Well, it’s old news by now since VH-1 aired the concert already, but it was

still awfully gosh-darn exciting to see Paul McCartney play live at the PETA

Awards dinner at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles in September.

I got to go because I have a friend who is an Event Coordinator at

Paramount. Knowing I’d want to see Sir Paul (and being such a good friend)

she hired me to work the event so that I could get in. She came in hand

later when Paul played, too, because she was wired for communication to

everybody else on the lot so she got me pretty close to the stage. She

explained that when people see the wire coming out of her ear, they

automatically move out of her way. Think Rene Russo in “In The Line of

Fire.” She even has one of those nifty little microphones that you see

Secret Service fellas using when they talk into their suit sleeve. I also

got to catch about five minutes of McCartney soundchecking. I love this

town.

McCartney was the official host of the event but it was emcee’d by Alec

Baldwin and Jamie Lee Curtis. The event was to give out Humanitarian Awards

for big PETA supporters like Kathy Najimy and Bill Maher (who noted that dog

owners get to feel like a Beatle every tme they come home and are greeted by

their pet pooches.) They also gave out a Linda McCartney award. Lots of

dressed up celebs, etc.

After the awards program, everyone moved over to New York street where the

B-52¹s played a bunch of songs (they sounded better live at the event than

on the VH-1 show). Chrissie Hynde only did one song even though she¹d

soundchecked a bunch more. I’d like to think she realized it was getting

late and Paul was still coming on.

I wasn’t actually expecting much from McCartney but he was really great. His

energy was high, his voice was good, the music was great. The only weird

thing is that he was reading all the lyrics from a teleprompter. Now, all of

the performers may have been but I wasn’t up that close for the B-52’s and

Chrissie Hynde. He did six songs from the new album and, thanks to a little

help from my friends, I got to see him do them live.

Kay Shepard