My Bruce Journey - Part 21

‘Now sir you tell me the world's changed  Once I made you rich enough rich enough to forget my name'

The day after the Birmingham gig we are going home via Derbyshire on our way to a genuine American diner to meet up with Mike’s cousin Jane and her husband Nigel for the first time.    American Diner (Derbyshire)

Mike likes diners. He isn’t into the 50s rock and roll music or teddy boys and the like but he loves the décor, the food and 50s and 60s girl groups.  The Crystals and The Ronettes you will know but there are hundreds you will never have heard of.


Proper diners are not fixed buildings.  They look like old train carriages and are usually built off site and transported to their resting place.  Diner Museum

There are still diners all over the USA.  Can you guess which state has the most ? Yep New Jersey - anyone spot a theme running through our lives here?  New Jersey is known as the diner capital of The World but as we all know this is not it’s main claim to fame.

We had a great meal, promised to keep in touch and arranged to meet up again, possibly at a Bruce gig.

A couple of days later we are heading out to Sheffield.  We parked up at the arena early, popped in to pay the security guard and listened to a couple of minutes of the sound check.  Then off on the tram to the Badlands party in Sheffield City Centre.

This was an odd affair.  There was hardly anyone there and I think we would have left early if we hadn’t arranged to meet our friend with the hat (see previous blogs).  On the plus side the lack of a crowd meant we had a good view of Mark Wright’s set.  He was great as usual.  We bought the album - not sure which one but we have them all Mark!

Got chatting to a couple about whether there would be another ESB tour - there were lots of the usual rumours at the time.  He thought they would tour again Spring 2007. Well - a bit out but not too bad.

Looking back at BTX in 2006/07 there seems to have been some consensus of opinion that a tour starting some time in 2007 would be the farewell tour although not billed as such.  Posts after the end of the ‘Working on a Dream’ (WOAD) tour are very much on the same theme - it goes like this - the Magic tour and the WOAD tour (2007-2009) pretty much merged into one another to become a greatest hits farewell tour.  Well make of this what you will.  We feed off rumours when Bruce isn’t doing anything because we have nowt else to talk about.

We had a really good seat about in line with the back of the pit looking to the stage on our left.  A lady who I would have thought was about 65/70 years old sat on my left hand side.  She had come with her son-in-law who was a big fan.  She was only here because she had seen St Luke’s on the telly.

Now by this time the gigs had taken a different turn and although some of it was similar to St Luke’s there was much more of the old re-worked stuff.  On top of that an arena atmosphere is a bit different to an old church!  I can’t imagine what she thought when Bruce came on stage to the usual huge roar and sang ‘Blinded by the Light’ but I could see her out of the corner of my eye throughout the night and she didn’t seem to be enjoying it much.

Behind me were two girls who stood up and were asked several times to sit down.  I was jigging about so much they could tell I was itching to get up but I wouldn’t risk it.  After the Birmingham incident I was pretty much glued to my seat - didn’t want any more aggravation.  The two of them eventually persuaded a steward to let them onto the floor.

We really enjoyed this night.  The good seats helped and the set list had some of our favourites - ‘The River‘, ‘Atlantic City’, a great ‘ Devils and Dust‘ and ‘Youngstown’ especially for Sheffield.  This was Mike’s favourite show of the four. I can’t pick one out.
Before I started writing about the Seeger Sessions I thought the concerts would all lump together in my mind and I might be able to fill a week, two at the most but each concert had something that made it stand out in my memory.  That’s Bruce for you - no two nights are ever the same.

Sadly we are at the end of our Seeger gigs.  They were all thoroughly enjoyable, feel good nights.  I for one would be quite happy if Bruce did something similar again… but then I would go and see him whatever he did.
So that was 2006.

At the start of 2007 we got a New Year present from ‘Bushman Hat’ productions. A CD of the Sheffield gig as recorded by our friend with the hat.

Set List

Blinded By The Light
John Henry
Old Dan Tucker
Adam raised A Cain
The River
Jesse James
Oh Mary Don’t You Weep
Youngstown
Erie Canal
My Oklahoma Home
Atlantic City
Devils and Dust
Mrs McGrath
How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times And Live
Jacobs Ladder
Growin’ Up
Open All Night
Pay Me My Money Down
Bring ‘em Home
You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)
When The Saints Go Marching In
This Little Light Of Mine
American Land
Froggie Went A Courting