The greatest gift of all…

As the temperatures dropped and the winter woolies became a necessity for those travelling to the North Wall Quay, Paul McCartney brought his Good Evening Europe tour to the o2 to toast the season and cheer his legions of supporters in Dublin.

To spend almost three hours in the presence of one of the 20th century’s finest musicians, someone responsible for songs that have become the soundtracks to people’s lives all around the world for the last nearly 50 years, was a real early Christmas present for all those lucky enough to bag a ticket.

Backed by the same band as he has toured with since 2001, McCartney hit the stage running with Magical Mystery Tour, and acted as tour guide to his back catalogue, going back as far as And I Love Her from 1964, up to this year’s Come Home. In between were 32 other classic songs (and the inevitable but cheesy Wonderful Christmastime) that disappointed no-one and saw the former Beatle heralded with standing ovation after standing ovation throughout the night.

What’s phenomenal is to think about what he didn’t play from a canon of material that would have rocked and rolled the 15,000 and still left everyone with the same beaming smiles and tear-streaked faces after the concert was over.

It was as much a Christmas party as it was an evening of tributes: To Linda, as well as original Wings guitarist Henry McCullough who was in the audience, before My Love; to John Lennon on Here Today; and, to the biggest cheers of the night, to George Harrison, which was followed by Paul singing Something on ukulele, which morphed into a full band version that swept everyone up in the emotion of the song and the images of the young George on the video screen behind the stage.

The mesmerising and dizzying production added to the experience, with explosions and a final shower of silver glitter at the end of the night that had the standing section looking like they had been caught in a snowstorm. However, there was no-one left out in the cold, and the warmth generated by McCartney and his band and an adoring audience could have melted the ice for miles around the docklands.