Macca’s apology for Hard Rock Calling ‘jobsworth’

Play on: Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen at Hard Rock Calling

Paul McCartney has revealed how he apologised to Bruce Springsteen for the British “jobsworth” attitude after a technician pulled the plug on the pair’s Hard Rock Calling jam.

The Boss had invited Macca to make a guest appearance at the end of his set in London’s Hyde Park in July. But when the performance over-ran, risking the wrath of curfew enforcers, the PA was cut off – leaving astonished fans to wonder what might have happened if it had stayed on.

McCartney tells NME: “Bruce got in touch and said, ‘Do you want to get up? We’d like you to.’ I said, ‘I don’t know – I’ll just come along to the show.’ We’re in the wings and his roadie says, ‘I’ve got a bass for you, it’s all tuned, ready to go.’ I go, ‘Oh, you’re really ready!’

“What have they rehearsed? Twist And Shout and I Saw Her Standing There. So at the last minute, I have to say, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it.’ I’m the only one who doesn’t know it – even thought I wrote the bloody thing.”

He remembers launching into Twist And Shout while someone whispered there wasn’t time to play it. “Bruce is going, ‘Yeah, come on, man!’ so I was happy,” Macca says.

“We’re rocking away. All our monitors stayed on, so we weren’t aware that the plug had been pulled on the audience.

“You’ve got to have a laugh,” he reflects about the situation. But he adds: “I was just apologetic, like, ‘I’m sorry, man – only in Britain!’

“It’s the only place. You can’t imagine in New York or somewhere like that, them pulling the plug. Everyone in America was going to me, ‘Is it true, man? They pulled the plug on you and Springsteen?’ I’m saying, ‘Yeah – well, you know. Just some bloody jobsworth!”

Concert promoters Live Nation quit the Hyde Park venue after admitting that the curfew hadn’t been enforced by health and safety considerations, but by the millionaire residents in the area who were able to “wield inordinate power over Parliament.”