Paul McCartney Announced North American Dates [VIDEO]

Paul McCartney has just announced four North American dates for November. As it stands now, McCartney will perform on November 11th in St. Louis; November 14th in Houston; November 15th in Vancouver; and November 28th in Edmonton. Three of the four dates will be in indoor arenas -- with the Houston show taking place at Houston's massive stadium Minute Maid Park, home of the Houston Astros.

McCartney admitted that his pre-show soundchecks have always been a highlight of being out on the road: "I mean, really, all we have to do is check the instruments -- but if we just check them, we'd get bored. So, we've got enough numbers to kind of throw some in, and then if they start to sound really good -- 'Oh, we'll stick that in the show!' But it does become its own little thing. And what happens is, some of the people that come to the show buy a special ticket and come to this one. Y'know, we wanna try and entertain them."

NEWLY ADDED: Paul McCartney tour dates (subject to change):
November 11 - St. Louis, MO - Scottrade Center
November 14 - Houston, TX - Minute Maid Park
November 25 - Vancouver, BC - BC Place
November 28 - Edmonton, AB - Rexall Place

Out now is the new Beatles book, titled, Still The Greatest: The Essential Songs Of The Beatles' Solo Careers by author Andrew Grant Jackson. Still The Greatest collects the best of the band's solo material and gives in-depth information about the solo tracks and programs them so they could've easily comprised '70s, '80s, and '90s "group" albums.

One track he talks about is McCartney's 1993 single, "Hope Of Deliverance" -- which, to the delight of die-hards -- is back in his setlists after a 19-year hiatus: "Weirdly enough, I think it, like, was a huge hit in Germany and overseas, to an extent. But for some reason in America, I think by that point he was more on the Adult Contemporary charts and it just didn't seem to make as big an impact over here. It always seemed like a very optimistic tune and it had a kind of samba kind of rhythm, like, reminiscent almost of the 'Besame Mucho' tune (the Beatles) used to do back in the Cavern days or in Hamburg, and stuff. And it was an underrated tune, both musically and the lyrics are really optimistic and cheer you up -- and I think it's a really great tune."

IN OTHER McCARTNEY NEWS

On Saturday (September 8th), following the ceremony in Paris in which he was awarded the prestigious French Legion of Honor, McCartney high-tailed it by train back to London to perform with the Africa Express collective.

Macca Report posted that McCartney joined forces with the dozen-strong group, featuring Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones and Blur's Damon Albarn to perform Wings' "Coming Up" and wowing fans with "Goodnight Tonight" -- marking his first live rendition of the song since Wings' final show on December 29th, 1979 during the Concerts For The People Of Kampuchea at London's Hammersmith Odeon.