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The night Cal students camped out to see the biggest concert in Berkeley history

Fans fill the stands of Berkeley’s Memorial Stadium during a Cal Bears football game.

With many beloved venues and a storied reputation as a haven for free thinkers and artists, Berkeley, California, has hosted some of the biggest names in rock ’n’ roll.

Many of the Grateful Dead’s most beloved sets took place at Berkeley’s Greek Theatre; Jimi Hendrix played some of the final shows of his life at Berkeley High; hometown heroes Green Day famously got their start at 924 Gilman. Just this year, Bob Dylan performed two sold-out Berkeley shows.

But only one musician managed to headline Cal Memorial Stadium: Sir Paul McCartney.

With UC Berkeley preparing the stadium for its first concerts in nearly 40 years, it’s worth looking back at McCartney’s tectonic performances.

Paul McCartney in concert for the Fourth of July. The Paul McCartney World Tour was a worldwide concert tour by Paul McCartney during 1989 and 1990.

In 1990, the Beatles co-founder, and arguably the most influential living musician, played two sold-out shows at the historic stadium. Combined, the concerts drew well over 120,000 people, making them far and away the biggest concerts in Berkeley history. Those in attendance described a transcendent experience, even if the chaos of the performances created a logistical nightmare that forced the university to ban concerts at the stadium.

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Opened in 1923, Memorial Stadium is one of the oldest stadiums in all of college football. The hillside stadium can hold over 63,000 fans, making it easily the largest venue in the city of Berkeley and one of the larger venues in all of the greater Bay Area. Nestled into the hillside with sweeping views of the San Francisco Bay, one could hardly ask for a more picturesque locale for concerts. And concertgoers have proved they’re willing to make the trek up the hill. The Greek Theatre, one of the Bay Area’s most beloved music venues, is just down the road and regularly sells out shows.

Still, it was a unique set of circumstances that led to Sir Paul performing at Memorial. Both Candlestick Park and Oakland Coliseum, two of the only venues of equivalent size in the region, were booked for an exhibition series between the Giants and the A’s.

So Berkeley it would have to be.

Worth the wait, even if you had to camp out for tickets

Cal students went to extremes for the chance to see the former Beatle. Hans-Christian Kasper, a German literature undergrad at the time, camped out overnight at the Sproul Plaza ticket office to get seats. He said about 50 people spent the night in line. Despite the tickets going on sale in the middle of winter, Kasper didn’t bother with a tent or even a sleeping bag.

“I’m really low key. I just kind of leaned against the wall,” he told SFGATE.

Kasper said it was the only time he’s ever camped out for a ticket but that it was well worth it.

“I got a pretty good seat,” he said.

Along with waiting overnight for tickets, fans braved shoulder-to-shoulder BART trains, and walked miles uphill to the mountain stadium. It was all worth it when a mulleted McCartney took the stage a little after 7:30.

British rock singer Paul McCartney performs on April 20, 1990, in Rio.

Throughout the hour and forty minute set, McCartney played songs from his solo career, a couple of covers, including an inspired version of Fats Domino’s “Ain’t That a Shame,” and Beatles classics like “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “Let It Be,” “Back in the U.S.S.R.” and “Can’t Buy Me Love.”

But it was a “Wings” song, written for a James Bond soundtrack, that made the strongest impression.

“When he tore into ‘Live and Let Die,’ it was just so amazing. I think they shot off pyro at that point too,” said James Shefik, a stagehand who worked on the show, in an interview with SFGATE. “Not only is he a Beatle, he’s just such a showman. The whole stadium was just electric. Just amazing.”

Kasper, the German literature student, remembered the specific moment when the bass kicks in on the track as the apex of the show.

“One thing I remember absolutely for certain [was] ‘Live and Let Die’ because he had a huge, huge, huge bang … ‘Live and let die!’ Boom! Boom! Boom!” recalled Kasper, singing along as if the concert was yesterday.

British rock singer Paul McCartney, third from left, poses on March 1, 1990, with his wife Linda, to his right, and his band Wings at a press conference in Tokyo.

McCartney closed the set with a stunning rendition of “Hey Jude.”

Even though he’d likely performed the song hundreds of times, Sir Paul managed to make it sound like a personal thank-you note to the Berkeley crowd. When the song crescendoed at the end, McCartney sat back and let the audience take the reins for the iconic refrain: “Naaaah, nah, nah, nah-nah-nah-nah.” There’s no more powerful instrument than 63,000 voices singing as one.

Complaining about $30 tickets

Even in 1990, reviews of the show described how much gray hair there was on the stage and in the audience.

An Associated Press review wrote that “the $15 program was airbrushed to erase the laugh lines” from McCartney’s visage. The Oakland Tribune noted fans who were teenagers when the Beatles broke on to the scene had reached the ripe old age of 40 by the time of McCartney’s Berkeley shows.

Today, those fans are collecting social security.

While McCartney was already considered a legacy act in 1990, the concerts were closer in time to the Beatles’ historic first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show” than they are to today. At the time of the Berkeley shows, McCartney was four years younger than Liam Gallagher was last year when he embarked on Oasis’ reunion tour. It’s a testament to the power of McCartney’s music that he’s managed to make his career’s third act last more than 35 years.

Contemporary reviews gawked at how expensive the concert experience had become. Little did they know what the future would hold.

“Thirty dollars is definitely a ’90s price for nostalgia. Add to that another $20 for a T-shirt, $15 for a slick program and the $30 it cost to park at a frat house, and we’re talking major bucks,” wrote the Examiner’s Cynthia Robins.

Cute.

The cost the Examiner described would equate to $246.51 in 2026 dollars — a tenth of what tickets to McCartney’s Santa Barbara show went for on secondary markets last year.

The cheap (as in free) seats

Nestled in between the trees of Tightwad Hill above Memorial Stadium, Cal fans try to muster up some enthusiasm as they watch the Bears suffer a defeat against Stanford in the Big Game on Saturday, Nov. 23, 1996.

Unlike ballooning ticket prices, the cost to watch a concert from Berkeley’s Tightwad Hill is the same today as it was in 1990: free. Rising hundreds of feet above Memorial Stadium, Tightwad Hill offers spectators an unobstructed view of the stadium field — if you’re able to make the exceedingly steep hike to the clearing. Generations of penny-pinching fans have watched Cal football games free of charge from the dusty hillside. The McCartney concerts were no different.

Philip Coffin was a sixth grader when he learned McCartney was coming to town. Without the cash to pay for a ticket, Coffin knew there was only one way to see the legendary rocker.

“My older brother and I hiked up Tightwad Hill behind the stadium and found some seats up there under the oaks and pines, along with a ton of other cheapskates. That was my first concert ever, and what a concert it was,” Coffin said. “Being a kid, everything seemed larger than life; the city lights of Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco all spread out before us ... the massive coliseum-like stadium bowl ... the lights ... and of course the rock ’n’ roll. It blew my little 12-year-old mind.”

‘It’s Berkeley. Of course there’s going to be a noise complaint.’

UC Berkeley students and homeless people march along Telegraph Avenue to People’s Park, Feb. 5, 1990.

As any Cal football fan will tell you, getting in and out of Memorial is a logistical headache. As these were the days before ride-hailing apps, fans had fewer options to get to the stadium, which isn’t known for its transit or parking access.

According to a review from the Hollister Free Lance, BART was so inundated after the shows, fans had to wait two to three hours just to get on the trains. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat described it as “the worst congestion and crowds since the earthquake.” Seeing as this would have been less than six months after the deadly Loma Prieta earthquake, this was quite a dark characterization.

According to the Oakland Tribune, the concert was loud enough to be heard in Oakland’s Montclair neighborhood, nearly 5 miles away from the stadium. The shows resulted in hundreds of noise complaints from upset Berkeleyites.

Given the East Bay city’s notorious NIMBY reputation, nothing could have surprised Shefik, the former stagehand, less.

“It’s Berkeley. Of course there’s going to be a noise complaint,” Shefik said.

A return for Sir Paul?

Paul McCartney performs live on stage at Wembley Arena on Jan. 14, 1990.

The noise complaints were so intense the university opted to ban concerts at the stadium, a decision that went unchallenged until earlier this year.

Veterans of the Paul McCartney shows unanimously agreed Memorial Stadium should be hosting more shows.

“I live in Berkeley and still think about that show when walking by Memorial Stadium,” said Sabrina Kabella, who attended the show as a teenager.

“The sound, the view, the immensity and intensity of it all was so memorable. I can’t believe they haven’t had more concerts since then. What a gold mine,” Coffin added.

McCartney wrapped up the Got Back Tour in 2025, with stops in Las Vegas and Palm Desert but conspicuously none in the Bay Area in that outing (save for a private set at Apple’s 50th anniversary). The 84-year-old has made no mention of retiring, and as reviews of his recent shows attest, the rock legend’s still got it.

The timetable is unclear for when Memorial Stadium will be concert-ready, and McCartney hasn’t announced any upcoming tour dates. But for the first time in years, there’s a sliver of hope Sir Paul could make a return to Berkeley.