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26/06/97 - SHEFFIELD ARENA Review
by Steven Stanley:
He ploughed through all the songs again but this time stayed on the mainstage for the rest of the gig. He sang 'You're Still Beautiful To Me' which he didn't do at the last show and also this time when he sang 'Hey Elvis' there was an actual guy dressed up as Elvis in the crowd...the spotlight went on him and Bryan said 'oh my god it's Elvis I don't believe it!. Another amazing gig by the man himself...even my sister was impressed!
Setlist:
********** Review by Helen Barton: At this point in my life I'd only seen Bryan in concert three times....once in 1994, then at the legendary Wembley '96, and then very recently at Wembley in April 1997; and then I got this piece of paper through the door saying he was doing yet another arena tour...and at this short notice! I was pretty much the same as I am now when tour dates are announced, bouncing around like a little bunny rabbit (or maybe a slightly bigger one...;))...but this time there was one snag...the dates clashed with my boyfriend-at-the-time's grandparent's golden wedding! How the hell could I get out of that?? Well the answer was, I couldn't...but then I noticed something. Said Golden Wedding party was in Yorkshire somewhere...and Bryan had a date in Sheffield! If only I could just sneak out of the party and go to the gig... Boyfriend-at-the-time was a bit of a grumpy ass (guess that was a direct result of going out with me!!) but to be fair he was quite happy to go along with this arrangement, and on June 26th we headed for the gig...me quite excited (well, very excited...), and him kind of less excited... Queuing? What was that? I didn't even know what a queue was back then; I had no other BA fan friends, and was probably oblivious to the fact that people even queued! So we arrived at the venue at around 7pm as I remember and just strolled to about 5th row...and I was perfectly happy with that! (obviously craziness comes with old age....) As I said, my memory of this gig is now pretty patchy and I don't even remember who the support act was. But I know the crowd were deafening, pretty much the same as the recent Sheffield '07 gig, and that they went wild when Bryan started on the b-stage singing 'Depend on me' acoustically. This was during the '18 til I die' tour which was a fantastic tour with quite a lavish stage setup in BA terms...he had a bridge at the back of the stage with fans dancing on it and models dancing with him during 'The only thing that looks good on me is you' (the mainstage opener). The band did not dress in identical clothes back then either, and they didn't wear the same clothes for each gig....at this particular gig Keith was wearing a black tshirt and blue jeans (pretty much the same as now!) but Bryan was in a very tight white vest and even tighter black leather trousers....those were the days when he had very long hair as well, and I have since learnt that this 'look' was all a piss-take on the fashion industry and that he actually used to iron his long hair straight! As it was the 18 tour, so much stuff from that CD was played (which is one of my favourites), including 'Do to you', 'We're Gonna Win', 'You're Still Beautiful to Me', 'I wanna be your underwear', 'It ain't a party' and 'I'll always be right there'. Comparing it to the gigs now, the only four surviving songs still in the current set list are 'I think about you', 'Have you ever really', 'The only thing' and of course the title track.....I think some of these songs should come back!! ;) (all thanks to Steve's site for this info...I really wouldn't be able to remember any of this offhand!). So the time came for Bryan to pick people for the audience band. I'd seen this happen a few weeks before at Wembley and thought it was very amusing, and of course I always wanted to meet Bryan and be up there with him...but did I have the bottle to go for it? Well back in those days I was actually quite shy (yup, me shy!!)...and although I played the keyboard and was actually not bad at it, when Bryan asked for a keyboard player I did indeed bottle it and he picked some bloke who turned out not to be able to play the keyboard - at all! ;) So when he said "can anyone play the tambourine?" I saw that as my absolute last chance...even though I was shaking I got some confidence from somewhere and started jumping up and down and waving my hands at Bryan...and he caught my eye! He pointed at me and said "ok, you down there in the T-shirt". So...bearing in mind that I was so young, a huge BA fan and this was the first time I'd ever made eye contact with him...I was completely and utterly gobsmacked, star-struck, shaking, etc etc. (hard to believe that now, when ten years on I just see him as 'Bryan' just a nice sweet guy who I like and admire a lot and have actually forgotten that he's a "famous rock star" and don't even care about that anymore....) So anyway, rewind ten years and there I am standing there with "OMG BRYAN ADAMS HAS PICKED ME!!" written all over my face....my little 19 year old heart racing as I mouthed back at him "what...me?"...and he said "yep, you...come on up!". I didn't need to be asked again! Boyfriend-at-the-time was forgotten about as I launched myself forward...I was getting my ass onto that stage pronto before he picked someone else!!! But the crowd was so thick in the first few rows that I couldn't get any further forward and then despair came over me...."he's not going to find me!" - I panicked. But all was ok...Bryan was looking for me and looked around with an expression of "where is she?" on his face...so I put my hand up again, and he came forward, stood at the front of the crowd and said "hey, let her through". And the power of Bryan! Incredibly, the crowd instantly parted, I walked through the gap that they'd formed, a security guy lifted me over the barrier and onto the stage (there was no step-ladder back then)....and then Bryan took my hand and kind of helped me up...;) Standing face to face with him for the first time all I can remember thinking is how very tiny he was! So he gave me a tambourine and we assembled oursleves and started to play 'Summer of 69'...well, 'play' is perhaps not the right way to put it! The guitarist was ok (with some help from Keith!); but the keyboard player couldn't play keyboard at all (and SO69 only has about 7 chords to my knowledge!!) and I don't think the singer could really sing either! And as for me....well....playing the tambourine shouldn't be difficult but I even managed to cock that one up! Instead of shaking it or tapping it against my hand in some chic kind of way, I was just on such a high at being up there, and seeing all of those people in front of me, that I just held the tambourine in the air and jumped up and down!! For the whole song! So poor Bryan was faced with a keyboardist who didn't know any chords, a singer who was out of tune, and then me jumping around the stage like a loon, waving this tambourine around, in my white trousers and black polished shoes (90s fashion eh?)....and there sat Bryan, on the drumkit, with his head in his hands.... After we'd finished the song, Bryan brought us all to the front of the stage and said he was trying to think of a name for the band...and after not many seconds of having to think, he came up with very apt "Complete Sh*t". We can always trust our Bryan not to mince his words...;) As we were leaving the stage, Bryan took me by both hands and gave me a kiss on the cheek (and back in those days, I was of course totally and utterly besotted, and just melted like chocolate on a hot day...oh how I have matured since then!! *G*). I gave him the tambourine back, but as I left the stage, he ran back after me and said "hey, you can keep this", and handed it back to me. 10 years on, it still hangs on my wall at home... I don't remember much about the rest of the gig....except for boyfriend-at-the-time being grumpy because I'd 'abandoned' him for Bryan (too right!). I also remember speaking to a female friend about it afterwards and she said "well don't go thinking he picked you because he liked the look of you....it was just because you were wearing the 18 til I die skinny t-shirt and he wanted to promote that...." (!!!) To be fair though, that retort was probably a direct response to the fact that I'd gone on and on and on about it...and on and on.... But anyway, I went through the next few years thinking that was the greatest thing ever to happen to me...nothing else ever came close! That was until I joined the board in 2004 and the rest is history...since then loads of other really lovely things, and great times, have happened, many of which also involve Bryan of course! ;) So I guess that day, 10 years ago today was really the start of it all and that's why I decided to mark it with a review! I'm just grateful that now I get to share all the great times with such wonderful friends :)
(Above) Helen Barton onstage with her tambourine as part of the audience band! | |||
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BA rocking the House Of Steel
Bryan belting out another gig in Sheffield
BA bringing the house down
Keith!
BA on his strat
On the Gretsch
BA rockin' out
BA
"It Ain't A Party...If Ya Can't Come 'Round!!!"
Bryan and Keith ending the show with 'I'll Always Be Right There'
My ticket :)
Helens ticket! |
