Paul McCartney announces European tour

Sir Paul McCartney has announced a European tour, including his only UK date in 2009.

The announcement follows his successful summer tour of the United States. It will be his first European tour since 2004.

The press release is as follows:

Following a massive tour of the US this summer, Paul McCartney today announces his first European Tour since 2004. This December will see Macca play seven special arena shows across Europe, culminating with his first ever public performance at London's O2 Arena, which will be his only UK date of this year. Other firsts on this tour will include shows at Berlin's O2 World venue and Dublin's The O2. Paul's legendary live performances are a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience. The audience gets to re-live some of the greatest moments in music from the last 50 years, many of which have become the soundtrack to living.

Paul commences his tour in Hamburg - a city he is very familiar with. Incredibly, it's now 49 years since The Beatles historic visit, which created rock folklore and put Hamburg on the map as a musical Mecca for hundreds and thousands of music pilgrims over the years. This will be Paul's first time back in Hamburg (as well as Arnhem, Cologne and Dublin) since his 2003 "Back In The World" tour. Meanwhile, the people of Berlin will get their first Paul McCartney concert in 16 years, since 1993's "New World Tour"! December will take Paul back to Paris for the first time since he played an intimate club show at the Olympia in 2007.

London's O2 Arena will host Paul's final show of 2009 where he will bring the year to an end on a high. This will be his ONLY live show in the UK this year! Paul's last UK show was a massive sellout concert at Anfield Stadium in 2008. At the time the Liverpool Echo wrote, "If Anfield had a roof, Macca would have blown it off." The O2 Arena does have a roof so it's set to be a massive night of excitement and rock n' roll Macca style! Although this is Paul's first public performance at the O2 Arena he is very familiar with the venue. In 2004, before the O2 Arena was up and running as the world's greatest music venue, Paul used the Millennium Dome (as it was known then) for rehearsals for his massive stadium "04 Summer Tour" which ended with Paul headlining the Glastonbury Festival which has gone down in rock history as the greatest festival moment ever. Although his rehearsals at the Millennium Dome were meant to be top secret, he was soon rumbled when a near by resident complained about the rock n' roll noise upsetting his cat!

Speaking about the tour, Paul said: "This is my chance to bring our current show home to where it all began. Starting in Hamburg, ending in London and rocking everywhere in between. I'm very much looking forward to ending the year on a high."

What a year 2009 has been for Paul. He kicked it off by teaming up with Dave Grohl to perform "I Saw Her Standing There" at the Grammys, where he was also nominated for two awards. In April, Paul performed in New York at the David Lynch Foundation's benefit concert, "Change Begins Within". He was joined on stage with Ringo Starr for a special finale. Paul also headlined the Coachella Festival (his first US festival appearance) and performed a show to mark the opening of The New Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, a gig which sold out in seven seconds, setting a new sales record with tickets selling at a rate of 600 a second. July 11th took Paul to Halifax, Nova Scotia for his first ever concert there, which took place on the Halifax Commons. The mayor of Halifax described the show as the largest and most exciting concert in its 260-year history.

Following Halifax, Paul embarked on a five-week tour of the US; 'Summer Live '09'. The tour commenced with the inaugural run of shows at New York's Citi Field Stadium, which was the site of the former Shea Stadium where The Beatles made history in 1965 when they played a concert that set the precedent for the modern day stadium rock show. Critics hailed the Citi Field performances, seen by over 120,000 people, as the concert experience of a lifetime. The tour concluded in Dallas on the 19th of August.

For those of you who won't be able to make it to one of the European shows this Christmas you can re-live the Macca magic with 'Good Evening New York City', a multi-disc CD/DVD featuring performances recorded at New York's Citi Field from Paul's 'Summer Live '09' tour.

THE DATES IN FULL:
2nd December - Hamburg, Color Line Arena
3rd December - Berlin, O2 World
9th December - Arnhem, Gelredome
10th December - Paris, Bercy
16th December - Cologne, Koln Arena
20th December - Dublin, The O2
22nd December - London,The O2 Arena

London ticket details.
Tickets available from Monday 26th October:
Box Office: 0844 856 0202
24hr Credit Card Hotline: 0871 230 1103
www.ticketmaster.co.uk