Paul McCartney at Co-op Live Arena Review

Never take a legend for granted. A high bar is set for Paul McCartney, who plays his first UK arena show in five years at Co-op Live in Manchester. Nothing short of monumental. That much is expected. It is how McCartney pieces the show together, pulling from a career where each decade has a defining, fresh experience. From The Beatles to Wings and back to those days with the Fab Four for some contemporary touches amid solo works from across a sixty-year career, the Got Back tour offers everything from the Postcode Lottery song to that bit from Shrek: The Third. Just about everything you could want and more. McCartney is an icon. There is no need for him to prove that. His work speaks for itself, but it comes to life in fresh, freeing ways on stage.  

His mammoth set is hit after hit. It is staggering to hear how many McCartney has, and condensed into one lengthy set, from Please Please Me to Now and Then, is an immaculate showcase. McCartney is more than up for it – a rested voice and a clinical instrumental swing which turns the lesser-known bits into sonic spectacles. The occasional song has McCartney drowned out in the mix of percussion and brass but it is a small price to pay when hearing the likes of Jet or Band on the Run. Maintaining a smooth run-through of any show is tricky enough yet McCartney, with those decades of experience, keeps the forty-song strong set full of surprises. Wonderful Christmastime felt both inevitable and unexpected, the likes of Live and Let Die, while a necessity of the set, still strike with an intensity usually reserved for the best of surprises.  

Transcendent experiences are common in a show stacked with some of the best-ever songs. From an inevitably boisterous Hey Jude to the quieter beauties of Something, there is a chance to turn over every part of McCartney’s backlog. It all blurs together shockingly well in a show that, with so much material in it, somehow does not overstay its welcome. Even the stock options of Drive My Car or Getting Better, while no masterpieces, feel like massive chances to explore the discography. Hearing the pangs of A Hard Day’s Night more than makes up for a horrific wait to get in, queue-jumpers chancing their way over the barrier. Co-op Live is no great venue, but it is a treat of a place when an act as great as McCartney is there.  

Tributes to John Lennon and George Harrison are well-placed before the set culminates in the very works which made them such a formidable band. McCartney, more than anything, seems genuinely moved by the reception Now and Then and Let it Be receive. Rightly so. There is an element of constant shock to seeing McCartney. This is the man who formed a band which brought us Abbey Road. A musician who would go on to make Band on the Run, Flaming Pie and Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. It would be impossible to stop off at every worthy track McCartney has been a part of, but he makes a go of it on the Co-op Live stage. He remains one of the finest gig-going experiences around. A stellar voice still pushing through with something to prove, more to himself than the audience. McCartney presents punch after punch of moving, monumental material.