In 1993,

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

and his band embarked upon The New World Tour, spanning almost the entire year and almost the entire globe. This tour featured a controversial pre-concert film (starting in the U.S leg of the tour), which was shown before all of the concerts and had graphic animal test footage in the film. The tour incorporated painted stage sets (at the time the world's largest, measuring 16,400 square feet), projections, and promotional material designed by a regular McCartney collaborator, the artist

Brian Clarke Brian Clarke (born 2 July 1953) is a British painter, architectural artist and printmaker, known for his large-scale stained glass and mosaic projects, symbolist paintings, set designs, and collaborations with major figures in Modern and conte ...

. The 1993 World Tour was Paul's last tour for nine years, after his wife and band member

Linda McCartney Linda Louise McCartney, Lady McCartney ( Eastman; September 24, 1941 – April 17, 1998) was an American photographer, musician, animal rights activist, vegetarian cookbook author and advocate, and entrepreneur. She was the keyboardist in th ...

was diagnosed with

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a re ...

in 1995, as well as Linda's last tour during her lifetime, before she died in 1998 at the age of 56.

Promotion

The tour was intended to promote McCartney's ninth studio album ''

Off the Ground ''Off the Ground'' is the ninth solo studio album by Paul McCartney, released on 2 February 1993. As his first studio album of the 1990s, it is also the follow-up to the well received ''Flowers in the Dirt'' (1989). Recording and structure Afte ...

''. Despite having released three albums of live material in the space of the previous three years (''

Tripping the Live Fantastic ''Tripping the Live Fantastic'' is Paul McCartney's first official solo live album and his first release of concert material since Wings' 1976 ''Wings over America'' live package. It was released in 1990 as triple LP, double cassette and double ...

'', '' Tripping the Live Fantastic: Highlights!'', and ''

Unplugged Unplugged may refer to: *Acoustic music, music not produced through electronic means * "Unplugged" (B.A.P song), 2014 * "Unplugged" (''Modern Family''), a 2010 episode of ''Modern Family'' Albums and EPs * ''Unplugged'' (5'nizza album), 2002 * '' ...

''), the tour was followed by the live album ''

Paul Is Live ''Paul Is Live'' is a live album by Paul McCartney, released in 1993 during his New World Tour in support of his studio album ''Off the Ground'', released that same year. ''Paul Is Live'' contains live recordings of McCartney and his touring ...

'', consisting of material taken from The New World Tour. However, the release was not embraced by record-buyers, becoming McCartney's lowest-selling live album.

Touring

McCartney's touring band consisted of himself, wife

Hamish Stuart James Hamish Stuart (born 8 October 1949) is a British guitarist, bassist, singer, composer and record producer. He was an original member of the Average White Band. Biography Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Stuart attended Queens Park School in ...

Robbie McIntosh Robbie McIntosh (born 25 October 1957) is an English guitarist. McIntosh is well known as a session guitarist and member of The Pretenders from 1982 until 1987. In 1988 he began doing session guitar work for Paul McCartney joining his band fu ...

Paul "Wix" Wickens Paul Wickens (born 27 March 1956) is an English musician, composer, and record producer, professionally known as Wix. In a career spanning more than 40 years, Wickens has worked with artists including Nik Kershaw, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Bon ...

and

Blair Cunningham Blair Cunningham (born October 11, 1957, Memphis, Tennessee) is an American drummer who has played for many bands and artists including Denise LaSalle, Robert Johnson, the Detroit Emeralds, Frederick Knight, Echo & the Bunnymen, Haircut One H ...

. The final North American stop, in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

, was broadcast live across the United States, with some songs replaced by commercials, by the

Fox Television Network The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations an ...

. This was McCartney's final tour of the 20th century. Several venues on the tour featured McCartney's first concert appearance there since his touring days with

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

. This was the third and second times Paul McCartney toured Australia and New Zealand, respectively. A proposed further tour to Australia in 2002 was cancelled after the Bali Bombings. His next visit to Australia and New Zealand finally occurred for the first time in over twenty-four years on the One on One tour in 2017. In 1993, before Paul McCartney played the South American leg of the tour, Parlophone/MPL released the album ''

'' which had songs taken from his concerts in North America and Australia. In 2002, Paul McCartney released a concert DVD from the tour titled '' Paul Is Live in Concert on the New World Tour''.

Tour band

– lead vocals, guitars (acoustic, electric and bass), piano, drums *

– backing vocals, keyboards, percussion, autoharp *

– backing vocals, guitars (acoustic, electric, acoustic bass and electric bass) *

– backing vocals, guitars (electric and acoustic) *

– backing vocals, keyboards, accordion, acoustic guitar, percussion *

– drums, percussion

Tour dates

Set list

Instruments played by band members

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:New World Tour, The 1993 concert tours Paul McCartney concert tours