04/06/06 - PEARCE STADIUM, GALWAY

Review by Jackie Wilson:
The doors were set to open at 3pm today which was quite a relief in some ways because the sun was blazing hot and we needed some shelter and drink! The moment of horror arrived – we were set out in three runs and the steel doors in front of us were padlocked on OUR side. We pointed this out the security several times but clearly they didn’t believe us; Mr. Head of Security arrived and apologized for the slight delay in getting us in and gave us the run-down on the entrance procedure….. when Jill told him ‘these doors have a padlock on them’ he called his people “stupid f***ing idiots” and went rushing off to find a key!!! Needless to say, there wasn’t one and so that proved a little worrying for us at the front because they proceeded to open the barriers in a different position to let us in through a different door. Despite it going slightly pear shaped there was no shouting of abuse or angry peeps and we made our way through the gates and headed straight onto the pitch. Myself, Gary, Jill, Rose, Wendy & Chris all got to stand at the barrier together to the left of Bryan’s mic. I had somehow forgot my banner materials and since we wanted to request “These Kids Wanna Rock Anyway You Like” I had to write it on my Welsh Flag…. It was a right mess and though he acknowledged it (supported by some heckling from me and Jill), we were unlucky with the request – IT MUST BE ME!!!!

Just wanna say a little on the Special Guests first because I know this is a BA gig review, nevertheless some good music is played and we were really experiencing more of a festival event I suppose… The stage was of normal height this time which was great – less strain on the neck – and was completely rammed with musical instruments! The first band ’10 Reasons to Live’ kicked off at 4pm and they were even more entertaining than they were in Bridgend. The lead singer desperately tried to get the peeps up off the grass to join in but unfortunately failed….. bless him. They were a right laff…. Said they’d had a hard night on the Guinness and that he’d spent the whole day on the toilet – TOOOOO MUCH INFORMATION!!! But, PMSL, he asked the crowed “Do ya like being in Wales?” and apart from me and Gary(temporarily on my part!!!!!) everyone else said “no” and then he realized he was in Ireland – he had a few apologies to make!! His lead guitarist pointed in my direction and was laughing and blaming my flag for the confusion. He chatted quite a bit (in an effort to get the rude peeps involved) and thanked Bryan several times for allowing them on tour with him and then he went on to invite all 15,000 peeps to Bryan’s after-show party at the Radisson PMSL!!! We really enjoyed this band – certainly one of the best support acts in my opinion. They are releasing a single in the UK after the Summer. The next band, Hot House Flowers, had reformed especially for this concert and, as Jill said, were struggling with their corporate identity! The music was really quite a mix and the number of instruments used was amazing – in addition to the usual they played a didgeridoo, a Bodhrum - (???) I thought that was a resort in Turkey - but Jill tells me it’s an Irish drum - and you should have seen his fingers move – they actually looked like they were all dislocated – it was amazing! The lead guitarist also played the Irish flute and the drummer….. now HIS facial expressions made us wonder if he’d just been let out for the day. They were quite a strange mix but incredibly talented. The 3rd support were local band The Stunning and boy did they have some support there. We were surprised to hear that their first gig was in 1987 so they’ve clearly been around a while – they’ve looked after themselves ;0. Again, a talented group with a variety of instruments on stage and a terrific bass player who also played acoustic guitar during their ‘country’ song. Lead guitarist player the flute and an old guy came on stage twice to play accordion. There were several tracks that included a 3 piece brass band and they were excellent. The bass player, completely out of the blue, walked forward towards me and said “you need a hat” and kindly threw his red sparkling cowboy hat at me. I was completely taken aback! Yeeeeee haaaaaaa!!
The Stunning played for about 1.25 hours and the majority of the crowd loved them.. I can’t name any of their songs unfortunately, but they were good.

At about 8.50pm BA and dudes ran onto stage and Bryan opened by playing his harmonica for the intro of SFSG, followed by Somebody, This Time and LMANTR.

BA said he couldn’t understand why he’d never visited Galway before and he wanted to retire there!! Mickey and Gary continued (as at Bridgend ;P) to throw spent drum sticks at each other during EID and Mickey was seeking some ‘fun’ from the wings but no-one was looking at him for support.

Michelle (WYG girl) was brilliant! She was there with 3 girl-friends and was screaming “Westport” into the mic at every opportunity! BA asked her what she did in Westport and she said “I live there” (PMSL) and then she went on to shout “WHoooooo Hoooo Westport”. She eventually said she worked in a hotel and asked Bryan to come to her hotel and she’d give him a discount! He asked her if she knew the song and she said “kinda”; and so he said “Do ya know the words?” and she said “I could do with having them” but he told her she should have only stuck her hand up if she knew the song and the words….. so she said “F**K it, I’ll have a go anyway”! After a few more interruptions Bryan reminded her that it was his show LOL! She was desperate to get rid of the mic into the stand. They kicked off with WYG and she knew ALL the words and was playing to the crowd so much, and was still trying to put her mic into the stand – until Bryan kicked it over!!!! She was great fun – Norm was laffing like heck!

Unfortunately we found that the sound of Keith’s guitar was very poor! You could hardly hear it when Bryan was playing. Keith’s “She’s only happy….” Performance was fantastic and he couldn’t suppress his humour when he failed to untangle his guitar strap when BA suggested to him to ‘hula hoop’ it round his neck! He offered his guitar to us to play during some song (can’t remember which LOL) but we couldn’t reach – haha!

Great to see both BA and Keith on their knees again *G* and K-man even stretched out onto his back with his legs in the air LOL!
Someone threw Bryan a black cowboy hat and he looked as funny in it as he did at Millstreet last year! The crew were p****g themselves. And Keith also donned a red cowboy hat briefly.

My moment of pleasure was relating to the young lady behind me who, during waiting times, explained to me that this was her first BA concert but she was his biggest fan and that when she was pregnant her baby responded positively to BA songs that she liked and failed to ‘kick’ to those she didn’t. This lady was adorned in home made stuff – “I wanna Be Your underwear” t-shirt; Irish flag with “Bryan Adams – Here I Am”; a hat with BRYAN ADAMS scrolled around it and finally a jacket that she had put sparkly “Bryan Adams” text onto. She told me in awe that at a previous concert he had got a girl up on stage, so I told her he did it each time, and if she wanted to be there she must show lots of enthusiasm!! When it came to WYG girl I turned around and she just was waving her hand in the air with a “OMG’ expression, so I told her to jump too. Me and Jill jumped and pointed to her – ALAS – she didn’t get picked and she was dead disappointed BUTTTTTT…. My point here is, it was so nice to see someone who clearly couldn’t believe that BA was just a few feet away from her….. it didn’t make her day, I think it made her life!!!

Great gig, tho the worst sound so far (KS guitar); too short but great company ?
At the end of the night we waited a while but got bored…and of course, they woulda been at the Radisson!!! Chris and Wendy retired to their caravanette, Rose needed some kip and me, Jill and Gary needed that compulsory “after-gig” wind down (in a pub) that has seriously been lacking in this tour because of so much driving!

Thanks to Gary, Jill, Rose, Wendy & Chris for a great night. xx

*blues harmonica intro*
So Far So Good
Somebody
This Time
Lonely Nights
Open Road
18 Til I Die
Let's Make A Night To Remember
Can't Stop This Thing We Started
Back To You
Summer Of '69
Everything I Do
Cut's Like A Knife
When You're Gone (with Michelle from Westport)
She's Only Happy When She's Dancin'
Hearts On Fire
Heaven
It's Only Love
The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You
Cloud #9
Run To You
Please Forgive Me
All For Love

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