Pool excited to spread Wings over Europe
It’s an odd way to look at things, but there’s much more to the Beatles than the Beatles.
For example, some of the best work John, Paul, George and even Ringo did came after the band broke up. Harrison’s All Things Must Pass is a landmark album, while Lennon’s Imagine defined him as a solo artist. Paul McCartney’s band Wings in concert was one of the hottest tickets of the early to mid-‘70s and the live album Wings Over America hit the top of the charts in the U.S. So it goes without saying no Beatles festival – least of all the first London Beatles Festival, running Sept. 23-25 — would be complete without a few of the world’s best solo tribute artists.
As it turns out, one of them lives in the Forest City. Yuri Pool is Paul in The McCartney Years, a show he says is far more a concert than a tribute act. Pool sounds so much Sir Paul that it’s difficult to tell the two apart. Now eight years old, the show tours North and South America and Europe throughout much of the year. “It’s amazing,” he said. “We just got a new contract for South America, so that market is opening up as well. And we’ve got a major tour through Europe next year and we’ll be playing many of the same cities Paul played back in ’72, I think, with Wings Over Europe. Whenever you think you’ve kind of hit the ceiling, something else happens and you continue to grow.”
For the London festival, Pool said he’ll infuse more Beatles songs than usual into the show, but there will also be a healthy dose of McCartney’s hits with Wings. “When you think about, there’s going to be a lot of Beatles tribute bands and we’d like to add a few songs in there that nobody else will be doing. It just adds a little extra colour to the day.”
By: Scott Taylor
Source: Our London
