Another day, another concert date at Hyde Park. Once again, it was Bruce Springsteen! This was my 15th Bruce concert. The weather was a little bit different this time though. After two days of sunshine and heat it was time for the proverbial English rain. I had already taken my poncho with me but it didn't really start to rain until I had reached Hyde Park. But I wasn't going to go in immediately. First I met a Facebook Bruce friend and we decided to go over to the nearby Pret-A-Manger to have a snack. Apart from Bruce we had a lot in common since our mothers had been born on the exact same date! While we were talking about all of this, the rain had not only started, but it had become really strong. At some point, it relented a bit so I went into the park. With no merchandise to buy this time I headed straight in search of a good spot. This time I did something different. I got a place at the barrier between the golden circle and the general admission area, but I chose one that was close to the sound console. It didn't block my view but I guessed that no one inside the golden circle would want to stand there because it would block their view. I was proven right: Third time lucky! Not only that, but inside I also met another Facebook friend who is not only a Bruce fan but also an Arsenal fan like me!
The first artist to appear was Brittney Spencer. I had not heard of her before but the music she was playing was not country rock. It seemed that the organizers did go for a bit of variety this time. And she did a very nice cover of "Yesterday".
Then it was time for one more familiar act. The Chicks who had already played before Bruce two days before. The set was almost identical, but the songs were now familiar, plus the weather was much cooler now, making the whole experience once again more enjoyable.
And finally, Bruce! Again! And this time he showed us that his critics who complain that he doesn't change his set on this tour were simply wrong! Sure he kept the basic structure of the set as I have already described it on my previous post about Thursday night's appearance the same, but he changed several of the songs focusing the set a lot on "Born In The USA". This time he started with "My Love Will Not Let You Down" and went on to play "Death To My Hometown". Its intro broke back memories of his 2012 appearance in Hyde Park. Songs from "Wrecking Ball" are always welcome for me because it is one of my favourite albums and reminds me of 2012 and 2013 when I saw him six times during that two year period. "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" was a pleasant surprise for I had wanted to hear this live for years and never got the chance. "Kitty's Back" and "Mary's Place" were there in their usual slots on this tour (although this time we were not singing "let it rain" so enthusiastically as on Thursday), but there was another surprise as well: "The E Street Shuffle"! After all, his second album (as well as his first) celebrates its 50th anniversary this year! And then came the encore with the usual bits with him opening his shirt and showing us his torso (I'm sure the women in the audience enjoyed this) and his usual chat with Stevie about breaking the curfew although with no explicit language this time.
When it was finished and we exited Hyde Park, I managed to find the unofficial t-shirt I was after with only the Hyde Park dates, somewhere on Park Lane. I was not surprised to see that even some of the bike taxis outside the park were playing Bruce music.
Satisfied I continued walking towards my hotel. It was over, but it was not over. There was one more date in Monza, in Italy. And this time I would be with my best friend...
SETLISTS: JAMES BAY 01. Best Fake Smile 02. Just For Tonight 03. If You Ever Want To Be In Love 04. Wanderlust 05. Goodbye Never Felt So Bad 06. All My Broken Pieces 07. Get Out While You Can 08. Let It Go 09. Endless Summer Nights 10. Hold Back The River
THE CHICKS 01. Sin Wagon 02. Gaslighter 03. Julianna Calm Down 04. Landslide 05. The Long Way Around 06. Wide Open Spaces 07. Cowboy Take Me Away 08. Travelin' Soldier 09. White Trash Wedding 10. Daddy Lessons/Long Time Gone (Medley) 11. March March 12. Not Ready To Make Nice 13. Goodbye Earl
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN 01. My Love Will Not Let You Down 02. Death To My Hometown 03. No Surrender 04. Ghosts 05. Prove It All Night 06. Darkness On The Edge Of Town 07. The Promised Land 08. Out In The Street 09. Darlington County 10. Working On The Highway 11. Kitty's Back 12. Nightshift 13. Mary's Place 14. The E Street Shuffle 15. Last Man Standing 16. Backstreets 17. Because The Night 18. She's The One 19. Wrecking Ball 20. The Rising 21. Badlands Encore: 22. Born To Run 23. Bobby Jean 24. Glory Days 25. Dancing In The Dark 26. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out 27. Twist And Shout / La Bamba Encore 2: 28. I'll See You In My Dreams
As I have already said on my previous post, I had made a
mental connection between Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen back in 1978 when Billy
Joel's "52nd Street" and Bruce Springsteen's "Darkness On The Edge Of
Town" were advertised side by side on the back cover of a Greek music
magazine called "Pop & Rock". Last year I bought tickets for both Springsteen shows at Hyde Park wondering who would play on the Friday between
them. And sure enough later that year it was announced that it was
going to be Billy Joel. So, I bought one for his show as well!
Now, Billy Joel fans, back in the day were unique. There weren't that many of them but they were dedicated. As far as I'm concerned the first record of his that I bought was was "The Nylon Curtain" because I loved his single "Pressure". But listening to the whole album I was able to appreciate other songs like "Allentown" and "Goodnight Saigon". A decade later I also considered "The River Of Dreams" to be one of his masterpieces. But my favourite Billy Joel track is one I didn't know back then: "You May Be Right". I discovered this in the late '00s because it was regurarly played at the parties organized by a DJ Team called DramaQueens UglyShufflers at that time.
So once again I walked to Hyde Park after stopping at Selfridges to get some music magazines because in the year 2023 it is now more difficult than ever to find print magazines in London. After getting a Billy Joel t-shirt at the mechandize stand I went and secured a place at the front of the General admission area right at the barrier with the Golden Circle. As I have mentioned in my previous post, my view was sometimes blocked by people at the back of the Golden Circle, but I don't regret my choice because of the people I met at that spot, namely a guy who had benn in Greece way back in 1974 and his daughter. He was teasing me by telling me that he hoped Bruce Springsteen the next day would be half as good as Billy Joel. But the amazing thing was that his 20 year old daughter was also a Billy Joel fan! Not to mention that they held my place for me so that I was able to go for some drinks...
The first act to appear were Bowen Young. My first impression was that they were a country rock duo. I was expecting every support act to be a country rock act although that was not the case. They were quite good though.
Next up, was Natasha Bedingfield. I knew her of course although I had only bought a CD single by her brother "Gotta Get Through This". She even played that, too, along with other covers from Prince ("Purple Rain"), Taylor Swift ("Anti Hero") as well as her own songs of course.
Then it was time for someone who I had forgotten that he was appearing that night: An old acquaintance from the 80's, Daryl Hall. Nostalgia seeped in as he played most of his hits with John Oates from that period such as "Maneater" and "Out Of Touch".
Finally, it was time for Billy Joel. His only European appearance this year! He launched immediately into "My Life". Then he told us that he had some bad news and some good news. The bad news was that he didn't have a new record out. The good news was that because he didn't have a new record out, he wasn't going to play any new songs. So he proceeded to play all the hits and his best ones. Somewhere between songs, he talked about Bruce Springsteen falling from the ladder the previous night. We were hoping for a guest appearance from Bruce since they were both in town that night, but we only got one of The Jonas Brothers on "Uptown Girl". And as if he knew this was my first concert of his, he saved the best for last, my favourite, "You May Be RIght".
As a result, I went back to the hotel walking the length of Oxford Street with a big smile on my face (although that probably had something to do with the fact that I was going to see Bruce again the next night...)
SETLISTS: NATASHA BEDINGFIELD 01. Love Like This 02. Pocketful Of Sunshine 03. Single 04. Soulmate 05. The Scientist 06. Weightless / Anti-Hero / Gotta Get Thru This / Just the Way You Are 07. Purple Rain 08. Wild Horses 09. These Words 10. Unwritten
DARYL HALL 01. Maneater 02. Dreamtime 03. Family Man 04. Out Of Touch 05. Method Of Modern Love 06. I'm In A Philly Mood 07. Everytime You Go Away 08. Sara Smile 09. I Can't Go For That (No Can Do) 10. Rich Girl 11. You Make My Dreams
BILLY JOEL 01. My Life 02. Movin' Out (Anthony's Song) 03. The Entertainer 04. Vienna 05. Zanzibar 06. Start Me Up 07. An Innocent Man 08. The Longest Time 09. Don't Ask Me Why 10. New York State of Mind 11. Allentown 12. She's Always A Woman 13. Sometimes A Fantasy 14. Only The Good Die Young 15. The River Of Dreams 16. Nessun Dorma (Sung by Mike Delguidice) 17. Scenes From An Italian Restaurant 18. Piano Man Encore: 19. We Didn't Start The Fire 20. Uptown Girl (with Joe Jonas) 21. It's Still Rock And Roll to Me 22. Big Shot 23. A Hard Day's Night 24. You May Be Right
After 3 concerts this year, (all of them open air festivals), it was time for my first trip and concert abroad after almost 4 years. And it was also an open air festival. One year ago Bruce Springsteen announced his two dates at Hyde Park. One on a Thursday and one on the following Thursday. I bought tickets for both wondering who would play on the Friday between those two. And sure enough later that year it was announced that it was going to be Billy Joel. That was it! The icing on the cake! I had made a mental connection between those two artists back in 1978 when Billy Joel's "52nd Street" and Bruce Springsteen's "Darkness On The Edge Of Town" were advertised side by side on the back cover of a Greek music magazine called "Pop & Rock". I had seen Bruce Springsteen both times he had played Hyde Park before but these were both part of the Hard Rock Calling Festival. This time it was BST Hyde Park. The major difference was that this time, there was a Golden Circle area, for which I did not manage to get tickets even though I had a presale code. So as a small consolation I got the early entrance to the General Admission area in order to avoid overcrowding when the doors would open. Another major difference was that there were not going to be paper tickets available. There weren't any at the Hard Rock Calling festival as well, but you could print them off the internet. This time there were only going to be available on a specific mobile app. What I realized then was that although I had a smartphone, its operating system version did not support the app. I would need to buy a new phone by the following summer as well. I had contacted the organizers and had made sure that I would be able to go in without the app, by going to the box office on the day of the concert and showing my receipts, but one week before the concert a new Sony Xperia model was released and I bought that!
I had chosen a hotel near New Oxford Street, which meant that I could walk to and from the park every day thus saving a lot of money on public transport which is quite expensive now in London. So on Thursday, my first BST Hyde Park day I was at the park at the designated time of 1 o'clock and promptly got in. There was a small queue that I had to join, but that started moving quickly as soon as the gates were opened. My first stop was the merchandise stand. I just wanted to buy a Bruce Springsteen official t-shirt (and a Billy Joel one the following day). And then I had enough time to find a good spot before the gates opened for the regular ticket holders at 2 o'clock. Well, I figured that a good spot would be at the barrier between our area and the golden circle, but it took me until the 3rd day to get it right. I didn't stand at the barrier but very close to it thinking I had a good view which I did at first but this was partially blocked by the time Bruce got on stage, not by the people in front of me, but by the people at the back of the golden circle instead. I even had enough space to lie down and conserve my energy seeing as it was quite a hot day for London.
The first artist to come up on stage was Frank Turner. I knew about him from some of my Bruce friends on Facebook who were raving about him, and when he started playing I soon realized why. Not your typical "Americana" artist that Uncut magazine gets excited about. He was really energetic with more up-tempo songs.
The next act were The Chicks. This mostly all-female band were exactly what I was expecting, typical country rock, but that didn't stop me from enjoying myself. And then I realized that they were in fact The Dixie Chicks who had changed their name to just Chicks!
Finally, after only two opening acts (and we all know why there were only two) and seven years of waiting it was time for my 14th Bruce Springsteen concert. Now, the first 30 minutes was a warm up period. You see, I didn't quite know what to expect or if I would enjoy myself (yeah, right... as if!). It all had to do with the gossip on social media about how this tour was different, he was no longer taking requests from the crowd, he wasn't changing the setlists anymore and so on... (Well, as far as the last one was concerned I would find out on Saturday). On top of that, I hadn't followed the setlists and the videos from the tour on social media during the tour as I used to do on previous ones. I thought I would concentrate on work during the year and then, when the time for my first concert came, I would party. And the thing is, we have to accept the fact that Bruce is older now (he's in his seventies) and cannot do all the things he used to do. But the fact is that on every tour Bruce's setlists always had a certain format with songs that would always be played (for example "Lonesome Day" and the really rocky version of "Johnny 99" in 2009 and "Spirit In The Night" in 2012) and then he would fit in the requests and the changes somewhere among these. This time it was "Ghosts" from "Letter To You" early on (but not the first song) with "Kitty's Back" and "Mary's Place" towards the middle of the main set. Only "Nightshift" from his soul covers album, (a song with a particular meaning for me, though). Then, an almost solo interlude with storytelling about his early band and "Last Man Standing" progressing into "Backstreets". And finally "Badlands" towards the end, not at the beginning of the set as it was expected on other tours. I particularly liked this last bit. "Badlands" is one of Bruce's anthems and one should have to wait to hear it, like "Born To Run" for example. (Although I understand that by playing it at the beginning helps to get the crowd going). And it would all end with a second encore featuring a solo performance of "I'll See You In My Dreams". Well, my "warm up" period ended around the time when the first notes of "Out In The Street" (the sixth song of the set) started playing. That was when I thought "Yeah, he's back... I'm back) and started enjoying myself (and haven't stopped since!). During the first encore Bruce remembered what had happened at his last gig in Hyde Park back in 2012 and asked Stevie if they were going to pull the plug again. Stevie responded not by saying "stuff them!" as the BBC had reported but "f**k them!" instead. And then he proceeded to play "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out", the song he was prevented from playing eleven years ago.
After it was over and when I finally managed to get out of the park (not an easy thing to do with all the restrictions that were in place) I started walking towards the hotel. The first thing I noticed, just outside the park was an unofficial t-shirt listing only the Hyde Park dates and the support bands. I made a mental note to find one of these on Saturday. Then I turned right on Oxford Street, occasionally stopping for refreshments or food to eat back in my room. Central London was vibrant as usual even on a Thursday night. It helps of course that concerts in Britain end while public transport is still working...
SETLISTS: FRANK TURNER 01. I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous 02. The Next Storm 03. Photosynthesis 04. Recovery 05. I Am Disappeared 06. Haven't Been Doing So Well 07. Get Better 08. Be More Kind 09. The Way I Tend To Be 10. If Ever I Stray 11. I Still Believe 12. Four Simple Words
THE CHICKS 01. Sin Wagon 02. Gaslighter 03. Julianna Calm Down 04. Landslide 05. Sleep At Night 06. Ready To Run 07. Wide Open Spaces 08. Cowboy Take Me Away 09. Travelin' Soldier 10. White Trash Wedding 11. Daddy Lessons / Long Time Gone 12. March March 13. Not Ready To Make Nice 14. Goodbye Earl
BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN 01. No Surrender 02. Ghosts 03. Prove It All Night 04. Letter To You 05. The Promised Land 06. Out In The Street 07. Darlington County 08. Working On The Highway 09. Kitty's Back 10. Nightshift 11. Mary's Place 12. My Hometown 13. The River 14. Last Man Standing 15. Backstreets 16. Because The Night 17. She's The One 18. Wrecking Ball 19. The Rising 20. Badlands 21. Thunder Road Encore: 22. Born In The U.S.A. 23. Born To Run 24. Bobby Jean 25. Glory Days 26. Dancing In The Dark 27. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out Encore 2: 28. I'll See You In My Dreams
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