On August 19, 2010, Paul McCartney, arguably popular music’s most successful composer and performer, will be opening CONSOL Energy Center with the Grand Opening Concert, as he brings Pittsburgh the “Up and Coming 2010 Tour.” In keeping with his special headline making concerts, McCartney and his band return to Pittsburgh after an absence of over 20 years. In February 1990 McCartney performed sold-out back to back shows in Pittsburgh Civic Arena. McCartney made his debut in Pittsburgh on September 14, 1964 as a member of the Beatles at Civic Arena.

CONSOL Energy Center is promoting the Grand Opening Concert, support is from AEG Live arranged by MPL and Marshall Arts.

On Monday, June 14, tickets will be going on sale from Mellon Arena Box Office, Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com and via telephone at 800-745-3000. American Express Card members will be able to purchase advance tickets from June 9 through June 13.

Ken Sawyer, Pittsburgh Penguin CEO and operator of the arena said, we are excited having an icon such as Paul McCartney returning to Pittsburgh after 20 years and opening CONSOL Energy Center. It will be a world class performer inside a facility that is world class. It’s a signal for the region and city that it’s not just a sports or hockey arena. This is a world class entertainment center.

In recent years, the live shows of McCartney’s have reached new levels, gaining unprecedented reviews from both critics and fans. He has pushed boundaries as he has performed in front of millions of fans and made international news with his monumental shows which include performances in Red Square in Moscow, outside Rome’s Coliseum, Ukraine’s biggest outdoor show ever, his first Tel Aviv performance and NASA space station live performance. McCartney’s Summer ‘09 tour last year started in earnest with a legendary inaugural set of shows at CitiField Stadium in New York, the past site of Shea Stadium where in 1965 The Beatles performed a show that set a precedent for stadium rock shows of the present day.

Kicking off in March, “Up and Coming 2010 Tour” are the first shows in the US for McCartney since the “Summer Live ‘09 Tour of five weeks, which was preceded by a headlining sold out set at the Coachella 2009 festival as well as surprise performance on the CBS program “Late Show with David Letterman” at the Ed Sullivan Theater marquee, where decades ago The Beatles made television history. The performance drew throngs of people that packed Broadway from Times Square to Columbus Circle.

The new show from McCartney has received rave reviews. It features a diverse set list typically. The two hour plus show has selections from Paul’s solo career as well as the music catalogs of the Wings and Beatles and tracks from “Electric Arguments,” the 2008 album from The Fireman, as well as songs that have not been been played before in the US.

Paul McCartney, just like last summer, is rolling his U.S. concert dates out one at a time.

The rock legend now has three shows for his 2010 summer “Up and Coming Tour” announced. McCartney’s most recent addition is his July 26 show in Nashville, TN at Bridgestone Arena. Previously announced dates are for July 10 in San Francisco, CA at AT&T Park and in Sandy, UT at Rio Tinto on July 13.

Public ticket sales will go on sale starting on June 7 for the show in Nashville. During the first week in June there will be various presale promotions. According to Ticketmaster.com all-in price listings, face values for tickets will cost between $57 (plus taxes and fees of $15.34) and $250 (plus taxes and fees of $26.49).

The city of Nashville is still recovering from early May devastating floods. The implication of Sir Paul’s performance will stretch well beyond his three hours on stage.

According to an Associated Press report, Mayor Karl Dean gave an early estimate for the flood damages in Nashville at about $1.5 billion, not including bridges and public roadways. Nashville Public Radio by mid month, estimated the cost of the damages had risen to almost $2 billion.

The May 1-2 flood costs also include an estimated $3.1 million worth of damages of the Bridgestone Arena, according to estimates from WTVF, Nashville station.

During his press conference to announce the McCartney concert, Mayor Dean said, this is best time for Paul McCartney to be here.

During the press conference, Steve Moore, senior vice president of AEG Live, said the concert signifies that no act is too big for playing Nashville. Some years ago that wasn’t the case. There were acts who wouldn’t play in Nashville.

The show in July will mark the first-ever performance by McCartney in Nashville, although he did live in the area for six weeks with his family in 1974. According to the official website for McCartney, his 2010 itinerary was planned around familiar markets he hadn’t visited in a long time as well as new cities he hasn’t performed in.

A few U.S. “Up and Coming Tour” spring dates have already been performed by McCartney. Ticket sales for those shows have placed the musician repeatedly on the exclusive event rankings of Ticket News. For the week that ended May 23 McCartney was at No. 5.

During Paul McCartney’s 50 year career, there are only a few things he hasn’t accomplished. One of those is performing in Utah. However this summer that will change. McCartney has announced he will performing his first concert ever in Utah. On July 13th, McCartney’s “Up and Coming Tour” is visiting Sandy, Utah’s Rio Tinto Stadium.

The mission of the “Up and Coming Tour” is for McCartney to go to cities he has never visited before and markets he hasn’t performed in for some time. In addition to performing in Utah, McCartney will also be playing his first San Francisco concert since playing Candlestick Part as a member of the Beatles in August 1966. McCartney will be performing at AT&T Park on July 10. Tickets will be going on sale for both shows on May 24 to the general public.

The dates are the first U.S. gigs on his “Up and Coming Tour” since the tour’s first leg wrapped up in Miami on April 3. The trek so far has visited Phoenix, Arizona as well as two sold out Hollywood Bowl shows. The almost three hour set of McCartney’s featured songs from the entire range of his accomplished career, from the early days of the Beatles, during his years with the Wings, through to McCartney’s latest set “Memory Almost Full” and “Electric Arguments” Fireman side project.

It is hard imagining that McCartney would travel to the US in July just to do a couple of shows, particularly with “Band on the Run” from 1974 being reissued in August. Look for additional tour news from McCartney to be announced later.

Paul McCartney has announced his first two dates for the “Up and Coming” 2010 tour which will be launching next month.

McCartney will be back out on the road starting in Glendale, AZ on March 29. It will be his first performance in Arizona since 2005. He will then be at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on March 30. He hasn’t performed there since 1993.

The first Hollywood Bowl appearance for McCartney came in August 1964 when he was part of The Beatles. They also performed there in 1965. Those performances were recorded, but a live album didn’t get released until 1977.

The shows just announced by McCartney are only the first two of many dates that will be part of an extensive road trip in 2010. More details will be posted on McCartney’s website very soon.

McCartney last year was on the road for five weeks for the “Summer Live ‘09 Tour.” It included a string of performances at Citi Field Stadium in New York that were recorded and released in a DVD/CD set as “Good Evening New York City.” The strong sales gave it gold certified status.

Paul McCartney will be embarking later this year on a tour of Europe for the first time since 2004 after completing his extensive North American summer run.

The arena outing consists of seven dates, taking the ex Beatle through Western Europe. He will kick off the trek in Hamburg, Germany on December 2 and wrap up in London on December 22. The performance in London will be McCartney’s first show ever at O2 Arena.

In a recent press release McCartney said, this is an opportunity for me to bring the current show home, which is where things began. I’m really looking forward to this and ending my year on such a high.

On November 17 McCartney will release his new live multi disc set “Good Evening New York City.” The collection was taken from three Citi Field performances in New York done in July. There will be two formats available: a standard edition 3 disc set consisting of 2 CDs and 1 DVD and a deluxe version that consists of 2 CDs and 2 DVDs along with expanding packaging and bonus DVD that includes the July 15 performance of McCartney on top of Ed Sullivan Theater’s marquee. It will also include bonus songs that did not air on “The Late Show with David Letterman.” In addition, vinyl high quality editions will be released as well.

All forthcoming set versions will include over 30 songs totally almost three hours worth of music. It includes material from the entire career of McCartney, spanning from The Beatles, Wings and beyond.

Earlier this year McCartney performed at Coachella in his US festival debut. “Memory Almost Full,” his latest album with new material, was released in 2007. It was McCartney’s 21st studio set and peaked in the No. 3 spot on Billboard’s 200 chart.

Two new dates have been added to Paul McCartney’s forthcoming US summer tour to close the trek out.

McCartney will kick off the 10 gig trek in Halifax on July 11 and now now conclude his US swing with a performance in Tulsa, OK on August 17 and gig in Dallas on August 19. The three shows at Citi Field in New York City beginning on July 17 will be the first concerts held in the stadium. The Atlanta gig on August 15 will benefit Piedmont Park Conservancy.

The performances this summer will consist of a mixture of Beatles classics and solo McCartney songs as well as songs from McCartney’s album “Electric Arguments” that he released under The Fireman alias last year.

Earlier this year McCartney performed at Coachella Festival in Indio, CA , making his first ever festival appearance in the US. “Memory Almost Full” is his latest album and was released in 2007.

In other news, recently McCartney responded to speculation concerning the rights to a portion of the Beatles’ catalog of music, following Jackson’s recent death.

In a statement posted to his website McCartney wrote that the media some time ago introduced the notion that Michael Jackson had planned to leave his Beatles songs share in his will to me. It was made up completely. I didn’t believe that for even one second. Now there are reports claiming I’m devastated finding out he didn’t leave those songs to me, which is completely untrue. Over the years, although Michael and I did drift apart, we didn’t ever have a fall out. I have many fond memories about the time we spent together.

In 1985 Jackson bought a significant part of the Beatles’ catalog for reportedly $47.5 million. A decade later, Jackson and Sony Corporation formed a publishing venture to include Little Richard and Elvis Presley singles along with the Beatles songs.

Paul McCartney continues building up his non-tour into becoming a respectable itinerary for the summer. A new August performance has been added, a benefit gig for Piedmont Park in Atlanta, along with two dates in August at Fenway Park in Boston.

The concert in Atlanta will benefit Piedmont Park Conservancy. It will be held at The Meadow, a sprawling urban park in Atlanta, on August 15. In 2007 a similar concert was held with performances from the Allman Brothers and Dave Matthews Band. The performance by Dave Matthews Band was released later as a live DVD/CD set, “Live at Piedmont Park.”

On June 29 tickets will be going on sale for the show through Ticketmaster. Piedmont Park Conservancy members will be able to buy tickets via the pre-sale event starting on June 25.

The shows at Fenway Park in Boston will be on August 5 and 6. They go on sale starting June 29.

The announcements of the Boston and Atlanta concerts followed the recent announcement by McCartney of his appearance on August 1 at FedEx Field in Washington D.C., home to the Washington Redskins of the NFL. He also announced a third date for Citi Field in New York City for July.

The three McCartney planned concerts for Citi Field beginning on July 17 will be the first concerts to be held at the stadium. This year it replaced Shea Stadium, which has been demolished, as home for the New York Mets baseball team. According to AEG Live, the promoter, a third date got added following the other two shows selling out in five minutes.

During all of his summer shows, it is expected that McCartney will play a mixture of Beatles and solo classics. In addition he will perform songs from his album “Electric Arguments” that last year was released under The Fireman, a McCartney alias.

Earlier this year McCartney made his first ever appearance at a US festival when he performed at Coachella Festival in Indio, CA. “Memory Almost Full” was his latest album released in 2007.

Paul McCartney’s string of historic performances will continue at new Citi Field in New York City with two concerts.

McCartney will perform in the new sports venue on July 17 and 18. On April 13 Citi Field hosted its first baseball game during the regular season between the Mets and Padres. The multi-million dollar sports complex replaced Shea Stadium and has a seating capacity of approximately 45,000.

Shea Stadium was christened by The Beatles in 1965 after it opened. Last summer McCartney made a special guest appearance at the Billy Joel production “Last Play at Shea” to chose out the stadium in New York.

In a recent statement McCartney said, I’m very excited to play at Citi Field. The Beatles played Shea Stadium first, and Billy Joel and I were the last to perform at old Shea Stadium. It’s incredible to be first playing in Citi Field. I am looking forward to the show really buzzing.

Tickets will be going on sale at 507tixx.com on June 15.

The most recent album from McCartney, “Memory Almost Full,” was released in 2007. On July 11 he will performing in Halifax, Nova Scotia for the very first time. The concert will be coinciding with the Tall ships Festival held in Halifax.

Paul McCartney will be headlining at the April 19 grand-opening weekend for The New Joint in Las Vegas, located at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. In a recent statement McCartney said he was really looking forward to rocking The Joint.

The remodel for The Joint, part of Hard Rock Hotel & Casino’s $750 million expansion, will double the size of the venue but maintain the original atmosphere. The furthest seat will be only 155 feet away from the stage. According to a recent press release, the $60 million remodeling job will include a sound system which is state of the art, WiFi access, a new lighting system, a complete blogging station for the press, as well as 38 flat screens located throughout the venue.

In a statement John Meglen, Co-CEO and President of AEG Live/Concerts West said, we couldn’t have received a greater legend from rock and roll than Paul McCartney for opening The New Joint in the Hard Rock Hotel. Booking Paul McCartney just reinforces the image of The Joint as a legendary home for rock and roll.

On February 14 tickets will be going on sale via Ticketmaster and from the hotel box office.