Former Beatle, Paul McCartney, speaks during a media conference prior to his concert at the Olympia music hall in Paris, Monday, Oct. 22, 2007. (AP)

Sr. Paul McCartney on Monday played Paris's legendary L'Olympia concert hall, 43 years after a series of legendary concerts at the same venue by the Beatles.

"It's really good to come back here," the ex-Beatle told reporters ahead of his one-off Paris gig. "Every time I'm in Paris as a tourist I come here to see the Olympia."

But "40 years ago it was very new and exciting," he said of the band's memorable concerts in 1964. "Now it's still exciting but not very new."

McCartney made his first appearance at the Olympia in 1964 with the Beatles, a performance that caused havoc in the streets. He returned to the theater nearly a decade later with Wings, the group that gave him a new life on the stage in the post-Beatles era.

At the concert, McCartney's performed several songs from his latest album Memory Almost Full, including Dance Tonight and Only Mama Knows.

"The business was changing, everything was changing," said McCartney, who left EMI Music for Starbucks' Hear Music. "I started to think that the record companies didn't know how to deal with it and they were getting boring and jaded."

The people at Starbucks had been passionate about his music whereas the record companies just weren't selling any more, he added.

(Agencies via Xinhua October 23, 2007)