Paul McCartney gives 'Wonderful Christmastime' a rare outing at stunning UK concert

16 December 2024, 12:22

The mood was right for Sir Paul McCartney to roll out this Christmas cracker.

Paul McCartney's 'Wonderful Christmastime' comes in for a lot of unwarranted criticism, but in recent years fans more and more have started coming around to just how, well, wonderful it really is.

Even though it's returned to the top 40 every year since 2017, Sir Paul doesn't play it very often in concert.

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That's fair enough: it'd feel a little odd to see the ex-Beatle smashing out 'Wonderful Christmastime' to a crowd of fans at Hyde Park or Glastonbury at the end of June.

It's a rare time when the stars align when it's a Paul McCartney tour during the Christmas season, and even then Sir Paul has to be in just the right mood to add the song to his playlist from the six or seven hundred odd he's recorded over his career.

But that happened at the weekend when Macca broke out the Christmas cracker at the opening show of the UK leg of his Got Back tour.

Paul McCartney Wonderful Christmastime Manchester 14 Dec 2024

Sir Paul played 'Wonderful Christmastime' at the first of his two planned shows at Manchester’s Co-Op Live on Saturday (December 14) – the first time he's played the song in six years.

Best of all, he played the song with a Chistmassy backdrop, "snow" falling from the ceiling, a band dressed as elves and a real-life kids' choir, who presumably had been practising all year long (ding dong, ding dong).

And to underline that he's no scrooge, he kept the song in the setlist for his show at the same venue the following day.

Here's hoping that McCartney plays the songs at his shows at The O2 in London this Wednesday and Thursday, too.

Paul McCartney's massive 36-song setlist on his show in Manchester on December 14 was as follows:

1. A Hard Day's Night
2. Junior's Farm
3. Letting Go
4. Drive My Car
5. Got to Get You Into My Life
6. Come On to Me
7. Let Me Roll It
8. Getting Better
9. Let 'Em In
10. My Valentine
11. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
12. Maybe I'm Amazed
13. I've Just Seen a Face
14. In Spite of All the Danger
15. Love Me Do
16. Dance Tonight
17. Blackbird
18. Here Today
19. Now and Then
20. Lady Madonna
21. Jet
22. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
23. Something
24. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
25. Band on the Run
26. Wonderful Christmastime
27. Get Back
28. Let It Be
29. Live and Let Die
30. Hey Jude
    Encore:
31. I've Got a Feeling
32. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
33. Helter Skelter
34. Golden Slumbers
35. Carry That Weight
36. The End