Posted June 11, 200817 yr Wednesday, June 11, 2008 Ukraine's Beatles fans ready to call June 14 national holiday Walrus Gumboot.com Sir Paul arrives in Kyiv by an invitation from Viktor Pinchuk Foundation. It is a special performance named "Independence Concert". The concert will be free for the public and it will be broadcasted in live air on the TV Novyi Channel. "The very fact of Paul McCartney's arrival is unique for Ukraine. A show and the largest stage that was ever constructed in Ukraine, 1,100 square meters, are being prepared on the main square of the capital for the performance of the legendary musician", Viktor Pinchuk Foundation's Communication Adviser Mykyta Poturayev told a press conference today. By calculations of the concert organizers, about 500,000 of the Beatles fans will be able to hear his live performance. On the square and in Khreshchatyk Street eight monitors of 6x4 meters will be set up. Live broadcasting of the performance will be watched on the squares of Lviv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa. M.Poturayev informed that by results of an interactive voting a list of songs that the Ukrainians want to hear was sent to Paul McCartney. Paul McCartney arrives in Ukraine on June 13 by his personal plane, and he will leave on June 15. On the arrival day he will open an exhibition of his artistic works in the PinchukArtCentre. In June 2007, Viktor Pinchuk Foundation has already organized a charitable concert of the world star Sir Elton John. 500,000 now that is what I call a large attendance?
June 15, 200817 yr McCartney rocks Ukrainian capital Sir Paul McCartney has performed in front of tens of thousands of people in the Ukrainian capital Kiev. The former Beatle braved thunder, lightning and torrential rain to perform his first concert in the former Soviet republic. Sir Paul sang a range of Beatles classics and solo material during his two-and-a-half hour set. He told the crowd in the city's main square: "It's great to be here. Thank you for coming out in the rain." The free Independence Concert, organised by Ukrainian billionaire businessman Viktor Pinchuk, was also broadcast live on TV across the country and on giant screens set up in five other cities. 'Amazing' Sir Paul opened his set with the Beatles hit Drive My Car, followed by a series of Beatles songs, including Hey Jude, Let it Be, Back in the USSR, and Penny Lane. But the crowd's loudest screams were reserved for an electrifying performance of Bond theme tune Live And Let Die, complete with pyrotechnics and fireworks. Sir Paul also finished the concert with two encores, ending on Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. "It was fantastic, the reaction was amazing," said Oxana Bulan, a teacher from Kiev. "It's huge to finally feel a piece of something. "We have always been somewhere behind the iron fence and we'd like to join the rest of the world now." Ukraine, which gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, has played host to a number of well-known performers in recent years. Last June, Sir Elton John performed to 200,000 people in Independence Square. Source: BBC news
Create an account or sign in to comment