Production photographs reveal scale of Macca’s Out There tour

After weeks of intense preparations and rehearsals, photographs from Paul McCartney’s Out There tour have surfaced, indicating not only that the production has been mixed up, but also that some changes in the setlist may be on the way.

Paul and the band, consisting of Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray on guitars, Paul “Wix” Wickens on keys and Abe Laboriel Jr on drums, have been in LA’s on Stage 27 at Sony Pictures Studios preparing for the brand new tour – right nextdoor to the Rolling Stones rehearsing for their tour (full story here).

While Macca has been playing concerts using the same stage since 2002 (with a brief shake up for the 2005 US tour), photos reveal that the staging has evolved to include more lights, lasers and video screens, as well as a large hydraulic platform that will literally put Paul ‘out there’.

The old stage was a grand structure, with a height and width of 25 meters and a depth of 65 meters. The new bigger stage stands at a fractionally shorter 24 meters, but has a 40 meter depth and 70 meter width.

The photographs also reveal a possible hint at some of the new songs that will make an appearance in the setlist. One of the photos shows Paul directing the action on stage with a slightly out of focus screen in the foreground. The word “TITANIUM” is clearly visible hinting at the inclusion of Magneto and Titanium Man, the bouncy piano rocker from his 1973 album Venus And Mars.

One photograph also shows Paul (playing acoustic guitar) and drummer Abe Laboriel Jr (playing bass) sharing a microphone. This would seem to indicate that they are rehearsing Hope of Deliverance from the 1993 album Off The Ground, a track that did surprisingly well in the charts in Europe, particularly Germany and Spain. This was played at several shows in Brazil in 2012 and dropped once the tour moved away from South America.

There have also been reports of the band rehearsing Venus and Mars / Rock Show / Jet, Letting Go and Listen To What The Man Said, again all from the Venus And Mars album, With a Little Luck from London Town (1978) and most surprisingly George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass from his album of the same name released in 1970.

However, regarding the previously mentioned songs, Brian Ray teasingly tweeted: “rumours of the PM setlist are way off!”

Whatever is in store, it is sure to be an exciting and ‘minty fresh’ show! The all new Out There tour kicks off on May 4th at Mineirão Stadium in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, before heading across North America and Canada with a handful of European shows.

All photographs by MJ Kim courtesy of www.PaulMcCartney.com