Rumors are floating around that former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney was in Milwaukee at least a day early to run his band through its paces in advance of his Summerfest-headlining concert tonight at the Marcus Amphitheater.
According to a source, McCartney and Co. did indeed set up on the stage at the Riverside Theater – which is currently closed for renovations – for a rehearsal on Thursday.
Later, Brian Ray and Rusty Anderson, guitarists from McCartney's band, headed down to Summerfest and played "Magical Mystery Tour" on the BMO Harris Pavilion stage with Cheap Trick, according to local musician, author and filmmaker Ron Faiola.
(UPDATE: Summerfest has also just announced that tickets for seats in the red section – closest to the stage – were just released for tonight. Also, some "limited view" seats are available for $20 each. Tickets are available at the Summerfest box office and at Ticketmaster.com.)
Tonight's concert marks the return to these shores of McCartney's One on One Tour, which took a break in early May as Sir Paul spent the second half of the month and much of June performing in South America and Europe.
He's expected to play more than three hours with no breaks or intermissions at the 8 p.m. show. Word is that the start time is a little fluid, since Sir Paul prefers the bowl to be full before he begins. So, please, if you're going, try to be in your seat by 8.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
