No one yet knows if he will sing for the reopening of Notre-Dame-de-Paris but one thing is certain: Paul McCartney is eagerly awaited, Wednesday December 4 and Thursday December 5, 2024, at the Défense Arena for his first concerts in France for six years.
At 82, the former Beatles is (perhaps) embarking on his last tour. The tour, called Got backlaunched in the United States two years ago, sees Sir Paul revisiting his entire repertoire, from the Beatles to his solo career via the Wings.
A godsend for fans who were able to purchase a ticket. They sold out in minutes in June! Michka Assayas will be there. The host of Very Good Tripon France Inter has also just published a book which takes up the common thread of the broadcasts which he had devoted to McCartney in the summer of 2023, enriched with illustrations and personal memories.
Paul McCartney started music as a teenager. At 82, he is still on stage. What is the secret to such longevity?
Michka Assayas: I have the impression, I can only speculate, that he is someone who has always known how to return to the source, that he regenerates naturally. He never got lost. When you know how to do something and you’re happy doing it, that’s enough in life. He has an intact fire although I don’t know how he fuels it. The excitement is still there for him. Just because you’ve performed a song 2,000 times doesn’t mean something won’t happen in 2001e. It’s like for us listeners, we may have listened 150 times Hey Jude, we still want to listen to it. It’s like eating chocolate, it’s a pleasure that’s always renewed.
Also read: The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Bob Dylan… Can you still be rock when you’re 80?
What is your first memory of performing with Paul MacCartney?
I never met him, it’s a regret because I always considered him a friend that I don’t know, but I had the opportunity to see him several times in concert. The first was in 1976 with the Wings. I was a high school student and had nothing but contempt for Wings but I knew there was a Beatles interlude. I found myself in the middle of a group of girls who were screaming, who were drowning out their voices, I found it really sacrilegious.
And then?
I saw him again in 1989 during a tour where he was at the piano on a rotating stage. I found it good without being overwhelmed, among other things because of the musicians who accompanied him. On the other hand, I saw it again about ten years ago in Bercy and it was sublime. He had sung for more than three hours, he was in dazzling form. He had a way of being on stage in front of 15,000 people that made you feel like you were with him in his living room. A naturalness, a joy to be there, a simplicity. It was truly magical.
Paul McCartney is one of those artists capable of bringing a kind of intimacy to the crowd.
How do you hope to find him at La Défense Arena?
I’m a little apprehensive. He’s lost his voice a bit lately, I hope it’s fatigue and he’s recovered. I was offered the place. Maybe I would have been reluctant to go without it for fear of ruining this memory from ten years ago. But Paul McCartney is also one of those artists who is capable of making us forget the monumental side of the rooms and bringing a kind of intimacy to the crowd.
Exactly, what makes it so special in your eyes in concert?
He displays total generosity. Each time he gives the impression of singing as if it were his last concert, he is playing his life, he is 100% in it. There is something both powerful and fragile. I remember an Arctic Monkeys concert six years ago where I was terribly bored. It was short, mechanical, very choreographed, without much communication with the audience… Musically, it was good but nothing was happening. When you see someone like McCartney, you tell yourself that there is something beyond musical quality, and that is personal involvement. Sometimes we have it, sometimes we lose it and then we find it again. McCartney always had it.
Is this your favorite Beatles?
It doesn’t make much sense to have a preference. When I discovered the Beatles as a child, I couldn’t tell who was singing or who had composed them. I only dissected that later. Each had its charm, in fact. There was a magic between them. There was perhaps one person you could love more at certain times in your life, but it remained variable. Strawberry Fields Foreverwritten by John Lennon, for example, makes me shiver beyond anything Paul has written.
It’s impossible to reduce Paul McCartney to just one color
Do you have a favorite period in Paul McCartney’s immense career?
Not so much a period as the albums he made on his own. The first obviously (McCartney released in 1970). McCartney II (1980), it’s quite uneven but there are things that are great like Waterfalls. And I love Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (2005) where he plays practically alone. And then the last one, McCartney IIIwhich he made during confinement. I find that there is a special magic when he is the one doing the tinkering.
The Paul McCartney playlist by Michka Assayas:
Which song best represents Paul McCartney’s personality for you?
There are several. His favorite, by his own admission, is Here, There and Everywhere (published in 1966 on Revolver), which is universally known. To convince people that there is, behind the nice Paul, a completely wild streak, you just have to make them listen Helter Skelter et Why Don’t We Do It in the Road (on the Double Blanc released in 1968). To reveal that he is an extraordinary melodist, there is For No One (on Revolver in 1966), Jenny Wren (on Chaos and Creation… in 2005) or even She’s Leaving Home (on Sgt Pepper in 1967). But it’s impossible to reduce it to a single color.
Very Good McCartney Trip d e Michka Assayas and Maud Berthomier published by GM, 176 pages, €20.
