Paul McCartney in Quebec City
Awesome, magical, extraordinary! Words cannot fully describe the atmosphere at Paul McCartney's concert, last Sunday night, in Quebec City. It was certainly unprecedented. In deed, Quebec City has never before seen such an event: Paul McCartney on the Plains of Abraham. As the crowd waited late Sunday afternoon, an announcer justly said that nothing that big had taken place on the Plains since the battle between the troops of Wolf (the British army) and those Montcalm (the French army) in 1759.
You may need to know, or have heard, that there was a controversy in the weeks before the concert with negative comments on the coming of a British singer to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the French speaking capital of North America. Well this all vanished when McCartney came on stage around nine thirty and greeted the crowd with a typical French-Canadian expression. «Bonsoir toute la gang». And the magic began and lasted throughout the evening.
For two and a half hours, Sir Paul took us back to the time of the Beatles and of Wings, giving a magnificent performance of thirty two of his most successful songs. He said he enjoyed being there and it showed. The man was at his best and the public loved him. Close to the end, when he sang «Hey Jude», the public sang along and it seemed that neither he nor his fans wanted the song to end. He dedicated «Birthday» to Quebec: a lady he said who is celebrating her 400th anniversary. He dedicated a song to Linda his deceased wife and partner in Wings. He remembered Georges when playing a ukulele. But one of the most moving moments was when remembering John he and the crowd of 270.000 people sang «Give peace a chance». May their voices be heard !
I taught, as we stood there under the moon making a timid appearance behind the clouds, that if in deed I was not at Woodstock in 1969, I was on the Plains in Quebec city for the Paul McCartney concert in 2008.