Anaheim • Saturday, November 12, 2005

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From the NASA website:

The International Space Station crew, 220 miles above Earth, will receive a special live musical wakeup call from Paul McCartney Sunday during a first-ever concert linkup.

The wakeup will come from McCartney’s “US” Tour performance at the Anaheim, Calif., Arrowhead Pond. McCartney plans to play two songs, “Good Day Sunshine” and “English Tea,” for NASA Astronaut Bill McArthur and Russian Cosmonaut Valery Tokarev. This is the first time a live concert will be linked to a U.S. spacecraft.

The call will take place at 12:55 a.m. EST, Sunday, Nov. 13 (9:55 p.m. PST, Nov. 12) as the concert is nearing its end; and McArthur and Tokarev are awakening for the 44th day of their six month mission in space. It will be broadcast live on NASA TV, with video expected of McArthur and Tokarev and audio from both locations.

During his tour, McCartney has paid tribute to the crew of Space Shuttle Discovery’s STS-114 mission, a flight to the space station last summer. On Aug. 9, the Beatles’ classic “Good Day Sunshine” was played as a wakeup call for Discovery’s crew because of a favorable weather forecast for landing that morning.

“I was extremely proud to find out that one of my songs was played for the crew of Discovery this summer,” McCartney said. “In our concert we hope to repay the favor.” McCartney is nearing the end of his 11-week “US” tour.

“Since people were first awakened on the moon by mission control, wakeup songs have been a space tradition to brighten the crew’s day and get them off to a great start,” said astronaut Eileen Collins, who commanded Discovery. “We’re honored that Paul McCartney will be a part of this historic delivery of music for Bill and Valery. It will surely give them a big boost as they continue through their research mission.” […]

From paulmccartney.com, November 10, 2005:

PAUL McCARTNEY TO BECOME FIRST-EVER TO BROADCAST LIVE MUSIC INTO SPACE LIVE PERFORMANCE FROM ‘US’ TOUR CONCERT IN ANAHEIM SET TO WAKE UP CREW WITH A SPOT OF ‘ENGLISH TEA’ AND WISHES FOR A ‘GOOD DAY SUNSHINE’ The international space station crew, 220 miles above Earth, will take a special live musical wakeup call from Paul McCartney November 12th in a first-ever concert linkup.

The broadcast is slated to include ‘English Tea,’ from his latest critically hailed album Chaos And Creation In The Backyard, as well as the Beatles classic ‘Good Day Sunshine.’ The call will emanate from McCartney’s “US” Tour performance from Anaheim, California’s Arrowhead Pond. Aboard the house-sized orbiting station, NASA Astronaut Bill McArthur and Russian Cosmonaut Valery Tokarev are in the midst of a six-month flight. McCartney is nearing the end of his 11-week “US” concert tour done in support of his latest critically acclaimed album, ‘Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.’ During his tour, McCartney has paid tribute to the crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery, a mission that took place earlier this year. On Aug. 9, the crew of Discovery received a good weather forecast for a second landing attempt, during which the Beatles’ classic “Good Day Sunshine” was played as a wakeup call by Mission Control. “I was extremely proud to find out that one of my songs was played for the crew of Discovery this summer,” McCartney said. ” In our concert we hope to repay the favor.’ The call to the station will mark the first time a live concert has been linked to a U.S. spacecraft.

The call will take place at 12:55 a.m. EST Nov. 13 (9:55 p.m. PST Nov. 12), as the concert is nearing its end and McArthur and Tokarev are awakening for their 44th day in space. The call will be broadcast live on NASA Television, with audio from both the concert and the station and video expected of McArthur and Tokarev. McArthur and Tokarev are the 12th crew of the station, which has had a continuous human presence aboard for more than five years. The station has an internal volume larger than an average three-bedroom house and includes the most sophisticated space laboratory ever flown. For information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit: www.nasa.gov NASA TV’s Public, Education and Media channels are available on an MPEG-2 digital C-band signal accessed via satellite AMC-6, at 72 degrees west longitude, transponder 17C, 4040 MHz, vertical polarization. In Alaska and Hawaii, they’re on AMC-7 at 137 degrees west longitude, transponder 18C, at 4060 MHz, horizontal polarization.

From NASA – Paul McCartney Wake Up Call:

Paul McCartney: As you probably know we’re gonna do something really special tonight. We’re gonna transmit to these two astronauts who are up in the International Space Station right now … about 220 miles up there somewhere. It’s two guys, it’s Bill McArthur, the American guy. And there is Valery Tokarev. ARE YOU READY?

Audience: Yeah!

Paul McCartney: Ok we’re gonna go now to the International Space Station! CHECK IT OUT! Here we go!There they are!

Bill McArthur: Paul, Thank you so much for, for joining us this evening, and of course it is morning for us, and we would like to say Good Evening to you all in Anaheim, California.

Paul McCartney: Well, Bill and Valery, we have a greeting for you from all the audience here.

Audience: Good Morning!

Paul McCartney: Listen, it’s really exciting for us guys to be seeing you guys and actually, I can’t believe that we’re actually just, you know, transmitting to space. This is, this is, sensational. I love it. So for you Bill and Valery, we’d like to do little song for you, we’d like to wake you up with a little bit of ‘English Tea’, here we go!”

Paul McCartney sings “English Tea”

Bill McArthur: Well, Sir Paul … the opportunity to fly in space brings along many many exciting events, I must tell you though, this ranks at the very top. It’s such an honor for you to join us; we’re so thrilled that you can participate in our flight with us and again thank you very much.

Paul McCartney: The pleasure’s all ours guys. I tell you … When the Discovery space [shuttle] mission went up to the International Space Station … it was a very historic mission and they went up there, they had to do some maintenance and repairs, where these guys are now, and as you know things didn’t go all according to plan, one of the heat shields came off, they had a little bit of trouble up there and they had to get out in space and fix it, but they did that, and then, they were due to come home, but NASA had to hold them up because the weather wasn’t good and the supplies were going a bit low, and they didn’t have as much English tea as you’ve got there. But, so anyway it was getting a little bit tricky up there but we’re very proud to say that on the morning that NASA actually told them that they were cleared to re-enter into the earth’s atmosphere and come home. They actually woke them up, with one of our songs, the next song we’re gonna do, so we’d like to do this song for you two guys especially today and we send our love from Earth!

Paul McCartney sings “Good day sunshine”

Bill McArthur: Sir Paul, that was simply magnificent. We are very just honored again that you’ve joined us. We consider you an explorer just as we are. Your venues of exploration of course have ranged everywhere from music, to fashion, and I guess even now, you’ve become an author and we’re all targeted towards the same thing and that’s ensuring a bright future for the young people on our planet.

Paul McCartney: Ok, well I think we all go along with that Bill, and you Valery. We really thank you for giving us this opportunity. We thank the people at NASA for giving us this opportunity to do this remarkable thing and get up there and see you guys. We wish you all the very best for the rest of your mission. We hope you have a great stay up there and do everything you got to do. We can’t wait to meet you when you get back down to Earth. I tell you what, just before we go, can we see another one of those somersaults?

Audience cheers

Paul McCartney: This audience just wants to give you a real big cheer for everything you’re doing and joining us here tonight. Let’s hear it!

Audience cheers

From paulmccartney.com, November 12, 2015:

“I heard somewhere that to wake up the astronauts in the morning NASA had used ‘Good Day Sunshine’ and I thought, ‘That is so cool, I’d love to do that live’. So then it all got set up with NASA – my tour team talked to them – it was very exciting. We were all very excited!

‘It was really great, and it was super lo-fi. Even though it was an amazingly hi-tech event – to connect us – we were at Anaheim in Los Angeles and there was a lot of cool people at the show! I remember Bob Iger, head of Disney was there. So yeah, it had all been set up and we knew just about when it would be happening in the show. But I had said to our guys, ‘Can you find some way of letting me know it’s 5 minutes to go. You know, like a countdown?’ So they had cards they were holding up! So I knew I could say – with three minutes to go – ‘OK, I tell you what, by the way, have we got a surprise for you! And what I want you to do is, when I say ‘123’ we’ll ALL say good morning to the astronauts!’ And then we’re going to play a couple of songs for them!

‘It was very exciting! And they came through a bit crackly at first (imitates the noise), and then the pictures came through and they did the weightless thing! A little somersault! And I said, ‘That is just so cool! Could you do that again! Could you do the weightless thing again?’ And the audience loved it! It was really special. What a blast it was to do it! To be singing to people somersaulting weightlessly in space!”

Last updated on February 21, 2021

Arrowhead Pond

This was the 4th concert played at Arrowhead Pond.

A total of 4 concerts have been played there • 2002 • May 5th • Oct 25th • 2005 • Nov 11th • Nov 12th

Setlist for the concert