Sir Paul's tour smashed box office records in the US

Tickets for the tour - Sir Paul's first in Britain for nearly a decade - were selling at a rate of eight a second immediately after lines opened at 0900GMT on Friday.

Demand was so high it jammed switchboards at London's Earls Court Arena, the first of the tour venues.

The tour has already smashed box office records across America and was hailed as the most successful concert tour of 2002 by Billboard magazine.

It will kick off in Britain on 18 April in Earl's Court. Other venues include Manchester, Birmingham and Sheffield.

The two new dates - 10 April in Manchester and 21 April at Earl's Court - were added after tickets for those two venues sold out.

"It's been going crazy," said Sir Paul's agent, Geoff Baker.

"The tickets are still selling but they are going very quickly."

Home crowd

The tour will be Sir Paul's first in Britain since his New World Tour in 1993.

"I have had a lot of fun touring this show around America last year, but now I am bringing it on home to London and that's a special one to me as I always look forward to playing to a home crowd," said Sir Paul.

"I think people are going to like this gig," he added.

"When I was thinking of what songs to play I just imagined myself as one of the audience and thought, 'What would I like to hear him play?'"

The tour promises to be the biggest yet with 22 Beatles songs included in the set, twice as many songs as the band ever played on stage.