McCartney Fans Revel in the Long, Winding Road

ANAHEIM —  Paul McCartney’s concert Saturday night at Anaheim Stadium was largely a family affair, with lots of fortysomething Beatles fans introducing their children to the music they grew up with.

Stephen and Yvonne Wright brought their children, Donovan, 12, and Dustin, 10, all the way from Salt Lake City for the sold-out Anaheim concert, stopping off at McCartney’s earlier Las Vegas show on the way.

The parents wore tie-dyed Beatle shirts, while the kids were decked out in McCartney souvenirs. “They’ve got the songs memorized better than I do,” said Stephen Wright.

Steve Elliott remembers seeing the Beatles in 1964 in San Diego, when he was 12, “with all the girls screaming.” On Saturday, he and wife Jolene brought sons Grant, 13, and Collin, 11, to see McCartney.

“I just wanted to take the family to the concert and kind of relive those days,” Steve Elliott said.

By concert time, most of the sold-out crowd of more than 50,000 had taken their seats. Alex Hodges of Nederlander Concerts, one of the event’s co-promoters, expressed relief before the show at the calm following the verdicts in the Rodney G. King civil rights trial.

“Without question, the issue being settled and the atmosphere being calm, it helps people say, ‘Let’s go out,’ ” Hodges said. “We weren’t planning on canceling, but we expected a lot of no-shows” if there was unrest in Los Angeles, Hodges said.

There was no suggestion of anxiety over the King case at the concert.

McCartney only alluded to the verdict in passing. As he was about to sing “Peace in the Neighborhood,” he remarked, “This is particularly appropriate today I think.”

McCartney’s current U.S. tour opened Wednesday in Las Vegas and continued Friday night at the Hollywood Bowl, in a benefit show that marked his first appearance at the venue since his days as a Beatle.

The Anaheim concert, McCartney’s first performance in Orange County, started at 8:20 p.m. with a video collage of McCartney’s Beatles and solo careers, along with clips promoting his interest in environmental and animal rights causes.

The crowd broke into a roar as the singer and his band took the stage and launched into a Beatles favorite, “Drive My Car.”

On the current tour, McCartney has mixed Beatles hits with songs from throughout his solo career.

There was plenty of reminiscing among the crowd.

“I used to rock my son, who is 31 now, to their music,” said Betty Matheson of Canoga Park. “Paul was always my favorite. I always thought he was such a doll.”

Toni Bompensiero saw the Fab Four in 1966 at Dodger Stadium. “After he sang ‘Yesterday,’ we all yelled his name, and he turned and waved to us,” Bompensiero said.

Fans who were not yet born when the Beatles broke up in 1970 also attended. Olivia Lacson, 19, and Liza Samala, 18, wore bright orange rain slickers with the names of Paul and the late John Lennon penned in by hand, in hopes of catching McCartney’s attention.

“We love the Beatles. We love Paul,” Lacson said. “We can quote songs, we can quote films, we can do the accents.”