Paul has a stronger performance on 2nd night of the tour, but Camera Nazi's ruined what should have been a fantastic evening for some fans who were booted from the concert. What the hell?
I might be a little off here but isn't Paul McCartney and his band suppose to be the focus here, the star of the show. What was stadium venue security thinking about? My guess is some local celebrities had their people press venue secuirty as it is clear that Paul's people totally allow photography. Bob Gannon describes his disgust and mixed emotions as he attends his 97th Macca show.
Report by Bob Gannon:
Hey Gang,
Going in to this, I was really excited to see my favorite performer in my favorite baseball team's stadium! To e able to see Paul perform while I get a wonderful chance to watch the show while actual being in centerfield in the most historic field in baseball history. But two days at this venue only proved to be personally disappointing. This is a home game for me too being from Jersey and it's a time that I see so many friends from the area that I know sharing the macca experience. So I am always excited for New York area shows. The first show was just kind of nuts for me....security ordering people to stay seated, more floor seats with people in them than I've ever seen in 97 shows, Paul many flubbed lyrics and numerous friends up close all noting that Paul did not look well at points of the show and actually worrying about his health. That's not something that I noticed because as usual I was too busy taking pictures. And even with the flubbed lyrics, I thought personally that it was a hot performance and that a lot of the peripheral stuff stripped away some of the gloss. Plus I figured, there is still night #2 and things have got to get better .Right?
So I'm getting ready to enter the park for round two when I get a text from my friend already inside. It's a warning that there is some kind of crazy security issue at least where he was sitting where security was already saying that no picture taking would be tolerated. He was challenged at the gate and then again at his seat. I got through security without any problems but as I got to me seat about 20 minutes before the start of the show I was preparing my two cameras that I have been allowed to take into every show that I go to and see security already going up and down the aisles to each side of me stopping people from taking pictures from every camera and every cell phone. Now some friends were surprised when I told them this because where they were there was no such problem with security in their area yet a lot of friends did have the same problem. I was middle section A4 floor row 15. And to my right the aisle was patrolled by four security persons that paced up and down the length of that section stopping all who attempted to take pictures. Very early on, I got caught and warned but I decided to try to be sneaky as they couldn't keep this kind of pressure up for long. But then I continued to watch and saw no less than 4 people kicked out of the show when caught a 2nd time. I then watched in horror as a good friend sitting in row 5 was pulled from his seat surrounded by three guards. My friend tried to explain that this was an allowable thing and actually showed them the sound check letter saying that cameras were fine. The guard answered, this is not sound check anymore and were discussing having him removed from the venue. Then enter as masked super hero. Brian Riddle jumped the barricade and told them my friend was fine and that his camera and picture taking was allowed. He then had a pow wow with Mark Hamilton who I haven't seen in awhile and told security to back off. Of course already almost an hour into the show I continued to try to conceal my photography as I was unaware at that time that they called the dogs off and already having one warning was not going to chance getting kicked out.
The good thing about them being camera nazi's, they had no time to tell everyone to sit in their seats and the floor for the most part was up on it's feet and into it. Paul performance tonight was even better, only one lyric flub that I heard and his voice sounded considerable stronger tonight to me. He shuffled some songs in and out of the set and moved positions of some songs. I've seen the set lists already up so I won't waste space on that.
The big surprise came in the first encore when Billy Joel joined Paul on stage after Paul announced him as a friend of mine, a friend to Yankee Stadium and a friend of New York. Billy Joel came out and went on the piano as Paul added "I saw her standing there". Billy looked very well, happy and healthy. All of my friends after the show all thought that this show was far superior to the 1st show all around and even with the security hassles tonight it didn't detract much from the show as everything else came together nicely. The only sad lesson learned here is that maybe Yankee Stadium is not a good venue for future McCartney shows!
That's it for now as I'm pooped! Photos tomorrow on your favorite Beatle's news sites!
Bob
Last Updated: 07/19/11 12:12
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On The Run Tour: 2nd Night @ Yankee Stadium - Fan Report SlideShow