Paul McCartney has “blamed” Bruce Springsteen for increasingly long stage times.
During a recent appearance on Conan O’Brien’s Needs a Friend podcast, the music icon bemoaned the expectations of modern-day concertgoers and their appetite for increasingly extensive sets.
According to McCartney, it was The Boss who began the trend of performing lengthy sets that go on for hours, which made it impossible to get away with shorter sets.
The 81-year-old also explained that The Beatles would often only play for 30 minutes during their ’60s heyday, and this was never an issue with fans.
He began: “These days, pretty much there’s the main act and there might be a warm-up act.
“Then [in the 1960s], it was a lot of people on the bill because nobody did long, now people will do three or four hours. I blame Bruce Springsteen – I’ve told him so, I said, ‘It’s your fault, man.’
“You can’t now do an hour, we used to do a half hour. That was The Beatles’ thing – half an hour and we got paid for it.”
However, the music legend explained that it wasn’t The Beatles’ approach, choosing to do much shorter sets, in part due to the number of other acts that would perform during the show.
He shared: “I tried to work out why was it so short. Well, because there were a lot of people on the bill.
“I think when you went to a thing if you were a comedian the promoter would say, ‘How long can you do? Four minutes?’
“The guy would say yes, so they would do four and so we thought, ‘Well, half an hour that’s like epic’… It didn’t seem strange’.”
Last year, McCartney celebrated his 80th birthday with a three-hour headline slot at Glastonbury, in which Springsteen joined him onstage for a duet.
Meanwhile, Springsteen, who is set to headline two dates at BST Hyde Park this week, has been performing shows that last between three and four hours since 1980’s The River Tour.
More recently, Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour marked one of the first times a modern pop star adopted the extended runtime.
The Cruel Summer hitmaker plays for about three hours and 15 minutes, with her setlist containing over 40 songs.
Following suit, Beyoncé’s ongoing Renaissance World Tour has featured shows running about two and a half hours, with over 30 songs performed.
