Listen to this article
4 minutes estimated
The audio version of this article is generated using text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.
When Paul McCartney performs tonight at Hamilton’s newly renovated TD Coliseum, it will be hard for fans not to think that, after decades of his extraordinary contributions to popular music, we are near the end.
Tim Potocic, owner of Hamilton’s Sonic Unyon Records, has been waiting almost his entire life for this moment to arise. “People have told me I’m going to have all the feels,” Potocic said. “I’m going to be a grown man crying. I’ve prepared myself for that.”
Poticic was at the TD Coliseum on Tuesday to see funk, R&B, soul, pop legends Earth Wind and Fire in an invitation-only tryout show.
“I’m a guy who loves live music,” said Poticic, the organizer behind Supercrawl, Hamilton’s free annual music, arts and culture festival, now in its 15th year. “I think it will be a momentous moment for me to be in this room,” he said, adding that he just wants to enjoy the experience. “I’ll take a couple quick photos and then put my phone away.”
McCartney’s tour is about to end
Sometime near the beginning (65 years ago), McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr formed the Beatles. Since 1960, and together for just 10 years, they are the best-selling musical artists in history.
After that, McCartney had many more hits with his own group, Wings, and a long career playing with everyone from Michael Jackson to Stevie Wonder, Johnny Cash and Kanye West.
At 83, McCartney (with Starr, the last surviving members of The Beatles) may be the most famous living musician in the world. After two shows in Montreal, their sold-out Hamilton show is the final Canadian stop on their Got Back tour, which kicked off in 2022 and ends in Chicago on Tuesday. After that, who knows?
Connection between Hamilton and Liverpool
Abbie Jolly is excited that McCartney is in Hamilton, although she won’t be going: the tickets are too expensive, costing between $265 and $5,000 each.
She and her son, Russell, were at the Hamilton Central Library, next to the TD Coliseum, on Friday afternoon to join in a Beatles sing-along before the show. He said it would be “the best option.”
Jolly says his family is from Liverpool, McCartney’s hometown, and was named after Abbey Road, the last album the Beatles recorded. “Our grandparents met on Penny Lane,” he said, referring to the Liverpool street made famous by the Beatles’ song of the same name.
Jolly says there is a deep connection between Hamilton and Liverpool, two cities that are on the water (Liverpool on the Mersey River and Hamilton on Lake Ontario) and full of working people. “A lot of heart, a lot of love in those cities,” he said.
“We are very excited to have Paul McCartney in town this week,” Clarissa DerNederlanden, who works at the library, told CBC News on Wednesday. “Can you believe it?” “I love Hamilton,” he said, adding that it’s great to see the stadium renovations attracting such big names. “I’ve lived here for almost 20 years and it’s wonderful to see it grow and revitalize.”
It’s McCartney’s first show in the city since 2016. The TD Coliseum was designed to draw legends like McCartney away from bigger cities like Toronto and Vancouver. The stadium, formerly known as Copps Coliseum, opens its doors on Friday after a $300 million facelift that took two years to complete, just in time to open for the Got Back tour.
Cardi B, the Jonas Brothers and K-Pop band Twice will perform in the coming months. Then in March, the stadium will host The Junos, Canada’s biggest night of music. It seats 18,000 and includes ground-level boxes, a new artists’ lounge and new restaurants, including celebrity chef Matty Matheson’s new pub-style restaurant, Iron Cow Public House.
