Paul McCartney, The Beatles and a personal Christmas Miracle.
- Brad Gardner
- Jan 20
- 3 min read
Updated: Jan 27
Happy New Year everyone. I thought I would take this opportunity to write a little update as we ring in our new year here in Snowy Canada.
First of all, I would like to start by sharing that I had the amazing opportunity to see Paul McCartney play in Hamilton, Ontario at the end of November at the "new" TD Coliseum.
I had seen him play once before in 2009 so this long break between seeing him last was such a welcomed experience.
He and his awesome band played all of the hits I could possibly want to hear, and the fact he is performing at 83 years old is nothing short of amazing. It was truly a historic gig and your damn right I bought the t-shirt and the poster to commemorate the the show.
As I've have mentioned many times before to people who know me, I can truly pinpoint the day I first felt the desire to make music and play guitar. And it was after hearing The Beatles music for the first time as a child.
Needless to say, being at the stereotypical midlife crises age of 40, I've been doing lots reflecting on my life as a musician. With all of the experiences and friendships and bonding moments the Beatles music and their respective careers have given me. That concert really opened a wellspring of reflection and creativity for me.
To start, I felt the desire to learn how to play all three of those Beatles songs that were made with John Lennon's old demos. Paul Performed the newest single "Now and Then" live at the concert. To hear that song live gave me a lot of vigor and inspiration about those songs. I personally thought they were the perfect bookend to the Beatles music catalogue.
Music is magic.
I'm sure it was planned out, but coinciding with Paul McCartney's Got Back Tour. The Beatles also re-released the Beatles Anthology album which included the incredible new 2025 mixes done by Jeff Lynne of "Free As Bird" "Real Love". They also released a 45" single of "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love" 2025 mixes. Of course ordered it right after that Paul McCartney concert.
Riding that enthusiasm for those songs I also decided to learn and record some home studio covers of those songs. It's simply something I always do when I'm truly appreciating a piece of music, the next step of appreciation is to learn it.
To walk in the footsteps and see what a song is made of. It's something that is very hard to describe if you do not play music. All the more reason to pick up an instrument today! It's never too late.
Anyways, once I had learnt the songs, I was teaching some of the songs to one of my guitar students.
Here's where the magic kicks in .... as I was writing out the tablature at home for the slide guitar solo of "Free as a Bird" I got a knock on the door. To my shock, it was the delivery of the 45" single of "Free as a Bird" and "Real Love".
For me personally, that was a true Christmas miracle. I was in tears by that synchronicity. All I could do was look up to the sky and say thank you so much.
As for the chances of this happening, I had ordered the 45" roughly a month prior and it's not like I was teaching that song to a lot of students, just one. The odds of that split moment lining up like that is an experience that I will never forget.
My first Christmas recieving my guitar at age 7. This Christmas I celebrated my 33rd Christmas as a musician and guitar player.
The only bit of sad news to go with this story was that at the start of the new year, Hoffner, the German company famous for creating the iconic "Beatle" club bass announced that they have now gone out of business. I guess I will have to try to track one of those basses down someday.
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