by Richard and Irina Porter
Paul McCartney gave his second ever concert in Russia in St. Petersburg on 20th June. It took place in Dvortzovaya Ploschad the city's main square, right in front of the Winter Palace, where the Russian Revolution started. The square is surrounded by wonderful buildings and it's unlikely that Paul had done a concert in such a beautiful and historic setting before.
Paul had visited St Petersburg a year before on the eve of his Moscow concert. Apparently, he was very impressed by the city and agreed to play a concert there.
We heard about Paul's concert early in the year. We were planning to get married in a few months and decided that the St Petersburg concert would be a perfect honeymoon destination. Irina is originally from Moscow so we decided to go to the concert and then on to Moscow to see her friends and family.
Fans came from all over Russia to see Paul. We met a group who some drove all the way from Samara some 3,000 miles! Extra trains were laid on from Moscow especially for people attending the concert.
Paul stayed at the Konstantinovsky
Palace on the Gulf of Finland (near St.Petersburg). There are
20 such cottages along with the Baltic Star Hotel near by. The
cottages bear individual names of Russian towns and decorated
with the towns coat-of-arms.
Three out of twenty cottages are permanently booked for President
of Russia, Russian Prime Minister and one of the President's personal
advisers. The President always stays at St.Petersburg cottage.
The cottage Paul and family stayed at, had 5 bedrooms, several reception rooms and studies, as well as a gym. Specially for Paul his living quarters were adorned by plants in big pots.
Paul gave two interviews to the major Russian TV channels: Channel One (before his arrival in Russia,) and State-run RTR the day before the concert.
The day before the concert a meeting took place of the new official Russian Beatles Fan Club. There have been many regional Fan Clubs in Russia before but no national organisation. At the meeting many fans got onstage to tell the others about their organisation and activities. Maybe the importance of the occasion got to some people as everyone that got onstage was very serious and rarely smiled at times it almost seemed like a communist party meeting!
Right after the meeting Tony Sheridan held a press conference at Club Liverpool. Tony was in town for two concerts (following his appearance in Moscow) and posters advertising them were all over St Petersburg in fact, we saw more Tony Sheridan posters than Paul McCartney posters the reason being all the McCartney ones had been taken down by fans! Apparently, Paul and Tony did not meet up, as Tony wasn't invited to the concert because Paul didn't know he was in town.
The Russians approach organising a rock concert in the heart of the country's 2nd most important city as a major security and logistics operation.
From 10 am (the official start of the concert was announced as 6 pm), roads were closed off around the square much to the frustration of locals and tourists.
Entry to the concert arena was through an arch leading to the square, and also through a side street. Whereas the latter was by way of an orderly queue, the main way in through the archway was a scramble. It took ages to get into the square as thousand of people had to pass through one of only 8 booths provided!
Although tickets were on sale on the day of the concert, we heard reports of scalpers selling them for many times the face value too! It was reported that the audience was about 70,000 people.
Tour merchandise was comparatively cheap which reflects the standard of living in St Petersburg. An official t shirt cost the equivalent of £10!
It was Paul's managers' request that no alcohol or any drinks at all, even water, be allowed to be brought into the concert. So all bags were searched and bottles disposed of at the approaches to the square. However, there were stalls in the square itself selling snacks and drinks including beer. Not a good idea when there were less than adequate toilet arrangements about 10 toilets for 70,000 people. Half an hour wait at any time during the concert although the queue did afford good views of the stage!
The same went for cameras. Officially not allowed, they could be brought in, and not too much attention was paid at stopping people using them in the middle of the seating area. Those sitting around us were taking pictures, taping and filming away to their hearts' content. Strangely, those at the back standing area were escorted out if they tried to take pictures.
Just before the concert started a very heavy rain shower soaked all the audience. Where were the airplanes dispersing the clouds, as reported by newspapers? By the way, it is a standard practice for big 'official' events in Russia. It did work in the end, as it stopped raining before Paul came on stage.
In fact, most of the show took place in bright sunlight St.Petersburg lies to the north, and mid simmer is famous there for the 'white nights' daylight can stay up to midnight. Paul remarked during the show, 'I thought we were going to get wet but we are getting a sun tan instead!' It was light throughout the entire concert. It even caused Paul an unexpected problem. During For No One, Paul was reading the lyrics off a tele-prompter, but he couldn't see it because of the sun shining directly at it. He really messed up the words as a result!
Paul and the band were in great form and seemed to be really enjoying themselves. Paul's voice was good, but compared to the 2003 tour it seemed to crack a bit on high notes.
Paul spoke some Russian during the show much more than in Moscow last year and with much more ability and confidence too. The sound quality was very good much better than Moscow. So was the translation of what Paul was saying typed on the screens.
Members of the Russian Beatles Fanclub were given special access to a 'fan area' just in front of the stage and Paul regularly interacted with them especially when they sang 'happy birthday' of course, Paul's birthday was only 2 days before.
Paul seemed to be having trouble with his trousers during the concert he didn't seem to be wearing a belt and kept on having to pull his trousers up!
Of course, Back in the USSR got the biggest roar from the crowd. Right after I've Got a Feeling Paul sang a new song called St Petersburg. It was not as enthusiastically received as one might have expected. Paul didn't announce the song and it took people quite a while before they realised what he was singing.
After the show Paul left the square in a coach which followed 2 Mercedes cars as escorts. Paul stood inside the front door of the coach to wave goodbye to the fans. He left only about 10 minutes after the show ended and was still dressed in his stage clothes.
The stage was taken down very quickly after the show we were in the square at about 11am the morning after the show and it had already been taken down and driven away. Except for the chairs they must have belonged to the Russians!
On the whole, the press coverage was favourable. Amongst the Russian elite be it politicians, musicians or journalists it is considered cool to be a Beatles fan, an echo of the past when Western music was banned in the country, and then let loose during Perestroika. Amongst the lucky ones to meet Paul this time was St.Petersburg's governor, Valentina Matviyenko, who proudly announced to the journalists that she had been a Beatles fan since 70s. Although President Vladimir Putin was not at the concert this time, the VIP box was full of Russian dignitaries. It was rumoured that the concert started 1.5 hours after the announced time because they were waiting for the arrival of a business big-wig. The concert commenced immediately after he and his family settled down in the VIP seats.
As usual, the press followed
every move of the McCartney family, including them going out for
a walk on the Finnish Bay shore with Paul pushing the baby in
the pram, and Paul and Heather's menu at the restaurants they
ate in. The papers had contradicting reports as to what Paul was
doing on his birthday the day he arrived in St.Petersburg,
but all stressed it was a family evening when the press was not
welcome.
Meanwhile, Russian Beatles fans had a huge party on the shores
of the Finnish Bay to celebrate the Beatle birthday as they
had done for dozens of years.
The April fool joke in the Russian press about moving the Alexander Nevsky column from the middle of the square apart, a concern was reported about the fragile state of the Winter Palace which houses the Hermitage - Russia's best collection of European art and other historic buildings in the square. Never lavished on by the state funds, they would suffer if exposed to strong sound waves. Cracks appeared in the plaster on the walls and security alarms kept going off. But the Hermitage's director Mikhail Piotrovsky did not mind he is a Beatles fan, and probably watched the show from the best seats the balconies of the Winter Palace, as did some of museum's employees, to the envy of us all!
Last year during his brief visit to the city Paul said that he loved St.Petersburg. This time St.Petersburg loved Paul, too. The concert was a great success and contributed to promoting St.Petersburg as a major tourist attraction in Russia - a campaign started with the city's 300 anniversary celebrations last year.
Richard and Irina Porter
Richard
Porter is author of the book 'Guide to the Beatles' London' conducts
regular Beatles tours of London. For more information please see
http://www.beatlesinlondon.com
Richard and
Irina were married at Marylebone Registry Office on June 11, 2004.
Back to the '04 SUMMER TOUR' page.
Jorie Gracen