Phillip Key: McCartney hits the road to Manchester.

Byline: Philip Key 

SIR Paul McCartney is going back on the road in Britain for the first time in a decade.

And his first North West visit will be to Manchester.

But last night Sir Paul's spokesman Geoff Baker said the musician's promised Liverpool date later in the year would still be going ahead.

``The Liverpool gig will be very special indeed,'' he said.

At this stage, no date or location for the Liverpool concert has been revealed.

But he will initially do four dates in April at Sheffield, Birmingham, London and Manchester.

They will be his first British concerts in ten years and his first Manchester date for 24 years.

The Back in the World tour will find McCartney and his latest band at Manchester's MEN Arena on April 9.

The 2 / 2 -hour retrospective concert will cover his Beatles days as well as solo performances and numbers from Wings.

The tour will coincide with the release of a new DVD featuring a reunion performance from 1994 featuring Paul, Ringo Starr and George Harrison.

The new stadium tour by Sir Paul will take in the Hallam Arena, Sheffield on April 5 and 6 , the MEN Arena Manchester on 9 April, the NIA at Birmingham on April 13 and TICKETS for Paul McCartney's Manchester concert are expected to sell out very quickly. But there are two FREE tickets for a lucky reader.

Just send your name and address to McCartney Offer, Philip Key, Daily Post, PO Box 48 Old Hall Street, Liverpool, L69 3 EB. The first name drawn from the lucky hat on Monday, 24 February, will get the tickets. Two runners-up will receive a DVD of McCartney's video of his Back In the World show.14 and Earls Court, London on April 18 and 19.

Sir Paul said he was looking forward to returning to Manchester.

``I've a lot of good memories of Manchester from our `van visits' with the Beatles down the East Lancs Road. Now I see it as a good rocking city.''

Sir Paul explained: ``I think people are going to like this gig - when I was thinking of what songs to play I just imagined myself as one of the audience and thought, `What would I want to hear?' ``So that means we will be playing some of my Beatles stuff - rather a lot of Beatles stuff, actually - some Wings stuff and some more recent stuff.'' The new band features Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray on guitars, Paul Wickens on keyboards and Abe Laboriel Jr on drums. Sir Paul will play mostly bass guitar.

The four-date tour, says the 60year-old pop star, will certainly not be his last. ``I have always said I wanted to be wheeled out when I am 90. And that might be a dreadful prediction that comes true.''

Tickets for the MEN Arena concert will go sale on Friday at 9am priced pounds 35, pounds 45 with a limited number of VIP seats at pounds 75. Box Office 0870 190 8000.

CAPTION(S):

TOUR: Paul at Kings Dock, 1990