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Paul McCartney opened his North America tour in 2025 on Friday evening with a short-term warm-up concert in the Santa Barbara Bowl in California. He opened the evening with a sensation: he played the Beatles classic “Help!” For the first time since 1965, completely live again.
McCartney breaks with tradition
The small arena only holds 4,562 spectators, a quarter of the size of the halls, which it plays in the course of the tour. The concert was sold out within a few minutes, cell phones had to be stowed in Yondr bags, which is why no complete video material from “Help!” has appeared online. A fan filmed for 30 seconds at the sound check.
Most recently, McCartney had a 50-second medley with “Help!” During his “Flowers in the dirt” tour Played, together with “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Give Peace a Chance”. The last full performance dates to December 12, 1965 when the Beatles played in the Capitol Theater in Cardiff.
The comeback is remarkable because McCartney usually avoids Beatles songs, which mainly come from John Lennon. Lennon himself said in 1980 in the “Playboy” interview about “Help!”: “When the song came out in 1965, I actually shouted for help … I was fat and depressed and really begged for help.”
Classic in the set and virtual Lennon duett
In addition to “Help!” If McCartney did not surprise the audience with further rarities, but provided a set full of classics. Beatles songs such as “Getting Better”, “Lady Madonna”, “Hey Jude” and “Helfer Skelter”, Wings-Hits such as “Jet”, “Live and Let Die” and “Let Me Roll IT” as well as solo pieces such as “My Valentine”, “Coming Up” and “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-five”.
He also performed the “new” Beatles piece “Now and then” and once again presented the virtual duet with John Lennon on “I’ve Got a Feeling”, supported by film recordings from the famous Rooftop concert 1969.
The tour continues on Monday in the Acrisure Arena in Thousand Palms, California. Should “Help!” Stay on the setlist, will soon appear more extensive video material on the Internet.