Thursday, September 21, 1989
Dress rehearsal for The Paul McCartney World Tour
Concert • By Paul McCartney • Part of the The Paul McCartney World Tour
Last updated on October 19, 2025
Thursday, September 21, 1989
Concert • By Paul McCartney • Part of the The Paul McCartney World Tour
Last updated on October 19, 2025
Location: London • UK
Previous concert Aug 24, 1989 • USA • New York City
Session Sep 14, 1989 • Mixing "Figure Of Eight"
Interview September 1989 • "The Paul McCartney World Tour" book
Concert Sep 21, 1989 • Dress rehearsal for The Paul McCartney World Tour
Concert Sep 26, 1989 • Norway • Drammen
Rehearsing for Paul’s first world tour for ten years (1989/90) we were planning on opening the show with a Beatles classic, maybe ‘Good Day Sunshine’ or perhaps ‘Hello Goodbye’. Then Paul had dinner with film director Richard Lester. He was shocked we weren’t opening the show with a song from the new album ‘Flowers In The Dirt’. He told Paul it might seem like we weren’t standing behind the new songs. So we ended up opening every show with ‘Figure Of Eight’.
Comment #1: In retrospect, definitely not the best way to open a show of that magnitude. And he’s never played it since. Lester was filled with bad ideas then. This was an overall great show, yet his film of the tour was terrible.
Shot using large Hollywood film cameras that required more light than our lighting rig. Even in 1990 most bands were shooting shows on smaller HQ video cameras. It was complete folly and sad for me that no high quality film documented the best tour I’ve ever been on.
Comment #2: Lester was right. “Flowers in the dirt” was a great album.
The thing is, we had a monumental intro film that sent the crowd wild, then we started the show with a song no one knew. There was a definite dip.
Chris Whitten – From Instagram, September 15, 2025
This was the 3rd concert played at .
A total of 9 concerts have been played there • 1987 • Nov 20 • 1989 • May 19 • Sep 21• 1992 • Sep 9 • 2001 • Nov 24 • 2007 • Jun 8 • 2010 • Oct 26 • 2012 • Nov 10 • 2020 • Dec 15
Written by Paul McCartney
Written by Paul McCartney, Linda Eastman / McCartney
Written by Paul McCartney
Written by Paul McCartney
Written by Paul McCartney
Written by Paul McCartney
Medley
Written by Paul McCartney
Written by Paul McCartney
Written by Eddie Cochran, Ned Fairchild
Written by Paul McCartney
Written by Fats Domino, Dave Bartholomew
Encore
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Barry Miles • Feb 20, 2021 • 4 years ago
This was a dress rehearsal held at Elstree Studios with only a few friends in attendance not a proper concert. It was not open to the public. Though the set list is accurate there was a lot of stopping and starting and discussion of the special effects. I was there in my capacity as Paul's biographer.
The PaulMcCartney Project • Mar 01, 2021 • 4 years ago
Hi @Barry, it's awesome to see that you are a reader of this site ! Thanks for the insider view, I have changed the title to reflect it was a dress rehearsal.
Peggy Speer • Apr 15, 2021 • 4 years ago
I was there! What an absolute thrill!!
The PaulMcCartney Project • Apr 15, 2021 • 4 years ago
Thanks Peggy to share your memories. This was quite a unique concert, I can imagine !!
