Former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney plays his first ever concert in Russia Saturday -- an open-air show just steps from the Kremlin, on a temporary Red Square stage standing directly in front of St. Basil's Cathedral.

Though former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr toured Russia with his All Starr Band in 1998, this week's event, which is expected to draw 50,000 fans from all over the country, will be Russia's first live experience of the man who wrote or co-wrote the bulk of the legendary rock band's songs, and whose solo career in recent decades has been prolific, if erratic.

"I've long wanted to play in Russia, but for a number of years, when the Communists were in power, they didn't want me to," McCartney wrote during an online chat with fans in March.

Recordings by both The Beatles and McCartney's now defunct 1970s band Wings were banned by authorities during the Soviet era.

"I've never even visited Russia as a tourist, so it's exciting for me now to be getting to perform there with a band and finally be singing 'Back in the U.S.S.R.' and all these other songs for people who, I've got a feeling, might just be ready for it."

Despite reports in the Russian and international press of a second concert in St. Petersburg, the Moscow show is the only Russian stop on McCartney's Back in the World world tour, the European portion of which began in March.

Though The Beatles never performed in the Soviet Union, before their breakup in 1970 the band's enormous popularity coupled with its illicit status here spawned numerous rumors that a Moscow gig was in the offing. According to one such rumor popular in the early 1970s, the band had at one point traveled to the capital but was not allowed to leave the airport, where it was said to have given an impromptu show. Another rumor had the band playing a secret concert for a select audience of Soviet-era top brass.

The song that generated the majority of the rumors was, of course, 1968's "Back in the U.S.S.R.," with McCartney singing "Well, the Ukraine girls really knock me out/They leave the West behind/And Moscow girls make me sing and shout/That Georgia's always on my mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mi-mind." In reality, the song was not a reference to a trip to the Soviet Union, but actually a parody of The Beach Boys' hit songs "California Girls" and "Surfin' U.S.A.," as well as of Chuck Berry's "Back in the U.S.A."

In 1970, Soviet youth magazine Rovesnik printed a Russian version of lyrics to the song that praised Communist programs and mentioned Leningrad and Suzdal, which added to the myth of The Beatles having been to Russia.

Amazingly, the myth that The Beatles had played Russia endures even today. One of the band's Russian fan sites, for example, devotes itself exclusively to the subject of whether or not the band has ever been to Russia.

Questions of clandestine concerts aside, in 1988, McCartney publicly expressed his gratitude toward Soviet fans for supporting his Soviet-only release of "CHOBA B CCCP," or "Back in the U.S.S.R.," a collection of covers of early rock 'n' roll classics sung by McCartney. Three years later, the album was re-released internationally.

McCartney was recently quoted by the BBC as saying he had been aware since the mid-1960s that a considerable fan base existed behind the Iron Curtain.

"We were chuffed in the '60s when we heard The Beatles were big in Russia," he said. "We thought 'Wow! The power of music!'"

Though the Communist Party is a thing of the past, there has nevertheless been opposition to McCartney's Saturday show. In April, more than 100 State Duma deputies signed a petition protesting the location chosen for the concert -- Red Square, just steps from the final resting place of Soviet-era leaders. All of Red Squre, from the Lenin Mausoleum to GUM and from St. Basil's Cathedral to Manezh Square, will be occupied by seating.

Despite reports in the Russian and international media that a second concert would take place in St. Petersburg, concert organizer Anthea Eno said no such show is planned. Eno is the wife of musician Brian Eno and manager of Eno's record label Opal, which issued the invitation to McCartney to visit -- but not perform in -- St. Petersburg.

AP The Beatles in 1967. From left: Ringo Starr, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.

McCartney arrived in St. Petersburg on Thursday for what Anthea Eno described as a "private visit." His program for that day included visits to the State Hermitage Museum and the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

A master class initially scheduled to be led by McCartney in St. Petersburg was cancelled last week. On Friday, McCartney will take part in the official induction ceremony of the Menshikov Foundation, a British charity founded by Anthea Eno that operates in St. Petersburg to provide aid to musically gifted children.

During the last six years, Anthea Eno has been occupied with bringing prominent music industry figures -- including Bryan Ferry, Michael Nyman and the Pet Shop Boys -- to perform in St. Petersburg.

According to statements made by McCartney during the Internet chat session, the Moscow show will include "some of my Beatles stuff -- rather a lot of Beatles stuff, actually -- some Wings stuff and some more recent stuff."

Local promoters say the show will last for 2 1/2 hours and include 33 songs, of which 22 are Beatles numbers.

McCartney will be backed by Rusty Anderson on guitar, Brian Ray on bass, Paul "Wix" Wickens on keyboards and Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums.

From Moscow, McCartney will head to Dublin, Ireland, for a May 27 show. The year long tour, which began in California in April of last year, concludes in McCartney's hometown, Liverpool, on June 1.

Paul McCartney performs at 8 p.m. on Saturday on Red Square. Tickets cost from 1,000 to 10,000 rubles and are available at local theater kiosks and at http://www.parter.ru/