December 14, 1999
Web posted at: 10:29 AM EST (1529 GMT)

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LONDON (CNN) -- After 36 years on the long and winding road, Paul McCartney is returning to where it all began. McCartney will take the stage Tuesday night at Liverpool's Cavern Club, where once a foursome -- not yet fab -- took the stage and changed the sound of music.

"Before the Beatles ever got big, we started out playing rock 'n' roll at The Cavern. I'm going back as a nod to the music that has always -- and will ever -- thrill me," McCartney said.

The decision to return to the club where the Beatles legend was born has sparked an outburst of Beatlemania with fans around the world. The Cavern Club is tiny -- only 300 people will be able to see McCartney's "Little Big Gig" live -- but the concert will be broadcast live around the globe on the Internet.

"I cannot think of a better way to rock out the century," he said.

Cavern Club director Bill Heckle promised: "It will be loud, hot and sweaty -- just the way rock 'n' roll should be. In size, the show is tiny but its mark will be made around the planet."

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An audience of 500 million?

The concert is being screened in 24 countries from the United States and Japan to Brazil and Russia. Viewership worldwide is being predicted at 500 million, and reporters have flown in from 20 countries.

A large videoscreen is being erected in a Liverpool park for 15,000 fans who could not squeeze into the sweaty little underground club.

Hundreds of fans lined up to enter a raffle for the precious few tickets. Among the winners was a fervent 18-year-old fan who changed his name to John Ono Lennon in honor the late Beatle.

'I cried when I won the ticket'

Tomohiro Kobayashi said he flew all the way from Tokyo for a chance to see McCartney, while Sam Dinely had just a 30-minute train ride to the Beatle's birthplace. Both teen-agers stood shivering Tuesday outside the Cavern Club, but neither was complaining.

"We are crazy," said Kobayashi, who won tickets to the show in a raffle. "... I cried when I won the ticket. Beatle music is forever," he said.

McCartney first played the Cavern on January 24, 1958, with his first band, the Quarrymen, that also featured John Lennon and George Harrison. He last performed there in 1963.

The original Cavern Club was demolished in 1973 but rebuilt on the same site in the 1980s.

Reuters contributed to this report.