Macca to finally perform in Israel
Sir Paul McCartney will perform for the first time ever in Israel next month - more than 40 years after the Beatles were blocked from giving a concert in the country.
The former Beatle, who along with John Lennon wrote most of the Fab Four’s songs, will perform in Tel Aviv, on September 25, the singer said on his website.
Sir Paul and the Beatles, one of the most popular bands in rock history, had planned to perform in Israel in the mid-1960s, but the concert was scrapped, a non-event that has since taken on almost legendary significance.
For years, it was said that the government blocked the show out of fear that it would corrupt the nation’s youth.
But a more recent account given this month in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz blames the show’s cancellation on a rift between two concert promoters.
Earlier this year, Israel’s ambassador to Britain, Ron Prosor, apologised for the cancellation in a letter to the two surviving Beatles, Sir Paul and Ringo Starr.
“There is no doubt that it was a great missed opportunity to prevent people like you, who shaped the minds of the generation, to come to Israel and perform,” Mr Prosor wrote.
But Sir Paul said he is looking forward to this second chance to perform in Israel.
“I’ve heard so many great things about Tel Aviv and Israel, but hearing is one thing and experiencing it for yourself is another.”
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