Friday Photo #66

My view pitch-side at Wembley in July

When Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band toured Europe during the Summer of 2023, the only London date scheduled was for the vast, flat, atmos-free, chatterbox-infested Hyde Park. My E-Street buddy and I hummed and hawed, consulted our wallets, took a deep breath and headed out to catch a gig in Amsterdam instead, flying back via Edinburgh for a second show a couple of days later. In spite of coming hot on the heels of a nasty bout of Covid, it was a truly glorious experience, though, for a man of my meagre means, catastrophically expensive. Still, at their advanced age, we figured that these were probably the last precious opportunities to see the E-Street Band in full effect. How wrong I was. 

When another European jaunt was announced for the Summer of 2024, my pal and I, convinced that this really would be the last time, hocked our family heirlooms and caught two UK shows, at Sunderland and Wembley. 43 years after my first Springsteen gig just across the road in the Arena, I left Wembley Stadium tired and elated after a staggering three hour performance. A great one to finish on I thought, as I shuffled down Wembley Way towards the tube station.

So now Bruce is coming back to Europe yet again next Summer, ostensibly to mop up a few 2024 shows in Italy and Spain that had to be postponed when he fell ill, but he's also added a handful of UK dates to the run. This time I was absolutely going to give it a miss (as indeed I am with Dylan's potential UK concert farewell this very week), as money, in the immortal words of The Valentine Brothers, really is too tight to mention. My E-Street buddy talked me round though and consequently I now have debts no honest man can pay, because I've stumped up for one more night on E-Street in Manchester next May. 

A moving solo acoustic interpretation of I'll See You in My Dreams has closed practically every show for the past couple of years and call me an old fool, but it gets me every time. Here's Bruce performing it at the 20th 9/11 Memorial Ceremony in New York.

Monday Long Song

Photo borrowed from the Greasy Lake community

Time is very tight at the moment, but I just had to drop in to wish a very happy 70th birthday to The Boss. Here he is on his last visit to London with The E Street Band in 2016. I was there. Rumour has it that they'll be passing this way again in 2020 - if that truly turns out to be the case, I'll be there again. You should be too.

Jungleland (London 2016)

Monday Long Song

Something a little different this week - not so much a long song, as a long clip. Over the last few world tours, Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band have welcomed occasional song requests from audience members. These range from stone cold classics, obscure curios from their hefty back catalogue to one-off cover versions that find them reaching back to their bar-band days. This is a terrific example of the latter, pulled from a 2013 show in Leipzig. Springsteen plucks a request for Chuck Berry's 'You Never Can Tell' from the crowd, to the visible consternation of the band who obviously know the song, but have never actually played it. Steve Van Zandt, Bruce and the band spend a couple of minutes working out an arrangement - worth watching for the look on Steve's face as he tries to persuade Bruce to bring it down a key. Then, gloriously, they throw themselves headlong into a joyous, life-affirming performance. If anyone still questions why I've travelled so far, so often to see Bruce and the E-Street Band in concert over the years, here's your answer.

So Much To Answer For #2

The weather was miserable, the M1-M6-M60 drive interminable (Google Maps predicted 4½ hours, it actually took closer to 7) and the traffic in the Manchester area virtually gridlocked, but finally, finally, we drew into out long pre-booked hotel with barely an hour to spare until Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band were due on stage. Throwing our overnight bags to the floor at check-in, we were informed that due to unforeseen circumstances, there were no rooms for us at the inn. At this point there could well have been tears, tantrums or both, so knackered and stressed were we from the journey. Fortunately, customer service is still a valued commodity at this particular branch of Travelodge and, seeing our distress, the guy behind the counter went far above and beyond the call of duty to find us rooms elsewhere in the city, with free post-concert beers, taxi across Manchester and breakfasts the following morning, thrown in for good measure. The drive back on Thursday was an absolute joy by comparison, East on the A628 out of Manchester through the beautiful and dramatic High Peaks, before swooping down across the flatlands of The Fens towards home, all in less than 4½ hours. And Springsteen? Worth every stress-filled second.

1. Atlantic City 

2. Murder Incorporated 

3. Badlands 

4. The Ties That Bind 

5. Sherry Darling 

6. Two Hearts 

7. No Surrender 

8. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town (Audience Request)

9. Hungry Heart

10. Out in the Street 

11. Darkness on the Edge of Town (Audience Request)

12. Crush on You 

13. You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch) 

14. I Wanna Marry You 

15. The River 

16. Point Blank 

17. Johnny 99 

18. Darlington County 

19. Working on the Highway 

20. The Promised Land 

21. Waitin’ on a Sunny Day 

22. Because the Night 

23. The Rising 

24. Thunder Road 

25. Backstreets (Audience Request)

26. Born to Run 

27. Glory Days 

28. Dancing in the Dark 

29. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out 

30. Shout 

31. Bobby Jean 

32. This Hard Land (solo)

So Much To Answer For

As you read these words, I'll be heading northwards to the Etihad Stadium in Manchester, to catch the first of two shows on Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band's current River Tour. I say current, because for some of us of a certain vintage, this is our second River Tour, the first followed the album's original release in 1981. Ticket prices have gone up a bit in the past 35 years.

My original twin-tub damaged ticket from 1981.

This is only the second time in my life that I've been to Manchester, the first was for just a few hours one evening in the Winter of 1978, when a band who I was chums with at the time, played at the Russell Club in Hulme, otherwise known as the original Factory Club. I travelled from their home town of Leeds in the back of the hired van, rattling around among the drums, amps, guitars and mic-stands, all the while being slowly poisoned by exhaust fumes - happy days. The weather was bitterly cold, the audience sparse and the support act was Gordon the Moron, he of Jilted John fame. I took photos, but unfortunately mislaid them a long time.

Here's Wire, who I reckon have been on a bit of a roll since 'Red Barked Tree' in 2011. They're not from Manchester, but this appropriately titled tune, from last year's self-titled album, is ace.

The E-Street Band Pays Tribute to Prince

Version City # 50 - Bruce Springsteen sings David Bowie

Seven days on from the shock of David Bowie's sudden passing, many of us are still struggling to adjust to life in a post-Bowie world. It isn't easy, though of course it's immeasurably less easy for Iman, Lexi & Duncan and right now all my thoughts are with them. So, apologies for my recent radio silence. Normal service, whatever the heck that is, resumes forthwith. 

Here's Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band paying their own tribute to David Bowie, with a performance from the opening night of their US tour in Pittsburgh.

Version City #33 - The Boss sings The King

In June 1981, I caught the final show of Bruce Springsteen's six night residency at Wembley Arena, it was my first Springsteen concert and much of the evening is still vivid in my memory. The tiny drum kit sitting in the middle of that vast stage, little more than a snare, floor tom, bass drum and a couple of cymbals. The opening song, 'Born to Run'....'Born to Run'! He started with 'Born to Run'! The joyous audience participation during 'Hungry Heart' and the tears during a whisper-to-a-scream-to-a-whisper 'Point Blank'. Seven covers (if you count the Detroit Medley as just one), a couple of songs he wrote but gave away and nothing from 'Greetings...' or 'The Wild, The Innocent...'. 31 songs in total, again counting the Detroit Medley as one.

What's left of my ticket after I left it in my pocket and it was savaged by the twin-tub.

Elvis Presley's influence on proceedings was particularly noticeable that evening. Springsteen offered a sombre early reading of his own 'Johnny Bye-Bye', which would remain officially unreleased until 1985 and deals, in part, with the death of Presley. In addition, two of the aforementioned covers were associated with Elvis. 'Can't Help Falling in Love' came towards the end of the final encore, but a largely re-written 'Follow That Dream' appeared early in the set. Bruce has sporadically revisited the song in subsequent years and here's a one-off performance from a show in Switzerland, during 1988's Tunnel of Love Express Tour.

Happy Birthday Boss.

Version City #21 - Bruce Springsteen sings Suicide

I'm delighted to note the inclusion of 'Dream Baby Dream' in the tracklisting of Bruce Springsteen's new studio LP, 'High Hopes', which is slated for release in January. Springsteen performed his interpretation of the 1979 Suicide single on over 60 occasions in 2005, releasing one of those live versions as a limited edition 10" single in 2008.



A few years ago there were a large number of audience recordings of the song floating about on YouTube, all taped throughout 2005, though many have disappeared in the interim. A few still cling on, however, and I'd recommend checking out the whole lot. From the early tentative run-throughs, to the glorious, epic performances towards the tour's conclusion, Springsteen's take on 'Dream Baby Dream' rarely fails to floor me and I'm pleased that it'll now gain the wider recognition it deserves.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

I've spent the past couple of days mulling over just how many superlatives I can get away with using in a piece on Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's concert at Wembley Stadium on Saturday. Whatever my allocation, though, it could never be enough.

Overcoming a personal antipathy of the 'stadium experience', this was my first Springsteen show in ten years, my first show since the band suffered the devastating losses of Danny Federici and Clarence Clemons and was a joyous and moving celebration of those who are gone and those who remain. 

We got 'the hits'. We got newer songs, in vastly superior versions to their recorded counterparts. We got audience requested fan favourites. But what those of us lucky enough to be there will always remember, is that we got a quite staggering performance of 'Darkness on the Edge of Town' - the whole LP, start to finish.

From the many shaky clips of the show available to view on YouTube, here is the intense reading of 'Lost in the Flood', an audience request, originally released on 'Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.', Springsteen's 1973 debut.