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Former Beatle Paul McCartney “quite fancied the idea” of an extended stint at the O2 arena, according to BBC news. The singer is scheduled to perform there on Tuesday, December 22.

He told Absolute Radio: “Last time I ever did that was when the Beatles used to do Christmas shows, and it was brilliant because… you would be there for a week or two. It was fantastic, just dosing in your overcoat and everything.”

Featured residencies at the London O2 have included that of Britney Spears and Prince. Bon Jovi is slated for a residency at the arena beginning next June, and Michael Jackson was to begin performing a series of 50 concerts there before his death in June of 2009.

McCartney is currently on tour, having started out earlier this month in Hamburg. Already the singer has performed in Berlin, Arnhem, Paris, Cologne and Dublin. The current tour will end with this O2 performance, the only UK date from the rock legend this year.

He continued: “I came back from America and a lot of people said, ‘Oh, I hear you’ve been to America, are you doing any British dates?’ I said, ‘No,’ and they said, ‘Oh, why not?’ So I rung my promoter and said, ‘Hey, can we do some English dates and can we play maybe Scotland?’

“He had a brilliant idea of the Union Jack Tour, it was going to be Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland, but he couldn’t get the availability at such short notice.”
The tour follows the recent release of a collection of live music, Good Evening New York City. The album features performances by McCartney at New York’s Citi Field in July.

The former Beatle recently appeared on the X Factor finale, during which he performed “Baby You Can Drive My Car” and “Live and Let Die.” He was also featured in the Children in Need charity concert at London’s Royal Albert Hall last month.