12:46pm UK, Saturday June 19, 2004

Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney is playing his 3,000th gig on Sunday.    

The star, who was 62 on Friday, is performing in the Russian city of St Petersburg for the first time.

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Sir Paul: Touring again

Sir Paul's debut concert was with The Quarry Men, the band he joined at the age of 15, before the Beatles.      

He has played everywhere from the front lawn of Buckingham Palace to the Coliseum in Rome, since his very first gig at Liverpool's New Clubmoor Hall on October 18, 1957.      

The singer holds the Guinness World Record for the biggest stadium audience - 184,000 in Rio de Janeiro in 1990.      

Sir Paul is thought to have performed with the Beatles 2,523 times.      

He said: "I never kept count of the statistics so I was amazed when people told me I'll do my 3,000th gig on this tour.      

"That's an awful lot of late nights - I guess I must just like the live life. But, as I've said before, it's what I do".      

His summer tour will climax on June 26 performing to 120,000 fans at Glastonbury.      

He said said: "I've long wanted to play Glastonbury but I never had the chance before."