Rock Show
Paul McCartney and Wings
Studio: Eagle Rock Entertainment
Released: June 10, 2013
Reviewed: June 08, 2013

As a teenager in the seventies, I absolutely loved Paul McCartney and Wings’ live version of Maybe I’m Amazed.  While driving the streets of Phoenix, I’d crank up the radio when the iconic guitar solo played by the late Jimmy McCulloch. The album (and, later, the CD version of that album) has been a proud addition to my listening library for many years.

My fellow McCartney fans will be very pleased to know that the album has been re-mastered and released in even more audio splendor.  But get this!  The DVD of the theatrical release of the Wings Over America tour entitled Rock Show lands this Tuesday.  I’ve watched it and re-watched it and, let me tell you, folks, you’re gonna love it!

Here’s the scoop on both offerings:

Wings Over America

First, the historic live album, which documented the band’s triumphant 1976 tour across North America, will be reissued in a range of formats. Fans and hardcore devotees alike will be especially thrilled with the stunning four-book, four-disc (3 CD/1 DVD) Deluxe Edition Box Set.  The box set’s superior audio and video include the two-disc Wings Over America album remastered at Abbey Road, a bonus audio disc recorded live at San Francisco’s Cow Palace, a bonus DVD containing the rarely seen 75-minute television special “Wings over the World’’ and the photo gallery montage entitled “Photographer’s Pass.” 

Moreover, the Deluxe Edition Box Set contains four exquisitely rendered art books packaged with an incredible array of exclusive memorabilia, souvenirs, mementos, keepsakes and never-before-seen photos and art work from this historic tour. The spectacular 110-page commemorative tour book beautifully recounts the behind-the-scenes drama through dozens of live performances and backstage photos along with new interviews and liner notes from eminent music journalist David Fricke.

The Wings Over America leatherette-bound “Tour Itinerary” contains extravagant memorabilia including printed 8x10 glossy band photos, a backstage guest pass, facsimiles of the invitation to the infamous end-of-tour party at the Harold Lloyd Estate in Beverly Hills along with Wings over America concert tickets, original album art work, tour posters, set lists, lyrics, press materials and much more.  “Look”, the box set’s warm and intimate book of Linda McCartney photography features Paul and the band in their everyday life as they made their way across the country in the spring of ’76.  Lastly, the set contains “The Ocean View,” an extraordinary hardbound compendium of drawings and sketches by artist Humphrey Ocean that captures the band on tour in relaxed and revealing ways.  A striking artistic achievement in and of itself, the audacious Wings over America Deluxe Edition Box Set is a must have for any McCartney enthusiast.

Rockshow DVD Release

Second, for the first time a DVD will be released by Eagle Rock of the live concert film Rockshow which was shot in 1975 and 1976 when Paul McCartney & Wings undertook the epic Wings over the World tour which was the largest-scale tour they would ever undertake as a band.  Packed with all the classic Wings hits - plus some of The Beatles’ and Paul’s solo classics - the film is released on both DVD and Blu-ray formats. Although filmed on this tour at the enormous Kingdome in Seattle, Rockshow, originally a cut down version of the concert, was not premiered until November 1980 in New York and April 1981 in London.  It was originally released on Betamax (later on laserdisc) but it’s only now that the complete full-length concert is being made available fully restored from the original 35mm film and with restored & remastered sound, including a 5.1 mix for the first time.

For Wings across America, Paul brought with him one the most sophisticated and dazzling rock shows of the mid-Seventies (it was a time when nobody worried about extravagance or expense) and the band would eventually perform to more than 600,000 people at 31 shows in the US and Canada, ending with three mind-bending nights at The Forum in Los Angeles. It’s no exaggeration to say that the demand that greeted Paul McCartney & Wings (Linda McCartney, Joe English, Denny Laine and Jimmy McCulloch) in the spring of 1976 as they embarked on what would become their one and only North American tour was overwhelming.  Having released four consecutive chart busting albums including Red Rose Speedway, Band on the Run, Venus and Mars and Wings at the Speed of Sound – not to mention 1973’s Academy Award-winning James Bond theme Live and Let Die – Paul’s solo career was in full flight… and having not performed in the States for 10 years either solo or with The Beatles, excitement had reached fever pitch.

Now Paul once again gives Wings fans the chance to be able to immerse themselves in a concert that has – and is destined - to live forever.