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When Paul McCartney plays tonight at Hamilton’s newly renovated TD Coliseum, it’s going to be hard for fans not to think that, after decades of his extraordinary contributions to popular music, we are somewhere close to the end.
Tim Potocic, owner of Hamilton’s Sonic Unyon Records, has been waiting just about all his life for this moment to arise. “I have been told by people that I’m going to have all the feels,” Potocic said. “I’m going to be a grown man crying. I’ve prepped myself for that.”
Poticic was at TD Coliseum on Tuesday to watch funk, R&B, soul, pop legends, Earth Wind and Fire, in an invitation-only, test-run show.
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“I’m a guy that loves live music,” said Poticic, the organizer behind Supercrawl, Hamilton’s annual free music, arts and culture festival, now in its 15th year. “I think it will be an earth-shattering moment for me to be in the room,” he said, adding he just wants to enjoy the experience. “I’ll take a couple quick photos then put my phone away.”
McCartney’s tour nearing end
Somewhere close to the beginning — 65 years ago — McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr formed the Beatles. Starting in 1960, and together for just 10 years, they are the best selling musical artists in history.
After that, there were many more hits to come for McCartney with his own group, Wings, and a long career playing with everyone from Michael Jackson to Stevie Wonder to Johnny Cash and Kanye West.
At 83, McCartney — with Starr, the last surviving members of The Beatles — might be the world’s most famous living musician. After two shows in Montreal, his sold-out Hamilton show is the last Canadian stop on his Got Back tour, which began in 2022 and ends in Chicago on Tuesday. After that, who knows?
Connection between Hamilton, Liverpool
Abbie Jolly is excited McCartney is in Hamilton, even though she isn’t going — tickets are too expensive, going for between $265 and $5,000 each.
She and her son, Russell, were at the Hamilton Central Library, next door to TD Coliseum, on Friday afternoon to join a Beatles singalong before the show. She said it would be “the next best thing.”
Jolly says her family is from Liverpool, McCartney’s home town, and she was named after Abbey Road, the last album The Beatles ever recorded. “Our grandparents met on Penny Lane,” she said, referring to the Liverpool street made famous by The Beatles song of the same name.
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Jolly says there’s a deep connection between Hamilton and Liverpool, two cities that are on the water — Liverpool on the Mersey River and Hamilton on Lake Ontario — and filled with hard-working people. “A lot of heart, a lot of love in those cities,” she said.
“We’re very excited that Paul McCartney is in town this week,” Clarissa DerNederlanden, who works at the library, told CBC News on Wednesday. “Can you believe it?” “I love Hamilton,” she said, adding that it’s great to see the renovations for the arena attract such big names. “I’ve lived here for almost 20 years and it’s lovely to see it go through growth and revitalization.”
It’s McCartney’s first show in the city since 2016. The TD Coliseum was designed to lure legends like McCartney away from bigger cities like Toronto and Vancouver. The arena, previously known as Copps Coliseum, opens Friday after a $300-million facelift that took two years to complete, just in time to open for the Got Back tour.
Cardi B, the Jonas Brothers and K-Pop band Twice are set to perform in the coming months. Then, in March, the arena will host The Junos, Canada’s biggest night in music. It seats 18,000 and includes box seats at floor level, a new artist lounge and new restaurants, including celebrity chef Matty Matheson’s new pub-style restaurant, the Iron Cow Public House.
