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04/07/09 -
CITY HALL, NEWCASTLE Review by Steven Stanley: In recent years I've seen him at the Metro Radio Arena and St James Park and this time it was at the City Hall... the place where he first played on Tyneside back in 1987 on the 'Into The Fire Tour' with the full band. It's a beautiful building and in a lot of ways reminded me of the church in London we saw him in last year.
Being up North, the crowd were REALLY up for this show... from start to finish everybody was up and singing along. Tracks like 'Thought I'd Died And Gone To Heaven' had an orchestra of noise from the crowd backing them which sent shivers down your spine. Amazing. Although 'I Want It All' (performed in Brighton & Liverpool) and 'Seven Spanish Angels' had been dropped from the set... there were some treats still to be had. It was a barebones setlist for an Adams acoustic show but I was treated to 'The Right Place' and 'Never Let Go' which were firsts for me. The latter being a touching tribute to the armed forces in Afghanistan... really one of the highlights of the set. For me though the best bits came early on...'Here I Am' was sublime, the afore mentioned 'Thought I'd Died' was epic and even 'Let's Make A Night To Remember' given a refreshing new lease of life acoustically. 'Lonely Nights' isn't to be sniffed at either... once banished to the BA setlist archive I always feel lucky to have heard that at a show... one of his most underated songs. It must be said though that although the crowd went wild for almost everything... the only weak song of the set was a reprise of the Jacksonville show when everyone went to the bar.... 'I Thought I'd Seen Everything'. I kinda liked it acoustically in London last year, but in Newcastle all the other songs just dwarfed it and it bombed. The quality of songwriting, energy and passion compared with 'rockers' of old just isn't there on this song. I'm not dissing the new stuff either because 'Mysterious Ways' and 'Walk On By' were right up there.
This was my 4th acoustic show and although it was the best crowd of the 4... it wasn't the best show. For starters with these shows, although a good crowd is awesome... it doesn't make a show like it can with a full band show (i.e. Charlotte '08). Why these acoustic shows were so good in the first place is because the band shows were becoming stagnant... run of the mill. Bryan with an acoustic guitar for 2 hours suddenly became the Bryan of old... interacting with the crowd, telling jokes, playing random songs, telling stories behind the songs... it was almost like he was playing songs around the campfire getting drunk with a few of his mates. This show in Newcastle lost nearly all of that. There wasn't as much crowd interaction, stories or randomness that we saw in the previous 3 shows. Although the City Hall is a smaller venue for Bryan than the standard Arena show... I thought it (and the rest of these UK venues) were too big for a Bryan Adams acoustic show. The City Hall held at least a couple of thousand people... compared with about 300 in Charleston and York last year and you have lost the unique intimacy straight away. Bryan said that this was by far the best acoustic show he's ever done, and that they had been gearing up to this. Much like in some ways the trio band peaked at Slane 2000, this was the acoustic show for Bryan when it all seemed close to perfection. I can certainly see where he's coming from... to have 2000 people at your every whim with just an acoustic guitar for company is certainly no mean feat... and to get them to actually ROCK (which he succeeded in) is even harder.... but for me, the acoustic show lost some of it's endearing infancy tonight which made it so special in the first place. I'll never forget those shows in Charleston & York... I feel priviledged to have seen Bryan so good in such special venues.
Setlist: ********** Review by Karl Watson: Friday night had a night out on the toon with my good friend Adam, we got really wasted which meant I was feeling a bit worse for wear come Saturday the day of the gig. Nevertheless Adam and I headed to a pub on the Quayside in the afternoon where Darren and Bev soon joined us. There loads of people drinking outside because it was a nice warm day, such a nice day even that some guy was jet skiing on the Tyne!! Not only that, he proceeded to try and show off to all the people drinking outside. No one was impressed, in fact it was ruining a nice peaceful afternoon. Darren sorted him out though by shouting "I bet you've got a small cock!" much to the joy of everyone outside. Following this I headed to Darren & Bev's hotel to chill out in the swimming pool and spa. As I sat there, 2 hours before the gig in extreme warmth and relaxation I thought "man I really miss queuing for gigs". We then headed up to the Pacific bar by the venue, caught up with Chels, Nat, Mel and Jack. Steve said he'd be arriving at 4 so naturally he arrive at 7. Good ol' Captain Slow. Then for the actual show, the crowd were phenomenal and were on their feet from the get go (I was looking forward to sitting down and relaxing but never mind). The noise the crowd created was incredible, singing along to everything, which lead Bryan to saying it was the best acoustic show he's ever done. I'd disagree though, because whilst the musical performance was top notch and so were the crowd, Bryan didn't tell as many stories or jokes that really make these acoustic shows unique. The amount of banter and interaction he had with the crowd at Charleston and York made those shows really unique for those places, but this gig could have been anywhere. There was nothing about it that made it a NEWCASTLE gig. Anyway, Run To You was an excellent opener, Here I Am sounded great as always. I Thought I'd Seen Everything was really, really dull. Needs to be dropped from the set because it just had no life to it. It was funny when Bryan mentioned Waking Up The Neighbours or 18 Til I Die there was a HUGE roar from the crowd, but when he mentioned 11 there was like person who went "woo!". They were probably pissed. Everything I Do and When You're Gone were included in the set. Oh joy. We got Lonely Nights which was fantastic, The Right Place featured a great vocal performance from BA, Gary did a great solo in Not Romeo Not Juliet. Never Let Go in the encores was great to hear, although BA still decided to finish with Straight From The Heart (or as Darren sings "give it to me STRAAAAIGHT - UP THE ASS") and All For Frickin Love. Only kind of heckle moments were when I shouted out for Free Bird, and so did Darren. Someone asked for Low Life, Bryan tried to remember it on the guitar but he couldn't remember what key it was in. I shouted "it's in D!" and he started strumming it in D. But then he didn't play it. Was a shame, could've been an awesome moment. Also, Bryan asked what Gary gets up to when he's not on stage, Gary said he has some tea, Darren shouted 'rock n roll'. Which come to think of it, is actually a quote from America 2008 from when we're in the pharmacy and I ask Darren what he's getting, he says "Decaf Tea" and I reply "rock n roll". I think I'm owed some royalty payments mate! So overall a great show but it lacked the personality to make it a classic show like York and Charleston. Afterwards we all had a few beers, but we were all a bit knackered so it didn't turn into the epic night out we hoped for. Nevermind, was still great seeing everyone again. BIG MAJOR THANKS to Steve and Jack for sorting me out with the ticket, and to Darren and Bev for letting me use their swimming pool and to everyone else (you know who you are) for the great beers and great times. |
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Pics by Steven Stanley
The Angel Of The North - yep we're headin' towards Newcastle!
Newcastle City Hall
Karl wishes he was somewhere else during 'I Thought I'd Seen Everything' while Jack is seemingly enjoying himself :)
BA rockin' the shit out of his acoustic guitar during '69
Karl reading during 'Everything I Do'
Nat & Mel!
Chels!
Some random Scottish dude ;) |
