Wings at the Myer Music Bowl
Wings performed two concerts at Melbourne’s Myer Music bowl, on the 13th and 14th of November 1975. On both nights. they performed to audiences of 14,000 fans. This was part of Wings’ tour of Australia in November 1975.
The Music Bowl is a unique structure. It is a partially-covered outdoor venue named after the businessman and philanthropist Sidney Myer. It first opened as a concert venue in 1959.
Apology for Japan
On the day before the first git at the music bowl, Wings recorded an “apology” for Japan. This was in response to an announcement on the 11th of November that Wings were banned from performing in Japan due to McCartney’s previous convinction for the possession of cannabis.
After a brief monologue, Wings perform a beautiful acoustic rendition of Bluebird. Denny nonchalantly exhales a thick cloud of smoke!
The First Night’s Performance
The first night at the Myer Music Bowl was filmed for a fifty-minute TV special that was aired on the 8th of February 1976 on Australian television. In 2019, the entire two-hour unedited concert was uploaded onto YouTube. We have the unique opportunity to see an unedited visual record of a Wings during the 75-6 world tour. The fact that it is unedited means that it is arguably a more authentic document than Rockshow.
Highlights of the Show
You will form your own views about the best songs from the concert. These are mine:
Jet
The band get into their stride with a fine version of this song.
The Long and Winding Road
What Didn’t Work as Well
The band had struggled to get Junior’s Farm up to scratch during the British leg of the World Tour. It was finally dropped from the set-list for the US leg of the tour. Although Jimmy delivers a fine solo, the harmony vocals are out of key in places:
This Day Tonight Interview
Immediately after the show, Wings took part in two interviews for Australian television. The first was for This Day Tonight. The interview is in good spirits. Watch the band’s reaction to the following question:
The Mike Walsh Show
A second interview was conducted by the Australian chat-show host Mike Walsh. You can see that Paul is still wearing the strawberry jacket and Linda has the Magneto T-shirt. Here is part of the interview:
Friday the 14th of November
Wings perfomed the same show at the Myer Music Bowl on the following night. Very little audio or video footage has emerged from this event. However, this is more than compensated for by the wealth of archive material from the first night.
The second night marked Wings’ final appearance in Australia. The tour had been a huge success. On a more personal level, there is no doubt that Paul and Linda had fallen in love with the nature and wildlife of the nation, and seemed genuinely sad to leave. The following clip, aired on Wings Over the World, shows the family visiting the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane on the 11th of November 1979:
You can read more about Wings’ 1975 tour of Australia in my new book, Wings Live. Here is the link for the shop. Click on “Read More”.
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