Paul McCartney Concert at BC Place

If you had a ticket to this event on Sunday night, consider yourself extremely lucky.  I was fortunate to be working this concert as an Usher Host in tunnel 403.  This was directly across from the stage on the fourth level.  I was extremely excited about this concert.  Although  Paul's songs have been around for years, the one I remember first seeing Paul on video was the duet he did with Michael Jackson back in 1983.  Here's the video to refresh your memory.  I still love this song today.

So, let me tell you about how my night went.  I walked off Skytrain and walked towards the stadium a little earlier than I normally would just because we were told the staff would be getting checked by security at the East Entrance of BC Place. I didn't have much on me so I got in with no problem.  But this is what the stadium had looked like three days leading up to the concert.  It had animated the Union Jack letting everyone know what was going to happen in that building. I took a pic of it from Costco before I walked into the stadium.

Once I got in, I noticed a large number of security guards everywhere.  People in black suits and wearing ear pieces everywhere.  I went to our locker room to get changed into my Host uniform.  I came back and the security guards had sectioned off the East Entrance with gates.  Turns out the Sir Paul McCartney was about to arrive into the stadium in his motorcade. He got out of the black SUV and walked right onto the stage as it was on the east side of the stadium.  Apparently he was to give a pre-concert to about three hundred people who had paid over $1000 for this little treat.

He wore a t-shirt and jeans.  None of the extras on the stage were dressed as well.  It looked like a dress rehearsal.  Which is really what it was.  We got to watch some of it while we waited to get briefed by our Team Leads.  I quickly checked my tunnel at 403 and the seats to make sure they were clean of bird droppings from our residents in the building.  Once that was done, I got my flashlight.  The doors were set to open at 6:30pm but Sir Paul was still on stage singing to his fans.   People were lined up at almost every gate waiting patiently to get in.  At about 20 minutes to 7pm, he finally finished his set and the doors were opened at 7pm to allow 40,000 plus access into the building.  My section filled up very quickly and by 8pm everyone was pretty much seated and patiently waiting for the concert to start.  I started walking up and down the stairs in my section to make sure people were okay and if they had any questions to ask.  I had a few.  Actually a lot and all of them were asking the same thing.  When was the concert going to start?  It was supposed to start at 8pm but since the rehearsal ran long and everything was delayed by half an hour, the concert actually started at about 9pm.

He played all my favorites.  And he even did a tribute to his friend, John Lennon.  Imagine all the people....

This was my view from my tunnel. It was amazing.

He played Hey Jude and the entire stadium was singing along with him.  Live and Let Die was amazing with all the pyrotechnics.

He played old and new songs and it was just simply amazing.  It was three hour concert thanks to 2 encore performances.  One of his encores had the Delta Police Pipe Band on stage with him playing Mull of Kintyre.

I had heard earlier at around 9:30pm from security that Bruce Springsteen was in the building downstairs.  I thought for sure that he was going to come up on stage and perform a duet with McCartney.  But it never happened.  Strange.  Oh well, the entire evening was amazing.  I was at my Whitecaps Volunteer Party tonight and I spoke with Bob Lenarduzzi about it.  He was also in attendance last night and he was also in awe of Sir Paul.  Incredible performance by my favorite Beatle.  He was humble and fun. His staff were organized and treated everyone with respect.  Its very rare we see this kind of treatment from concert organizers. He had the city of Vancouver eating out of his hands all night.  I hope he doesn't wait another 48 years to come back to Vancouver again.  Considering he's 70 yrs old now, I think this favors us in him returning sooner than that.