Come together, right now.
On Thursday, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr thrilled fans with a surprise reunion onstage at a London concert.
“Should we rock? Get on your kit,” McCartney said to his former bandmate as Starr came on, and the crowd went wild.
The two last surviving Beatles performed in front of 20,000 fans at London’s O2 arena as part of the final night of McCartney’s “Got Back” tour.
McCartney, 82, and Starr, 84, played the Beatles hits “Helter Skelter” and “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.”
When Starr left the stage, he said, “It’s fantastic, playing with me old mate, but there comes a time when we’ve got to go home. All that remains to be said…. I’ve had a great night and I love you all.”
McCartney’s “Got Back” tour began in April of 2022, with over 59 shows, and also included performances in Paris, Madrid, and Brazil.
During his set, he played hits from his 60-year career, including the Beatles song “Blackbird,” his hit “My Valentine,” and the song “In Spite of All the Danger” from his first band, the Quarrymen. McCartney also played some of the Jimi Hendrix’s “Foxy Lady.”
After the latter song, McCartney said about Hendrix, “I was lucky enough to know him a bit in the 60s and he was a great guy, a great guitar player but a very humble person.”
Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood also came out to play a rendition of “Get Back.”
McCartney not only reunited with former bandmates, but he also reunited with his original Hofner 500/1 bass guitar for the first time in more than 50 years.
McCartney used the instrument to record hits like “Twist and Shout,” “All My Loving,” “Love Me Do,” and other singles from the Beatle’s first two albums, but it got stolen in 1972. He recovered it earlier this year.
The former Beatle bought the guitar for $37 before becoming famous. Post-fame, it was valued at $12.5 million.
At the beginning of the concert, McCartney told the crowd, “Oh London, this is the last night of our current tour, we’ve been around South America and all over the place. So it’s great to be back and we’re going to have some fun tonight.”
The rock legend also included tributes to the two late Beatles, John Lennon, who was murdered in 1980 at age 40, and George Harrison, who died of cancer in 2001 at age 58.
His concert included footage of Lennon performing “I’ve Got a Feeling” during the Beatles’ famous rooftop concert at Apple Corps headquarters in 1969, while McCartney played the song live onstage.
Footage of Harrison performing and the Beatles rocking out together also played onscreen.
Ever since the Beatles broke up in 1970, the surviving band members have reunited several times. McCartney and Starr played together onstage for the former’s 2018-19 “Freshen Up” tour. They also reunited at Starr’s 2015 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.
