Friday, April 20, 1990
Rio de Janeiro
Concert • By Paul McCartney • Part of the The Paul McCartney World Tour
Last updated on July 31, 2021
Friday, April 20, 1990
Concert • By Paul McCartney • Part of the The Paul McCartney World Tour
Last updated on July 31, 2021
Location: Maracana Stadium
Concert Apr 14, 1990 • USA • Miami
Concert Apr 15, 1990 • USA • Miami
Concert Apr 20, 1990 • Brazil • Rio de Janeiro
Concert Apr 21, 1990 • Brazil • Rio de Janeiro
From the “New World Tour” tour book, remembering the 1989/90 tour:
Being there just made me think politically. A lot of our contacts there were political rather than artistic, so all the time I was there the subjects on my mind were the Amazon rainforest being cut down, the Earth summit where they had banquets and tons of meat was served and Bush wouldn’t sign the agreement. That’s what Brazil brings back to me.
Linda McCartney
Brazilian fans do keep you waiting. Come the day of the first gig we’d sold not that many tickets and there was this amazing capacity to fill. I was a bit, Oh my God! Because that’s a pet worry of mine. Having been in The Beatles, you really don’t fancy the idea of staring at rows of empty seats. If I’m not selling out I’ll start to feel like some past-it actor. But I think it was because of the weather. There was a tropical rainstorm, black and thundering for the previous two days.
The morning before the gig I did a press conference to plug the gig and, particularly, to talk about Chico Mendes (assassinated campaigner for Brazilian workers’ rights) — there’s a track on Flowers In The Dirt called How Many People which I’d dedicated to him. So there was a bit of a ceremonial, a meeting with Friends of the Earth and the new leaders of the rubber tappers in the aftermath of Chico’s death. We got that on the TV news.
One of the journalists said, What are you going to do about the weather, Paul? I gave it a straight face and said, It will clear up. Which sent them off giggling while they wrote their notes.
Paul McCartney
It didn’t seem like the show was going to happen. The guys putting the scaffolding up for the stage were risking their lives while we sat in the restaurant on the top floor of the hotel watching this huge storm roll in forever.
Hamish Stuart
And that evening, when it had been pissing down all day, ten minutes before we went on it stopped. Like, hallelujah. Jammy git! We had a blinder of a show. It was frightening before we went on, the sheer size of it, but we were played in, and once we hit the stage we were all right, it’s your home, your own little box, your own environment.
Paul McCartney
Rio really did hit me emotionally. I think I was caught up in the mass hysteria of it and feeling sympathy for the audience because of the oppression and poverty they were suffering.
Robbie McIntosh
This was the 1st concert played at Maracana Stadium.
A total of 3 concerts have been played there • 1990 • Apr 20th • Apr 21st • 2023 • Dec 16th
The setlist for this soundcheck is incomplete, or we have not be able to confirm in an accurate way that this was the setlist. If you have any clue, pls let us know and leave a comment.
Improv "Welcome Everybody (To Rio By The Sea)"
Improv "Love Me Do"
Improv "Look At All The Lonely People"
Medley
Written by Paul McCartney, Declan MacManus / Elvis Costello
Album Available on Rio 1990
Encore
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