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South America 2014…

‘the legend of endless inspiration…'

I’m piecing this edition of For Whom The Bell Tells together from notes I’ve made over the last couple of weeks on Paul’s South American adventure. I am sat on the plane flying home to London and it’s the first time I’ve had the chance to check back through all my notes, press clippings and reviews in one go. I can’t believe how much has happened in the last two weeks!

Since the Out There Tour parked up for a little rest in November our boss has kept himself busy by picking up 5 Grammys (a personal best) in January, a bespoke NME Award chosen by his contemporaries in February. He made some new music videos in March, plus rehearsing with Wix, Abe, Brian and Rusty and working on a secret project too, which I’ve been sworn to secrecy about!

Meanwhile the tour team had been getting themselves prepped for getting back Out There. This time we’d be starting out in Uruguay (which we last saw in 2012), before visiting Chile, Peru, a first time visit to Ecuador and to Costa Rica too.

My goodness, my ears are still ringing from Costa Rica last night. As Paul's sound engineer, Pab, said of the fans during the show, "It's like a Justin Bieber concert!" Paul had promised a fiesta and a fiesta it was, they were a loud, loud crowd! A fitting end to another memorable run creating headlines and history wherever the tour went.

There were quite a few dramas this time round too. A show in Chile that needed to be rescheduled due to a plane load of equipment being delayed, torrential rain that nearly damaged the same equipment, altitude adjustment as Paul performed his highest ever show in Quito at nearly 10,000 feet. Not to mention, tour personnel being refused to leave Peru due to a paperwork error, a video chat with Uruguayan footballer Luis Suarez, tour busses getting mobbed and held up by fans, police confiscating alcohol from our catering team and dressing room areas for seemingly no reason; and the list goes on!

The dramas, however, quickly became distant memories as the overwhelmingly positive reactions and responses to the concerts came through. Each night Paul took to the stage we knew we were all part of something very special indeed. Not that I’m ever complacent about the job, but I got a massive reminder in Ecuador of how much Paul means to people when at one point two women in their thirties next to me in the audience spontaneously broke into tears, crying uncontrollably as soon as they saw him live in the flesh.

Although Paul had previously been to Uruguay, Chile and Peru the local media made a lot of the historic value of his repeat visits. In each city we were bombarded with meet and greet requests from Presidents, mayors, artists, media personalities, British Ambassadors and various dignitaries all putting forward reasons why they should get to hang out with Paul.

On the day of Paul's arrival in Uruguay, and in honour of his presence, four newborn lion cubs at Salto Zoo are named Paul, John, Ringo and George. This in itself became headline news on TV, online, radio and in the following day’s newspapers.

Paul rocked up to rehearsal on the evening before the first show, complete with helicopters in the sky above tracking his every move, and got straight to it. As he rehearsed in the Estadio Centenario I watched on social media how the track names he was performing were spreading all over the internet. There was particular excitement for the fact he played 'On My Way To Work' and 'Appreciate'.

At the end of rehearsals we grabbed Paul to answer some questions recorded by Uruguayan football legend Luis Suarez. Luis had been eager to ask Paul some questions and the chat worked really well. When we released the video to the media later that evening there was a huge appetite for it. In Uruguay itself the breakfast news on the day of the show was dominated by the two Liverpool legends’ chat together.