McCartney Live
On Sunday 27 June, Paul McCartney headlined the fifth Hard Rock Calling festival concert to be held at Hyde Park. The concert was broadcasted live on the YouTube channel dedicated to the Born HIV Free campaign: www.youtube.com/BornHIVFree.
Paul McCartney throws his support behind the BORN HIV FREE campaign. McCartney’s concert from London’s Hyde Park was the first musical performance streamed globally from Europe on YouTube. 1.4 million: that’s how many people logged in to watch this concert on the Born HIV Free channel on 27 June – and 14,000 tweets mentioned that show. Viewers were also asked to state their case for the cause during the broadcast, to raise government awareness in the key donating countries, which will be meeting in New York in October to decide how much money they will earmark for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS for the next three years. Paul McCartney’s concert will be on the YouTube Born HIV Free campaign channel for a month. So, like the 40,000 spectators in Hyde Park on the last Sunday in June, you will be able to enjoy (or relive) the Former The Beatles singer dressed in A Hard Day’s Night fashion with black ankle boots and his equally-famous left-handed Hofner bass guitar. The audience ushered him onto the stage with a ritual rendition of Hey Jude and he kicked off at 7.30 pm with Jet, a hit from his album Band on the Run, which he recorded with Wings in 1973. With the sun setting in the background, Paul McCartney went through his solo, The Beatles and Wings hits, including All my Loving, Ram On, Eleanor Rigby and Band on the Run. And then a version of Back in the USSR that made it clear that Paul McCartney has written as many ballads as terrific rock songs.
Paul has appeared in Hyde Park only twice before – the first time was when he opened and closed 2005’s Live 8 concert and the second when he came on stage as a surprise guest last summer at Neil Young’s show to perform The Beatles anthem ‘A Day In The Life’.This concert is part of Paul’s all new ‘Up and Coming Tour’, which started in the US earlier this year. The Hyde Park performance will mark the end of a successful run of shows in the UK and Ireland which saw Paul headline the Isle Of Wight Festival and perform his first ever UK standalone stadium show at Scotland’s legendary Hampden Park Stadium. In keeping with his headline-making special concerts over the last few years, this all new tour has already broken ticket selling records around the world and has seen the iconic star and his band play in unique venues, places and locations, including new cities where he has never played before and familiar markets he has not visited for a while.
Speaking about the success of the concert, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy said, “I am thrilled with the great success of the concert broadcast on the Born HIV Free channel. Paul McCartney was enthusiastic about participating in the campaign, and he showed his support by giving 16 of his best tracks to be visible on the channel.”
“It was an innovative and exciting way to attract the public’s attention for a serious matter by offering a moment of shared enjoyment to all,” added Julien Civange, the producer behind the Born HIV Free campaign and originator of the online broadcast. “The success of the concert and streaming is an inspiration to repeat the experience with further events to support the campaign.”
