Sir Paul McCartney caused another mania Thursday night ... playing a concert out of nowhere for 300 lucky fans in Joshua Tree out in the California desert.The intimate show was announced on Paul's site in the afternoon, so fans raced to the venue, Pappy & Harriet's, to line up for tickets -- which were incredibly only 50 bucks.
PIONEERTOWN — This tiny community got its own version of Beatlemania when Paul McCartney announced he would play at Pappy & Harriet’s Thursday.
The concert was announced at 10 a.m. on McCartney’s website and Pappy & Harriet’s social media accounts. Within hours, thousands of people were milling around the dirt lot and winding road by Pappy & Harriet’s, hoping to get one of the 300 tickets scheduled to go on sale at 6:30 p.m.
We're told Paul went on at 8:15 PM and played till 10 -- nothing but the hits. Some of the songs on his set list included "A Hard Day's Night," "Lady Madonna," "Hey Jude" and "Band on the Run."
300 golden tickets were sold, plus some VIPs and workers. The intimate gig was a tune-up for Paul. He's got weekend #2 for the Desert Trip Festival coming up, where he'll play to a slightly bigger crowd of like 70,000.
Tickets cost $50 each, cash only.
As people continued to pour into Pioneertown, the venue’s original plan not to allow anyone to line up until 3 p.m. wasn’t working.
Some of the earliest people to arrive started to form their own line, and the first 300 people got markers indicating they would be able to buy their concert tickets when they went on sale.
Some people got agitated when others appeared to be jumping in line, CHP Officer Ryan Swanson said.
Swanson estimated around 2,000 people were waiting outside the saloon by 2 p.m. Trying to prevent worse traffic or disturbances, the CHP made an announcement telling everyone who hadn’t gotten one of the 300 markers to leave.
