Overview

• Opening the Santa Barbara Bowl show on Friday, McCartney performed the Beatles’ Help! in full for the first time since 1965.
• He had previously used only a short snippet in a 1989/90 medley, a rarity for a song largely written by John Lennon.
• The set mixed Beatles staples with Wings favorites and solo cuts, included the 2023 Beatles track Now and Then, and ran about 1 hour 45 minutes.
• A virtual duet with Lennon on I’ve Got a Feeling used rooftop-concert footage, while phones were sealed in Yondr pouches, leaving only a 30‑second soundcheck clip of Help! circulating.
• Announced roughly two weeks in advance, the 4,562‑seat warm-up sold out quickly, and the Got Back tour resumes on Sept. 29 at Acrisure Arena in Thousand Palms with his longtime band of Paul “Wix” Wickens, Brian Ray, Rusty Anderson and Abe Laboriel Jr.