Paul McCartney gestures to the crowd during his Got Back tour at TD Coliseum in Hamilton, on Friday.Nick Iwanyshyn/The Canadian Press
When I was younger, so much younger than today …
Paul McCartney opened his concert at Hamilton’s TD Coliseum on Friday with a Beatles plea from 60 years ago, Help!. The 83-year-old Liverpudlian’s off-and-on tour is call Got Back, and he did just that: the Quarrymen cover In Spite of All the Danger written by McCartney and George Harrison during the Harold Macmillan era, I’ve Just Seen a Face, the daft Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da from 1968, and another Lennon tune with an exclamation point, Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!.
What a scene, a production second to none, a splendid time guaranteed for all, etc., whatnot and what have you.
The nearly three-hour show officially reopened the arena after its $300-million modernization. TD Coliseum is not your father’s Copps Coliseum, even if McCartney is still your grandmother’s cute Beatle.
“Well, hello, Hamilton,” he greeted a sold-out crowd of 13,000 or so, after the spiffy synth-driven second song, 1980’s Coming Up. “It’s great to be back. (McCartney last played the venue in 2016.) “I’ve got a feeling we’re going to have some fun in here tonight.”
He wasn’t wrong. There’s no set list like a McCartney setlist, and there’s still no host more charming than the Band on the Run ringleader. His vocals? Not so great. The only high notes he hit were on the solo-acoustic version of Blackbird, which he performed on a stage that dizzyingly lifted him toward the rafters at one point. Within the rasp, however, McCartney’s familiar voice was easily detected.
Paul McCartney performs at TD Coliseum on Friday.Nick Iwanyshyn/The Canadian Press
The octogenarian with long black and grey hair was rather dashing in appearance, appearing initially with his famous Hofner bass, while dressed in a dark suit and white shirt. He soon took off the blazer, kept the vest and, during verses of the Wings song Let Me Roll It, literally and figuratively rolled up his sleeves. He was unshaven, with a bit of white scruff happening − what would the meticulous former Beatles manager Brian Epstein think?
The version of Let Me Roll It included a Foxy Lady coda as a salute to Jimi Hendrix. McCartney told the story of seeing a relatively unknown Jimi Hendrix Experience at the Bag O’Nails club in London on Jan. 11, 1967. “He was a really lovely guy,” the singer recalled.
It’s 2025, and McCartney is getting good milage out of the Rubber Soul track Drive My Car. The 2011 single My Valentine was dedicated to his American wife, Nancy Shevell. It’s a classy song built for the Sinatra kind of crooner.
The special-effects budget was blown on the James Bond theme Live and Let Die. Fire-throwing furnaces possibly scorched eyebrows and loud detonations had McCartney feigning deafness afterward.
On stage with him were keyboardist Paul Wickensm, drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., guitarist Rusty Anderson, bassist/guitarist Brian Ray and the three-member Hot City Horns (who stood out on the Beatles’ Got to Get You into My Life and Wings’ Letting Go).
U.S.-based sports and entertainment venue owner/operators Oak View Group have dramatically overhauled the arena, with previously unused space on the main floor and the second-level concourse now utilized.
“The fan experience is multiplied in a building that still holds the same amount of people,” Paul Young, senior vice-president of project management at Oak View Group, told The Globe and Mail this week.
The venue holds 18,000 for sporting events, less for concerts. Its place in the Southern Ontario entertainment infrastructure is similar to the role played by Place Bell, in Laval, Que., which handles overflow from Montreal’s bigger Bell Centre.
“There’s a market for another arena in the Toronto area,” said Nick DeLuco, TD Coliseum’s senior vice president and general manager, who describes the venue as Oak View Group’s “flagship” Canadian facility.
Paul McCartney performs in Hamilton on Friday.Nick Iwanyshyn/The Canadian Press
The 2026 Juno Awards will be held at the venue in March. Booking partner Live Nation Canada has MGK, Andrea Bocelli, Brad Paisley, Jonas Brothers and Trans-Siberian Orchestra coming to TD Coliseum in December.
Though his voice was in scratchy form, McCartney otherwise appeared fit as a fiddle. Or a mandolin (which he plucked on 2007’s Dance Tonight) or a ukulele (which he used to salute the Beatles guitarist Harrison on a touching version of Something).
He gently shimmied after songs and with a pep to his step moved from a grand piano (Let it Be, Hey Jude, Maybe I’m Amazed) to an upright model (Now and Then, Lady Madonna).
“Thank you, John, for writing that beautiful song,” McCartney said after Now and Then. Lennon recorded it as a demo in the 1970s; Harrison added a guitar part in the 1990s; McCartney and Starr finished it and released it in 2023.
Live footage from Peter Jackson’s Get Back documentary was incorporated, allowing 1969 Lennon to duet with a live McCartney on I’ve Got a Feeling: “Everybody had a hard year; everybody had a good time.” It was the opening number of a seven-song encore that closed the show.
Next, Mull of Kintyre (performed with the Paris Port Dover Pipe Band, all kilts, drums and bagpipes), followed by a musical apology from 1967: “We’re sorry but it’s time to go.” The album cover to the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was brought to life on a giant screen by the wonders (?) of AI technology.
A raucous Helter Skelter was followed by the Abbey Road medley of Golden Slumbers, Carry That Weight (with McCartney, Anderson and Ray wildly trading guitar licks) and The End. McCartney’s send-off math, “The love you take is equal to the love you make,” is as fine an equation as Einstein ever managed.