Photos: Marc Millman [McCartney], Stevo Rood [Springsteen]

On Saturday, June 7, Bruce Springsteen turned up for his second night on the Anfield stadium stage in Liverpool, England. The performance occurred as part of the musician’s ongoing The Land of Hopes and Dreams Tour, which commenced its European leg in mid-May. During this weekend’s second and final concert in the UK, the bandleader brought out longtime friend and local maven, Sir Paul McCartney. 

Prior to the guest’s arrival, Springsteen positioned the Letter to You-featured “Ghost” in the night’s initial slot, its placement represented the first time the song was used as a concert opener. The group produced a live rendition of the tour’s namesake, featuring a snippet of The Impressions’ “People Get Ready,” which elevated the initial outpouring of music with a celebratory edge that continued clear through the arrival of Saturday night’s guest. 

Springsteen stacked the mainframe with a bounty of originals and specialty moments, leading to McCartney’s inclusion during the onset of a nine-song encore. McCartney’s appearance functioned as his first hometown gig since 2018, and ended a 17-year lapse since the last time the 82-year-old Beatle performed on the Anfield stage. 

McCartney helped stir up the first-ever “Can’t Buy Me Love” from Springsteen and The E Street Band, effectively representing a debut for the 75-year-old New Jersey staple. The pair continued to coalesce their collective and well-respected talents on a cover of Little Willie Littlefield’s “Kansas City,” a track associated with Little Richard. The previously mentioned emerged as a bust out for Springsteen, who revisited the track on Saturday for the first time since a city-naming concert in KC on Nov. 17, 2012. 

This weekend’s joint appearance added to Springsteen and McCartney’s live lineage, having shared the stage in 2012 in London’s Hyde Park and five years later, at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 2017. In both instances, they tossed lines while covering The Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There.” Most recently, they joined forces in 2022 on Springsteen’s home turf and performed “I Wanna Be Your Man” and “Glory Days.” 

Rumors swirled before Saturday’s sit-in, after Springsteen joined McCartney to visit the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts (which McCartney co-founded).

Watch a fan-shot video from the sit-in below.

Bruce Springsteen 

Anfield – Liverpool, England

June 7, 2025 

Set: Ghosts, Land of Hope and Dreams, Death to My Hometown, Seeds, Lonesome Day, Rainmaker, Darkness on the Edge of Town, The Promised Land, Hungry Heart, My Hometown, The River, Youngstown, Murder Incorporated, Long Walk Home, House of a Thousand Guitars, My City of Ruins, Because the Night, Wrecking Ball, The Rising, Badlands, Thunder Road

Enc.: Can’t Buy Me Love+, Kansas City+, Born in the U.S.A., Born to Run, Glory Days, Dancing in the Dark, Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out, Twist and Shout, Chimes of Freedom

Notes: 

+ With Paul McCartney