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We were right! Paul McCartney to play Barclays Center

We were right! Paul McCartney to play Barclays Center

We had the guts to make the call, and we were right — Paul McCartney will play two-nights at the Barclays Center in June.

The Brooklyn Paper staff went out on a limb last night when, after our newsroom was bombarded with press releases claiming a “smashing” announcement would be made at the arena early this morning, we used research tools available to every other news collecting and predicting outlet in the country and solely proclaimed that Sir Paul would soon put on a show in Brooklyn.

This morning, Borough President Markowitz confirmed our report when he announced the so-called “cute” Beatle would play shows on June 8 and 10. Tickets will go on sale on Monday.

Here’s how The Brooklyn Paper broke the story last night (with minor edits for the sake of context) using the facts that were on the table at the moment:

• Throughout the week, we received press releases stating that a “smashing” concert was coming to the Brooklyn’s arena.

• The words “smashing” and “concert” were used.

Here’s what we quickly ruled out:

• A monster truck concert featuring “Truckasaurus,” because no mere mortal has conjured up such an event — yet.

• A Smashing Pumpkins concert, because that band has already appeared at the Barclays Center.

• A Smash Mouth concert, because nobody cares.

• A Gallagher concert, because we are traditionalists, and we define concerts as music, and not an attack on fruit.

• A concert by the Gallaghers, from the English band Oasis, which is pretty much broken up.

Here’s how we did the math:

The key to this whole mystery is the clearly the word “smashing,” but what does it mean? We headed over to the internet’s Urban Dictionary to look it up, bypassed the filthy definitions that have no place in a family newspaper and came back with this fact: “smashing” is a popular British expression used to describe something as having gone well, as in “This is a smashing article, isn’t it?”

Armed with that information, we focused on British bands that might play the Barclays Center that would be considered “smashing.” But the Rolling Stones, the Who, and Coldplay, have already graced Brooklyn’s biggest stage. Furthermore, it is unlikely that we’ll hear Marty Markowitz shout the name “Thom Yorke,” so Radiohead is clearly out.

Considering the term “smashing” reached its apex during the mod era (with a brief Austin Powers-inspired return to relevance in the late 1990s), it was safe for our fact-obsessed news staff to assume that this artist will have more to do with skinny ties than skinny jeans.

So we looked up the schedules of popular British ’60s rock who will soon hit the road, and the answer quickly became clear: Paul McCartney.

Sir Paul’s “Up and Coming” tour kicks off on May 4 in Brazil, and will take the cute one to Fenway Park in Boston on July 9. He’ll play Nationals Park in Washington on July 12, making a stop at the Barclays Center a no-brainer.

Besides, he has no other New York dates on his schedule, and we assume he’s never had a big tour that didn’t feature a stop in the Empire State (or at least the Meadowlands).

So The Brooklyn Paper is making the call: we predict that Paul McCartney is coming to the Barclays Center.

This is not the first time a former Beatle has made an appearance at the Barclays Center. McCartney was also there to take in a show by fellow Brit rockers The Rolling Stones in December.

Be sure to check back with The Brooklyn Paper everyday to find out what news may happen tomorrow.