Paul McCartney live: Veterans Memorial Arena, Jacksonville – 25 October 2014

25 October 2014 · Paul McCartney · Live concerts · Out There tour

Paul McCartney in Jacksonville: a long-awaited night on the Out There tour

On 25 October 2014, Paul McCartney performed at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida. The concert brought his Out There tour to an audience of 12,398, with a setlist spanning his Beatles years, Wings and his solo career.

For Jacksonville fans, this was a particularly long-awaited evening. Originally scheduled for 22 June 2014, the concert had been postponed while McCartney recovered from illness. When he finally took the stage in October, the programme combined familiar landmarks such as “Let It Be”, “Hey Jude” and “Yesterday” with more recent material from his 2013 album New.

It was also a different kind of Jacksonville appearance from his previous visits. McCartney had performed in the city with the Beatles in 1964 and at the Super Bowl halftime show in 2005. This time, Jacksonville received a full Paul McCartney headline concert.

Concert facts

Why the Jacksonville concert moved from June to October

The Jacksonville show was one of seven American concerts moved from June to October 2014 after McCartney’s illness disrupted his touring schedule.

The postponements followed the cancellation of his planned Japanese concerts and a scheduled appearance in South Korea. His American tour resumed in Albany on 5 July, while Jacksonville’s original 22 June booking was moved to 25 October.

That distinction matters when following the Out There itinerary: Jacksonville should appear once among the performed concerts, on 25 October 2014. The June date belongs to the postponement story, not to a second completed Jacksonville performance.

Read more about the announcement in Paul McCartney postpones seven US tour dates – 10 June 2014.

The rescheduled concert came after a busy sequence of October dates in Lubbock, New Orleans, Dallas, Atlanta and Nashville. After Jacksonville, the tour continued to Louisville and Greensboro before moving to Brazil in November.

From the Beatles to the Super Bowl: McCartney’s Jacksonville connections

Jacksonville already had a place in McCartney’s performing history.

The Beatles played the Gator Bowl in September 1964, during their first full North American tour. Four decades later, McCartney returned to the city for the halftime show at Super Bowl XXXIX in February 2005.

Those appearances provided two very different settings: a Beatles stadium concert during Beatlemania and a tightly timed television performance watched around the world.

The 2014 Out There concert offered something neither occasion could provide. A full headline programme allowed McCartney to move between electric rock, piano ballads, acoustic songs and extended audience singalongs, drawing on several generations of his songwriting.

The band behind the Out There sound

McCartney performed with the four musicians who had become central to his twenty-first-century live shows.

• Paul McCartney: lead vocals, bass, guitar and piano.
• Paul “Wix” Wickens: keyboards, guitar, harmonica, percussion and backing vocals.
• Rusty Anderson: guitar and backing vocals.
• Brian Ray: guitar, bass and backing vocals.
• Abe Laboriel Jr.: drums and backing vocals.

The flexibility of this five-piece band helped make the career-spanning set possible. Brian Ray’s ability to switch between bass and guitar supported McCartney’s own instrument changes, while Wickens supplied keyboard textures and arrangements essential to bringing many of the recordings to the stage.

Anderson’s guitar work and Laboriel’s drumming gave the heavier songs their weight, without requiring the more intimate acoustic and piano-led sections to disappear from the programme.

Beatles classics, Wings favourites and songs from New

“Magical Mystery Tour” opened the Jacksonville concert, immediately establishing a Beatles connection. “Save Us”, from New, followed, placing contemporary McCartney material beside one of his best-known musical eras.

That balance ran throughout the evening.

“All My Loving” and “Paperback Writer” represented the Beatles’ early and middle years. “Lovely Rita” and “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” brought the more elaborate world of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band into the arena.

Wings remained an important part of the performance, with “Listen to What the Man Said”, “Let Me Roll It”, “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five”, “Band on the Run”, “Live and Let Die” and “Hi, Hi, Hi” all appearing.

The newer songs were not confined to the opening stretch. “New”, “Queenie Eye” and “Everybody Out There” gave the 2013 album a continuing presence in the set.

For fans tracing the tour’s development, compare Jacksonville with the earlier Bonnaroo performance on 14 June 2013 and the Albany concert on 5 July 2014, where the American tour resumed after the illness-related interruption.

The quieter centre of a large arena show

The Jacksonville set was not simply a succession of its loudest songs.

“I’ve Just Seen a Face”, “We Can Work It Out”, “Another Day” and “And I Love Her” offered a more intimate passage through McCartney’s catalogue. “Blackbird” and “Here Today” then placed the focus firmly on the songs and their emotional associations.

“Here Today”, written in remembrance of John Lennon, sat alongside a later tribute to George Harrison through “Something”.

These moments gave the concert a sense of personal history as well as musical range. The audience was hearing songs associated with McCartney’s former bandmates alongside material from the years in which he had built his own independent recording and touring career.

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Jacksonville concert setlist: 25 October 2014

Main set

1. Magical Mystery Tour
2. Save Us
3. All My Loving
4. Listen to What the Man Said
5. Let Me Roll It
6. Paperback Writer
7. My Valentine
8. Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
9. The Long and Winding Road
10. Maybe I’m Amazed
11. I’ve Just Seen a Face
12. We Can Work It Out
13. Another Day
14. And I Love Her
15. Blackbird
16. Here Today
17. New
18. Queenie Eye
19. Lady Madonna
20. All Together Now
21. Lovely Rita
22. Everybody Out There
23. Eleanor Rigby
24. Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
25. Something
26. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
27. Band on the Run
28. Back in the U.S.S.R.
29. Let It Be
30. Live and Let Die
31. Hey Jude

First encore

32. Day Tripper
33. Hi, Hi, Hi
34. I Saw Her Standing There

Second encore

35. Yesterday
36. Helter Skelter
37. Golden Slumbers
38. Carry That Weight
39. The End

The final three titles formed the closing Abbey Road medley. Listing its individual sections separately produces the 39-song total.

What is known about the soundcheck?

The available soundcheck documentation is incomplete. The songs reported include:

• Only Mama Knows
• Penny Lane
• Lady Madonna

These should be treated as documented soundcheck selections, not as a confirmed complete running order.

Keeping the soundcheck separate from the evening performance also avoids a common source of confusion: “Penny Lane” appears in the surviving soundcheck notes, but not in the 39-song main concert list above.

An ending drawn from Abbey Road

The concert’s closing stretch moved from the shared singalong of “Hey Jude” into two encores.

The first paired the Beatles’ “Day Tripper” and “I Saw Her Standing There” with Wings’ “Hi, Hi, Hi”. The second moved from “Yesterday” to “Helter Skelter” before concluding with “Golden Slumbers”, “Carry That Weight” and “The End”.

That sequence captured the breadth of the evening: a solo acoustic standard, one of the Beatles’ heaviest recordings and a closing medley associated with their final recorded album sessions.

Jacksonville was one stop in a much larger journey. Earlier that year, McCartney had played the last concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco on 14 August 2014. In 2015, Out There would take him back to Japan, across Europe and through another series of North American appearances.

The Jacksonville venue

The concert took place at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena, at 300 A. Philip Randolph Boulevard in downtown Jacksonville.

The venue name used here reflects the concert’s 2014 setting.

Out There tour: complete concert chronology, 2013–2015

The following chronology lists 91 performances, from Brazil in May 2013 to Buffalo in October 2015. Existing Beatles Fabdom concert articles are linked; dates awaiting their own articles remain plain text.

Tour totals differ between published summaries: McCartney’s official retrospective describes 90 shows, while the detailed chronology reproduced here contains 91 entries. The list is retained in full rather than removing a performance simply to match a headline total.

2013

• 4 May 2013: Estádio Mineirão, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
• 6 May 2013: Estádio Serra Dourada, Goiânia, Brazil
• 9 May 2013: Estádio Governador Plácido Castelo, Fortaleza, Brazil
• 18 May 2013: Amway Center, Orlando, USA
• 19 May 2013: Amway Center, Orlando, USA
• 22 May 2013: Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA
• 23 May 2013: Frank Erwin Center, Austin, USA
• 26 May 2013: FedExForum, Memphis, USA
• 29 May 2013: BOK Center, Tulsa, USA
• 30 May 2013: BOK Center, Tulsa, USA
• 8 June 2013: Barclays Center, New York City, USA
• 10 June 2013: Barclays Center, New York City, USA
• 14 June 2013: Bonnaroo Festival, Manchester, Tennessee, USA
• 22 June 2013: Stadion Narodowy, Warsaw, Poland
• 25 June 2013: Arena di Verona, Verona, Italy
• 27 June 2013: Ernst-Happel-Stadion, Vienna, Austria
• 7 July 2013: Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa, Canada
• 9 July 2013: Fenway Park, Boston, USA
• 12 July 2013: Nationals Park, Washington, DC, USA
• 14 July 2013: Bankers Life Fieldhouse, Indianapolis, USA
• 16 July 2013: Miller Park, Milwaukee, USA
• 19 July 2013: Safeco Field, Seattle, USA
• 23 July 2013: Plains of Abraham, Quebec City, Canada
• 9 August 2013: Outside Lands Festival, San Francisco, USA
• 12 August 2013: Investors Group Field, Winnipeg, Canada
• 14 August 2013: Mosaic Stadium, Regina, Canada
• 11 November 2013: Kyocera Dome, Osaka, Japan
• 12 November 2013: Kyocera Dome, Osaka, Japan
• 15 November 2013: Fukuoka Dome, Fukuoka, Japan
• 18 November 2013: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan
• 19 November 2013: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan
• 21 November 2013: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan

2014

• 19 April 2014: Estadio Centenario, Montevideo, Uruguay
• 22 April 2014: Movistar Arena, Santiago, Chile
• 23 April 2014: Movistar Arena, Santiago, Chile
• 25 April 2014: Estadio Nacional, Lima, Peru
• 28 April 2014: Estadio de Liga, Quito, Ecuador
• 1 May 2014: Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica
• 5 July 2014: Times Union Center, Albany, USA
• 7 July 2014: Consol Energy Center, Pittsburgh, USA
• 9 July 2014: United Center, Chicago, USA
• 12 July 2014: Fargodome, Fargo, USA
• 14 July 2014: Pinnacle Bank Arena, Lincoln, USA
• 16 July 2014: Sprint Center, Kansas City, USA
• 2 August 2014: Target Field, Minneapolis, USA
• 5 August 2014: Washington–Grizzly Stadium, Missoula, USA
• 7 August 2014: EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City, USA
• 10 August 2014: Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, USA
• 12 August 2014: US Airways Center, Phoenix, USA
• 14 August 2014: Candlestick Park, San Francisco, USA
• 28 September 2014: Petco Park, San Diego, USA
• 2 October 2014: United Supermarkets Arena, Lubbock, USA
• 11 October 2014: Smoothie King Center, New Orleans, USA
• 13 October 2014: American Airlines Center, Dallas, USA
• 15 October 2014: Philips Arena, Atlanta, USA
• 16 October 2014: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, USA
• 25 October 2014: Veterans Memorial Arena, Jacksonville, USA
• 28 October 2014: KFC Yum! Center, Louisville, USA
• 30 October 2014: Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, USA
• 10 November 2014: Estádio Kléber Andrade, Cariacica, Brazil
• 12 November 2014: HSBC Arena, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• 23 November 2014: Estádio Mané Garrincha, Brasília, Brazil
• 25 November 2014: Allianz Parque, São Paulo, Brazil
• 26 November 2014: Allianz Parque, São Paulo, Brazil

2015

• 21 April 2015: Kyocera Dome, Osaka, Japan
• 23 April 2015: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan
• 25 April 2015: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan
• 27 April 2015: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan
• 28 April 2015: Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan
• 2 May 2015: Olympic Stadium, Seoul, South Korea
• 23 May 2015: O2 Arena, London, England
• 24 May 2015: O2 Arena, London, England
• 27 May 2015: Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham, England
• 28 May 2015: Echo Arena, Liverpool, England
• 5 June 2015: Nouveau Stade Vélodrome, Marseille, France
• 7 June 2015: Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• 8 June 2015: Ziggo Dome, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• 11 June 2015: Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France
• 19 June 2015: Firefly Music Festival, Dover, USA
• 21 June 2015: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, USA
• 23 June 2015: John Paul Jones Arena, Charlottesville, USA
• 25 June 2015: Colonial Life Arena, Columbia, USA
• 4 July 2015: Roskilde Festival, Roskilde, Denmark
• 7 July 2015: Telenor Arena, Oslo area, Norway
• 9 July 2015: Tele2 Arena, Stockholm, Sweden
• 31 July 2015: Lollapalooza, Chicago, USA
• 13 October 2015: Nationwide Arena, Columbus, USA
• 15 October 2015: Bryce Jordan Center, State College, USA
• 17 October 2015: Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Canada
• 21 October 2015: Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, USA
• 22 October 2015: First Niagara Center, Buffalo, USA

The interrupted Asian dates of 2014

The completed-concert chronology above does not count the cancelled Japanese and South Korean appearances as performances.

For the background to that interruption, read Paul McCartney postpones Tokyo shows – 18 May 2014 and Paul McCartney cancels the remainder of his Japanese tour dates – 20 May 2014.

Together with the June American postponement announcement, these articles explain why Jacksonville’s original summer booking became an autumn concert.

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Frequently asked questions

When did Paul McCartney play Jacksonville on the Out There tour?

Paul McCartney performed at Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena on Saturday, 25 October 2014.

Why was the Jacksonville concert postponed?

The concert was originally scheduled for 22 June 2014. It moved to October while McCartney recovered from the illness that had disrupted his Asian and American touring plans.

How many people attended the Jacksonville concert?

The reported attendance was 12,398.

What was the opening song?

McCartney opened the main concert with “Magical Mystery Tour”, followed by “Save Us”.

How many songs were in the Jacksonville setlist?

The concert is documented with 39 songs when “Golden Slumbers”, “Carry That Weight” and “The End” are counted separately as the three sections of the closing Abbey Road medley.

Who played in McCartney’s band?

His band comprised Paul “Wix” Wickens, Rusty Anderson, Brian Ray and Abe Laboriel Jr., alongside McCartney.

Did he perform songs from New?

Yes. The set included “Save Us”, “New”, “Queenie Eye” and “Everybody Out There” from his 2013 album.

Is the full soundcheck setlist known?

No complete soundcheck running order is confirmed in the available documentation. Reported selections include “Only Mama Knows”, “Penny Lane” and “Lady Madonna”.

Remembering 25 October 2014

Paul McCartney’s Jacksonville concert brought a delayed summer booking to life as an autumn celebration of his songwriting.

Its significance lay partly in the setting: a full headline concert in a city already connected to the Beatles and McCartney’s Super Bowl appearance. Musically, it reflected the breadth of Out There, moving from Beatles favourites and Wings rockers to intimate tributes and songs from New.

For the fans inside Veterans Memorial Arena, the wait ended with a performance that reached across McCartney’s career, closing with the familiar final sequence of “Golden Slumbers”, “Carry That Weight” and “The End”.

Continue exploring the On This Day in Beatles History archive, or revisit the tour’s Liverpool homecoming on 28 May 2015.