Here And There Live! (Audiofön AF-07)
Hall Of Fame Performance – March 15th, 1999: Blue Suede Shoes, What I’d Say, Let It Be.
Here There And Everywhere, A Concert For Linda – April 10th, 1999: Lonesome Town, All My Love.
Live In Hollywood, PETA Gala – September 18th, 1999: Honey Hush, Brown Eyed Handsome Man (false start), Brown Eyed Handsome Man, Run Devil Run, Try Not To Cry, No Other Baby.
Jools Holland – November 6th, 1999: Honey Hush, No Other Baby, Brown Eyed Handsome Man, Party.
National Lottery Show – November 13th, 1999: Brown Eyed Handsome Man (with Lulu), No Other Baby, Party (with Lulu).
Michael Parkinson Show – December 3rd, 1999: Introduction, Honey Hush, Twenty Flight Rock, May’s Song (Picasso’s Whistle), Yesterday, The Long And Winding Road, Hope To Reach Your Love, New York Song, Suicide, All Shook Up.
Here And There Live! is a one disc collection of various Paul McCartney appearances in 1999. After the death of his wife Linda on April 17th, 1998, McCartney disappeared from the public eye and live appearance for almost a year and this disc is a nice document of his first tentative steps to returning to public life. Also at this time McCartney was working on Run Devil Run, which was recorded between March 1st to May 5th at Abbey Road Studios for its October release. Much of the material performed reflects these sessions and serve as promotion for this new album. All of the sets on Audiofön are sourced from professional recordings and are in generally excellent sound quality.
The first part of the disc is devoted to the 14th Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction ceremony on March 15th, 1999 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York. McCartney was voted in with the Beatles in 1988 but the second time was as a solo artist and came in along with Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Dusty Springfield, Curtis Mayfield, Del Shannon and the Staple Singers. I Got Stung (Yellow Cat YC066) has “Blue Suede Shoes” and “Let It Be” but Always Back To You on the CDR label No Label Records (NLR 9911) has all three songs. The final jam session turned into “a generation-crossing jubilee” according to the New York Times. McCartney introduces “Blue Suede Shoes” by saying, “This is a song by a beautiful man, Carl Perkins….Everybody does it different, but Carl does it this way.” Robbie Robertson takes the first solo and Eric Clapton takes the second. Billy Joel revves up Ray Charles’s ”What’d I Say.” The Curtis Mayfield song “People Get Ready” with Bono taking the lead came next, but is omitted on this collection. The final song is “Let It Be” with Joel singing the first verse. It’s a ragged version but fun to hear all the different contributions.
The Concert For Linda was held on April 10th, 1999 almost a complete year after her death. The evening was organised by Linda’s friends Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders, director Kevin Godley and scriptwriter Carla Lane to “reflect something of Linda’s personality and her upbeat sense of humour.” The tribute show was held at the Royal Albert Hall and contains performances by George Michael, The Pretenders, Elvis Costello and Tom Jones Sinead O’Connor, Des’ree and M People vocalist Heather Small also appeared, along with Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, Neil Finn, Marianne Faithfull and Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Paul’s appearance wasn’t originally planned but he said fans’ expressions of support had convinced him to attend. Paul’s contribution is short, only two numbers. The first is the Ricky Nelson cover “Lonesome Town,” which he introduces as a favorite of Linda’s.
The Peta Gala was filmed at Paramount Studios in LA on September 18th with Paul himself acting as the host. He plays six songs from the new album although only five are present on this release including a restart for “Brown Eyed Handsome Man,” which is initially stopped because they weren’t tight enough. “Hang on hang on hang on…We’re gonna start that again because it wasn’t awfully good. A little discrepancy there and we’re not having that lads. We came all the way bloody way from England with discrepancies.” McCartney closes the show with a rousing performance of the album’s greatest rocker, the title track, “Run Devil Run,” with David Gilmour playing lap slide guitar.
On November 6th Paul McCartney played four songs from ‘Run Devil Run’ on the ‘Later With Jools Holland’ Show. Making his first live appearance on British TV for six years Paul played Honey Hush, No Other Baby, Brown Eyed Handsome Man and Party. Paul’s band was the same as on the album but was augmented by Jools Holland on piano for Party. Paul also gave a brief interview with Jools which isn’t included ont his release. A week later Paul made another TV appearance on Saturday 13th on the National Lottery Show, presented by Lulu. The final portion of the disc is occupied with his appearance with Michael Parkinson, perhaps Britain’s best interviewer. Only the musical parts are included and not the whole broadcast.
