Rod Stewart live in Athens December 2025

As I have already said, before Bruce there was Rod. He helped me go through early adolescence before Bruce took over the job in its later stages. Therefore it was fitting that I should see him live given the fact that I became a fan by means of a live album, namely “Absolutely Live” from 1982. And I did see him live, six years ago in Brighton. For years I was under the impression that he had given up on the hits and dedicated himself to the so-called “Great American Songbook” focusing on songs from the 30's 40's etc like other artists had done in their later years (Bryan Ferry comes to mind).That was because he had released a few albums in that series in the early 2000's. But no, a friend who had already seen him live reassured me he was still playing the hits and he was still kicking footballs towards the audience at the end of his shows. So, seeing him at Brighton was a wonderful and rewarding experience. And suddenly, earlier this year, it was announced that he would finally be coming to Greece on his “One Last Time” tour, a tour whose name made it feel like a farewell. I couldn't afford to miss this opportunity so I went to see him again.

As I entered the venue I noticed the big stage with a red curtain draped in front of it with “Let The Good Times Roll” projected on it. Rod was right on time beginning with “Addicted To Love” while his usual female musicians were mimicking the original Robert Palmer video. He performed quite a few covers, which meant that some of the familiar hits were left out, but that did not reduce the enjoyment of the show. “It's A Heartache" was especially suited to his voice while “People Get Ready” brought back memories of Bruce from earlier this year (yes, that Bruce) who often sings a snippet of it while performing “Land Of Hope And Dreams”. My personal favourite “Young Turks” was still there, the song that made me a fan back in 1982 when I saw the video with it's images of teenage escapism... As was “Maggie May”. And who can forget “Da Ya Think I'm Sexy”? Not even Rod himself. That was the song that angered rock purists in Greece back in the day who accused him of selling out to disco. Nobody seemed to mind now, though. There was a small disagreement with an audience member at the beginning of it but it was quickly resolved. And it was before that song that he kicked footballs towards the audience.

 

It's Rod's habit to let his band play some songs without him. In Brighton they played Mark Knopfler's “Going Home (Theme From Local Hero)” and Fleetwood Mac's "Go Your Own Way". Now, they performed ”I'm Every Woman” and "Proud Mary" with lead vocals by one of his backing singers. And since Tina Turner is not with us anymore that backing singer sung her part when Rod came back on stage to perform "It Takes Two"

As you would expect there weren't many young people in the audience. That meant that the arena was filled with people who knew him from back then. And they were proud that they had finally seen him live. He rewarded them (I mean us) by ending the concert in the best way possible: With “Sailing”. The first Rod Stewart song I had ever heard when I was still a little kid. Following that, "Love Train" was the very final song.

Bye bye Rod! Enjoy your retirement! Unless you want to come back. Then we'll come to see you no matter how old you (or we) are... (Come to think of it he didn't say "goodbye" at the end of the show, did he? He said "see you"...)

 

SETLIST:
01. Addicted To Love
02. You Wear It Well
03. Ooh La La
04. Having A Party
05. It's A Heartache
06. Rollin' & Tumblin'
07. Forever Young
08. The First Cut Is The Deepest
09. Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright)
10. Maggie May
11. I'd Rather Go Blind
12. Young Turks
13. Downtown Train
14. I'm Every Woman
15. I Don't Want To Talk About It
16. People Get Ready
17. Have I Told You Lately
18. Proud Mary
19. Baby Jane
20. It Takes Two
21. Some Guys Have All The Luck
22. Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?
23. Sailing
Encore:
24. Love Train

Bryan Adams live in Athens November 2019

When Bryan Adams's most successful album "Reckless" was released in late 1984 and became a huge hit in 1985, we thought of him as "The Canadian Bruce". The parallels with Bruce Springsteen were many. Bruce Springsteen's most successful album "Born In The USA" was released in 1984 and became a huge hit in 1985. I had seen Bruce 11 times until 2013 but I had yet to see Bryan. So, when back in 2014, Bryan Adams was touring to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Reckless, and I simultaneously received an invitation from a fellow Bruce bloodbrother (hello, peter4run) to visit him in Stratford-Upon-Avon in order to go and see him in nearby Birmingham, I jumped at the chance. However, I never thought that he would come to Greece. But he did finally come 5 years later (last year in 2019). And I went to see him. Little did I know that this would be the last concert in Greece by a major international artist. I bought my ticket once I had made sure that I wasn't going to be working on that day. It was an electronic ticket which means that you download and print it (or you store it on your mobile) and its barcode is scanned upon entering the venue. The strange thing that happened though is that one day before the concert I received an email with a replacement e-ticket having a different barcode. Nobody knows why this happened.

I arrived at the Olympic Arena quite early and so I was able to get very close to the front of the stage, whereas in 2014 I was sitting in the stands. There was no support and there was a long-running video with animation and effects of Bryan on the big screen while we were waiting for the concert to begin.

He began with "Last Night On Earth", but it was with the second song that we realized that the real concert had actually started: "Somebody". Yes, we were in "Reckless" territory. This wasn't the Reckless Anniversary Tour of course, but there were still quite a few songs from that album played. There were three from his latest album "Shine A Light" which is quite good by the way, especially the title track. The third song however was "Can't Stop This Thing We Started" and we were thankful that it was played so early, as we were hoping that the guy who was holding up a sign requesting that song would finally put it down, thus enabling us to have a better view of the stage.

The obligatory "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" was naturally there, but the special surprise was something else. Bryan and his guitarist treated us to an acoustic rendition of "Zorba's Dance" which served as the intro to "Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman".

And then there was the request section. People from the audience asked for a specific song and Bryan played a short version of it. (He had to keep explaining to people that they needn't worry and he would actually play "Summer Of '69" towards the end of his set). Anyway, I was granted the two songs that I wanted : "There Will Never Be Another Tonight" and "Hearts On Fire". I was especially lucky with the latter since he rarely plays songs from "Into The Fire" which is considered a "difficult" album.

Finally, he did of course play "Summer Of 69" at the end of his normal set, but there was still another surprise in store, at least for me: "I Fought The Law". We went crazy on that one. OK, if I had watched his Wembley 1996 DVD before the concert, I would have known that he does that often.

The encore and the concert ended with "Straight From The Heart" and "All For Love". We all went home happy. To this day this has been the last arena concert in Greece by a major artist...

SETLIST:
01. The Last Night On Earth
02. Somebody
03. Can't Stop This Thing We Started
04. Run To You
05. Shine A Light
06. Heaven
07. Go Down Rockin'
08. It's Only Love
09. Cloud Number Nine
10. You Belong To Me
11. Zorba Dance / Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman
12. Here I Am
13. When You're Gone
14. (Everything I Do) I Do It For You
15. Back To You
16. The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You
17. Cuts Like A Knife
18. 18 Til I Die
19. Hearts On Fire
20. There Will Never Be Another Tonight
21. Kids Wanna Rock
22. Please Forgive Me
23. Summer Of '69
Encore:
24. I Could Get Used To This
25. I Fought The Law
26. Straight From The Heart
27. All For Love

Eurovision 2006

Last Saturday was the day of the final of Eurovision 2016 from Stockholm. But 10 years ago Eurovision was held in Athens because Greece had won the previous year. After having watched it for many years on TV since my early childhood I thought this was a good opportunity to watch it live. Well, live, in a manner of speaking. Eurovision is not really a "concert". Only the vocals are live. The backing track is in play-back mode of course. There's no orchestra anymore.

Surprisingly enough (or so I thought then) it was so popular that I could not get a ticket fo the final. So I got one for the semi final and a couple for the rehearsals which cost almost nothing. So I went to the semi final rehearsal first and the next day (Thursday) to the proper semi-final. (Back then there was only one semi-final).

Semi Final

Semi Final

Semi Final

Semi Final

Semi Final

Semi Final

Even on that day there was a feeling that Finland would win with the hard rock (sort of) song "Hard Rock Hallelujah" from Lordi. (There had in fact been a hard rock song at the previous year's contest in Kiev which did quite well). Anyway, on the day of that semi final it was the first time that I used my new phone (a SonyEricsson W550) on an event. This could take 1Mpixel photos (!) and even low quality videos (unlike the older one I had used on the Simple Minds gig a month before)
On the day of the rehearsal of the final I decided to hang around outside the arena to see if I could find a ticket for the final proper and luckily enough someone spotted me and offered me one at face value.

Final Rehearsal

Final Rehearsal

So I came back the next day, but this time I brought my first digital camera and my Mini-DV video camera (both new at that time - the digital camera would get damaged six years later by the rain at the legendary Bruce Springsteen concert in Florence) since I had noted that despite the warnings on the tickets nobody was checking for cameras and nobody would stop you from taking pictures of filming. There was a couple in fact on the row in front of me who filmed the whole show. I mean, couldn't they have programmed their video recorder at home and enjoy it live? As for myself, I filmed about an hour of video (one Mini-DV tape) mostly of what was happening outside. Which is why I'm writing a blog post about this. Having not travelled abroad for the last two years while stuck in a low-paying job, and currently stuck in a better paying job that however did not allow for much time off, it was finally nice to meet people from different countries and gathered together on top of that (For some strange reason, the ones I remember most are the Croatians singing their song "Moja Stickla"). 

Final

 

Final

Final

 

Final

In some way meeting all these people made me feel kind of sad for my situation. One week after Eurovision however, I found a really good job which allowed me to start travelling abroad for concerts from 2007. I would never have thought about doing that, what prompted it though was the fact that one month after Eurovision we were expecting The Rolling Stones who never came, due to Keith antics with a coconut tree, so I went to see them in Lyon in 2007.

Final

As for the Eurovision show itself, well it was probably one of the best with what was possibly the best (and not the usual Eurovision style) winner : Hard Rock Hallelujah!