With the country still in the midst of lockdown and no sign of any live music in the foreseeable future if at all this year I thought I would take the opportunity to look back in the archives, sounds posh I know but it’s just an spreadsheet, and revisit gigs I attended on this day down the years. I will keep this going until I can attend my first gig again in person so hopefully this also brings back memories for my gig going chums who have joined me on this great musical journey down the years.
After a couple of busy days there’s just the one today but what a show for my trip down memory lane for you down the years
2012, Bruce Springsteen, Hyde Park, London
This was of course the famous Bruce gig where they switched off the crowd facing speakers as he and McCartney launched into the fifteenth chorus of ‘Twist and Shout’. Weirdly the on stage monitors were still on so the band thought everyone could hear them. My only comment here is if they had come on stage when they were supposed to and not twenty five minutes late there would have been plenty of time to play out the whole song.
Back to the day itself and this was part of Hard Rock Calling and we were doing a twofer with Bruce on the Saturday and Paul Simon on the Sunday. It was a great line-up with support from John Fogerty and Tom Morello aka The Nightwatchman plus Gary Clark Jr on the other stage. Looking at the bill it looks like Dawes played too but don’t remember seeing them. It’s a full house today in terms of the gang with John, Graham, Martin, Gavin, Alex and I think Antony all in attendance.
It was great to see Gary Clark Jr. so young in his career who played to a packed tent to the side of the main stage. Morello delivered a good acoustic set too but Fogerty though was impeccable as he ran through a Creedence greatest hits set ending with ‘Rockin all over the world’ with Bruce tagging along. I think for me ‘Have you ever seen the rain’ and ‘Fortunate Son’ stole the show.
Onto Bruce. The weather I think was a little inclement but once the first note from Roy Bittan’s piano on ‘Thunder Road’ was hit the weather was soon forgotten. This was the ‘Wrecking Ball’ tour and of course this featured heavily but this being Bruce the show goes on for a minimum of three hours so there’s something for everyone from across the a catalogue. There are guest slots from Fogerty and Morello taking lead as at this time he was a member of the E Street Band and of course Macca joining the band onstage for the encore.
This is probably in my top three Bruce gigs and this version of ‘Ghost of Tom Joad’ is one of top five moments of my whole gig going history. Morello just took on the song and gave it the full Morello treatment. The solo had to be heard to be believed as he creates such unusual sounds from his guitar. A pure jaw drop moment for me.
That’s it for today’s trip down memory lane. Here’s hoping we can get to some form of normality soon. Support your small local venues and smaller artists in these difficult times, stay safe and keep on rockin y’all.