The show opens with the DJ in a funky hat and a video of clouds passing by with a recording of Paul speaking . . . then a guy on stilts comes out and gets the crowd clapping in rhythm. The pre-show is very acrobatic, all done to remixes of Paul's tunes. The uncut version of "Temp
orary
Secretary" is one of the pre-show tunes. It's more like a
circus than the last pre-show. The costumes are very vibrant neon
colors with neon flags and banners. There are go-go dancers and
break dancers. At a later point during the pre-show, the actors
drag a curtain across the stage and continue performing in front.
This allows the crew to take down the tall black wooden barriers
which hid the band set-up. Once the familiar Em chord is hit,
the curtain flies open from one side and there they are! The curtain
is yellow gold, with the Ram and tall flower from Paul's "Egypt
Station" painting. It's on Page 51 of the "Paul McCartney
Paintings" book from the Siegen exhibit.
cannon is located
below each front corner of the stage and three cannons are located
back by the sound platform. We were soaked and then covered with
confetti (read: tarred and feathered!). We looked like red, white
and blue chickens. 
Me".
During the break at the end of "Get Back", Paul stops
the band and says to the crowd, "Do you want to get back?
Do you want to get back? Do you want to get back? I want to get
back!" and then turns and cues Abe to drum-fill the band
back in and start the riff to finish the song. "Helter Skelter"
starts with Rusty and Brian facing each other in front of Abe's
bass drum, where they start the screaming guitar chords while
Paul starts the opening lines of the song. They break to their
respective mikes when Paul hits the last note of the opening line.
the video screens show great roller coaster scenes during this
song. Rusty and Abe handle the John Lennon vocals (together) during
the song. 
rain.
The rain let up at the beginning of the pre-show and stopped a
third of the way through the show. After "All Things Must
Pass", a small group sang "We all live in a yellow submarine"
and Paul turned and cued the band in and sang the entire opening
verse and chorus of "Yellow Submarine". This was the
best
crowd
of the three shows we saw. After "Back in the USSR",
the crowd kept singing the backing vocal part of "oooowheeeeeeeeoooo"
after the song was over. They also kept singing the "nanana's"
of "Hey Jude" after the band had left the stage before
the encore. The security was very tight in Leipzig. You saw every
kind of military uniform possible, giving you a taste of what
it must have been like when the Iron Curtain was still intact
. . . scary. Security was still tight on cameras and they caught
several people. Cris and I thought this was the best of the three
shows we saw. Another stellar performance by the band. Paul's
voice was warmed up for this show (Show #5 of the tour).
buildings
with broken windows. The ground was muddy from previous rains
and filled with big rocks and chunks of concrete. Unlike the other
two shows we saw, they did not cover the ground for this show.
The stands were temporary metal stands that you would find at
a high school football game. The benches did have individual seats,
though. A train track ran on the hillside just 50 years from stage
left. Several times during the show, a train passed by. People
were sitting on the hillside and we wondered if they crashed the
show. The standing area was packed all the way around the stands,
and when the show started, cameras went up taking pics. No way
security could get to these people. There weren't a lot of cameras,
though. A lot less security than the previous two shows. The crowd
was mostly tame, not such a rousing response to "Back in
the USSR". The flames onstage during "Live and Let Die"
reminded me of the flames in front of the wizard in the "Wizard
of Oz". They shot up at different times from front, back
and the side of the stage. At the end, 14 or 15 cannon
shots of fireworks filled the sky above the stage. they went off
in a cadence: bang . . . bang . . . bang . . . bang . . . bang.
The band performance was great. Paul's voice cracked a few times.
There were massive crowds trying to get into and out of this show.
The subway was very backed up. We grabbed a tram back into the
city. I made friends with a 7-foot-tall basketball player going
into the show . . . just in case. 
band at the Prague hotel. Brian said that "You Won't See
Me" is a "handful" on bass. Hard to sing and play
that part. At rehearsal, Paul told Brian "that's why you're
playing it!" Brian enjoys playing the lead on "Get Back".
His normal position in a band is lead guitar but he enjoys the
opportunity to play bass, and especially these bass lines! He
said they only practiced 11 days for this tour . . . 10 for the
2002 tour. The 1989-90 band practiced seven months before they
hit the road! Brian gave us guitar picks and we talked about how
scenic Prague is.