"OOOH, you were meant to be near me ..."

So I'm standing in Grant Park with 99,999 of my new best friends, waiting for Sir Paul at Lollapalooza. And I admit I'm a little worried. It's a young audience. I was by far the oldest person I could see. How would a 73 year old play to a massive crowd in their 20s and 30s?

Beautifully, thank you. It was during "Got to Get You into My Life" -- a song that was never released as a single when the Beatles were still together -- that I not only knew everything was going to be OK, I realized that my Paul is not really MY Paul and that he's going to be remembered long after I'm dust. For by the third song of his two hour (!) set, it hit me that everyone was singing along, enthusiastically. 100,000 of us were following him, phrase-for-phrase. This song was released 49 years ago.

The boy behind me (25, tops) kept screaming (in my ear), "PAUL! You're bad!" And every time Paul said "thank you," he shouted back, "Thank you, Paul! You're fucking awesome!" At one point he turned to his girlfriend and said with more than a little awe, "I'm seeing a Beatle." He knew which album every song was from, even the Wings and solo stuff. It would have gotten old (I mean, we were so close I could practically feel his breath on my neck) except I was genuinely moved. I told him I thought I was the world's biggest Macca fan, but he was my peer and I was happy to be there with him. He squeezed my shoulders affectionately. It was that kind of crowd.

His Lordship more than earned the audience love last night. He played a full set in the summer heat. Two hours without a break. The other bands played half that.