Fly To The World 1975 (Misterclaudel Label MCCD-132/133)
Gaumont Theater, Southampton, England – September 9th, 1975
Disc 1 (59:27): Venus And Mars, Rock Show, Jet, Let Me Roll It, Spirits Of Ancient Egypt, Little Woman Love / C Moon, Maybe I’m Amazed, Lady Madonna, The Long And Winding Road, Medicine Jar, Soily, Picasso’s Last Words, Richard Cory, Bluebird, I’ve Just Seen A Face, Blackbird
Disc 2 (49:57): Yesterday, You Gave Me The Answer, Magneto And Titanium Man, Go Now, Junior’s Farm, Letting Go, Live And Let Die (partial), Call Me Back Again, My Love, Listen To What The Man Said, Band On The Run, Hi Hi Hi
Wings took almost two years off after completing their UK tour in 1973 on July 10th in Newcastle. In the intervening years there were several changes in band personal (original Wings drummer Denny Seiwell was replaced by Geoffry Britton and then by Joe English and guitarist Henry McCollough was replaced by Jimmy McCulloch).
Trips to Lagos, Nigeria, Nashville and New Orleans would yield two critically acclaimed LPs Band On The Run and Venus And Mars. In 1975 Wings scheduled and began rehearsing for what would be their first world tour and what would be one of the biggest rock and roll tours to date.
McCartney catered the show to the current demands of arena rock, something which the early Wings tours eschewed even though McCartney had a hand in creating the phenomena with the Beatles in the first place.
Two album’s worth of new material was rehearsed, some older solo and Wings tunes, and a couple of Beatle tunes for the first time. The setlist was designed the current trend to have an acoustic set in the middle along with the massive sound and light show and, for the first time, playing with a full horn section.
The first date on this massive tour was on September 9th at the 2,300 capacity Gaumont Theater in Southampton. Misterclaudel are the first company to press and release this show using the surviving audience tape.
The sound quality is, being very generous, fair and somewhat listenable. The taper seems far away from the stage and there is significant distortion. The stage announcements are very difficult to hear.
The sound quality decreases to poor in the middle of “Go Now,” “Junior’s Farm,” “Letting Go” and the one minute “Live And Let Die” fragment. It improves after the cut for “Call Me Back Again” but that is a relative term. It is this spot of the tape that has cuts as well. “Letting Go” is incomplete, cutting out after three minutes, and “Live And Let Die” has only the opening notes before cutting out.
Since it is the first Wings concert of their only world tour it is valuable and committed Wings and Paul McCartney fans will have some use for this, the causal fan is urged to look elsewhere for a hi-fidelity listening experience.
The set list follows the same pattern as it would throughout the UK, Europe and Australia in 1975. “Little Woman Love / C Moon” and “Junior’s Farm” were featured but would by dropped for the US tour the following year to fit in some of the new songs from At The Speed Of Sound. The horns fit nicely into the arrangements.
“Yesterday” has a very loud horn part which would be subsequently dropped from the song so it would be played solo.
Fly To The World 1975 is packaged in a double slimline jewel case with high quality inserts and an obi strip. Given the poor sound quality it is certainly a commendable release by Misterclaudel, one of the rare ones now that appeal to the hardcore collectors instead of the audiophile.
