23/03/07 - MAZDAPALACE, MILAN

BA brings back the b-stage for the first time in 4 years... he started the show on it by doing 3 songs. The first of which was 'There Will Never Be Another Tonight' (BA on acoustic), followed by 'Please Forgive Me'. At least its something different, which is what the show needed. Bryan hasn't started the show on the b-stage before like this since the June '97 dates in the UK & Europe.

To get back to the main stage he walked straight through the 1000's of people singing 'The Best Of Me'. No tunnel or barrier... he actually walked through them! Later on in the show he went back out to the b-stage and rocked out on songs like 'Seven Nights To Rock', 'She's Only Happy' and 'I Got A Woman'... and boy was there some awesome guitar action on that song.

The whole 5 piece went out to the b-stage... something which hasn't happened since '97 with Tommy and Dave. This gig was Gary and Norm's first outing on the b-stage... although BA played with them last time a b-stage was in his show (2002 - 2003)... BA went there as a trio and played on bass.

Setlist:
***b-stage***
There Will Never Be Another Tonight (BA on acoustic)
Please Forgive Me (band goes to mainstage while BA does it solo)
The Best Of Me (BA walks to mainstage)
***b-stage***
Can't Stop This Thing We Started
Somebody
Open Road
18 Til I Die
Let's Make A Night To Remember
Back To You
I Think About You
Summer Of '69
Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?
Everything I Do
Cut's Like A Knife
When You're Gone (with Rossella from Modena)
It's Only Love (BA on acoustic)
Heaven
The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You
***b-stage***
Rock N' Me (Steve Miller Band cover)
Seven Nights To Rock
I Got A Woman (Ray Charles cover)
She's Only Happy When She's Dancin'
***b-stage***
Cloud #9
Run To You
Straight From The Heart
When You Love Someone
All For Love

**********

Review by Eleanor:
We landed at Malpensa Airport in Milan, Italy at around 3pm on Wednesday the 21ST March, Very tired and exhausted after a really rough ride into land, at one point I lost my stomach over Turin, but luckily I didn’t actually throw up!! My sister didn’t fair too well as she is a terrified flyer, she got a bit upset at take off and landing but the BA crew (on the plane. Not Bryan’s lot!!! LOL) Were fantastic with her. They were the best experience I’ve ever had flying.

Friday came and we made our way to the gig at about 12PM, yes I know, we started out early, but we had other things to do and see and we had to find the place as well. On the way we walked back up the Duomo and La Scalla, and carried on walking up to see The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci. What an awe inspiring sight. I didn’t realise it was actually soooooo big! And Beautiful.

We decided to take a tram up to the San Siro football stadium, once we’d found out how to catch a tram and where to buy a tram ticket. From there we headed to the venue, or so we thought! We had gone in totally the wrong direction! Ooooooppps! So we made our way back and headed on through what looked and felt like the Italian version of the Bronx!

We had been walking for miles by this time following a map we had to buy as the one we were using didn’t cover the part of Milan that we needed to go, we were starting to get worried, tired and cold and it had just got dark, then suddenly, out from the distance the sign, PalaSharp popped up over a piece of wasteland.

YAY!! We had arrived. I bought a black hooded jumper which has Bryan Adams on the front in silver lettering and on the back it has his name and the silhouette from the anthology cover in silver on it. It came in very handy as when we came out it was very cold. We queued for 2 hours, doors opened at 8PM and they filtered everyone through, we didn‘t know where to go so we just followed all the running fans and we got down the front!!! OMG I thought, Way hey!!

The support act came on at around 8:45pm and thankfully went off at around 9:15pm, I’m sorry but I didn’t like him, he seemed a bit up himself and arrogant. I was just ready to give up as the pain was just kicking in I had muscles aching in places I didn’t know existed until……the lights went down……music went off….and then…….ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!!! BRYAN!!!!!!

At around 9:45pm, at what felt like an eternity, he and the guys popped up on the B-Stage, which was a surprise and kicked off the show with, There Will Never Be Another Tonight, very appropriate and I think I had requested it in one of my posts too!! He followed it with Please Forgive Me, Semi-acoustically, (I don’t remember him singing that at my previous gigs) while he was singing that the guys disappeared and reappeared behind us on the main stage. I hadn’t even noticed they had gone until he burst into Best Of Me, making his way to the main stage through the crowd where he did his usual thing. I was SOOOOOOO close!! I’ll be better prepared for that next time at Wembley! (I fear I would not have let go if I had grabbed him!! LOL)

Then came the short version!!! SHORT version of Can’t Stop This Thing We’ve Started and Somebody and following that was an excellent Open Road. 18 ‘til I Die was a real crowd pleaser and I was entranced when he sang Lets Make A Night To Remember, especially when he came over to us, I couldn’t stop staring!

Three songs from the unplugged album followed, Back To You, which he broke a string and had to change guitars midway through the song, but he carried on singing whilst changing guitars, I Think About You - Oh Yeah!! And then he got us all rocking with Summer Of ‘69. Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman was to follow by a gorgeous Everything I Do - I’m staring again at this point whilst singing along at the top of my voice!! *SIGH* He got us all Na Na Na-ing along to Cuts Like A Knife which was really cool.

Now came When You’re Gone. When he was choosing her he asked someone if they were Italian and they must’ve said no, and he chose Rossella. When he asked her what she does she replied ‘I go to school school’ He replied ‘Ah ok, so you go to two schools?!’ everyone laughed but she didn’t quite get the joke as I think she was a bit shell shocked at getting chosen! She did very very well though, and at the end he did his usual, ‘who did you come with?’ routine and she said ‘my brother and my boyfriend’ He said ‘your what? I don’t understand that word!’ Cheeky!

It’s Only Love followed with a dreamy rendition of Heaven, which I was soooo in! I was staring right into his eyes again, *SIGH* He had a brief break at some point, can’t remember where and they burst into, The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You and that got everyone yelling ‘you’ at him, I think that was largely responsible for my sore throat, but it was definitely worth it.

They went off and everyone started chanting ‘Bryan Bryan’ and they all reappeared on the B-Stage again and performed a couple of rock ‘n’ roll tracks which ‘d never heard before and don’t know and then Ray Charles’ I Got A Woman, which I thought was better than the original. They had everyone dancing in the aisles and the floor with these songs. During She’s Only Happy When She’s Dancing it was a really cool sight seeing people getting up on stage and dancing with the guys and I managed to see Bryan yanking some lucky girl up by her arm.

They disappeared again and after a short break appeared on the main stage with Cloud #9 which I love and then the entire place erupted to Run To You. The guys disappeared and Bryan donned ye olde acoustic guitar and performed an almost emotional Straight From The Heart and When You Love Someone - staring again!! LOL *SIGH* He closed with All For Love and a standing ovation and more 'Bryan Bryan' chanting, he seemed a bit reluctant to leave and then said that he must go and eat his pasta now!! And he went for good this time. This was around 12 - 12:30 am. Then entire gig must’ve lasted around 2 ½ - 3 hours. He did also say at one point that last time he was in Milan it was good, but this time was definitely better.

We got back to the hotel at around 1am and I was tired and absolutely high!!

The end!! LOL

 


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Thanks to Marloes, Gianni, and Matteo for info and pics. Vid by Steven

BA on harmonica during 'Open Road'

BA on acoustic

Gary!