(Update: Mar. 10): Almost two years to the day since he rocked The Budokan for the second time in his career, McCartney has announced he’ll be returning to one of Japan’s most sacred venues with his all-new One On One tour for a concert on April 25. His three nights at the Tokyo Dome on April 27-29-30 have already sold out.
In the announcement, McCartney said: “The Budokan is such a special venue for me. I have amazing memories from first visiting in the 60s and then again on our last tour.”
In 2015 he performed 28 songs at The Budokan as part of his “Out There” tour. The Beatles were the first rock band to play at The Budokan, amidst controversy, in 1966, driving the audience wild with a show featuring just 11 tracks.
Watch McCartney perform “Another Girl” live for the first time at The Budokan in 2015…
Today’s announcement and the wording “all-new One On One tour” prompts immediate speculation where else (and when) he’ll be performing in 2017.
His 1989 Flowers in the Dirt album collaboration with Elvis Costello is being reissued on March 24. Full details are here.
Our original story about the Tokyo dates from January 3…
So where were we? Right, last year we compared Paul McCartney to the Energizer bunny because he was seemingly non-stop with his mammoth One On One tour, Desert Trip appearances, announcing his return to The Beatles’ original U.S. label, Capitol Records, a surprise club gig in between his “Oldchella” performances, and then yet another surprise appearance on New Year’s Eve at a private concert on St. Bart’s.
Oh yeah, and releasing an enormous compilation of his solo work, Pure McCartney.
So what’s he got planned for 2017? From the looks of it… plenty. He’s just announced his first set of 2017 dates, for Tokyo. (Members of his fan club will get first crack at tickets.)
Speaking about his forthcoming visit, McCartney says: “I’m really excited to be taking the ‘One On One’ Tour to Japan. We always have an amazing time there and the audiences have always been so brilliant. We have such special memories from our last trip and we look forward to making many more this time round. Let’s rock Japan!”
The 2016 One On One tour saw him play 41 shows across 12 different countries to over 1.2 million people.
Watch Sir Paul perform three huge hits in Belgium in June 2016
Related: Review of McCartney at Desert Trip’s opening weekend
Since visiting Japan with his sold-out Out There tour in 2015, which involved an historic evening at the Budokan, his new One On One show includes a re-designed production as well as many never performed classics. The band’s lineup of the last 10+ years continues: Paul “Wix” Wickens (keyboards), Brian Ray (bass/guitar), Rusty Anderson (guitar) and Abe Laboriel Jr (drums).
The One On One Tour features a brand new production with state of the art audio and video technology, massive screens, lasers and fireworks.
Paul McCartney One On One 2017 Tour Dates
April 25 – Tokyo, Japan – The Budokan
April 27, 29, 30 – Tokyo, Japan – The Dome
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1 Comment so far
Jump into a conversationBeen a fan of Paul’s since the sixties, basically my whole life. One of the constants in life has been Paul McCartney’s voice. It held up for an almost inhuman amount of time. Unfortunately, as demonstrated by the clip attached to this article, his voice is now (close to) shot. To me, this is a jarring sign of not only Paul’s aging, but my own and it makes me melancholy. I’m not saying he should stop playing or anything because I know it still sounds okay live, but clearly his golden tones are gone for good.