06.10.11 Paul McCartney @ MGM Grand Garden Arena - Las Vegas, NV

McCartney

The public date for Paul McCartney was tonight. It was truly an amazing show. Coming off the high of a successful private date last night I was confident but cautious about the public date tonight. All the same concerns: sound check VIP party, getting butts in seats before he hits the state, crazy fans, staff taking pics of the icon, you know, the usual.

We had an unusual situation with this show. The door time was our normal 6.30p but the showtime was 7.30p. Our normal start time is 8.00p. Of course it's printed on all the tickets, on all the advertising and people are told this when purchasing tickets - but we all know - people are morons so we were all worried people would arrive late. As it is, Vegas has a notoriously late arriving crowd. 

A rock legend on stage

To add to the mix, McCartney had to be wheels up by 11.00p. This meant he had to go on no later than 8.00p. This sounds like a simple task but when we're talking about loading 13,500 people into a building when we know they're a late arriving crowd and that Paul won't go on stage if there are open seats in his eyeshot - talk about pressure. 

I think this was Give Peace A Chance

But before the show I was helping with a special group of kids. McCartney invited about 40 kids from the Nevada Blind Children's Society to be his guests at the show. Lots of artists do charity world but rarely have I seen ones go to this level and NEVER have I seen the Tour Production Director handling it himself. Lonnie and I worked out parking backstage next to the arena for the parents, escorts for them past the metal detectors and into their seats for the show. We warned them about some pyro concussions during Live and Let Die and made sure they had the escort out of the building after the show. As an added goodie I hooked them up with programs and McCartney tee shirts. Truth be told, I was given them for free to give to my staff but these kids will appreciate it more than my staff will. 

McCartney puts on 1 hell of a show!

So after getting the kids into their seats I headed to deal with the meet & greet for the casino. We got 4 people approved to get a quick pic with McCartney as he headed to the stage. (DQ and I were supposed to get our pic taken too but sometimes my job gets in the way of my personal opportunities - it's not the end of the world.) I had my team go out to get the m&g guests from their seats and have them escorted backstage. I was at the hip of Barry Marshall, Paul's manager. On the way to the meet & greet he paid me an extraordinary compliment to the President of Entertainment. He said he was going to bring me to work with him in London. Now how serious he was, who knows but for Barry to say that was a big deal. Barry doesn't shell out random compliments. He doesn't have to.

Even Yoko & Olivia Harrison
were there

But tonight the professional stars aligned for me. Barry & I scanned the seats from stage right minutes before Paul walked to the stage. 7.50p, all the seats were filled and he was smiling at me. In his most sincere, sweet british accent, "Well done my dear. Well done." I don't need pats on the back but comments like this from Barry are things people in our business work for and hold dear.

8.00p Paul hits the stage and I watch the 1st song from stage left, my favorite spot. A huge sigh of relief.

Live & Let Die

I watched some of the show, more tonight than yesterday. I caught Live & Let Die with the pyro. Awesome. Totally cool. Also caught Hey Jude. To hear 13,500 people singing in unison is something I can't explain. It's palpable, electric. It moves you. I got choked up and I'm not a McCartney OR a Beatles fan. 

The 2 encores were coming to a close so I headed backstage to make sure it was clear. I ran into Barry again. "You always keep so calm under pressure. You do your job extraordinary well. How do you do it?" he says to me. "I drink heavily," I half-jest. He cracked up and gave me a high-five. Barry's a proper Englishman so for him to high-five me was quite a moment. 

The end to a great night

My team and I pulled off quite a feat. To the outside world, no biggie. 2 Paul McCartney shows. To people in the industry who've had McCartney, they know what we did. And I'm so proud of us - the MGM Grand Garden Arena.







Set List

MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR
JUNIORS FARM
ALL MY LOVING
JET
GOT TO GET YOU INTO MY LIFE
SING THE CHANGES
LET ME ROLL IT
LONG AND WINDING ROAD
1985
LET EM IN
I’M LOOKING THRU YOU
AND I LOVE HER
BLACKBIRD
HERE TODAY
DANCE TONIGHT
MRS VANDERBILT
ELEANOR RIGBY
SOMETHING
BAND ON THE RUN
OBLA DI OBLA DA
BACK IN THE USSR
I GOTTA FEELING
PAPERBACK WRITER
A DAY IN THE LIFE
LET IT BE
LIVE AND LET DIE
HEY JUDE

DAY TRIPPER
GET BACK

YESTERDAY
HELTER SKELTER
SGT PEPPER

06.09.11 Paul McCartney for Hewlett Packard Convention @ MGM Grand Garden Arena - Las Vegas, NV

Paul McCartney playing for HP

Paul McCartney did a private date for the Hewlett Packard convention at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. I was worried about this show in particular. Pair McCartney with a bunch of crazy convention managers and it makes for one big nightmare. But it turned out to be one of the best convention/concert dates I've ever done. Everything worked out almost flawlessly and I looked like a frigging rockstar. Now I know I'm good but what makes me so good is my team and my ability to bring people together, convince them that I know what I'm doing and to trust me. 99% of the time that works out. And for the other 1% when I fail miserably, people around me don't let it get out. They cover for me. That's what a team does. They don't let each other fail, or if they do fail, they don't let others know about it. I am so proud of the people I work with. They're my friends, my colleagues, my confidantes and my saviors. If it weren't for them, I would have quit years ago. This job is fun and yes, I'm appreciative to have a job, but let's face it, after almost 6 years it's not really challenging. I should have probably moved on years ago but the people, the family in the Grand Garden Arena keep me coming back day after day, hour after hour, week after week. Here's to them.

Paul thanking the HP crowd

So back to McCartney HP date. The big concern for McCartney's team was that there wouldn't be butts in seats by the time Paul when on stage. He's a BIG stickler for that. I remember 5 years ago when he did a 2-date Thanksgiving weekend stint for both shows we had to fill seats with people from the upper bowl down on the floor. Now that seems cool for those people but what happens is when the original seat-holders show up, those inadvertent seat fillers get kicked back to their shitty seats. They are fully briefed of this before we ever bring them down but they don't seem to remember that part. It's a nightmare. But luckily none of that happened. 

About 8,000 HP attendees were having dinner in the MGM Grand Conference Center. It was my job to get them all into their seats in an hour and to make sure there were no gaps in the seats that Paul could see. Sounds simple but imagine 8,000 all coming at you thru 2 entrances, checking all their badges, making sure all have a wristband and scan each and every ticket. But the team I have assembled did just that - flawlessly. 

Paul took the stage around 8.40p. The entire HP crowd was into it for the full 2+ hours. Whew. Mission accomplished. Another successful event. And we'll do it again tomorrow.