Voiceless McCartney suspends first British tour in decade
LONDON (AFP) – Sir Paul McCartney, Britain’s best-known living pop star, lost his voice and had to suspend his first tour of his native land in 10 years.
“I woke up this morning with virtually no voice,” ex-Beatle McCartney said.
The superstar singer-composer went hoarse after his opening night Saturday before an audience in Sheffield and had to disappoint fans looking forward to a second, Sunday-night appearance in the northern English city.
His repertoire includes 22 Beatles songs — almost twice as many as his old band ever played during any single stage show in Britain.
“I’ve been doing all that I can to try and get my voice back and I tried singing a couple of numbers at a sound check this afternoon,” McCartney said in a statement released by the show organisers:
“But nothing has worked and so I am afraid I have to cancel this show in order to save the other gigs on the tour,” he added apologetically:
“I’m sorry to all the people who all bought tickets for the show, at least we got to do one gig in Sheffield.
“We’ll be back to do the show here at some other time.”
As well as classics like “She’s Leaving Home,” “Back in the USSR,” “Eleanor Rigby” and “Fool on the Hill,” McCartney was adding to his repertoire more than a dozen hits from his post-Beatles solo period and time with Wings.
He has already taken his “Back in the World” tour around the United States, Canada, Mexico and Japan, playing 58 concerts in 37 cities, performing to more than one million fans over the past year.
After concerts in Manchester, Birmingham and London later this month, he plans to take his 2-1/2 hour act to Copenhagen, Stockholm, Vienna, and Antwerp, Belgium.
Saturday night marked McCartney’s first full-dress concert in Britain since his “New World Tour” of 1993.
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