Waiting for Paul

September 25, 2008 - 7:33 AM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: General, Music, Pop Culture 

paul ta.jpgWhen I arrived at the Dan Hotel in Tel Aviv Wednesday morning, I didn’t expect to see hordes of teenage girls outside waving banners saying “I Luv Paul”. But I did think there would be some indication that the most successful musician of all time – former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney – was upstairs in the hotel’s 5th floor Presidential suite, possible in golden slumber.

Aside from the usually posted guard asking me who I was going to see (“meeting a friend staying at the hotel, sir”), there didn’t seem to be any extra security, as I sidled in, and scoped out the scene. I knew there was supposed to be a photo opportunity with Paul at 11:30, to which all journalists had been disinivited. There weren’t going to be any questions allowed, and all the photographers had been told not to say anything to the man.

But since I had to be in Tel Aviv anyway, I decided to crash the party and catch my first glimpse of a Beatle in the flesh (assuming that Paul didn’t die in 1966 and was replaced by a look-alike imposter).

I easily found the corner of the hotel set aside for the photo op, because there were a lot of poorly dressed guys (about 30) with big cameras and loud voices hanging out. I had the camera in my Samsung cell phone, and I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans, so I fit right in.

Fortunately, there were a couple other crashers who I knew – Israel Radio’s music correspondent Benny Dudkevitch, who knows more about pop music than most humans, Yoav Kutner, the country’s pre-eminent Beatle expert and music director of Radio Tel Aviv, and rock singer Danny Robas, who has a second career performing Beatles music. Like me, they just wanted to see Paul, and soak in the fact that, for the first time, a Beatle was in Israel and playing a show (Thurs. night at Yarkon Park in Tel Aviv). We traded some stories, rumors and excitement.

Unfortunately, for whatever reasons, Paul didn’t show, and they kept delaying his arrival from his suite. Another 20 minutes, than an hour delay, and then the Israeli PR people were afraid to return and give an ETA fearing the, by now, ornery photographers would start using their cameras as weapons. These guys aren’t the most polite bunch to begin with, and their comments about McCartney can’t be repeated here.

Pitchers of juice and trays of apple strudel courtesy of the hotel did little to ease their moods, and when McCartney finally descended almost three and a half hours after schedule, there was no reason to caution them again not to talk to him. They would have spurned him anyway.

Like a surreal silent movie, they snapped away, Paul stayed silent, except mumbling something about a story I had written in that day’s Jerusalem Post about the ‘Paul is dead’ myth, and then he walked away surrounded by flunkies and bodyguards.

I took a couple pix with my cell phone, but mostly I just did what I had intended to do – looked at Paul, remembered seeing him on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, and watching the Beatles through all their developmental phases which helped form who I am, and affected the music I still listen to.

He left the hotel, and finally, I saw a dozen or so fans surround him. He politely signed autographs before getting into a car and taking off for a tour of Bethlehem. Fans surrounded the car, a couple banging on the hood and windows and saying “I Love You Paul.”

It was reassuring to discover that Beatlemania in Israel still exists.

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Paul says ‘Shalom’

September 15, 2008 - 8:31 AM by · 1 Comment
Filed under: General, Music, Pop Culture 

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With the upcoming show in Tel Aviv by Paul McCartney only a little more than a week away, the promoters must be getting a bit antsy.

The weekend papers were filled with full-page ads for the “Friendship First” concert, and ticket sales have reportedly peaked around the 30,000 mark – quite impressive but considerably less than the sellout mark of 40,000.

And only yesterday, an extreme Islamic leader in Lebanon threatened Macca’s life if he goes on with the vast outdoor concert slated for September 25 in Hayarkon Park. In an interview with the Sunday Express in London, Omar Bakri Muhammad slammed the former Beatle for coming to Israel and warned, “If he values his life Mr. McCartney must not come to Israel. He will not be safe there. The sacrifice operatives will be waiting for him.”

According to Ynet, the Syrian born speaker identifies with al-Qaida, was excommunicated from the UK and now operates out of Lebanon, where he broadcasts hate-filled sermons over the Internet.

McCartney, to his credit, has refused to back down. “I was approached by different groups and political bodies who asked me not to come here. I refused. I do what I think and I have many friends who support Israel,” McCartney told Israeli reporters.

And not only that, he’s made an only semi-embarrassing video to encourage people to attend the show. If you want to see a 66-year-old man still pretend he’s Hard Day’s Night cute and relevant, click below…

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Better than Paul?

August 31, 2008 - 9:27 AM by · 2 Comments
Filed under: General, Music, Pop Culture 

With Beatlemania belatedly in full swing in these parts, ahead of the September 25 appearance in Tel Aviv of Paul McCartney, the $130 tickets are being gobbled up at a rapid pace.

I’ve been underwhelmed at the prospects of seeing Sir Paul with 69,999 other aging Beatles fans. Sure, if I was presented a ticket on a silver platter, I’d be there without a moment’s hesitation. But aside from hearing maybe 8 or 10 Beatles classics, one of them probably being “Michelle”, the only clunker on Rubber Soul, the rest of the show is going to be… well, Paul’s solo career.

Let’s face it, the legends that claim an imposter took over after Paul was killed in that 1966 car crash, may not be too far from accurate. Sure the fake Paul mustered on with stellar work through the White Album and Let It Be, but by the time his solo career was launched, he was plumb out of ideas. There have been occasional moments of that old Beatles magic in “Band on The Run”, and, uh… er.., well, some of those songs with Elvis Costello in the late 80s like “My Brave Face” were pretty punchy. But is anyone going to be happy listening to his latest offerings off Memory Almost Full, albeit his critically lauded latest album?

Pondering these issues, I took the wife and younger kids to see a Beatles tribute band on Thursday night in Jerusalem’s Safra Square at an end of summer free show for the city’s residents.

The Magical Mystery Tour Band has been together for seven years, and man, are they good! Not only do they sound as close to The Beatles classic sound as is humanly possible, they also play with the enthusiasm of the Fab Four on The Ed Sullivan Show.

It was one classic after another non-stop, from “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” and “All My Loving” to “And Your Bird Can Sing” and “Back in the USSR”. Even though these guys are native Hebrew speakers, their vocals are dead on, and their harmonies were fantastic.

As much as seeing Paul McCartney up on stage, even if he looked like a postage stamp in size, would be a once-in-a-lifetime thrill, for reliving the magic and wonder that was The Beatles, the Magical Mystery Tour did just fine.

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‘Paul is alive’ rumors abound

August 25, 2008 - 8:39 AM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General, Life, Music, Pop Culture 

Well, it’s official, sort of.

Paul McCartney is on the way play in Israel – which is being touted as the biggest concert in the country’s history.

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Despite the PR firm of promotor Dudu Zerzevsky calling reporters Saturday night to notify them that McCartney would be appearing at Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park (seating upwards of 50,000), and all the papers and TV news shows running items on Sunday, there’s been no official confirmation, and McCartney’s publicist, Stuart Bell was quoted by AP as saying, “Nothing’s been confirmed.”

Still, I’ve been assured it’s a done deal, and baby boomers are already speculating at how much they’ll have to dole out for tickets to the show of a Beatle fan’s lifetime.

A Channel 10 news report said that prices would be in the NIS 500 range – that’s about $145. But it’s a given that no matter the price, the show will sell out.

Costs for the show being bandied about reach an estimated  $4 million, including a 100-person production team, an extra-large stage and expansive sound system, and additional touches such as two vegetarian kitchens at the show’s location for the vigorously anti-carnivore musician.

Earlier this year,  Israeli Ambassador to Britain Ron Prosor sent a letter to McCartney and the other surviving Beatle, Ringo Starr, inviting them to perform in Israel for its 60th birthday.

“We should like to take this opportunity to correct the historic omission which to our great regret occurred in 1965 when you were invited to Israel,” Prosor wrote, referring to a missed chance Israeli promoters had to book the Fab Four in 1965. Legend has it that members of the government  denied the proper permits to perform in Israel on the grounds that their music might corrupt the country’s morals.  But Beatles historian  and  aficionado Yoav Kutner disputes that theory.

 ”It never happened that way,” Kutner told Ha’aretz. “The concert was canceled because of a dispute between music promoters Giora Godik and Yaakov Uri. In 1962, Godik received an offer from the mother of the Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein that they come to Israel. But [Godik] preferred to bring singer Cliff Richard, who was much more famous at the time. When Uri bought the rights to hold the concert two years later, Godik was angry that he blew the opportunity and went to the Knesset’s Finance Committee to persuade them to bar the promoters from taking out foreign currency.”  At the time, expenditures of large amounts of foreign currency in Israel, which would have been used to pay the band, required government approval.
 
Hopefully, in the next day or two, the concert will become official, all the 40-60-year old fans who have spent their lives hoping to see The Beatles, will cash their savings accounts, and the country will experience a month of Beatlemania that had previously been denied.

 Now, if only the Pixies would come here.

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