This moved me. for a few reasons. from Elvis Costello's autobiography: reported by Walter Yablonsky
"Paul McCartney was at the microphone singing Ricky Nelson's "Lonesome town" to an almost empty Royal Albert Hall. Many of the other performers on the bill were waiting to rehearse but had melted away to the edges of the auditorium to give him some space. Neil Finn was talking to Johnny Marr, Sinead O'Connor was there with her son, and the emcee for the night, Eddie Izzard, was looking over the running order with Chrissie hynde. George Michael arrived quietly and was waiting patiently for his turn to sing.
This was to be Paul's first public performance since the death of his wife Linda, almost a year earlier in 1998. The occasion was "here, there and everywhere: A concert for Linda", a salute organized by her friends, Chrissie and the television writer Carla Lane.
Prior to the day of the show, it was by no means certain that Paul would do more then attend the event along with his family. Now it seemed he was ready to take the stage.
I was sitting on a flight case, out of sight, when the familiar voice of Paul's personal assistant, John Hammel, said in my ear, "why don't you go up and sing harmony with him?"
I would've never presumed to do so, and it wasn't like John to make such a suggestion, but it was a kind thought, as there was an uncommon and understandable fragility to Paul's demeanor that day.
"Lonesome Town" came from "Run Devil Run". It was Paul's first recording after Linda's passing, mostly songs from the 1950s that they had each loved before they met.
After the first run-through, John found a technical reason to speak to Paul. I saw them confirm, and suddenly Paul was nodding in agreement and beckoning me from the shadows. I didn't really know the song well, but the harmony line was pretty straightforward. Whatever the reason, Paul's next performance begin to soar.
I started to make my exit. Paul said, "Do you want to stay up for the next one and sing harmony?" "What is it?" I asked. "All my loving'. Do you know it?" Do I know it? I thought. I may have said, "are you kidding?" Or maybe that was only in my head. Even without Paul's changing a note of the music, there was something incredibly poignant about the opening lines of the song.
"Close your eyes and I'll kiss you
tomorrow I'll miss you
remember I'll always be true"
I locked onto the vocal harmony on the second time around, as I'd done 1000 times before while singing along to the record. It never really occurred to me that learning to sing either vocal part on a Beatles record was any kind of a musical education. I was just a kid singing along with the radio in our front room. Right now, I was feeling extremely glad that I just spent all that time alone with our record player. The end of "all my loving" was met by an echoey round of applause and cheering from the performers scattered around the edges of the auditorium, and we were ready to go.
There were a lot of fine, heartfelt performances that night, but naturally Paul's entrance was greeted with the warmest ovation. My part in "lonesome town" may have been discreet but I was proud to be up there as part of the band. Then Paul kicked off "all my loving". He got as far as the word "eyes" in the opening line, and the extraordinary increase in the volume from the audience at the recognition of a Beatles song caused my heart to race. If that was a tiny fraction of the fervor that they must have encountered nightly, then you could understand why they would eventually want to get off the stage. It was exhilarating and slightly frightening at the same time.” Elvis Costello
This really got to me too. Adoring Paul and Linda as my wife and I did this tale still smarts somehow, raises a tear and wish Sir Paul endless happiness
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