English musician Paul McCartney has participated in a number of concert tours across several eras of his musical career. With the British–American rock band Wings, he undertook five major tours, with one, the Wings Over the World Tour, being worldwide. Following Wings' final 1979 tour of the UK, McCartney did not undergo a major concert tour for ten years. As a solo artist, McCartney has undergone sixteen major concert tours, nine being worldwide. His first was the Paul McCartney World Tour (1989–90) and his most recent being the Got Back tour (2022–24).
The British–American rock band Wings was Paul McCartney's post-Beatles band who were active from 1971 to 1981. Their primary line-up was McCartney, his wife Linda and guitarist Denny Laine, formerly of the Moody Blues. Throughout their years as a band, they embarked on a number of concert tours, varying in scale from their initial "DIY" tour of British universities to the epic Wings Over the World tour.
Shortly after forming Wings, the McCartneys took the band on an impromptu tour of the United Kingdom's universities in early 1972, showing up unannounced and performing for whoever happened to be on campus. The band's intended first stop on the tour, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, refused to allow them to play, so the band moved on to the more receptive University of Nottingham. Admission to the first show was £0.50, proceeds being split up equally among the band members.
The last Concert for the People of Kampuchea on 29 December 1979, which was the final date of Wings' fifth tour, was Wings' final gig.
However, Wings achieved notoriety for its aborted sixth tour, a January 1980 tour of Japan, which was cancelled before it even started when Paul McCartney was arrested for possession of marijuana while entering Japan on 16 January 1980 and was eventually deported on 25 January after nine days in prison, without Wings ever performing. Wings never again attempted a tour prior to their breakup in 1981.
| Start date | End date | Shows | Gross Revenue | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Paul McCartney World Tour | 26 September 1989 | 29 July 1990 | 103 | |
| Unplugged Tour 1991 | 8 May 1991 | 24 July 1991 | 6 | |
| The New World Tour | 18 February 1993 | 16 December 1993 | 77 | |
| Driving World Tour | 1 April 2002 | 18 November 2002 | 58 | $126,100,000[1] |
| Back in the World tour | 25 March 2003 | 1 June 2003 | 33 | |
| '04 Summer Tour | 25 May 2004 | 26 June 2004 | 14 | |
| The 'US' Tour | 17 September 2005 | 30 November 2005 | 37 | $60,000,000 [2] |
| Secret Tour 2007 | 7 June 2007 | 25 October 2007 | 6 | |
| Summer Live '09 | 11 July 2009 | 19 August 2009 | 10 | $33,650,567[3] |
| Good Evening Europe Tour | 2 December 2009 | 22 December 2009 | 8 | |
| Up and Coming Tour | 28 March 2010 | 10 June 2011 | 42 | |
| On the Run Tour | 15 July 2011 | 29 November 2012 | 37 | |
| Out There Tour | 4 May 2013 | 22 October 2015 | 91 | |
| One on One | 13 April 2016 | 16 December 2017 | 77 | $242,600,000[4] |
| 2018 Secret Gigs | 9 June 2018 | 26 July 2018 | 5 | $0[5] |
| Freshen Up | 17 September 2018 | 13 July 2019 | 39 | |
| Got Back | 28 April 2022 | 19 December 2024 | 59 | |
| Nº | Events | City | Country | Place | Capacity | Date | Songs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Benefit for "Release" | London | England | Hard Rock Café | 18 March 1973 | |||
| 2. | Live Aid | Wembley Stadium | 13 July 1985 | |||||
| 3. | The Prince's Trust | Wembley Arena | 20 June 1986 | |||||
| 4. | Sanremo Music Festival | Sanremo | Italy | Teatro Ariston | 28 February 1988 | |||
| 5. | Up Close TV show | New York | United States | Ed Sullivan Theater | 10 December 1992 | |||
| 6. | The New World Tour (rehearsals) | London | England | London Docklands | 5 February 1993 | |||
| 7. | Benefit | Royal College of Music | 25 March 1995 | |||||
| 8. | Ballad of the Skeletons | Royal Albert Hall | 16 October 1995 | |||||
| 9. | TownHall Meeting | Bishopsgate Institute | 17 May 1997 | |||||
| 10. | Music for Montserrat | Royal Albert Hall | 15 September 1997 | |||||
| 11. | Standing Stone | 14 October 1997 | ||||||
| 12. | Standing Stone | New York | United States | Carnegie Hall | 19 November 1997 | |||
| 13. | The Oprah Winfrey Show | Manhattan Center | 20 November 1997 | |||||
| 14. | The Fireman Webcast | London | England | Abbey Road Studios | 2 October 1998 | |||
| 15. | Rock and Roll Hall of Fame | New York | United States | Waldorf Astoria | 15 March 1999 | |||
| 16. | Concert for Linda | London | England | Royal Albert Hall | 10 April 1999 | |||
| 17. | PETA Party of the Century | Hollywood | United States | Paramount Studios | 18 September 1999 | |||
| 18. | Working Classical | Liverpool | England | Philharmonic Hall | 16 October 1999 | |||
| 19. | Live at the Cavern Club | The Cavern | 14 December 1999 | |||||
| 20. | The Concert for New York City | New York | United States | Madison Square Garden | October 2001 | 7 | ||
| 21. | Nobel Peace Prize Concert | Oslo | Norway | Oslo Spektrum | December 2001 | 3 | ||
| 22. | Super Bowl XXXVI | New Orleans | United States | Louisiana Superdome | February 2002 | 1 | ||
| 23. | 74th Academy Awards | Hollywood | Kodak Theatre | March 2002 | 1 | |||
| 24. | Party at the Palace | London | England | Buckingham Palace | June 2002 | 6 | ||
| 25. | The Concert for George | Royal Albert Hall | November 2002 | 4 | ||||
| 26. | Paul McCartney & James Taylor Together On Stage 2003 - Benefit Gala Concert | Los Angeles | United States | Beverly Hilton | 23 September 2003 | 15 (7 from Paul or The Beatles) | ||
| 27. | Super Bowl XXXIX | Jacksonville | United States | Jacksonville M.S. | February 2005 | 4 | ||
| 28. | Live 8 | London | England | Hyde Park | June 2005 | 6 | ||
| 29. | Chaos and Creation at Abbey Road | Abbey Road Studios | 100 | July 2005 | 12 | |||
| 30. | 48th Annual Grammy Awards | Los Angeles | United States | Staples Center | February 2006 | 3 | ||
| 31. | Brit Awards | London | England | Earls Court | February 2008 | 5 | ||
| 32. | Liverpool Sound | Liverpool | Anfield stadium | 1 June 2008 | 27 | |||
| 33. | Independence Concert (free show) | Kyiv | Ukraine | Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) | 14 June 2008 [6] [7] [8] | [9] 34 | ||
| 34. | Last Play at Shea | New York | United States | Shea Stadium | July 2008 | 2 | ||
| 35. | Quebec 400th Anniversary | Quebec City | Canada | Plains of Abraham | [10] | 20 July 2008 | 38 | |
| 36. | Friendship First Concert | Tel Aviv | Israel | Yarkon Park | 25 September 2008 | 32 | ||
| 37. | 51st Annual Grammy Awards | Los Angeles | United States | Staples Center | February 2009 | 1 | ||
| 38. | Change Begins Within | New York | Radio City Music Hall | April 2009 | 12 | |||
| 39. | Coachella Fest | Indio | Coachella Valley | 17 April 2009 | 36 | |||
| 40. | The Joint | Las Vegas | Hard Rock | 19 April 2009 | 34 | |||
| 41. | Children in Need Rocks the Royal Albert Hall | London | England | Royal Albert Hall | 12 November 2009 | 3 | ||
| 42. | The X Factor | London | England | Fountain Studios | 13 December 2009 | 2 | ||
| 43. | 54th Annual Grammy Awards | Los Angeles | United States | Staples Center | February 2012 | 4 | ||
| 44. | Diamond Jubilee Concert | London | England | The Mall | 4 June 2012 | 5 | ||
| 45. | 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony | London | England | Olympic Stadium | 28 July 2012 | 2 | ||
| 46. | New York | United States | Madison Square Garden | 12 December 2012 | 8 | |||
| 47. | iHeartRadio Music Festival | Las Vegas | United States | MGM Grand Garden Arena | 21 September 2013 | 8 | ||
| 48. | Hollywood Boulevard/Jimmy Kimmel Live! | Hollywood | United States | El Capitan Outdoor Stage | 23 September 2013 | 15 | ||
| 48. | 35th PETA Gala Awards | Hollywood | United States | 30 September 2015 | [11] |
Colors = id:vocals value:red legend:Vocals id:guitar value:green legend:Lead_guitar id:bass value:blue legend:Bass,_rhythm_guitar id:drums value:orange legend:Drums id:keys value:purple legend:Keyboards id:Lines value:black legend:Tours Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom
ScaleMajor = increment:2 start:1990ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:1991
BarData =
bar:Paul text:"Paul McCartney" bar:Linda text:" Linda McCartney" bar:Wix text:" Paul 'Wix' Wickens" bar:Hamish text:" Hamish Stuart" bar:Brian text:"Brian Ray" bar:Robbie text:" Robbie McIntosh" bar:Rusty text:"Rusty Anderson" bar:Chris text:" Chris Whitten" bar:Blair text:"Blair Cunningham" bar:Abe text:"Abe Laboriel, Jr"
PlotData=
width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4) bar:Paul from:26/09/1989 till:end color:vocals bar:Paul from:26/09/1989 till:end color:bass width:7 bar:Paul from:26/09/1989 till:end color:keys width:3 bar:Linda from:26/09/1989 till:16/12/1993 color:keys bar:Wix from:26/09/1989 till:24/12/2023 color:keys bar:Hamish from:26/09/1989 till:16/12/1993 color:bass bar:Brian from:01/04/2002 till:24/12/2023 color:bass bar:Robbie from:26/09/1989 till:16/12/1993 color:guitar bar:Rusty from:01/04/2002 till:24/12/2023 color:guitar bar:Chris from:26/09/1989 till:29/07/1990 color:drums bar:Blair from:30/07/1990 till:16/12/1993 color:drums bar:Abe from:01/04/2002 till:24/12/2023 color:drums
LineData =
at:29/07/1990 color:black layer:back at:16/12/1993 color:black layer:back at:18/11/2002 color:black layer:back at:01/06/2003 color:black layer:back at:26/06/2004 color:black layer:back at:30/11/2005 color:black layer:back at:19/08/2009 color:black layer:back at:22/12/2009 color:black layer:back at:10/06/2011 color:black layer:back at:04/05/2013 color:black layer:back at:13/04/2016 color:black layer:back at:09/06/2018 color:black layer:back at:17/09/2018 color:black layer:back at:28/04/2022 color:black layer:back