During the spring and early summer of 1973,

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 ...

's band

Wings A wing is a type of fin that produces lift while moving through air or some other fluid. Accordingly, wings have streamlined cross-sections that are subject to aerodynamic forces and act as airfoils. A wing's aerodynamic efficiency is expresse ...

performed on a twelve-city

concert tour A concert tour (or simply tour) is a series of concerts by an artist or group of artists in different cities, countries or locations. Often concert tours are named to differentiate different tours by the same artist and to associate a specific to ...

of the United Kingdom.

Promotion

The tour was for the purpose of promoting the band's latest album, ''

Red Rose Speedway ''Red Rose Speedway'' is the second studio album by the British–American rock band Wings, although credited to "Paul McCartney and Wings". The album was released by Beatles-owned label Apple Records in April 1973, preceded by its lead single, ...

'', as well as the single " Live and Let Die" from the

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

film of the same name. Another reason for the tour was that McCartney simply enjoying playing live shows.McGee, ''Band on the Run'', p. 46. This was the largest tour yet for Wings. Unlike the surprise appearances of the previous year's

Wings University Tour Wings University Tour was an impromptu UK concert tour by Paul McCartney & Wings in 1972, shortly after the band's formation and initial album release, '' Wild Life''. Wings' lineup for the tour was Paul and Linda McCartney, Denny Laine, Henry M ...

and the spontaneous nature of the follow-up

Wings Over Europe Tour In the summer of 1972, Paul McCartney's newly formed band, Wings, set out on a concert tour of Europe, in a double decker bus, WNO 481. Promotion Coming on the heels of a tour of English universities, the Wings Over Europe Tour was intended to ...

, here the tour was announced in more normal fashion and fans could buy tickets ahead of time.McGee, ''Band on the Run'', p. 45. Tickets sold well, with a third date being added at the

Hammersmith Odeon The Hammersmith Apollo, currently called the Eventim Apollo for sponsorship reasons, and formerly known as the Hammersmith Odeon, is a live entertainment performance venue, originally built as a cinema called the Gaumont Palace. Located in Ha ...

and other cities being added onto the itinerary. The routing included a return to McCartney's hometown as the band played the

Liverpool Empire Theatre The Liverpool Empire Theatre is a theatre on the corner of Lime Street in Liverpool, England. The playhouse, which opened in 1925, is the second one to be built on the site. It has the largest two-tier auditorium in the United Kingdom and can ...

on 18 May. The announced nature of the tour also meant that music critics could arrange to see the shows, and while the press's regard for McCartney and the Wings enterprise in general was fairly low, the concerts got some mixed-to-good notices. Wings' line-up for the tour was Paul and

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 ...

Denny Laine Denny Laine (born Brian Frederick Hines, 29 October 1944) is an English musician, singer, and songwriter, known as a founder of two major rock bands: the Moody Blues, with whom he played from 1964 to 1966, and Wings, with whom he played from 1 ...

Henry McCullough Henry Campbell Liken McCullough (21 July 1943 – 14 June 2016) was a Northern Irish guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was best known for his work as a member of Spooky Tooth, The Grease Band and Paul McCartney and Wings. He also perf ...

, and

Denny Seiwell Denny Seiwell (born July 10, 1943) is an American drummer and a founding member of Wings. He also drummed for Billy Joel and Liza Minnelli and played in the scores for the films ''Waterworld'', '' Grease II'', and ''Vertical Limit''. His d ...

.Sounes, ''Fab'', p. 305. Shows lasted for around an hour or so. Wings presented a different image on stage during the tour's shows than they did on record, being respectively "undeniably vigorous and invigorating" rather than "tame, even lame," as

Tony Palmer Tony Palmer (born 29 August 1941)IMDb: Tony Palmer
Retrieved 24 September 2011 is a British film direc ...

wrote for ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'' after seeing the tour's opening night at the

Bristol Hippodrome The Bristol Hippodrome () is a theatre located in The Centre, Bristol, England, United Kingdom with seating on three levels giving a capacity of 1,951. It frequently features shows from London's West End when they tour the UK, as well as re ...

. The band had somewhat more material to play than they had in previous outings, and McCullough's instrumental "Henry's Blue", previously used to fill out the setlist, was not employed.Rodriguez, ''Fab Four FAQ 2.0'', p. 208. Laine's singing of his former band

The Moody Blues The Moody Blues were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1964, initially consisting of keyboardist Mike Pinder, multi-instrumentalist Ray Thomas, guitarist Denny Laine, drummer Graeme Edge and bassist Clint Warwick. The group came to ...

' hit "

Go Now "Go Now" is a song composed by Larry Banks and Milton Bennett and first recorded by Bessie Banks, released as a single in January 1964. The best-known version was recorded by the Moody Blues and released the same year. Bessie Banks version The ...

" was included, however. As per McCartney's practice with Wings at the time, the three non-McCartney band members did not earn a share of the receipts but rather received a flat rate of £70 a week, with a £1000 bonus paid at the tour's conclusion. This reinforced the financial dissatisfaction that Seiwell was feeling with vaguely promised royalties from Wings' recordings not coming to him.Rodriguez, ''Fab Four FAQ 2.0'', p. 204. McCullough was also unhappy with the monetary situation and furthermore resented having to share the stage with Linda McCartney.Rodriguez, ''Fab Four FAQ 2.0'', p. 210. Although her keyboard playing had improved from before, she still qualified as a musical amateur. Overall, the group began coming apart during the tour. The situation with Seiwell and McCollough would soon reach a breaking point in the weeks immediately afterward, and both quit Wings shortly before the group left for

Lagos, Nigeria Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 fo ...

to record '' Band on the Run''. The support act for the entire tour was pub rock band Brinsley Schwarz. Paul and Linda asked them to be on the tour after seeing them perform at the London

Hard Rock Cafe Hard Rock Cafe, Inc. is a British-based multinational chain of theme restaurants, memorabilia shops, casinos and museums founded in 1971 by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton in London. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and rol ...

's opening night a few weeks previously. Prior to the tour, Wings had performed unannounced at the Hard Rock on 18 March in support of the charity organisation Release. During a break in the tour itinerary, the McCartneys went exploring and ended up buying a secluded house, Waterfall, in

Peasmarsh, Surrey Shalford is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England on the A281 Horsham road immediately south of Guildford. It has a railway station which is between Guildford and Dorking on the Reading to Gatwick Airport line. It has one named loc ...

, which would end up becoming their main residence.

Tour dates

A source:McGee, ''Band on the Run'', pp. 173–174.

Tour set list

References

Cited bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wings 1973 Uk Tour 1973 concert tours Wings (band) concert tours 1973 in the United Kingdom May 1973 events in the United Kingdom June 1973 events in the United Kingdom Concert tours of the United Kingdom