McCartney's new Hofner bass!

[k43rover]

Very cool. Poor old Paul is looking more and more like someone's spinster aunt as time marches on.

His looks don't concern me; it's how he sounded that I felt was the issue. It seems he can no longer reproduce anything close to the original vocal quality in a way that he still could even a few years ago. Personally I found this performance difficult to watch. While you can be charitable and argue it's still great that a 69 year old can perform at any sort of professional level, I find it sad to see this recent deterioration. Especially so when you could readily contrast his performance with Stevie Wonder (age 62) and Tom Jones (71) earlier on the same Queen's Diamond Jubilee concert bill. Those two artists showed that its still possible to produce great vocal performances live without any excuse at all for their age. See those performances here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ0fMCR9y1c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1HuRXwU ... re=related

In Paul's case, I'd prefer to remember him how he was rather than see him fade away in front of our eyes...

[Melma]

I dunno what happened to Macca. Even a couple of years ago, he sounded way better than this.

Aside from the (terrible) song choices though, it's not all his fault. Why he's persisted with this backing band for so long is a mystery to me. The bonehead at the drums lacks any kind of subtlety, and the band on the whole is really poor with the harmonies. Not just the pitch, but the overall character sounds terrible. Just listen to them in Magical Mystery Tour - they sound like they're singing into a bucket of cotton candy, the lot of them. People complaining about Macca's voice at this show fail to understand that really, he never stood a chance - not with these clowns messing up the show.

... And why on Earth did he not play Her Majesty?? Would've been perfect.

[wolfgang]

well,
to me it was a graet performance for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee BBC Concert.
Yes, Paul's voice loses stability for some years now. So you do not want to see him on stage anymore? No!
It was a nice choice of songs from the last six (o.k., five) decades, and it was a very british selection: All my Loving, Magical Mystery Tour, Let it be..
All the Voxes in front.
Live and let die, the James Bond movie song, as british as can be, the perfect choice (to me, here, in combination with the light show, it was even a reference to the Nazi bombardement in WW II)
Yes and he made a joke, like John did, decades ago (...She will unleash the Corgies).
And as show down Obladi, oblada, life goes on, hopefully for many more decades!
Thank You, Paul


Wolfgang

[SoundAffectsMusic]

Just thought I'd give some background on this one. We were party to getting this bass to Macca. He only got it on the Thursday before the concert and we didn't actually know if he'd play it or not. He hadn't requested it or anything - it was just sent in the hope that he might play it.It was a bit of a gamble as there had been 60 of the Contemporary basses made in the hope that he might. Suffice to say I was delighted when he produced it. As has been discussed his was a German version whereas the limited run (60 only) are Contemporary models. It seemed like a nice idea for the Jubilee.

They are not actually with us yet and we have sold out of the 25 we took but I have one for myself so the moment they arrive in I will post a few pictures if anyone is interested - should be a couple of weeks...

... as for his performance - I wasn't impressed, but then again I thought a lot of the performers fell short of the mark - Elton John was shocking!

Tim
Sound Affects

[fran4001]

Great story Tim, thanks!

[frickengruvin]

...for the fans who criticizing Paul's voice.....I don't know what age you are, but you try to go on tour (and stay on tour) for several years straight, performing hundreds of concerts a year,then consider he is 70 years old....

I've seen McCartney (and his current line up) a couple of times, the last concert I attended was May of last year at ATT Park in SF....

His voice was strong and awesome, and he closed a three hour set with Helter Skelter, complete with screams.

Don't get me wrong, I may sound like a fanboy in this post, but I'm not one at all. I just appreciate magnificence when I get to see/hear it. I believe what we are hearing is a McCartney voice that requires some time off to get rest....He appears to be a little tired...

With regards to Elton, he had the flu, and anyone who knows anything about singing knows if you are congested, there is no way you can sound as well as when you are healthy....

[k43rover]

it was just sent in the hope that he might play it.It was a bit of a gamble

Fantastic story Tim. When I read this it reminded me of the effort F C Hall made to get the 360/12 into Harrison's hands...and congratulations that it worked out so well for you too!

[k43rover]

...for the fans who criticizing Paul's voice.....I don't know what age you are, but you try to go on tour (and stay on tour) for several years straight, performing hundreds of concerts a year,then consider he is 70 years old....

I've seen McCartney (and his current line up) a couple of times, the last concert I attended was May of last year at ATT Park in SF....

His voice was strong and awesome, and he closed a three hour set with Helter Skelter, complete with screams.

Don't get me wrong, I may sound like a fanboy in this post, but I'm not one at all. I just appreciate magnificence when I get to see/hear it. I believe what we are hearing is a McCartney voice that requires some time off to get rest....He appears to be a little tired...

With regards to Elton, he had the flu, and anyone who knows anything about singing knows if you are congested, there is no way you can sound as well as when you are healthy....

Each to their own Mark. Like I said in the earlier post, I personally find it extremely sad to see his vocal performance deteriorating in such a public way (of course his bass playing is still wonderful). I'm not sure it will do his legacy much good if he carries on performing at this level (or worse) for much longer...especially with younger people who don't have the same deep appreciation of the Beatles as perhaps many of us on this forum do. I'm sure it's a massively tough call for any performer to decide when to call it a day, but for most that day must surely come...otherwise they will only end up short changing and disappointing their most avid fans. I recall a few years ago taking my mother to see a concert of Pavarotti shortly before he died. My mother was a massive fan of his work and had never had chance to see him live. We paid a great deal of money for those tickets and unfortunately his performance was terrible. All the people I spoke to on that evening felt extreme disappointment that the concert was allowed to go ahead given the state of his voice; that night he was truly a pale and pathetic shadow of the man they loved. I really hope Paul does not feel the need to soldier on to the bitter end in the same way...

[Ontario_RIC_fan]

Well at least she got to hear him in some form..

There was an infamous incident in my city Hamilton in 1999 with Pavarotti. He had sold out a 16,000 seat arena for his only Canadian performance.

I was driving taxi (in a van) that night and I had six $50 dollar trips in a row delivering whole families dressed in tuxedos to the concert. It was such a big deal that the city renamed a street after him.

The entire social and political elite of the city were all there dressed to the nines, waiting with bated anticipation... For weeks the local press was nothing but "what a coup! We have landed Pavarotti... Aren't we a centre of artistic excellence."

At five minutes before the concert was to begin a very stressed representative of the city, had to inform everyone that Maestro Pavarotti had decided that his voice need "a rest",,, So sorry.

The full story is here... http://www.thespec.com/whatson/article/ ... -pavarotti

[k43rover]

Well at least she got to hear him in some form..

At five minutes before the concert was to begin a very stressed representative of the city, had to inform everyone that Maestro Pavarotti had decided that his voice need "a rest",,, So sorry.

Well I see the folks at that concert at least got a refund on the tickets, even if they were both inconvenienced and out of pocket with the journey to the venue.

Frankly, I felt that we'd been completely ripped off after the UK concert. The night we saw him, he could hardly stand up and had to "sing" almost all numbers accompanied by a female singer...of course it was her voice we ended up listening to. I am sure the vast bulk of the people who attended that concert would have preferred what happened in Canada as we were all both out of pocket for the (exorbitantly priced) tickets and did not get anything approaching a true Pavarotti concert for our trouble/expense...

I should add that I was never a fan of Pavarotti (although obviously I can appreciate his amazing vocal power at its peak). However I would definitely classify my mother as a massive fan. I had never heard her be anything other than adoringly uncritical of Pavarotti prior to that night, but I could see that even she was tangibly upset by what she had witnessed. She was too kind to make any overtly negative comments but I could tell that her eyes were open enough to feel disillusioned by what we and others around us had experienced. Like I said before, I hope McCartney doesn't lead his own loyal fans down the same path...

[RobRick]

That Pavarotti story is crazy. Kudos to McCartney for performing, whether he had a cold, strained vocal chords, or is almost 70 years old. Maybe McCartney, if he is going to continue performing live, should re tool his song list to sing songs that are not a strain, and maybe change the key of certain songs.

[RobRick]

Just thought I'd give some background on this one. We were party to getting this bass to Macca. He only got it on the Thursday before the concert and we didn't actually know if he'd play it or not. He hadn't requested it or anything - it was just sent in the hope that he might play it.It was a bit of a gamble as there had been 60 of the Contemporary basses made in the hope that he might. Suffice to say I was delighted when he produced it. As has been discussed his was a German version whereas the limited run (60 only) are Contemporary models. It seemed like a nice idea for the Jubilee.

They are not actually with us yet and we have sold out of the 25 we took but I have one for myself so the moment they arrive in I will post a few pictures if anyone is interested - should be a couple of weeks...

... as for his performance - I wasn't impressed, but then again I thought a lot of the performers fell short of the mark - Elton John was shocking!

Tim
Sound Affects

Tim, do you know if McCartney's Union Jack Hofner was painted in Germany, or was it sent to the Hofner Custom Shop in the USA to have that paint job done?

[SoundAffectsMusic]

Hi, the bass was a Deluxe, handmade in Germany and then sent to USA for Custom Shop paint job as you suggest. Hofner said they didn't have the capability in Germany to pul this off. This meant it was a bit to the wire on the timing with Macca only getting the bass on the Thursday before the concert. I didn't see the guitar before it went, but I'm told that the white of the flag was actually the natural maple showing though - very pretty.

Cheers
Tim

[DavyR]

Hi, the bass was a Deluxe, handmade in Germany and then sent to USA for Custom Shop paint job as you suggest. Hofner said they didn't have the capability in Germany to pul this off. This meant it was a bit to the wire on the timing with Macca only getting the bass on the Thursday before the concert. I didn't see the guitar before it went, but I'm told that the white of the flag was actually the natural maple showing though - very pretty.
Cheers
Tim

Cool... A painted Deluxe... I have a 2005 Deluxe 5000/1. It's beautiful and seems to weight more than a 500/1. More meat on the bones. So, all I've got to do now is get the darn paint job?! ;^)

[RobRick]

Hi, the bass was a Deluxe, handmade in Germany and then sent to USA for Custom Shop paint job as you suggest. Hofner said they didn't have the capability in Germany to pul this off. This meant it was a bit to the wire on the timing with Macca only getting the bass on the Thursday before the concert. I didn't see the guitar before it went, but I'm told that the white of the flag was actually the natural maple showing though - very pretty.

Cheers
Tim

Tim, thanks for the response! Good to know. I have been telling folks it was a V62. I will correct that. And fascinating about the natural wood showing instead of white paint!