London • Saturday, December 8, 1979

About

From Club Sandwich, N°17, 1980:

Back to the Wembley Conference Centre auditorium. Denny, Laurence and Steve are on stage, checking levels and jamming and loosening up. And Paul is halfway down the hall behind the mixing desk, the mainman mucking in to get the best sound possible.

“I wasn’t entirely happy with the sound we got here yesterday,” he explains in an aside, as he picks up the desk mike and suggests that Laurence alters his volume a wee bit. It’s called caring.

During the concert, Paul announces “Here’s a number by Eddie Cochran” and gives one of Rock’s most important figures a fine verbal promo. And yet the Wembley audience — and remember folks a Wings concert embraces the young and the younger to the old and the older – didn’t appear to ‘know’ who this Cochran cat was. Weird. Was he not probably the first social-political commentator in r ‘n’ r with lines like “I’d like to help you son but you’re too young to vote” — ie: “I don’t give a damn because you’re just a kid, you’re in no position to put me into power so get lost”, lyrics written even long before Dylan failed his audition to join Bobby Vee’s band. And didn’t dear Marc Bolan record a fine interpretation of that very same Cochran song, ‘Summertime Blues’? And didn’t Sid Vicious, unconsciously or not, translate Cochran’s ‘Somethin’ Else’ superbly with Steve ‘n’ Paul Pistol? Ah well.

Rock ‘n’ Roll elitists may scorn McCartney and Wings’ more gentle recordings, but, when the band pulled the trigger on ‘Twenty Flight Rock’ with Paul vocalising Ooodh, ‘I got a girl with a record machine…’ those so-called critics have either got cement in their ears or are bigotted beyond redemption. On a number like this Wings steam more than all the sauna baths in Japan.

B.P. Fallon, Wings On Tour approximately or: Thoughts to myself

Last updated on February 9, 2020