Odense

As soon as the concert in Fyens Forum was announced, it was decided that I should get tickets for my girlfriend, myself and a good friend, Preben, who was also a big Beatles fan. Unfortunately, I didn’t keep the ticket, which I would definitely have done today.

Here in May 2025, I will have to dig deep into my memory to remember how it went all those years ago. We did not enter through the main door which had the Fyens Forum’s name above it, but through a side door on the opposite side, because to our right we saw the band’s beautiful, painted tour bus, “Wings over Europe”, parked along the wall at the back entrance. I am not quite sure how we came to know that it would be wise to use this entrance; however, it gave us this opportunity to see the tour bus.

We arrived well in time and waited outside. The band played very loudly so we could hear them outside during soundcheck. I remember their warm-up was “Hi, Hi, Hi”. That raised the excitement quite a bit, because I had previously bought both that single and “Give Ireland back to the Irish”.

The stage curtain was drawn when we entered the concert hall. We found our seats somewhere in row 15-20. Seen from today’s perspective, it iwas a bit surreal that the audience were sitting calmly and disciplined in the seats. I took some photos where a backdrop of white canvas with a flying seagull can be seen. In addition to two podiums with spotlights, a podium with a “cinema machine” was showing Wings-inspired movie clips.

There had been some talk about Linda being an amateur musician, and I remember that Paul gave Linda a certain look at one point, she might have been playing a wrong note or something, but I never noticed.

There was no railing in front of the stage, as there certainly would have been today. Therefore it was easy to get quite close to the band, but strangely enough, the audience stayed in their seats.

I had brought my SLR camera with a 135 mm telephoto lens and a fast 27-din film, so that I didn’t have to use a flash. Otherwise, I would probably have been turned away. Unfortunately, without the flash, some of the pictures turned up a bit blurry. But it was worth it. There were no security guards in front of the stage. As I later found out by contacting the local archives in Odense in 2003, security was at the host’s expense. McCartney apparently had no bodyguards with him, only some roadies. There were four checkers from 5:00 p.m. and 10 from 6:00 p.m. I took a few pictures from my seat. Later I sneaked out of my seat and got closer to the stage. Finally, I went all the way up right in front of the band to get some shots of Paul McCartney and Henry McCullough in particular. I managed to get some shots of Paul where he was wearing a crocheted vest and later a glittery outfit.

My photos remained well hidden until an acquaintance saw them in 2000 and got pretty excited. He had just learned that MPL (McCartney Production Limited) were looking for photos for the upcoming DVD “Wingspan”, so he contacted MPL. This resulted in me getting a call in February 2000 from Sophie Bywater from MPL. A contract was signed and sent. My name appears twice in the epilogue.

After the contact from MPL, I created a website where I posted all my photos. In September 2003, I was contacted by Joanne Richton, who was the editor of a small pop magazine in Great Britain. She wanted to use the photo of Henry McCullough when she had an appointment with him for an interview in Belfast. I sent her three copies – one for her, one for Henry and one for me which later would be returned with with a signature from Henry, who played in Joe Cocker’s Grease Band during Woodstock in 1969. It was a bit blurry, but to a good effect. Henry McCullough, who sadly passed away in 2016, later expressed this. He also wrote that his beloved guitar, an old Gibson 335, had been stolen after concerts in Poland, presumably during luggage handling at the airport.

An unforgettable concert in Odense in 1972 that brought me so many spin-off benefits. Later on I heard Paul McCartney in Hannover, Hamburg and in Horsens.

Eddie Troelsgaard – From FabFour.dk

Fyns Forum

This was the 1st and only concert played at Fyns Forum.

Setlist for the concert

1. Eat At home

   Written by Paul McCartney, Linda Eastman / McCartney

2. smile away

   Written by Paul McCartney

3. Bip Bop

   Written by Paul McCartney, Linda Eastman / McCartney

4. Mumbo

   Written by Paul McCartney, Linda Eastman / McCartney

5. 1882

   Written by Paul McCartney, Linda Eastman / McCartney

6. I Would Only Smile

   Written by Denny Laine

7. Give Ireland Back to the Irish

   Written by Paul McCartney, Linda Eastman / McCartney

8. Blue Moon of Kentucky

   Written by Bill Monroe

9. The Mess

   Written by Paul McCartney, Linda Eastman / McCartney

10. Best Friend

    Written by Paul McCartney, Linda Eastman / McCartney

11. Soily

    Written by Paul McCartney, Linda Eastman / McCartney

12. I Am Your Singer

    Written by Paul McCartney, Linda Eastman / McCartney

13. Seaside Woman

    Written by Linda Eastman / McCartney

14. Henry's Blues

    Written by Henry McCullough

15. Say You Don't Mind

    Written by Denny Laine

16. Wild Life

    Written by Paul McCartney, Linda Eastman / McCartney

17. Mary Had a Little Lamb

    Written by Paul McCartney, Linda Eastman / McCartney

18. My Love

    Written by Paul McCartney, Linda Eastman / McCartney

19. Maybe I'm Amazed

    Written by Paul McCartney

20. Hi, Hi, Hi

    Written by Paul McCartney, Linda Eastman / McCartney

21. Hi, Hi, Hi

    Written by Paul McCartney, Linda Eastman / McCartney

See song statistics for “Wings Over Europe Tour”

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.

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