Paul McCartney has revealed that the speed at which tickets for his upcoming European tour sold out surprised even him.

Speaking to BBC 6 Music's latest recruit, Lauren Laverne, the erstwhile Beatles bassist revealed his London O2 Arena date sold out in only four seconds.

Sir Paul said, "I was doing an interview with some guy and he said, 'I heard you sold out in four seconds.' I said, 'No. That's four minutes, are you kidding?'"

"Now the motivation is that I know they want to come really badly because my promoter will say, 'You've sold out,'" he explained. "I actually don't feel like I have to chew myself up because it's a built-in factor now.

"I think, 'I love playing to them, and they're going to actually like hearing me, so what can I do so that we can have fun?' It's more of a mutual motivation now."