- Country:
- United Kingdom
- City:
- Birmingham
- Location:
- Deb Hall, Birmingham University
- Attendance:
- 750
Timeline
More from year 1972
Spread the love! If you like what you are seeing, share it on social networks and let others know about The Paul McCartney Project.
About
This was the ninth concert of Wings’ University Tour.
When we went on to Birmingham we went to Denny’s place first, then played a University slightly out of town. It wasn’t the best gig.
Paul McCartney – From the “Wings Over Europe” tour book
About the setlist
The exact setlist for this concert (and for most of the concerts of the Wings’ university tour) is unknown. Only two audience recordings surfaced on bootlegs (one for the first concert of the tour, in Nottingham, on February 9, 1971; the other one for the concert in Hull, on February 11, 1971), even if all the concerts had been taped by the band.
The gigs were pretty much the same. We taped them all.
Denny Laine
We didn’t have many songs. To be precise, we had eleven, which – at about three minutes a song – is a 33 minute act. They wanted longer so we repeated things. ‘We’ve had a request to do Lucille. We did it earlier but now we’re gonna do it again for Jenny Babford on the science course’. Whatever. We just repeated things, especially our new single Give Ireland Back to the Irish. The gigs went quite well but it’s funny to look back and realise that we had such little material.
Paul McCartney – From “Wingspan: Paul McCartney’s Band on the Run“
The setlists were a mix of new songs, oldies and some blues jams. Paul McCartney made sure to not play any Beatles song. It’s likely the setlist of this concert was similar to this:
- Lucille
- Give Ireland Back To The Irish
- Blue Moon Of Kentucky
- Seaside Woman
- Thank You Darling
- You’ve Got To Help Me Darlin’
- Some People Never Know
- The Mess
- Bip Bop
- Henry’s Blues
- Smile Away
- My Love
- Wild Life
- Long Tall Sally
Last updated on February 15, 2022
Deb Hall, Birmingham University
This was the 1st and only concert played at Deb Hall, Birmingham University.
Too bad, there is no song listed for this concert. If you've been there, help us fill the set list for this concert by writing a comment!
Going further
Wings Live - On tour in the 70s
This is the first detailed study of Paul McCartney's Wings on tour in the 1970s. It covers every single concert from the University Tour of 1972, ending with the abandoned tour of Japan in January 1980. A wide variety of primary sources have been consulted, including all available audio and video recordings; press reviews; fan recollections; newspaper reports and tour programmes.
Maccazine - Volume 47, Issue 1 - The birth of Wings
"Maccazine is a hard copy magazine (a bound paperback) about Paul McCartney. It is published twice a year. Due to the fact that the Internet has taken over the world and the fact that the latest Paul McCartney news is to be found on hundreds of websites, we have decided to focus on creating an informative paper magazine about Paul McCartney."
"In this issue we take you back to the early days of Paul McCartney’s solo career when he decided to form a new group. With Wings he proved there was life after The Beatles. This Maccazine features a detailed timeline of ‘the birth’ of the band with interesting entries including many new facts and unpublished photos. Follow-up timelines will be published in the upcoming years."
If we like to think, in all modesty, that the Paul McCartney Project is the best online ressource for everything Paul McCartney, The Beatles Bible is for sure the definitive online site focused on the Beatles. There are obviously some overlap in terms of content between the two sites, but also some major differences in terms of approach.
Contribute!
Have you spotted an error on the page? Do you want to suggest new content? Or do you simply want to leave a comment ? Please use the form below!
I guess lots of people have Paul McCartney’s stories. In honour of his eightieth birthday, here’s mine.
Back when I was at Uni I was a member of the Students’ Entertainments Committee, otherwise known as EntsCom. I was also a member of the Guild Theatre Group (GTG) and for both of these reasons had a backstage pass. I got to see and talk to lot of bands of the 60s and early 70s, but those are other stories.
Wings had just formed, and was getting ready for national tour by doing informal university and college gigs. These were unannounced – the band (or their representatives) would turn up in the morning and ask if they could play in one of the campus venues. This happened at my university (Birmingham) and we obliged, plastering toilets and lifts (that’s ‘elevators’ stateside) with a few silkscreened posters and gestetnered (look it up) fliers as we did back then – great places for informing a wide public quickly.
The event was ticketed – news travels first, and with a city the size of Birmingham a free concert was out of the question. I think the band played at cost, and tickets went at about 50p or ten shillings a head.
Come the evening the Wings roadies and the band arrive at the back stairs and proceed to set up, the band members disappearing into the dressing rooms. I was doing meet and greet and found myself alone with Paul and Linda (Eastman). Paul asked me if I could do him a favour and get drinks for him and Linda (we were very primitive on hospitality back then and this was an impromptu gig). He pointed out reasonably that if he went down to the bar he'd be recognised and everyone else was busy setting up. Sure, I said (who wouldn’t) and trundled off to the main bar returning with beer and whatever Linda was drinking. Paul expressed his thanks, and proffered a five-pound note or whatever and I replied something to the effect that no, please, let me pay. I’d love to be able to tell my grandchildren that I’d bought Paul McCartney a drink.
This was a good fifty years ago, and grandchildren have been duly informed. As have now readers of this post.
Thanks a lot, meayrs, for sharing those awesome memories !!