Paul McCartney joined by Jack White and St. Vincent for a raucous rendition of The Beatles’ The End during record-breaking set at Mexico’s Corona Capital Festival
While it was White’s first time sharing the stage with the former Beatle, St. Vincent had joined Macca earlier that night to take up lead guitar duties for a cover of Get Back
Paul McCartney’s headlining set at Mexico City’s Corona Capital Festival this past weekend featured two special guests – Jack White and St. Vincent – who joined him for his show closer, a raucous rendition of The Beatles’ The End, in front of nearly 82,000 attendees.
The performance marked the ex-Beatle’s debut at a Latin American music festival and, according to promoter Ocesa (via Billboard), attracted the largest crowd the festival has seen in its 14-year history.
As fitting for two stellar guitarists, White and St. Vincent soloed their way through the song alongside McCartney – who was also wielding a guitar by this point – and his two guitarists, Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray.
Best of all, the historic moment seemed to double as an off-the-cuff jam session, with McCartney pointing to the different guitarists at random, prompting them to show off their soloing skills.
Gear-wise, White could be seen wielding a custom black, yellow and white Triple Caster Telecaster – a nod to the signature (and more accessible) Triple Caster he released this September with Fender – while St. Vincent played her Stealth Black signature guitar. McCartney, meanwhile, began the song on piano before switching to a left-handed Gibson Les Paul.
Earlier that night, St. Vincent joined a Hofner violin bass-playing McCartney on lead guitar duties for an equally high-octane rendition of Get Back.
While it was White’s first time ever sharing the stage with the former Beatle, St. Vincent had previously collaborated with him on Women and Wives from his 2021 remix album, McCartney III Imagined.
As expected, McCartney’s set list was packed with Beatles favorites, including A Hard Day’s Night (1964), Let It Be (1970), Hey Jude (1968), Blackbird (1968), and Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da (1968).
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With his participation in Corona Capital, Macca wrapped up a busy week in Mexico as part of the South American leg of his Got Back tour, which kicked off in Uruguay on October 1.
In other Paul McCartney news, Richie Sambora recently revealed that The Beatles and Wings co-founder had a hand in mixing one of the tracks on Bon Jovi's One Wild Night live album.
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Janelle is a staff writer at GuitarWorld.com. After a long stint in classical music, Janelle discovered the joys of playing guitar in dingy venues at the age of 13 and has never looked back. Janelle has written extensively about the intersection of music and technology, and how this is shaping the future of the music industry. She also had the pleasure of interviewing Dream Wife, K.Flay, Yīn Yīn, and Black Honey, among others. When she's not writing, you'll find her creating layers of delicious audio lasagna with her art-rock/psych-punk band ĠENN.
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