Paul McCartney

Following a massive tour of the U.S. this summer, Paul McCartney today announces his first European Tour since 2004. This December will see “Macca" play seven special arena shows across Europe, culminating with his first ever public performance at London's O2 Arena, which will be his only U.K. date of this year. Other firsts on this tour will include shows at Berlin's O2 World venue and Dublin's The O2. Paul's legendary live performances are a once in a lifetime opportunity to experience some of the greatest moments in music from the last 50 years.

Paul commences his tour in Hamburg - a city he is very familiar with. Incredibly, it's now 49 years since The Beatles historic visit, which created rock folklore and put Hamburg on the map as a musical Mecca for hundreds and thousands of music pilgrims over the years (for more on Hamburg check our Reeperbahn review here). This will be Paul's first time back in Hamburg (as well as Arnhem, Cologne and Dublin) since his 2003 Back In The World tour. Meanwhile, the people of Berlin will get their first Paul McCartney concert in 16 years, since 1993's New World Tour. December will take Paul back to Paris for the first time since he played an intimate club show at the Olympia in 2007.

. London's O2 Arena will host Paul's final show of 2009, where he will bring the year to an end on a high. This will be his only live show in the U.K. this year. Paul's last U.K show was a massive sellout concert at Anfield Stadium in 2008. At the time the Liverpool Echo wrote, “If Anfield had a roof, Macca would have blown it off." The O2 Arena does in fact have a roof, so it's set to be a massive night of excitement and rock 'n' roll, Macca style. Although this is Paul's first public performance at the O2 Arena he is very familiar with the venue. In 2004, before the O2 Arena was up and running as the world's greatest music venue, Paul used the Millennium Dome (as it was known then) for rehearsals for his massive stadium 04 Summer Tour. The tour ended with Paul headlining the Glastonbury Festival which has gone down in rock history as one of the greatest festival moments ever.

Speaking about the tour, Paul said: “This is my chance to bring our current show home to where it all began. Starting in Hamburg, ending in London, and rocking everywhere in between, I'm very much looking forward to ending the year on a high."

2009 has been an amazing year for Paul. He kicked it off by teaming up with Dave Grohl to perform “I Saw Her Standing There" at the Grammys, where he was also nominated for two awards. In April, Paul performed in New York at the David Lynch Foundation's benefit concert, Change Begins Within, where he was joined on stage by Ringo Starr for a special finale. Paul also headlined the Coachella Festival (his first U.S. festival appearance) and performed a show to mark the opening of The New Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, a gig which sold out in seven seconds, setting a new sales record with tickets selling at a rate of 600 per second. July 11 took Paul to Halifax, Nova Scotia for his first ever concert there, which took place on the Halifax Commons. The mayor of Halifax described the show as the largest and most exciting concert in its 260 year history.

Following Halifax, Paul embarked on a five-week tour of the U.S.; Summer Live '09. The tour commenced with the inaugural run of shows at New York's Citi Field Stadium - the site of the former Shea Stadium where The Beatles made history in 1965 when they played a concert that set the precedent for the modern day stadium rock show. Critics hailed the Citi Field performances, seen by over 120,000 people, as the concert experience of a lifetime. The tour concluded in Dallas on August 19.

Those unable to make the European shows this Christmas can re-live the Macca magic with Good Evening New York City, a multi-disc CD/DVD featuring performances recorded at New York's Citi Field from Paul's Summer Live '09 tour.

Paul McCartney Tour Dates

12/02/09 Wed Color Line Arena Hamburg, GER

12/03/09 Thu O2 World Berlin, GER

12/09/09 Wed Gelredome Arnhem, NL

12/10/09 Thu Palais Omnisports Paris, FRA

12/16/09 Wed Cologne Arena Cologne, GER

12/17/09 Thu Cologne Arena Cologne, GER

12/20/09 Sun The O2 Dublin, IR

12/22/09 Tue O2 Arena London, GB

For more on Sir Paul's live show, see our review from Citi Field Stadium here.