Rockshow

1980 film by Paul McCartney

Rockshow is a 1980 concert film released by Paul McCartney and Wings, filmed during the band's 1976 North American tour. The film features 30 songs from segments of four concerts of the tour: New York, on 25 May (four songs); Seattle, Washington, 10 June (five songs); and Los Angeles, California, 22 June (fifteen songs) and 23 June (six songs). However, both the cover of the home video release and McCartney, in his intro to The McCartney Years DVD, acknowledge only the Seattle concert. These concerts were part of the 1975–76 Wings Over the World tour, which also produced the triple live album Wings over America (1976) and the Wings Over the World television documentary (1979). This is also the first film released by Miramax.

The music for what was to become Rockshow and part of Wings Over the World was produced by Chris Thomas and engineered by Phil McDonald during 1979. However, the processing of the Rockshow overdubs was obviously completed by the airdate of Wings Over the World, as these same performances were featured in both productions. Not all of the songs made it to the film in their entirety ("Medicine Jar" and "Letting Go" have been edited), and the song introductions did not always match the performance that followed. For example, several of the introductions came from the Seattle performance while the actual song was taken from a Los Angeles show: "Magneto & Titanium Man", "Spirits of Ancient Egypt", "Lady Madonna", "Let 'Em In", and "Soily". The introduction of the horn section was a composite as well with portions coming from Seattle and the final Los Angeles show.