At age sixty-nine, few would begrudge Sir Paul McCartney if he had decided to now rest on his laurels (and what laurels they are) and opt for the quiet life with his new (third) missus, Nancy Shevell. For this is a man who has been at the very top of his profession for over five decades, having been one quarter of the most famous pop group of all-time and having been one half of the best-known and, most successful song-writing partnership with fellow Beatle John Lennon, providing the soundtrack to many peoples’ lives and penning the most important and most covered pop songbook of the twentieth century. Beyond the Beatles, Sir Paul or Macca to you, me and millions of other fans as he is affectionately still know, enjoyed further incredible success with his band Wings and as a solo artist.

But this near Septuagenarian is leading anything but a sedate life of retirement for, driven solely by his still genuine love of music and of performing(since his monetary needs ceased to be a concern as far back as in his early twenties), Macca is still out there gigging, out-rocking most others and serving up the most thrilling of shows.

Just days before Christmas, McCartney’s ‘On The Run’ tour pulled into Manchester town for a (predictably) sold-out out concert at the M.E.N Arena and it was a show that was quite simply nothing short of magnificent.

His new marriage clearly seems to have rejuvenated Macca as for over three hours, he performed at a relentless pace, never once leaving the stage(except between encores) and not even stopping for a drink as the hits just kept on coming, thick and fast from the back catalogue that is surely the envy of every other band/musician.

There were no elaborate costume changes either, unless you count the removal of his suit jacket some five songs into the set which he himself joked was “the big wardrobe change of the evening barring any malfunctions.”

With an adoring audience that spanned several generations of music fans who delighted in singing along to each familiar classic, McCartney had kicked proceedings off perfectly with ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ which was quickly followed by ‘Junior’s Farm’, ‘All My Loving’ and ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’.

Not only has Macca physically aged well, still cutting a lean figure and the proud possessor of a full mop of hair, his voice has barely altered over the decades and he still sounded just like the fledgling musician, with the same levels of energy and boyish enthusiasm, that played at the legendary Cavern club and the seedy bars and clubs in Hamburg back in the Sixties. And it is testament to how little his vocals have changed that he performed all the songs played on the night in their original key.

The former Beatle played many of the songs on his trusty signature Hoffner bass but he did occasionally swap guitars, jokingly telling the crowd, “you may wonder why we are switching guitars, basically because we’re showing off, we’ve got them so we’ll show them”. However there were specific reasons for some of the swaps such as for his rendition of ‘Paperback Writer’, Macca strapped on the very same guitar he had played on the recording of the song.

And for a touching tribute to George Harrison, McCartney played the guitarist’s most famous composition, ‘Something’, on a ukulele, an instrument which Harrison both loved and excelled on. There was also a moving tribute on the night to John (Lennon) too via the song ‘Here Today’, penned by McCartney about his relationship with and, love for his late friend/collaborator, and also via ‘Give Peace A Chance’.

Attempting to pick highlights from the show is no easy task, such was the quality of the set list and the performance levels throughout but ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’, ‘Blackbird’, ‘Eleanor Rigby’, ‘Live & Let Die’ complete with amazing pyrotechnics, ‘Let It Be’ and, a rousing ‘Band On The Run’ were all especially memorable on a night of continuous highs.

Backed by 16,000 voices singing along in perfect unison, ‘Hey Jude’ brought the show to its official end but McCartney was far from done yet as he subsequently returned to the stage twice more for lengthy encores that saw him romp to the finishing line in glorious style with ‘big hitters’ like ‘All You Need Is Love’, (appropriately) ‘Wonderful Xmas Time’ with help from a local youth choir, ‘Daytripper’, ‘Get Back’, the majestic ‘Yesterday’ that never fails to strike an emotional chord with one and all, a raucous ‘Helter Skelter’ and finally, ‘Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight’ from the ‘Abbey Road’ album..

It’s fair to say that the music world is unlikely again to see one man make such a massive contribution to his art over such a lengthy period of time and it was a real privilege for all present to witness Sir Paul making an evening’s work look just like simple play.