Halifax may yet see a Beatle perform, but it won’t be this summer.
Harold Mackay was 90 per cent certain he could get Paul McCartney to play a concert on the common, but the odds — and timing — weren’t in his favour.
“The other 10 didn’t come through,” said the owner of Power Promotions Concepts, who confirmed that McCartney will not be rocking the outdoor venue this year.
“We just could not complete the negotiation, that is really all I can say about it,” MacKay said. “We knew everything was tight, but we had the discussions and we are going to continue to keep the doors open with them and see what happens.”
The concert promoter revealed earlier this month discussions were underway to bring the former Beatle to the city after a member of the singer’s production team was seen walking around Halifax Common wearing a Paul McCartney world tour jacket
In a city where concert rumours spread like wildfires, MacKay soon confirmed he was trying to woo the recently divorced rock ’n’ roll legend to perform here in late June or early July.
“The concert won’t be happening this year. Basically, our only position on this is that we are going to keep the channels of communications open with his people, and hope very much there will be a concert hopefully next year.”
While he is disappointed McCartney won’t be playing this summer, MacKay doesn’t see this as a loss to Halifax’s outdoor concert season. He is also organizing Country Rocks 2008 concert on Halifax Common, featuring Keith Urban, on Aug. 30.
“Halifax has shown it is open for business,” McKay said, adding more artists will soon be announced for that concert.
-dean.lisk@metronews.ca
