London: Sir Paul McCartney has hit out at some pop stars who don’t play live at their gigs.

The 69-year-old former The Beatles member accused some contemporaries of using tapes rather than their instruments on stage at concerts.

The musician stopped short of naming the fakers, however.

According to McCartney, his long-time friend and engineer Paul Pablo Boothroyd revealed that some artists rely on tapes for the majority of their shows.

“To me the concert experience is at the heart of what music is about. You come to a show and you are in the room so it is the real thing,” the Daily Express quoted him as saying.

“I have been to concerts where I think, ‘Oh, I really am in the room with Tony Bennett and it is like he is in my living room’. That is a great part of the experience.

“I then think, ‘Wait a minute, people must think that about me.

“When we make mistakes playing live, we always now turn it and say, ‘Tell you what – this proves we are live.

“Then we tell the stories about artists, not named, that our crew know who aren’t performing live. Our sound guy Pablo used to be on some tours and at one point in the show a little red light would go on and he’d be live, and he would play it out for 30 seconds and the light would go off, and the tape would go on again.

“We are glad at the end five of us take a bow and there is nobody hidden under the stage either which I hear some naughty people do… sorry, I won’t say names,” he added.

Pablo has worked with bands including ACDC, Eurythmics and Marillion, but the ‘Yesterday’ hitmaker refused to divulge the offenders.

Cheryl Cole was famously accused of miming during her live performances on ‘The X Factor’ while Elton John criticised Madonna for lip-synching during her 2004 tour.

ANI