Paul McCartney Says Bruce Springsteen “Ruined” Concerts For Everyone

Sir Paul McCartney is somewhat blaming Bruce Springsteen for the concerts being held that last for hours.

During his guest appearance on the podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, the former Beatle stated that Springsteen has started a trend and “ruined it for everyone.” He said:

“These days, pretty much there’s main act and there might be a warm-up act. Then [the 1960s], it was a lot of people on the bill because nobody did long, now people will do three or four hours. I blame Bruce Springsteen – I’ve told him so, I said ‘it’s your fault man’.”

When asked if The Boss changed the old-school concert experience, McCartney said:

“He did. You can’t now do an hour, we used to do a half hour. That was The Beatles thing – half an hour and we got paid for it. I tried to work out why was it so short.
“Well, because there were a lot of people on the bill, and I think when you went to a thing if you were a comedian the promoter would say ‘how long can you do? Four minutes?’ The guy would say yes, so they would do four and so we thought, ‘well, half an hour that’s like epic’… It didn’t seem strange.”

McCartney’s recent appearance on the podcast is a part of promoting his new photo exhibition, Paul McCartney Photographs 1963-64: Eyes of the Storm, which took place at the National Portrait Gallery in London. The exhibition features photos of himself, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr at the height of Beatlemania which was also featured in a book 1964: Eyes of the Storm, that was released on June 13.

According to NPR, the Macca talked about the photos saying:

“Most of them I don’t remember taking because it was a whirlwind. I’m very proud of being part of the working class, which I think you guys would call blue-collar. If you’re looking for photos, they’re often the great faces. The faces where there’s a story behind them.”

The director of the National Portrait Gallery, Dr. Nicholas Cullinan, shared his thoughts regarding McCartney’s exhibition, according to Daily Mail. He said:

“The McCartney exhibition is very interesting. Actually, Sir Paul approached us I think back in 2020 and said he had found these photographs which he remembered taking but thought had been lost. And so we sat down with him and began going through the photographs and they are really extraordinary.”