In some off-hand remarks that may or may not have been totally sincere, Sir Paul McCartney told Mayor Ed Lee that he'd be interested in performing the last concert at Candlestick Park before its planned demolition next year. It would be a fitting finale given that the Beatles performed their last concert at the stadium in 1966, and McCartney also headlined a final concert before the demolition of Shea Stadium in 2009.
McCartney suggested the concert to Lee during the minutes before he took the stage at Outside Lands on August 10, right after the Mayor referred to the final Beatles show and said they were compiling footage and images of the stadium to commemorate its end. As Matier & Ross report, McCartney spontaneously said, "Well, if you are going to tear down the stadium next year, we should think about us doing the last concert there," and told Lee to be in touch with his agent.
The final show by The Beatles, on August 29, 1966, came on a typically cold, foggy night in the stadium, and despite the band's fame the concert was only a little over half sold, with 25,000 in attendance and whole sections of the seating empty. The band knew it was to be their final live show, and McCartney asked their press officer Tony Barrow to record the show on audio cassette. He did, getting all 11 songs of their 30-minute set, but the tape cut off during the final song, "Long Tall Sally." The recording has since circulated on the internet, but Barrow says they never identified who stole a copy, since there were only ever two that he knew of, and McCartney has the other. You can read some of their on-stage banter here, in which McCartney refers to the chilly weather, and implies that he'd like to keep touring, and keep the band together, but Lennon at the time was feeling worn out.
The Shea Stadium concert in 2009 was followed by another in which Sir Paul and Billy Joel helped break in the replacement stadium for the New York Mets, Citi Field.
McCartney also reportedly congratulated Lee on being the first Asian-American mayor of the city, which he said was "this much" better than being knighted.
