Reviving the Beatles' mistique

Recently, on a tour of Europe, the sizeable audience at the concerts testified that the 62-year-old McCartney had lost none of his charisma. On May 29, over 45,000 people turned out to see him perform in Lisbon, the Portuguese capital. The biggest applause came for his rendering of the old 'Fab Four' classics such as Eleanor Rigby and Yellow Submarine.

Equally enthused by McCartney was a crowd of 30,000 fans in Madrid, Spain, who were spellbound by his rendering of 33 songs, all but 10 of them Beatles' tunes. The former Beatle delighted fans by addressing them in Spanish. As he said, 'I was taught Spanish for a year around 50 years ago when I was 11 at school in Liverpool.'

Notching a key milestone in the long and winding road of his career, the former Beatle is expected to play his 3,000th live show when he performs on June 20 in Russia. The concert before some 100,000 fans in the Palace Square of St. Petersburg, McCartney's first ever in that city, comes in the midst of his summer tour through Europe, organisers said in a statement.

The exact number of live shows McCartney played in the early years of the Beatles and their precursor band the Quarry Men, was not perfectly kept, but a new tally by his management indicates he is now in the vicinity of 3,000 performances.

McCartney's career in music goes back to his childhood: born in 1942, he wrote his first song, I lost my little girl, at 14. In 1957 the singer met John Lennon at St Peter's Church Fete, Woolton, Liverpool. He joined his group, Quarry Men, and performed in his first gig in Liverpool.

In 1960 the Beatles came into being and performed in Hamburg and Liverpool. Two years later, their first recording, Love Me Do, reached number 17 in the British charts. Then followed musical successes such as Please please me (their first British number 1) and She loves you.

The year 1964 gets pride of place in the history of the Beatles. In this year the foursome landed at New York's JFK airport--to be greeted by 25,000 yelling fans. Apart from the historic appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, the Beatles performed in concerts in Washington DC and New York's Carnegie Hall. In the same year, they released their first film A Hard Day's Night. Their single, I want to hold your hand, was a runaway success. At the same time, the albums A Hard Day's Night and Beatles for Sale were released.

In 1970, the group's fourth and final film, Let it be, was released. The single and album of the same title topped the US charts. The much publicised break up of the Beatles occurred this year.

Lennon and Mc Cartney continued their separate musical careers. The latter released his first solo album, McCartney. Together with his band called Wings, he went on to recapture some of the glory of the Beatles.

Compiled by Cultural Correspondent