Review - Toronto Sun
http://www.canoe.ca/TorontoNews/03n1.html----------------------------------
Emotional tour
McCartney shares the pain
By JANE STEVENSON -- Toronto Sun
Sir Paul McCartney says he's feeling a strong emotional connection with the audiences attending his Driving USA tour, which made its only Canadian appearance at the Air Canada Centre last night.
The last time McCartney toured, nine years ago, both his wife, Linda McCartney, and former Beatles bandmate George Harrison were still alive.
"It's strange 'cause of my losses and 'cause of also the world's losses it is a very emotional tour, which I like," McCartney, 59, said at a press conference held at the ACC before the show.
"When I was kind of 18 ... I was very embarassed about all that stuff. I was just trying to be cool. Now, I'm much more OK about that. So yeah, the fact that Linda isn't in the band was originally sort of difficult ... but because it's a new lineup, it's not as difficult as I thought it might be.
"I do a couple of songs for John (Lennon) and George as well and I wondered whether that would be too difficult but there's something about the audience and their repsonse. We all kind of let it out. It's like a therapy situation for them and there's something good about that."
Harrison died of cancer last November, while Linda sucumbed to breast cancer in 1998.
McCartney also spearheaded The Concert For New York City last October after the terrorist attacks.
"Particularly after Sept. 11, I think a lot of people have got a lot of emotions," McCartney said. "And in some ways you need somewhere to let it out in a group and that's one of the things that the tour seems to be. I talk about John and George and the events of September, and there's a sort of feeling that comes over us. We all know what we think and it's kind of obvious and it kind of works."
Last night marked McCartney's seventh visit to Toronto, including appearances with the Beatles, Wings and his own solo treks.
He arrived late -- flying in from his last stop in Chicago -- for what turned out to be a 15-minute press conference. However, many of those assembled seemed to be fans rather than working press and applauded his entrance.
McCartney called T.O. "one of those cities that I love coming to, in truth, because of the kind of British connections. I just love it as a city. It seems a very friendly city whenever we've been. The audiences are great ..."
"But for most people from Britain, when I was growing up, everyone was immigrating and everyone was coming over on the cheap passage, and starting up new lives here so that's what I always think of it as -- a new beginning for a lot of my relatives, in fact. And mates' relatives. So I always love coming here. It always gives us a chance to get out the pipe band 'cause of (puts on Scottish accent): All the wee Scottish folks that live here."
Last night's sold-out crowd of 16,000 was treated to his late-'70s hit, Mull Of Kintyre, courtesy of the Peel Regional Police Pipe Band.
Before the tour began on April 1 in Oakland, Calif., the billionaire pop star said he was hitting the road again in support of his latest album, Driving Rain, purely for his own fun.
But given he's on stage for 21/2 hours and been at it for two weeks, is it still fun? "I don't even think about it," he said. "It's ... something I've always done. And I don't get exhausted, I really don't. I'm kind of exhilarated at the end of the show ..."
