Des Moines 10 – 07 – 2005 (His Masters Choice HMC 017)
Live at The Wells Fargo Arena, Des Moines, Iowa USA, Thu Oct 27 2005.
DISC 1:
01. Magical Mystery Tour / Flaming Pie / Jet / I’ll Get You / Drive My Car / Till There Was You / Let Me Roll It – Foxey Lady / Got to Get You In My Life / Fine Line / Maybe I’m Amazed / Long and Winding Road / In Spite Of All The Danger / I Will / Jenny Wren / For No One / Fixing a Hole / English Tea / I’ll Follow the Sun / Follow Me. ( 74:29 )
DISC 2:
Blackbird / Eleanor Rigby / Too Many People / Bathroom Window / Good Day Sunshine / Band on the Run / Penny Lane / I’ve Got A Feeling / Back in the USSR / Hey Jude / Live and Let Die / Yesterday / Get Back / Helter Skelter / Please Please Me / Let it Be / Sgt. Pepper’s ( Reprise ) – Carry That Weight – The End. ( 73:13 )
Paul McCartney and band dropped in to Des Moines’ “Wells Fargo Arena” around mid-way through his 2005 “U.S. / Us” tour as the first rock band to appear at the venue. It was heralded as a great coup and that night benefited nearly 17,000 guests and Beatle fans for an action packed 2 1/2 hours of fun.
In 2007 the Audiofon Label released a soundboard recording of Macca and the band warming up at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado. A mere 5 years later the premier Beatleg label ‘His Masters Choice’ have unearthed another show from that same tour in the same amazing sound and released it as part of their ‘Gazette’ series. The magazine / press styles releases in a tall card sleeve. As there was no official record of the tour from this year ( In the U.S. itself at least – “The Space Within US”, the documentary of the tour, was given a DVD release in Europe – this set more than perfectly chronicles the show with out the customary chopping out of stage chatter or other technical tinkering that plagues his official releases.
It’s the full show apart from the “Twin Freaks” opening music ( Not a deal breaker, sure, but still no one has managed to capture much of that in quality sound ) and as we all know, despite the inflated prices to go see the ex – Beatle nowadays Paul pays his dues by putting on a hells-a-poppin, exhilarating and action packed gig. Obviously the set list changed from the last time he was here to include Paul’s newest long player “Chaos & Creation In The Backyard” too.
There are only 4 songs from the album though, as good as the album was, Paul plays it safe with an audience pleasing set list of past solo songs, previous Wings tracks and, well, what else, but some of the finest songs known to pop music.
New appearances this tour include those “Chaos .. ” tracks “Fine Line” ( “Flaming Pie’s” slightly less wacky younger brother), “Jenny Wren”, “English Tea” and “Follow Me”. Beatles classics “I’ll Get You”, “Till There Was You” ( Described as a ‘smoochy’ song of the kind the Beatles would play in Hamburg ), a short and sweet “I Will”, “Fixing A Hole”, “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window”, “Good Day Sunshine” & “Please, Please Me”.
There’s no variation on the set list for the tour so no surprises here the only thing that could be improvised is the chatter – mentions are made of Paul’s fall through the floor in Tampa as his piano was raised to the stage – but even then the joshing was probably played out through out the rest of the tour.
As mentioned earlier the usual ‘Gazette’ styling is used here and once again, it is used well – full colour photos from the tour edge the pages which also include a short review of the tour, a listing of the band, an uncredited concert review, an interview with Paul from ‘Bass Player’ magazine, October 2005, a full set list which also includes the album each song is taken from, the year of the albums release along with who plays what, a report on Macca’s Hofner bass, a fan’s report of the show taken from the internet and to top it off a press report on the broadcast to the International Space Station where Paul played “Good Day Sunshine” to the crew on board.
All in all this CD has everything to recommend it – a brilliant sound, a fantastic set list and the fact that there is nothing comparable to it on the audio market, official or otherwise, from this tour all make it a must to have in your collection.
