Isle of Wight Festival 24th June 2012 - show 38

The Isle of Wight is said to be the most haunted Island in the world!

Got this photo from Flickr.  The photographer explains it was taken on an iPhone and ... well what they say next goes completely over my head.  Anyway they end by saying

... Hope it gets across some of the fun and excitement of the festival and watching the boss put on a fantastic show.

Had to include Maureen Van Zandt's photo too - a couple of tourists on the ferry

The festival was being shown on Sky Arts 1 in the UK.  Well not all of it of course.  Coverage of Sunday night started at 6.00pm and at 10.45pm we were still waiting.  Well at least it gave us a chance to watch England lose the football - on penalties again.

Glastonbury 2009 was shown on TV and we were treated to a good part of that set so we were hoping for great things - well an hour or so at least. We got four songs - only four songs - and those weren't live! What a dissapointment

We might not have been there but NME.COM tells us what we already might have guessed

Bruce Springsteen voted best act at Isle of Wight Festival

Wonder who would have been voted best the year Ian and Irene went to the festival in 1970.

Ian and Irene (my brother and sister -in-law) have always been music lovers and came to their first Springsteen gig with us when we went to Sunderland last week.  I think Irene may have chosen to go to Isle of Wight in 2012 rather than 1970. She apparently didn't enjoy - and I quote 'listening to Jimmy Hendrix play "Purple Haze" for two hours'. Don't know whether he was actually on for that long but it obviously seemed like it to Irene!

There isn't much I can say about the set list.  It's a typical festival list - no surprises.

	Manchester 22/06/2012 Time 7.18 to 10.35	Isle Of Wight 24/06/2012 Time 8.10 to 10.59
1	Badlands (31)	Badlands (32)
2	No Surrender (11)	No Surrender (12)
3	We Take Care Of Our Own (37)	We Take Care Of Our Own (38)
4	Wrecking Ball (37)	Wrecking Ball (38)
5	Death To My Hometown (37)	Death To My Hometown (38)
6	My City Of Ruins (37)	My City Of Ruins (38)
7	Spirit In The Night (15)	Spirit In The Night (16)
8	E Street Shuffle (10)	Lonesome Day (15)
9	Jack Of All Trades (35)	Jack Of All Trades (36)
10	Atlantic City (4)	Atlantic City (5)
11	Prove It All Night (12)	Because The Night (13)
12	Two Hearts (4)	Working On The Highway (13)
13	Darlington County (5)	Shackled And Drawn (26)
14	Shackled And Drawn (25)	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (38)
15	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (37)	The River (16)
16	Save My Love (3)	The Rising (37)
17	The Promise (3)	Out In The Street (18)
18	The River (15)	Land Of Hope And Dreams (25)
19	The Rising (36)	We Are Alive (35)
20	Out In The Street (17)	Born In The USA (15)
21	Land Of Hope And Dreams (24)	Born To Run (38)
22	We Are Alive (34)	Glory Days (7)
23	Thunder Road (23)	Dancing In The Dark (38)
24	Born To Run (37)	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (38)
25	Bobby Jean (9)	Twist And Shout (5)
26	Cadillac Ranch (3)
27	Dancing In The Dark (37)
28	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (37)
29	Twist And Shout (4)
30
31
32
33

Manchester 22nd June 2012 - show 37

View from our seats

Well here we are in Manchester.  

What do I know about Manchester?  Well there are two football teams in Manchester.

View from our seats

So we stayed overnight at a lovely little B&B between Sunderland and Leeds. After a 'full English' the next morning we dropped the brother and sister--in-law back at our house, had a quick cuppa and headed off to Manchester.

The rain was lashing down along the M62 but we arrived at our hotel safely and without getting lost.  Our intention was to go to the Badlands party, but to be honest, we were knackered and needed a bit of a rest.

Our Bruce virgin friends (who are also our neighbours - Jacquie and Mike) travelled across to Manchester separately as they weren't staying over. We had arranged to meet them at the stadium.  It was peeing it down when we left the hotel and we were soaked by the time we came across the Badlands party venue, quite by chance. We nipped in for half an hour and caught up with our Bruce buddies before heading off back into the monsoon.

The friends who had spent the day in Manchester were really, and I mean really, soggy! We got straight into the stadium to find out seats.  They were under cover but I was really cold by this time.

The seats were almost opposite last night's position. A little closer to the stage.  Another great view of centre stage but we couldn't see Bruce playing the piano during The Promise.


There isn't much I can say about the night that hasn't already been said. I'm not great at deciding if it's the best show I've ever been to, mainly because I can't remember how I felt after other shows. That said nothing could ever surpass 'The River Night' at MSG if only because 'Hello New York City' sounds so much more glamorous than 'Hello Manchester"!

It was was wet, very wet... and well it was wet!  The rain managed to stop just before the show, though, and for the most part it stayed dry. There have been floods across the UK so, I guess, we were lucky.

Our hotel was full of fans and meeting up with old friends after the show rounded off the evening perfectly.  Looking forward to meeting everyone again.

There are a lot of reviews out there. I'll give you some links at the end of this post. Those of us who were at the show know how great it was and here are some of their comments:-

Nearly 24 hours later and I'm still on a massive high from last night. That was a truly epic show in every way. Probably the best show I've seen - Tony Strange

22nd time seeing him last night, and possibly the best! - Ian Stackhouse

The man is a total legend and last nights concert surpassed any I've seen before! - Lorraine Russell

...a great night at Bruce Springsteen in Manchester....what a fantastic showman :) - from our (no longer a virgin) friend -  Mr Mike Finister

Just about dried and thawed out LOL - got home at 3am... the queue for the bus was a total nightmare...after walking over half a mile and still not finding the end of it we decided to walk to the station with several hundred other folks...hour later got to the station - got the last train home :) Definitely worth every soggy, cold, screaming-feet moment of it though!!!! :) - from our other (no longer a virgin) friend - Mrs Jacquie Finister

And here is the Greasy Lake thread about the gig.

So I'm going to let Jacquie do my work for me.  Here is some of what she has to say about her first Springsteen concert:-

I was doing another scan around the stadium when movement caught my eye in the tunnel where the teams come out….and one of my abiding memories was firmly burned into place – seeing the guys starting to walk out – I actually think I saw it in slow motion…you know those really ‘arty’ shots you get on music videos…guys in jeans and dark t shirts walking to the stage…  I got goosebumps.

And then they were there – on stage – and the crowd went crazy!  I looked at (my) Mike with a huge grin on my face – saw the grin on his and just said ‘WOW’.  The energy was AMAZING!!

They then took everyone in the stadium on an amazing and memorable 3 hour and 17 minute ride, even playing some of my favourites…(Waiting on a Sunny Day, The Rising, Born to Run, Dancing in the Dark) several tracks from the Wrecking Ball album – the title of the tour after all and which I must say, has grown on me ALOT  …and many other tracks we’ve heard at Mike and Jaynes, but not really listened to much other than that.  Jayne’s Mike got his fave – ‘Atlantic City’    The tracks flowed one into another – many with their own false-endings and mini-encores which Mike & Jayne are used to from all their other concerts, but that had many of us clapping multiple times through a single song LOL  :)  The audience knew so many of the lyrics – I only knew a few, but it didn’t matter.  I don’t think they played a song I didn’t like and I look forwards to stumbling across some of the concert’s playlist on our ipod.   I’ve some amazing photo’s and video in my head to ‘playback’ whenever I hear tracks and  I find myself humming phrases from all sorts of songs that have obviously got their claws into my psyche…  :)

And yes – even I got a lump in my throat and more than a few tears in my eyes when the tribute to Clarence was shown…but must say his nephew Jake is doing an amazing job!

Here's the link to her full post - new Tramps in the making I think.

So to the set list - no premiers but a good few songs that haven't been done so many times this tour.  A great set list for me - nothing there that I really don't like. Atlantic City - only the fourth time in 37 shows - for Mike.

The full list.

	Sunderland 21/06/2012 Time 7.08 to 10.13	Manchester 22/06/2012 Time 7.18 to 10.35
1	Badlands (30)	Badlands (31)
2	We Take Care Of Own (36)	No Surrender (11)
3	Wrecking Ball (36)	We Take Care Of Our Own (37)
4	Death To My Home Town (36)	Wrecking Ball (37)
5	My City Of Ruins (36)	Death To My Hometown (37)
6	Spirit In The Night (14)	My City Of Ruins (37)
7	Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street (6)	Spirit In The Night (15)
8	Jack Of All Trades (34)	E Street Shuffle (10)
9	Youngstown (9)	Jack Of All Trades (35)
10	Murder Incorporated (7)	Atlantic City (4)
11	Johnny 99 (10)	Prove It All Night (12)
12	Working On The Highway (12)	Two Hearts (4)
13	Shackled And Drawn (24)	Darlington County (5)
14	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (36)	Shackled And Drawn (25)
15	The Promised Land (26)	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (37)
16	Point Blank (3)	Save My Love (3)
17	The River (14)	The Promise (3)
18	The Rising (35)	The River (15)
19	Out In The Street (16)	The Rising (36)
20	Land Of Hope And Dreams (23)	Out In The Street (17)
21	We Are Alive (33)	Land Of Hope And Dreams (24)
22	Thunder Road (22)	We Are Alive (34)
23	Born To Run (36)	Thunder Road (23)
24	Hungry Heart (11)	Born To Run (37)
25	Seven Nights To rock (8)	Bobby Jean (9)
26	Glory Days (6)	Cadillac Ranch (3)
27	Dancing In The Dark (36)	Dancing In The Dark (37)
28	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (36)	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (37)
29		Twist And Shout (4)
30
31
32
33

Lastly here are the links to the reviews I mentioned.

Manchester Confidential

Manchester Evening News

PHOTOS

New Adventures In Hi-FI

Sunderland 21st June 2012 - show 36

So what can I tell you about Sunderland? Well here's an interesting fact

The town's theatre, "The Empire" was known as the comic's graveyard, due to its hard audience.  New acts were often blooded in Sunderland with the message being,

 'if you can make it in Sunderland, then you stand a chance of making it anywhere'

  

This was our first show of the tour. For reasons I won't bore you with we were very late arriving. We were due to meet friends for a drink before the show. The 'park and walk' was a long hike down a muddy path and by the time we got to the stadium it was late, we were wet and we didn't have time for that drink! If we hadn't been looking forward to a Springsteen gig we would have been thoroughly fed up.

The rain had just about stopped by the time we found our seats but the mist was certainly rolling in.  I know we don't get the best of weather here in the UK but it WAS NOT a typical mid summer's day in England. Bruce seemed happy with it. He didn't want it to be 75 degrees in England. He wanted English rain. He must know how we like to talk about the weather.  I remember at The Albert Hall on the 'Devils And Dust' tour he remarked how hot and sweaty it was.

Anyway I digress. You may remember from previous posts that we were taking my brother (Ian) and his wife (Irene) with us to Sunderland, although we weren't sitting together. It was their first Bruce gig and it's a bit of responsibility taking newbies.  We've bigged Bruce up so much over the years  - what if they hated it? 

We were sitting high up perhaps about a third of the way down the pitch - a pretty good spot. I had a look at the folks around us to try and assess whether they were 'sitters' or 'standers'. There are never really any clues but I always have a sneaky look around anyway - are they young, old, couples, women, lads etc.? The mix is pretty eclectic. I suppose it's the same in the pit. 

By our timings the band came on at 7.08pm. Of course everyone stood at that point and Badlands is always a good song to keep people on their feet. Quick look round - yes - all stayed up for We Take Care Of Our Own, and when most people were still on their feet by the end of Wrecking Ball, I was pretty confident that we had standers around us.  A few lightweights sat down but generally our section of the stand rocked it all the way through.

When both Danny and Clarence died I was upset, of course, but not as much as many fans. I was surprised, then, when Bruce asked who was in the house during My City Of Ruins I found a lump in my throat and more than a tear in my eye.  I was expecting the Clarence tribute, of course.  It turned out to be a minute or so of quiet reflection building up to a crescendo of applause - quite uplifting in a way.

I'm no good at writing reviews so I'm not going into the show in any detail.  It wasn't a great set list for us but we still enjoyed it. The stadium was by no means full and It seemed that Bruce was having to encourage the crowd throughout. The show only lasted just over three hours. I say 'only' but you know what I mean. We assume Bruce didn't break any curfew. Mike felt he just stayed on stage long enough to get the three hours in, so the audience didn't feel short changed.  I don't know - it was just a little flat somehow but we expect so much don't we?

Apart from the music two male fans got up on stage to dance with the birthday boy Nils.

A female fan, sitting on someone's shoulders, whipped off her top to reveal a stars and stripes bikini:-
Early in the set  as Bruce runs seamlessly into another song with barely a beat’s respite, the cameras feeding the big screens pick up a blonde girl perched on her companion’s shoulders near the front of the audience. As she sees herself on the screen she quickly crosses her arms and drops her hands to the hem off her tee shirt at her waist, ready to pull her top off. The camera cuts away quickly to Springsteen singing. He seems confused for a moment by the sudden disappointed outcry from his enraptured audience, then gets his eye on the distraction, laughing as the camera cuts back to the blonde who now only has a skimpy stars and stripes bikini top (no doubt in his honour) protecting her from the elements. He chuckles, missing the next line of the lyric, saying instead ‘You know there are some things you just can’t compete with!’ He continues to grin as he slips back into the melody.

The big shock? -  no child during Sunny Day.

Ian and Irene loved it and had a great time - phew!  They were surprised that everyone knew all the lyrics to every song.  Irene asked me if Bruce is religious - the second time someone has asked me in the last couple of weeks. The religious imagery does seem to be popping up more often these days, and I suppose, if you are not familiar with the songs when Bruce asks in his best preachers voice 'Can you feel the spirit?' it could be taken as a religious question.

A review from local newspaper  The Journal has a couple of nice lines:-

For three hours, one man, one guitar ruled. The result: a job well done for the working man’s man who’s still as passionate as ever.

He might have been born in the USA but for that grim Thursday evening The Boss was all ours.

Here is Safraz Manzoor's article for The Telegraph and The Independent's review. There seems to be a bit of a difference of opinion about the length of the show.

So here is the set list with our own timings.

	Montpellier 19/06/2012  Time 8.30 to 11.36	Sunderland 21/06/2012 Time 7.08 to 10.13
1	We Take Care Of Our Own (35)	Badlands (30)
2	Wrecking Ball (35)	We Take Care Of Own (36)
3	Badlands (29)	Wrecking Ball (36)
4	Death To My Hometown (35)	Death To My Home Town (36)
5	My City Of Ruins (35)	My City Of Ruins (36)
6	Spirit In The Night (13)	Spirit In The Night (14)
7	Growin’ Up (1)	Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street (6)
8	Jack Of All Trades (33)	Jack Of All Trades (34)
9	Candy’s Room (7)	Youngstown (9)
10	Prove It All Night (11)	Murder Incorporated (7)
11	She’s The One (14)	Johnny 99 (10)
12	Working On The Highway (11)	Working On The Highway (12)
13	Shackled And Drawn (23)	Shackled And Drawn (24)
14	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (35)	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (36)
15	634 5789 (26)	The Promised Land (26)
16	The Way You Do The Things You Do (26)	Point Blank (3)
17	Point Blank (2)	The River (14)
18	The River (13)	The Rising (35)
19	The Rising (34)	Out In The Street (16)
20	Out In The Street (15)	Land Of Hope And Dreams (23)
21	Land Of Hope And Dreams (22)	We Are Alive (33)
22	Fire (1)	Thunder Road (22)
23	Rocky Ground (30)	Born To Run (36)
24	Born In The USA (14)	Hungry Heart (11)
25	Born To Run (35)	Seven Nights To rock (8)
26	Bobby Jean (8)	Glory Days (6)
27	Seven Nights To Rock (7)	Dancing In The Dark (36)
28	Dancing In The Dark (35)	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (36)
29	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (35)
30
31
32
33