Commuters with tickets to ride out of New York’s Grand Central Station heard a special serenade on Friday evening, with Paul McCartney taking over a corner of the majestic hub for a concert.
Only invited guests including Jon Bon Jovi, Meryl Streep, Amy Schumer, Kate Moss and Steve Buscemi were let behind black curtains to see the stage, but everyone could hear a 24-song set that spanned more than 50 years of music.
It was a stunt to promote a new album called Egypt Station.
McCartney said he wondered “what’s the coolest station we could think of?” and settled on the Manhattan landmark. The band set up under a chandelier and in front of a giant clock, just off the 42nd Street entrance.
Despite gray streaks in his famous mop top, the 76-year-old former Beatle was in fighting trim.
He performed familiar hits like Let It Be, Can’t Buy Me Love, A Hard Day’s Night and Lady Madonna. He also dug deeper into his songbook for I’ve Got a Feeling, Hi Hi Hi and 1985.
While he played three songs from his new album, McCartney did more from the 50-year-old The Beatles, also known as the “White Album.”
The sweaty, dancing crowd hardly minded the trip back in time.
McCartney might be the world’s most famous musician, but he is also human. Seemingly nervous as he stood on a riser in the middle of the audience with an acoustic guitar for one song, he flubbed the words to Blackbird not once, but twice, starting over both times.
Surrounding fans, famous and non-famous, knew all the lyrics and coaxed him on.
“I know this song,” McCartney said in frustration. “I wrote it!”
Before singing the Beatles’ first single, Love Me Do, McCartney told of his nerves singing the chorus and that he can still hear it in his voice when he hears the recording.
Flash forward a half-century and he talked about a writing session with Kanye West. After a few days in the studio, he was not sure they even had a song. A few months later, West sent him a copy of 4, 5 Seconds with Rihanna on lead vocals.
“I rang him up and asked: ‘Am I on this song?’” McCartney said, adding that West told him it included his guitar.
At Grand Central, McCartney reclaimed it.
Some members of the Beatles’ extended family were on hand.
Sean Lennon, the son of McCartney’s late bandmate John Lennon, was in the audience.
So was McCartney’s wife, Nancy Shevell, and he dedicated the song My Valentine to her.
Giles Martin, the son of long-time Beatles producer George Martin, was handling the concert’s sound.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The