Sir Paul McCartney loses £2m after gigs including his Glastonbury slot were cancelled due to Covid… as he gears up to headline the festival
Paul McCartney lost £2 million in assets after gigs including his Glastonbury headline slot were cancelled because of the pandemic.
The 79-year-old singer will more than make up for the loss when he headlines the UK’s biggest festival this year.
But accounts for his touring business MPL Tours (UK) LLP show assets slumped from £2.8 million to £854,000 from May 2020 to May 2021.
Tragic: Paul McCartney lost £2 million in assets after gigs including his Glastonbury headline slot were cancelled because of the pandemic
Sir Paul will play Glastonbury’s Pyramid stage a week after turning 80 making him the oldest act to ever headline the west country festival.
He was meant to take the slot in 2020, but the event was cancelled due to the pandemic and his accountants say the lack of gigs explains the company’s slump.
The report for MPL Tours (UK) LLP, written before the Glasto gig was confirmed, said: ‘As a result of the worldwide impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, no concert and touring activity managed by the LLP was undertaken during the year and there is significant uncertainty concerning the timing of when this may be able to resume.
‘Covid- 19 has had and will continue to have a material negative impact on the LLP’s financial results and such negative impact may continue beyond the containment of the outbreak.’
Exciting: The 79-year-old singer will more than make up for the loss when he headlines the UK’s biggest festival this year (pictured in October 2021)
The figures show that after creditors were paid, the company was left with £360,000 – a figure likely to rocket again after gigs late this year.
But the former Beatle’s touring woes mirror Ed Sheeran, who saw his tour firm slip £210,894 into the red and Sam Smith lost £29,729 from his firm SSW Live LLP.
Despite the loss in touring income Paul, worth £800 million, still came out a winner during the worst months of the lockdown.
Accounts for his main company MPL Communications Limited went up by almost £4 million to £22.6 million.
Glasto! Sir Paul will play Glastonbury’s Pyramid stage a week after turning 80 making him the oldest act to ever headline the west country festival (pictured in 2019)
A big chunk of this was attributed to a £1 million rise in the value of a property owned by the ex Beatles legend, which went up to £8.2 million.
The Hey Jude songster is to headline Glastonbury on the Saturday with Billie Eilish topping Friday’s bill and Kendrick Lamar closing the festival on the Sunday.
Before that he will play a series of dates on a North American tour, Got Back, which is from April to mid-June.
Sir Paul confirmed he will headline the prestigious festival by sharing a cryptic post on his Twitter page on Thursday morning.
The music legend’s tweet showed a score for popular online puzzle Wordle along with six green squares, which read: ‘Wordle 121 25/6’.
Hey Paul! It comes after he confirmed he will headline Glastonbury 2022 by sharing cryptic posts on his Twitter page this week (pictured at Glastonbury in 2004)
Eagle-eyed music fans noted that Wordle scores only consist of five letters, sparking speculation that the word Macca was refering to was in fact ‘Glasto’.
Others noticed that it is 121 days from today until the festival and 25/6 was predicted to represent Saturday June 25 – the day the star will perform.
Paul’s post was true to form, as he also announced that he was headling the festival in 2020 via Twitter, before the event was cancelled due to the pandemic.
At the time he posted photos of composer Philip Glass, actor Emma Stone and the late Chuck Berry, with his clever followers noticing that it stood for glass-ton-berry.
Paul last performed on the Pyramid Stage in 2004.
Let It Be: The Beatles legend’s latest post on Thursday, showed a score for popular online puzzle Wordle along with six green squares, which read: ‘Wordle 121 25/6’
With the upcoming festival taking place just a week after his 80th birthday, Paul will be the oldest ever star to headline the event.
According to the Sun, Paul will follow Noel Gallagher and Haim on Saturday, June 25 and is ‘determined to put on a hell of a show’.
‘Paul’s set will be an absolutely must-see. He is really excited for it and is determined to put on a hell of a show packed with all of the hits,’ a source said.
‘There was some discussion about whether he should go ahead with shows this year because of the situation with Covid, but he decided he really wants to perform.
Glass-ton-berry! Paul’s post was true to form as he also announced that he was headling the festival in 2020 via Twitter, however the event was later cancelled due to the pandemic
‘Glastonbury is such an amazing event to headline and he knows it will be an incredible moment for him.’
Paul will join Billie Eilish at the festival, who is also making history, but as the youngest solo headliner.
Last October, Glastonbury organisers Emily and Michael Eavis officially confirmed the Grammy-winner will take to the Pyramid Stage on Friday, June 24.
A statement on the official Glastonbury Twitter page read: ‘We are very excited to confirm that @billieeilish will headline the Pyramid Stage on the Friday night at Glastonbury 2022, to become the Festival’s youngest ever solo headliner. This will be her first UK festival headline performance.’
The 19-year-old superstar – who grew up in Los Angeles – played The Other Stage in 2019, and admitted she wasn’t aware just how big a deal it was to play the legendary festival when she got the invite.
She said: ‘I feel so embarrassed because I had no idea Glastonbury was even a thing. I was like, ‘What’s that?’
‘I didn’t know it was a big deal until after I played it. Everyone was like ‘oh my God, you played Glastonbury’ and I was like ‘Yeah, so?’ And then I realised. I am a little uncultured baby.
‘It was such an honour, I mean, come on. Dude, the crowd was unbelievable. Those moshpits? Oh my God. The crowd was great.’
Yesterday: The Hey Jude sonster, who last performed on the Pyramid Stage in 2004, was due to play Saturday night for the 2020 festival before it was cancelled due to Covid-19
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