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When Paul McCartney performs tonight at the newly renovated TD Coliseum in Hamilton, it will be hard for fans not to think that after decades of his extraordinary contributions to popular music, we are somewhere close to the end.
Tim Potocic, owner of Hamilton's Sonic Union Records, has been waiting almost his entire life for this moment.
“People told me I would feel all the feelings,” Potocic said. “I will cry as a grown man. I prepared for this.”
Poticic was at the TD Coliseum on Tuesday to watch funk, R&B, soul, pop legends Earth Wind and Fire in an invitation-only test show.
“I'm a guy who loves live music,” said Potich, organizer of Supercrawl, Hamilton's annual free music, arts and culture festival, now in its 15th year.
“I think it will be an amazing moment for me to be in this room,” he said, adding that he just wants to enjoy the experience. “I’ll take a couple quick photos and put my phone away.”
McCartney's tour draws to a close
Somewhere near the beginning – 65 years ago – McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr formed the Beatles. Starting in 1960 and only being together for 10 years, they are the best-selling music artists in history.
After that, McCartney had many more hits with his own band Wings, as well as a long career that saw him play with everyone from Michael Jackson to Stevie Wonder, Johnny Cash and Kanye West.
At 83, McCartney, along with Starr, the last surviving members of The Beatles, may become the most famous living musician in the world.
After two shows in Montreal, his sold-out show in Hamilton — his first in the city since 2016 — was the final stop in Canada on his Got Back tour, which began in 2022 and ends in Chicago on Tuesday.
After this, who knows?
Connection between Hamilton and Liverpool
Abby Jolly is thrilled McCartney is in Hamilton, although she won't be going – tickets are too expensive: $265 to $5,000 each.
On Friday afternoon, she and her son Russell were at the Hamilton Central Library, located next door to the TD Coliseum, to join in a Beatles singalong before a concert. She said it would be the “next best thing.”
Jolly says her family is from McCartney's hometown of Liverpool, and she was named after Abbey Road, the last album the Beatles ever recorded.
“Our grandparents met on Penny Lane,” she said, referring to the Liverpool street made famous by the Beatles song of the same name.
Jolly says there is a deep connection between Hamilton and Liverpool, two cities located on the water – Liverpool on the Mersey River and Hamilton on Lake Ontario – and filled with hard-working people. “These cities have a lot of heart, a lot of love,” she said.
“We're really excited that Paul McCartney is coming to town this week,” Clarissa DerNederlanden, who works at the library, told CBC News on Wednesday. “Can you believe it?”
“I love Hamilton,” she said, adding that it's great to see the arena renovation attracting such big names. “I’ve lived here for almost 20 years and it’s great to see it experiencing growth and renaissance.”
TD Coliseum was designed to lure legends like McCartney away from major cities like Toronto and Vancouver.
The arena, formerly known as Copps Coliseum, will reopen Friday after a $300 million renovation that took two years to complete, just in time to host the Got Back tour.
Cardi B, Jonas Brothers and K-Pop group Twice are set to perform in the coming months. Then, in March, the arena will host The Junos, Canada's biggest music night.
It seats 18,000 people and includes floor-level boxes, a new artist lounge and new restaurants, including celebrity chef Matty Matheson's new pub-style restaurant, the Iron Cow Public House.
