Paul McCartney, looking like a matinee idol in a black coat and open-collared white shirt, took the stage Friday with “Jet,” one of his most popular songs from Wings, as the headliner of the 10th Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

“Hey Coachella, we come from many miles away to rock your roof tonight,” Sir Paul greeted anxious festivalgoers after The Beatles' “Drive My Car.”

McCartney also paid tribute to his late wife, Linda, saying that Friday marked the 11th anniversary of her death from breast cancer.

"She loved the desert," he said before launching into "My Love Does It Good."

"This is for the lovers," he said, adding "You know who you are."

He had already made a positive impression on the Coachella staff. On Thursday, they presented McCartney with a Riverside County Fire Department helmet and jacket adorned with the firefighters' signatures and a hand-drawn Coachella logo by Coachella artist Mary Anne Campagna. McCartney recorded his last CD as a duo called The Fireman.

Coachella officials would not give crowd estimates until after the internationally acclaimed three-day festival concludes on Sunday at the Empire Polo Club, but Day 1 sold out with perhaps the oldest crowd in its history.

The former member of The Beatles wasn't the only senior citizen attracting older rock fans to the festival. David Green, 69, of Topanga came with his wife and 14-year-old daughter to see the multi-generational acts.

“I'm more of a jazz fan than, what is this, alternative?” he said. “I'm not a big Paul McCartney fan. I think Leonard Cohen could be interesting and fun.”

Cohen, who drew an overflow crowd to the smaller outdoor stage called the Outdoor Theater, looked and sounded as if he were representing an older generation wearing a suit and fedora and singing, “I've seen the nations rise and fall” in “The Future.”

The Friday night schedule featured a softer lineup of artists than past Coachellas, with the skillful vocalist Morrissey setting the stage for McCartney. Morrissey, frontman of the influential British '80s band The Smiths, projected a more muscular image with a backdrop of a sailor smoking a cigar and flexing his muscles, and carried off the image with his new song, “Black Cloud,” featuring a strong lead guitar part created on his new “Years of Refusal” CD by Jeff Beck.

Day 1 of Coachella benefited from its mildest weather — with a high of 89 degrees — since the 2003 festival, when temperatures only reached 88 degrees. The 100-acre-plus polo fields, decorated with quirky installation art and surrounded by a perimeter of 500 new palm trees, only filled up as the sun went down. But the afternoon sets pulsated with youthful vigor in the inviting climate.

DJ Riot of the Portuguese electronic band Buraka Som Sistema asked the hand-clapping, foot-stomping, body-throbbing crowd in the small Gobi Tent if they were tired shortly after 6 p.m., and the crowd responded with a resounding “No!”

The band provided an afternoon highlight with their high energy Kuduro music - a mix of African rhythms from Angola and electronic house music from their recent “Black Diamond” CD. It was world music for the 21st century.

One of the most coveted slots in the festival every year is shortly after sundown on the Outdoor Theater, but the pre-sundown slot proved just as magical in this weather with Conor Oberst and the Mystic River Band providing the alchemy.

Oberst, whose performance of “Lua” with his band, Bright Eyes, made the “Coachella” documentary in 2004, featured a more involved band Friday. The Mystic River Band had a strong Americana edge and band members got to perform their own songs as Oberst, wearing a wide-brimmed black cowboy hat, sang harmony.

The early Beatles-influenced Franz Ferdinand not only benefited from the cool weather on the main Coachella Stage before sunset, it sounded significantly more vital with the festival's new sound system. The U.K. band performed a string of hits, such as “Take Me Out” and “You Could Have It So Much Better,” and took on a power not easily perceived over the radio.

The Welsh band Los Campesinos preceded Buraka Som Sistema in the Gobi Tent and had fans singing along to its new music. Lead singer Tom Campesinos climbed onto the speakers and navigated his way through the shoulder-to-shoulder dance crowd.

The politically-charged, widely heralded Latino rock-rap band Molotov, performing on the Outdoor Theater, offered real Latino strength. They had the crowd shaking raised fists in unison with shouts of “Viva Mexico” as they performed “Gimme the Power” under the mild sun.

Returning Coachella favorites The Black Keys also offered a strong set of blues-based rock.

The Indio police reported 17 drug and alcohol-related arrests, plus three others among the campers on Thursday. About 50,000 people were expected at the festival.