- First date:
- Jul 09, 1972
- Last date:
- Aug 24, 1972
- Number of concerts:
- 26
- Number of countries:
- 9
Albums covering this tour
Related interviews
Jul 15, 1972 • From Sounds
McCartney getting ready for criticism
Jul 15, 1972 • From Disc And Music Echo
Jul 15, 1972 • From The Guardian
Jul 09, 1972
May / June 1972 ? • From McCartney Productions
Related articles
1972 Wings tour bus rediscovered
Dec 10, 2017
Wings’ concert in Lyon is cancelled
Jul 14, 1972
June 1972
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About
From Wikipedia:
In the summer of 1972, Paul McCartney’s newly formed band, Wings, set out on a concert tour of Europe, in a double decker bus, WNO 481.
Promotion
Coming on the heels of a tour of English universities, the Wings Over Europe Tour was intended to promote recent singles “Give Ireland Back to the Irish” and “Mary Had a Little Lamb“, as well as provide live recordings to be included on a future album. The second objective did not come to fruition for a long time, the album Red Rose Speedway was released in Spring of the next year without any of the concert material. Only the 21 August performance of “The Mess” at The Hague was officially released, as a B-side to the single “My Love“.
The live version of new song “Best Friend” was intended to be released as part of Cold Cuts compilation album, but the album was abandoned permanently.
In 2012 a live track consisting of “Eat at Home” and “Smile Away” recorded in Groningen was released as an iTunes exclusive to the reissue of Paul and Linda McCartney’s Ram.
Only in 2018, a newly compiled live album Wings Over Europe was released in the limited edition boxset Wings 1971-73 in the Paul McCartney Archive Collection., while “Best Friend” and “1882” were also released as part of Red Rose Speedway reissue.
Touring
The band, with the McCartney children and their road crew, loaded up in a brightly coloured double decker bus for the tour of the continent. The tour proceeded largely without incident, but on 10 August in Gothenburg, Sweden, Paul and Linda McCartney were fined US$1,200 for possession of marijuana. Paul joked that the incident would “make good publicity” for the tour, in comments reported around the world at the time (e.g. Miami Herald, 12 August 1972). The Daily Telegraph (12 August 1972) quoted “a member of the group” as saying that this was an “excellent advertisement… Our name flies now all over the world”.
Wings’ line up for the tour was Paul and Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, Henry McCullough, and Denny Seiwell. […]
I like to look upon ourselves as wandering troubadours. moving around like gipsies and playing music. We don’t have to worry about money. We are playing to enjoy ourselves.
Paul McCartney – From Daily Mirror – Friday 14 July 1972
Paul McCartney in "Wingspan: Paul McCartney's Band on the Run":
We knew we were going to tour in Europe, and that the weather would be nice, and the idea of being stuck in a bus all the time, going from city to city, hotel to hotel, wasn’t too appealing. Not much quality of life there. So we decided to travel around in an open-top bus. We put mattresses on the top deck and got some sunshine as we traveled from one place to another. And we painted the outside psychedelic, like a magic bus.If you look at it very straight, very conventionally, it was a quite mad thing to do, to put a playpen on the top deck of the bus and put all the children in there while driving around Europe. It was not what you’d expect from a normal band. But we weren’t a normal band.
PAUL HOPS ON A BUS FOR BIG BOUT
From DON COOLICAN in Paris – FORMER Beatle Paul McCartney has hit the road again – in a psychedelic bus. He and his group, Wings, have hired the double-decker bus for a two-month tour of Europe. They have been booked to give twenty-six concerts in nine countries. And going from place to place in the bus, says Paul, helps them all to enjoy the simple life to which touring groups are not usually accustomed.
Yesterday, soon after starting the tour in the south of France, Paul said: “I like to look upon ourselves as wandering troubadours. moving around like gipsies and playing music. We don’t have to worry about money. We are playing to enjoy ourselves.”
Helping to keep Paul – and singing with the group – is his 34-year-old wife, Linda. They have also taken along their children. three-year-old Mary and ten-month-old Stella, and Linda’s daughter by a previous marriage, Heather, aged eight. Their bus — once owned by the council at Great Yarmouth, Norfolk – is fitted with a kitchen, bunks, expensive stereo equipment… and mattresses on the open roof for sunbathing.
From Daily Mirror – Friday 14 July 1972
Last updated on June 5, 2022
26 concerts • 9 countries
Germany • Berlin • Deutschlandhalle
Aug 24, 1972 • There are 2 albums covering this show
Belgium • Antwerp • Cinema Roma
Aug 22, 1972 • There are 9 albums covering this show
Netherlands • The Hague • Congresgebouw
Aug 21, 1972 • There are 14 albums covering this show
Netherlands • Amsterdam • Concertgebouw
Aug 20, 1972 • There are 9 albums covering this show
Netherlands • Groningen • Evenementenhal Martinihal
Aug 19, 1972 • There are 6 albums covering this show
Netherlands • Rotterdam • De Doelen
Aug 17, 1972 • There are 2 albums covering this show
Germany • Dusseldorf • Rheinhalle
Aug 16, 1972
Denmark • Aarhus • Vejlby Risskov Hallen
Aug 14, 1972 • There is 1 album covering this show
Aug 12, 1972
Aug 11, 1972 • There is 1 album covering this show
Sweden • Gothenburg • Skandinavien Halle
Aug 10, 1972
Aug 09, 1972
Aug 08, 1972
Sweden • Stockholm • Grona Lund
Aug 07, 1972 • There are 2 albums covering this show
Finland • Turku • Kupittaan urheiluhalli
Aug 05, 1972
Finland • Helsinki • Messuhalli
Aug 04, 1972
Denmark • Copenhagen • K.B. Hallen
Aug 01, 1972 • There is 1 album covering this show
Switzerland • Montreux • Pavilion
Jul 22, 1972 • There are 3 albums covering this show
Switzerland • Zurich • Kongress-Halle
Jul 21, 1972
Germany • Frankfurt • Offenbach-Halle
Jul 19, 1972 • There are 2 albums covering this show
Germany • Munich • Zirkus-Krone
Jul 18, 1972 • There is 1 album covering this show
Jul 16, 1972
Jul 16, 1972
France • Arles • Theatre Antique
Jul 13, 1972 • There is 1 album covering this show
France • Juan-les-Pins • Juan-les-Pins
Jul 12, 1972
France • Chateauvallon • Centre culturel
Jul 09, 1972 • There is 1 album covering this show
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.
https://www.paulmccartney.com/the-collection/wings-over-europe-1972
https://www.paulmccartney.com/the-collection/throwbackthursday-2015
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