Description
Paul McCartney launched his New World Tour in 1993. It was his second world tour in the space of two years, with the new songs coming from his Off the Ground album. The New World Tour started in March in Australia and ended in Chile on the 16th of December. The tour was more than an opportunity to play music – Paul and Linda McCartney took their ecological and animal rights campaign across the world and aimed to save the planet from destruction.
However, not everything went to plan. In many arenas, ticket sales failed to cover the astronomical costs of each concert – there was a feeling that McCartney had been too ambitious in his plans. Moreover, the critics failed to warm to Off the Ground – and dismissed some of its songs as being lightweight and forgettable.
McCartney lost his appetite for touring and did not go back on the road until the turn of the millennium, and his band all went their separate ways.
This book is more than a record of The New World Tour of 1993. It starts at the end of 1990, when Blair Cunningham replaced Chris Whitten as the band’s resident drummer. The book then examines the MTV Unplugged concert of January 1991, and then the series of low-key tours around small venues that became known as “The Secret Gigs.”
The author has consulted a huge range of sources in his research – including audience recordings of concerts; official and unofficial audio and video; newspaper, magazines and tour programmes; and well as the first-hand experiences of numerous fans.
Paul McCartney The New World Tour 1993 is essential reading for anybody who wants a closer insight into McCartney’s live work, as well as his personal beliefs and philosophies. It is essential reading for all fans for Paul McCartney’s work.
A very impressively researched rare record of a key but overlooked time in the history of rock’s most accomplished showman. Essential reading for the real fans.
— Geoff Baker, Paul McCartney’s publicist (1989–2004)
