Another Girl live!

The uncredited actress who embodied “Another Girl” in the film.

Paul McCartney performed The Beatles song “Another Girl” at Japan’s Budokan Hall in Tokyo on Tuesday. That particular song appeared on The Beatles’ 1965 album “Help!” but the group never played it live. It was also McCartney’s first public performance of the song, so he probably had to go back and listen to the record to remember all the words and chords. A fan captured the performance and uploaded it to YouTube.

McCartney opted to play his Höfner bass guitar on the song live. On record, he famously also played lead guitar, 1965 being the year which saw Paul starting to really take up the guitar again for group recordings. The original recording was commited to tape in February 1965, and a music video (of sorts) was part of the “Help!” motion picture.

Still from the “music video” of “Another Girl” in “Help!”

The song was written by Paul while he and his then girlfriend Jane Asher was on holiday in Tunisia. We hope McCartney will keep the song in the set list for a while, allowing us to experience it live when the tour continues. It may not be the most profound of Beatles songs, in fact it sounds almost like a blueprint for a Monkees tune, but it sure is a catchy ditty, and Paul’s distinctive lead guitar licks were most unusual for its time.

Meanwhile, Paul has been adding dates to his current tour, and he keeps hopping between Europe and USA so much during his summer stint, he may as well change the name of the tour to the “Here There and Everywhere” tour. Here’s a list of upcoming concerts:

May:

02: Jamsil Olympic Stadium, Seoul, South Korea, and a break before the first of the European legs:

23: The O2, London, Great Britain

24: The O2, London (Second Night), Great Britain

27: Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham, Great Britain

28: Echo Arena, Liverpool, Great Britain

June:

05: Nouveau Stade Vélodrome, Marseille, France

07: ZiggoDome, Amsterdam, Netherlands

08: ZiggoDome, Amsterdam (Second Night), Netherlands

11: Stade de France, Paris, France. Then it’s over to America:

19: Firefly Music Festival, Dover, DE, USA

21: Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA, USA

23: John Paul Jones Arena, Charlottesville, VA, USA

25: Colonial Life Arena, Columbia, SC, USA

July, and it’s back to Europe again:

04: Roskilde Festival, Roskilde, Denmark

07: Telenor Arena, Fornebu, Norway

09: Tele2 Arena, Johanneshov, Sweden, and then back to America:

31: Lollapalooza Festival, Chicago, IL, USA

Some of these dates were recently added to the tour, more may come.