Review: Last Play at Shea

Review by Ernie Sutton 

BILLY JOEL LIVE AT SHEA STADIUM THE CONCERT

Columbia 88697854242

This double CD plus bonus DVD can be found for less than £12 and for the historians amongst us, it is well worth a purchase.

Shea Stadium was built in 1964, as the home of the New York Mets baseball team.

In August 1965 The Beatles played the first ever concert there to 56,000 screaming fans, then a world record for a concert.

This CD features the last ever concert at Shea before it was dismantled (yes dismantled rather than demolished) to make way for the new Citi Field.

Billy Joel played two shows there on July 16th and July 18th 2008 to a combined 110,000 fans. The recordings are captured here and feature many of Joel’s biggest hits, including “My Life”, “Angry Young Man” and “Piano Man”. He also covers “A Hard Day’s Night”. The highlight for Beatle fans though, was Paul’s appearance at the final show. Breaking into “I Saw Her Standing There”, it’s hard to believe Macca had simply just arrived in New York and was driven straight to the gig from the airport for his guest appearance.

The final song, “Let it Be”, brings cheers from the fans as the opening chords ring out. It was only fitting that Paul should close the show with such a relevant song.

The DVD of this historical show also feature bonus performances with the likes of Roger Daltry and Steven Tyler.

Shop around for this one, you can find it remarkably cheap for such a piece of history.