http://www.sptimesrussia.com/archive/times/955/features/a_12027.htmSt. Petersburg Times
#955, Friday, March 26, 2004
Paul McCartney will spend his 62nd birthday in St. Petersburg, where he will give a concert on June 20, news agencies reported this week, but local promoters are not 100 percent certain the event will take place.
A representative of local agency Planeta Plus, which brought to the city such acts as Garbage and Depeche Mode and has been working on McCartney's upcoming open-air concert in cooperation with Alfa Bank and SAV Entertainment, said McCartney will play in Helsinki, Finland on June 17 and it is still an open question if he goes to St. Petersburg immediately to celebrate his birthday which falls on June 18, although he is likely to do so, considering all his remarks about how he liked the city during an informal two-day visit last year.
Although the Interfax news agency reported that a total of 10,000 seats will be installed in St. Peterburg's Palace Square for the concert, while another 50,000 places will also be available for standing room only, Planeta Plus said the numbers has not yet been finalized and will not be published until late next week.
The most intriguing question of ticket prices also remains unanswered, but the concert ticket-selling Web site www.kassir.ru offers the opportunity to book tickets in advance, even without knowing how much they will cost.
What the promoters did reveal is the concert's length (2 1/2 hours), the number of trucks laden with sound and light systems and the other equipment (18), and the availability of special effects ("whatever one can invent").
"There will be two 18-meter-high screens by the sides of the stage, while the backdrop will be a mirror turning into a huge screen at certain moments," added the representative of Planeta Plus.
Meanwhile, Mikhail Piotrovsky, the director of the State Hermitage Museum, seems to be cautious about a concert taking by the walls of the historical palace where the museum is based.
"The problem is not McCartney, but in the fact that there will be a crowd," he said in an interview to Izvestia earlier this month.
"Moreover, a rock concert has wild decibels ... Secondly, the crowd is often drunk," Piotrovsky said.
А еще в "7Дней" за эту неделю (точнее с программой на следующую) небольшая заметка и 2 фотографии Пола и Хизер, гуляющих с Беатрис. (Фото симпатичное)