Paul McCartney & Wings (2/Cd) Rockshow At The Maple Leaf Gardens

Maple Leaf Garden, Toronto, ON, Canada – May 9th, 1976

Disc 1: Venus & Mars/Rock Show/Jet, Let Me Roll It, Spirits Of Ancient Egypt, Medicine Jar, Maybe I’m Amazed, Call Me Back Again, Lady Madonna, The Long And Winding Road, Live & Let Die, Picasso’s Last Words, Richard Corey, Bluebird, I’ve Just Seen A Face, Blackbird, Yesterday

Disc 2: You Gave Me The Answer, Magneto & Titanium Man, My Love, Listen To What The Man Said, Let ‘Em In, Time To Hide, Silly Love Songs, Beware My Love, band introduction, Letting Go, Band On The Run, Hi Hi Hi, Soily

Rock Show At The Maple Leaf Garden on Misterclaudel is the second release of the Toronto show this month to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary. The BMW release Wings Over Torontodocuments a brand new tape source. This release utilizes the same source used for the Voxx release Toronto 1976 Complete.

This is an unbelievably vivid, three-dimensional stereo audience recording that is one of the best tapes produced from Wings’ tour and one of the best from the seventies. The only drawback is the consistent audience commentary running throughout the show. They don’t speak during the music but are audible between songs. There are also some girls begging for “Yesterday” through the acoustic section and scream loudly when they finally do get it.

The great sound quality is a plus because this is one of the best shows from the tour with very tight playing with a playful and relaxed band. Linda is very loud with her backing vocals and hits some very painful notes in “Medicine Jar” and the band lose their way in the latter half of “Silly Love Songs”. But this tour is interesting because it presents Paul McCartney’s vision of integrating his melodic power pop with a progressive arena rock.

It works especially well with the acoustic set but I’ve always been impressed with how songs like “Let Me Roll It” is substantially transformed live. Part of the fun in collecting the tapes from this tour is spotting the inside jokes the musicians share during the performance. In this show Joe English plays the opening drum rhythm of Paul Simon’s “Fifty Ways To Leave Your Lover” before “My Love”, which Denny Laine introduces as “A Wings blues”.

Misterclaudel didn’t include any goodies as they usually do. The front cover recycles the same common pictures from the official Wings Over America release and is packaged in a thick jewel case. A double slimline probably would have been much better.

This is a minor improvement over previous releases and isn’t worth picking up if you own the Voxx version. But if you don’t have it at all, your collection needs it. And this is a very nice edition. Misterclaudel even used picture discs as they have on their past couple of titles. They announced that their next release would be a show from Wings’ final tour in the winter of 1979. No word on which show it is, but that will be a very welcome release since that tour is pretty well neglected by the labels.