Dine and Disco for Children in Need • Saturday, June 25, 2016

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From paulmccartney.com, November 10, 2015:

It was announced this morning on BBC Radio 2 that Paul will be the headline act at the 10th annual Dine and Disco for Children in Need in 2016.  The very special show will take place on Saturday June 25th at The Mulberry Inn to an audience of 80 auction winners. By 9:30am all the tickets had been auctioned off raising an incredible £2 million. The highest this event has ever raised.

From ABC News Radio, November 16, 2015:

A few dozen lucky British music fans will get to see Paul McCartney perform at an intimate venue in the London suburb of Chiddingfold this summer.  The rock legend will headline the 10th annual Dine and Disco for Children in Need fundraiser this June 25 at The Mulberry Inn, a pub owned by BBC radio DJ Chris Evans.

The show will be attended by a small audience that will include 80 auction winners, who paid a combined total of 2 million pounds, or about $3 million, for tickets to the event.  McCartney, who first agreed to perform at the charity event two years ago, called in to Evans’ morning radio show a few days ago to talk about the gig.

“Basically, me and the band are showing up,” Sir Paul revealed.  “It’s great…It’s been a long time since I’ve played at a pub.”

With regard to the set he’ll play at the concert, McCartney told Evans, “We’re not massive planners in the band.  Even if we’re doing [a] big special gig we kind of tend to just figure it out just the hour before.  So we probably will.  We’ll probably talk to you, see what you want, any requests, and then completely ignore you.”

He added, “We are going to have a great fun night.  It’s going to be a party, it’s going to be a laugh.  We’re going to have a bit of a sing-along…and we’ll do something old, new, borrowed, blue, whatever.  We’ll make it work.”

Evans also asked McCartney what he wanted to eat when he visited his pub, and the former Beatles star mentioned two Italian dishes — pizza and eggplant parmigiana.

You can listen to McCartney’s conversation with Evans online at BBC.co.uk.  The interview begins just before the two-hour-and-six-minute mark.

The annual Dine and Disco event raises money for the BBC’s Children in Need charity, which provides support for disabled young people throughout the U.K.

From Stuart Bell, Paul’s publicist, paulmccartney.com, August 4th, 2016:

Just, WOW! This is an experience like no other. In the unlikely setting of a tipi in a Surrey pub garden, Paul is rocking out on a tiny stage to a tiny audience (which just happens to include Jake Bugg, Shania Twain, Sharleen Spiteri, Seasick Steve, Paul Heaton and Spice Girl Melanie C) raising in excess of £2 million for the BBC’s Children In Need charity. The event has been organised by broadcaster Chris Evans, the host of Europe’s biggest breakfast show on BBC Radio 2.

In a scaled-down 14-song belter of a set, there are all the usual emotions you experience in a McCartney show – complete with tears, laughter, dancing and singalongs – but with extra intensity. Chris and his wife hold each other in tears during ‘Hey Jude’, and he turns to me regularly in wonder throughout the show to mouth: “Is this actually happening?’

Ahead of the performance Chris tells the crowd about the surreal moment when Paul had called the day before to chat about the show. He said he was wandering around his garden on the phone, chatting away to Paul as though it was completely normal! Tonight is Chris’s tenth – and he says, final – charity event for CIN. After all, as he asks his audience, how can he ever top this?  There is an impromptu after-show party in Paul’s dressing room. Everyone is on a massive high after such an experience.

Last updated on November 15, 2020

Mulberry Inn

This was the 1st and only concert played at Mulberry Inn.

Setlist for the concert