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Paul McCartney Wows Ukraine
Former Beatle Paul McCartney played to an audience of 350,000 on Independence Square (“the Maidan”) in Kiev on June 14 in heavy rain. Sir Paul, who played in Russia in 2003 and 2004, was brought to Ukraine through the efforts of philanthropist and son-in-law of former president Leonid Kuchma Viktor Pinchuk. The cost paid by the Viktor Pinchuk Foundation for the free concert was not disclosed, but it can be noted for comparison that a similar concert in Liverpool recently cost £1.7 million for equipment, insurance and legal fees alone. The concerts in Liverpool and Kiev are all that are on McCartney’s schedule for the summer, but an autumn tour is under discussion.
Admission to the VIP seating area at the free concert was obtained by contributing funds to fight cancer. The presidents of Ukraine and Georgia were among the attendees. Pinchuk’s New Channel television station broadcast the concert live and giant screens were set up in the main squares of Ukraine’s five largest cities to view the concert. An estimated 10 million people watched the concert, at which McCartney performed 33 songs. The audience in Kiev was the third largest ever recorded for a concert. Larger audiences have only turned out in Rio de Janeiro, to see Rod Stewart in 1994 and the Rolling Stones in 2006.
McCartney, who turns 66 this week, began the concert with the Beatles’ song “Drive My Car.” He dedicated the song “My Love” to his former wife Linda and gave a rare performance of “Mrs. Vanderbilt,” once a favorite in Soviet discotheques. He spoke Ukrainian to the audience with the aid of phonetic signs at his feet, thanked the audience in Ukrainian and Russian and had fun with the translators who provided sporadic subtitles for his comments by speaking gibberish occasionally, which is a favorite trick of his. The singer and his musicians were at odds over the repertoire a few times, but McCartney showed himself once again to be a master showman and a good time was had by all.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 16, 2008
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