The packed crowd of 30,000 waved lighters and sang along

About 30,000 fans packed into the specially-built Kings Dock arena, near the city centre, for the homecoming concert.

The gig came just hours after Sir Paul said he had patched up a row with Yoko Ono, the widow of former Beatle John Lennon, over Beatles' songs credits.

Sir Paul began his set to wild applause with Hello Goodbye, followed by Jet.

He told the crowd: "It's great to be home. We have come here tonight to rock you."

Heather dedication

He then launched into a rendition of All My Loving followed by Getting Better and the Wings hit Let Me Roll It.

As a light rain began to fall on the open-air crowd, Sir Paul dedicated a song My Lovin' Flame to his pregnant wife Heather.

Sir Paul's wife Heather is expecting a baby

He said: "I'd like to dedicate this next song to someone very special in the audience. As you might have heard we had some very good news recently."

Hundreds of fans queued for hours in advance to secure standing places at the front of the arena. Tickets with a face value of �30 were being sold by touts for �100.

During the gig the packed crowd waved cigarette lighters aloft as they sang along.

Rob Calder, from Dublin, said: "I flew over especially for the concert. I wouldn't miss it for the world.

"It's not every day you get to see Paul McCartney playing to his home crowd so I think it's worth every penny."

Two million fans

Sir Paul has played to a total of two million people during his year-long Back in the World tour which included gigs in 15 countries including the US, Mexico, Japan and Russia.

On Sunday he gave the two millionth fan, 19-year-old Laura Andrew from Bebbington, a Volkswagen Beetle Cabriolet to celebrate.

Ono refused a request to switch the Beatles' song-writing credits

Until this weekend, the former Beatle had not played in Liverpool for more than a decade.

On Friday night, Sir Paul played a secret gig at the city's Cavern Club - close to the original club of the same name where the Beatles made their name in the 1960s.

He played three songs, including Let It Be and We Are Family, at the crew's end-of-tour party.

Sir Paul and Yoko Ono had argued over whose name should come first in the Beatles' legendary writing credit Lennon-McCartney.

Sir Paul had asked Ono to approve a change to denote which songs were, in the most part, his creation.

'Lennon and McCartney'

But she refused, and on his recent Back In The US live album, all Beatles tracks were credited to McCartney-Lennon.

Now Sir Paul has told the Glasgow-based Sunday Herald he is content to let the matter lie.

He said: "I'm happy with the way it is and always has been.