a once in a lifetime opportunity for fans to watch music‚ most loved icon up close and extremely personal. Paul has played the world’s largest venues, he’s performed groundbreaking outdoor shows in city centre‚ and parks across the globe and he’s even performed live into Space.

This unique concert will mean that those lucky enough to get tickets once they go on sale will witness a rare and special moment as the most successful songwriter in the history of popular music (as listed by Guinness World Records) performs to one of the smallest audiences he‚ ever performed to. Paul said: “I’ve played all sorts of different venues over the years and this kind of show presents a different kind of challenge to performing in a stadium. I love performing and I love connecting with audiences, be it in a stadium or arena or in a club. I’m looking forward to being able to interact with fans on a face to face basis, not to mention the smell of sweat and beer!“

From paulmccartney.com, December 18, 2010:

Congratulations on a great show, how did it feel to play the 100 Club?

It felt fantastic you, know because we‚ are going back to the roots, reminded me of the cavern and beyond, and it was really nice. It‚ a great little venue and you know so we were happy to be part of the campaign to save it as a venue cos it’s too good to lose, it’s a great little central London venue. We had a great time. It’s great playing those little clubs and the audience is so up close I mean forget it, it’s like you’re having dinner with them. But it was great it was really cool and we enjoyed it we felt we played good, and we felt the audience responded well so outside of the fact that it was an hour after I’d got out of bed, it was great we had fun.

So you could fill pretty much any stadium, any arena you wanted to, so why the club gig?

You know I mean it’s nice playing the big stadiums because everyone who wants to see you can get in and it’s good doing the big epic shows, but coming back down to a little club like that is exciting and really I think the thing was having played a lot of big epic stadium shows this year we wanted to kind of bring the whole thing back home to Great Britain and have a great time in great Britain. So we’ve come back to the 100 club and that’s about as small as you can get, and it’s very intimate very good fun and we had a blast I mean I haven’t played a lunchtime show since the Cavern, and the whole idea of getting out of bed and trying to get yourself ready for a show where you’re going to have to sing some very high notes is interesting and we had a great time.

And that was your smallest solo show ever apparently?

I would think it probably is yeah I think the cavern held more than the 100 Club, but it’s great, those little places are great I think we all enjoyed it in the band.

Paul McCartney

From Whom The Bell Tells, December 23, 2010:

Within days of the Apollo show, he was back on home turf in London for the most intimate show of his solo career at The 100 Club to show support for the venue that is currently threatened by closure. Upon announcement tickets were snapped up immediately. Our office had never been so popular! We had newspaper editors, TV and radio presenters, bands, head’s of record labels begging us for tickets.

On the evening of Thursday 16th Paul and the band spent the night rehearing in the tiny venue which was an amazing experience. I had to pinch myself. A personal rehearsal highlight for me was ‘Let Me Roll It’ complete with Paul’s extended harmonica solo.

On Friday morning in freezing cold weather conditions just 300 fans squeezed into the tiny basement to see the show of a lifetime Paul admitted it was such a personal show, it was like having dinner with the audience! The lunchtime show performed just an hour after Paul had got out of bed! featured some of Paul’s greatest songs, from ‘Let It Be’ and ‘Hey Jude’ to ‘Blackbird’ and ‘Let Me Roll It’ and drew rave reviews and news stories across the globe, as far a field as China. Closer to home, The Times called it a very special concert and the Daily Star said it was like Christmas had come early.

Stuart Bell

Last updated on February 23, 2021

100 Club

This was the 1st and only concert played at 100 Club.

Setlist for the concert

1.

Matchbox

Written by Carl Perkins

6.

One After 909

Written by Lennon - McCartney

10.

Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five

Written by Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney