A star-studded crowd showed up in Los Angeles to support Paul McCartney as he kicked off the year with two gigs at the Fonda Theatre.

On Saturday (March 28), McCartney played the second of a two-night stint at the 1,200-capacity venue. This weekend’s shows marked his first live gigs since wrapping his ‘Got Back Tour’, and rounded off a week that saw the Beatles icon announce his first new album in five years.

He marked his return with details of new album ‘The Boys Of Dungeon Lane’ – which you can pre-order here – and shared the nostalgic lead single ‘Days We Left Behind’, which was notably absent from this weekend’s setlists.

Rather, those who managed to score tickets from the lottery-style draw saw him perform 25 songs over the course of a nearly two-hour set, which included a slew of Beatles classics, including ‘Help!’, ‘Something’, and ‘I’ve Just Seen a Face’. He also played some Wings classics, namely ‘Band on the Run’ and ‘Let Me Roll It’.

Along with a dedication to the late George Harrison, he paid tribute to Jimi Hendrix with an instrumental cover of ‘Foxy Lady’, and concluded both nights with a medley of ‘Golden Slumbers’, ‘Carry That Weight’, and ‘The End’.

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The concert required gig-goers to lock their cell phones away, but after show, pictures of it’s celebrity attendees leaving the venue emerged on social media, among them Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, and John Mayer.

Per CNN, Stevie Nicks, Margot Robbie, Billie Eilish and Ringo Starr were all also gathered at the the Fonda to watch McCartney play, as were Sabrina Carpenter, Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Emma Watson, and more.

This morning (Monday March 30), and perhaps due to the no-phone rule at the gig, McCartney’s own Reddit account was banned after sharing photos from the gig through a Dropbox link.

The thread in question has since been removed, although McCartney’s Reddit account itself, likely run by his management team, has since been restored.

“Hope you enjoyed the show at Fonda Theatre last night,” the post read (via Dexerto), and went on to say the images were shared in an effort to give fans who weren’t able to attend a look at the events of the phone-free affair.

“As last night was a phone-free experience, we wanted to make sure that you had some memories from the show to share with friends, family and loved ones.”

At one point in the show, McCartney he reflected the Beatles’ time in Liverpool, describing them as four men who “eventually came to America, where it was new, different, and included a lot of screaming girls”, Rolling Stone reported.

It comes as McCartney has recently been celebrating his post-Beatles life and time with Wings, publishing the book The Story Of A Band On The Run last year ahead of an anthology collection album and the acclaimed documentary Man On The Run – which NME described as painting him as ”goofy and a little corny, but always endearingly himself”.

Last year saw The Beatles’ ‘Anthology’ celebrated with a new book, expanded album and the legendary documentary series expanded to nine episodes. Filming continues on Sam Mendes’ four Beatles biopics, starring Paul Mescal as McCartney, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, Harris Dickinson as John Lennon and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr and set for release in 2028.

As for his upcoming album, he’s it’s title was drawn from nostalgia. “I do often wonder if I’m just writing about the past,” he said, “but then I think how can you write about anything else?”

The album came about from a cup of tea with producer Andrew Watt [Post Malone, Ozzy Osbourne, Elton John] in 2021, when McCartney was playing a guitar and strummed a chord he didn’t recognise. He soon formed a three-chord sequence before Watt pushed them to record the song, which became the album’s opening track ‘As You Lie There’.

Paul McCartney announces new album ‘The Boys Of Dungeon Lane’. Credit: Press

‘The Boys Of Dungeon Lane’ tracklist is:

‘As You Lie There’
‘Lost Horizon’
‘Days We Left Behind’
‘Ripples in a Pond’
‘Mountain Top’
‘Down South’
‘We Two’
‘Come Inside’
‘Never Know’
‘Home to Us’
‘Life Can Be Hard’
‘First Star of the Night’
‘Salesman Saint’
‘Momma Gets By’

In the spirit of his legendary 1970 debut solo album ‘McCartney’, the legend would go on to play the majority of the instruments himself – with the album credited entirely to himself. A press release reveals the album’s diversity, offering “Wings style rock, Beatles style harmonies, McCartney style grooves, understated intimacy, melody driven storytelling, character songs – the common thread being Paul”.

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