10 ways to start a conversation about music legend Paul McCartney

When you were a founding member of The Beatles and you've been in the music business for more than 60 years and you have more than 8.9 million followers on Facebook, there isn't much people don't know about you. Or is there? Here's a Paul McCartney refresher ahead of his tour date in Newcastle on Tuesday, October 24, at McDonald Jones Stadium. Paul's Got Back tour kicked off in Spokane, Washington, on April 28, 2022. Got Back marks McCartney's first series of live shows since his Freshen Up tour ended a run across 39 shows in 12 countries in July 2019. The Australian leg of the tour is seven shows. The first show was on Wednesday, October 18, at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. The second show is on Saturday, October 21, at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne. Newcastle is the third show of the Australian part of the tour. It will be followed by two shows in Sydney at Allianz Stadium on October 27-28, a Brisbane show at Suncorp Stadium on November 1, and first-ever Gold Coast show at Heritage Bank Stadium on Saturday, November 4. The tour's next stop is Mexico City for two dates (November 14 and 16) and the final seven shows in Brazil in December, ending on December 16 in Rio de Janeiro at Maracana Stadium. Shows on the Got Back tour have been running two hours and 40 minutes with a consistent setlist of about 30 songs covering The Beatles era, McCartney's own Wings period and much more. With songs like Hey Jude, Live and Let Die, Band on the Run, Let It Be and so many more, the Paul McCartney live experience is everything any music lover could ever want from a rock show According to Setlist FM, McCartney's setlist of 39 songs in Adelaide on Wednesday included Can't Buy Me Love, Junior's Farm, Got to Get You Into My Life, Get Back, Maybe I'm Amazed, Love Me Do, Getting Better, Blackbird, Lady Madonna, Jet, Something, Let It Be, Hey Jude, Birthday, Helter Skelter, and I've Got a Feeling. McCartney's last tour in Australia was his One On One tour in December 2017, which was the first time he had been back since his previous Australian tour in 1993. McCartney's guitar is famous itself. According to Nick Wass, in a story in Bassplayer magazine, McCartney's Hofner 500/1 bass guitar has been his go-to instrument since 1961. He purchased a Hofner at a Steinway music store in Hamburg, Germany, in 1961 when his band members decided he should be the bass player after the exit of Stuart Sutcliffe. McCartney, who is left-handed, liked the Hofner because it was symmetrical, and cheap. He bought a second Hofner in 1963, and after a hiatus from using it, it has been his go-to guitar since the late 1980s. The Hofner violin bass that McCartney plays is one of the most recognised guitars in the world. McCartney's long-time touring band members are Paul "Wix" Wickens (keyboards), Brian Ray (bass/guitar), Rusty Anderson (guitar) and Abe Laboriel Jr (drums). He's also got a three-piece horn section. Last month Paul McCartney celebrated his 12th wedding anniversary with his wife Nancy Shevell, from the US. McCartney is 81 (born June 18, 1942, in Liverpool, England), Shevell is 63. McCartney wrote the song My Valentine for her, first singing it at their wedding, which was in 2011 at Marylebone Town Hall in London. He was previously married to Linda (Eastman), with whom he had three children - Mary, Stella and James - and adopted Heather, Linda's daughter from a previous relationship. Linda died in 1998 of breast cancer. He then married Heather Mills in 2002, and they had one child, Beatrice. They divorced in 2008. According to setlist.com, the top five most played songs by Paul McCartney in concert are Let It Be, Hey Jude, Band on the Run, Lady Madonna and Live and Let Die. According to bestsellingalbums.net, Paul McCartney's biggest selling album ever was Band On The Run, released in 1973. Songs on the album include Band on the Run, Jet, Bluebird, Mrs Vandebilt, Let Me Roll It, Mamunia, No Words, Picasso's Last Words and Ninteen-Hundred and Eighty-Five. In June this year a book titled 1964: Eyes of the Storm was launched. The book contains 275 of McCartney's photographs from the six cities of these intense, legendary months - Liverpool, London, Paris, New York, Washington, D.C. and Miami - and many never-before-seen portraits of John, George and Ringo. On October 24, 1969, Paul McCartney agreed to speak to the BBC's Chris Drake to squelch a persistent rumour that he was dead. The rumour began in September, started by a student newspaper at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and it took a personal appearance by McCartney, with the BBC at the singer's High Park Farm in Campbeltown, Scotland, to kill the rumour. IN THE NEWS: