Hyde Park, London- 14th July 2012 - show 45

In 1536 King Henry VIII confiscated Hyde Park from the monks of Westminster Abbey. It was used primarily for hunting. King Charles I opened the park to the public in 1637. The current park layout was planned by architect Decimus Burton in 1825.

We woke up on Sunday morning to the news that Bruce had run over curfew and some council official had 'pulled the plug' on him.

Here in the UK this might not have been such big news except that Paul McCartney - oh sorry SIR Paul McCartney was on stage at the time.  The first person I heard interviewed was outraged that Paul had been cut short - 'It's Paul McCartney for God's sake'.

Now we Tramps might be more appalled that this has happened to Bruce but the Paul factor has worked in our favour here to highlight the curfew problem. After all he's a National Treasure.

I understand that Bruce seemed really thrilled that he was on stage with one of his heros. A quote from CNN here for those who weren't there or couldn't hear him:-

"I gotta tell you," he said to the 76,000-strong crowd, "I've been trying to do this for 50 years." 

How awful for him then that it was cut short in this way.  Stevie has been particularly vocal about it but Bruce has been silent so far.

A sneaky look in The Times in my local W H Smiths reveals that they were more annoyed about the general sound levels than the premature switch off and this Guardian music blog touches on the same subject:-


What Saturday night's problems proved is that artists are rarely the best judge of a concert venue. What they hear onstage is completely different to what we hear in the crowd; likewise what they see. So, Springsteen was apparently so taken with Hyde Park in 2009 – the show was later released as a fantastic DVD set – that he wanted to return, and I can see why. That evening, he would have seen an ocean of fans, framed by the trees of the park, bathed in the setting sun. I bet that's a hundred times better than seeing your fans swathed in the shadows cast by a soulless concrete bowl.


But he's not the one contending with sound reduced to 73db for this year's shows. He's not the one who – if less than average height – would see nothing but the back of the person in front, because of the complete flatness of the site, with the sound further muffled by the bodies around.


There's an absolute deluge of stuff out there about this so I'm not going to talk about it any more.

Here's the set list

	Vienna 12/07/12 Time 8.09 to 11.48	Hyde Park 14/07/2012 Time 7.28 to 10.41
1	We Take Care Of Our Own (44)	Thunder Road (26)
2	Wrecking Ball (44)	Badlands (38)
3	Badlands (37)	We Take Care Of Our Own (45)
4	Death To My Hometown (44)	Wrecking Ball (45)
5	My City Of Ruins (44)	Death To My Hometown (45)
6	Spirit In The Night (22)	My City Of Ruins (45)
7	Rendezvous (2)	Spirit In The Night (23)
8	Loose Ends (1)	The Promised Land (29)
9	Empty Sky (1)	Take ‘Em As They Come (1)
10	Trapped (12)	Jack Of All Trades (42)
11	Jack Of All Trades (41)	Empty Sky (2)
12	Because The Night (18)	Because The Night (19)
13	Darlington County (7)	Johnny 99 (13)
14	Working On The Highway (18)	Darlington County (8)
15	Shackled And Drawn (30)	Working On The Highway (19)
16	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (44)	Shackled And Drawn (31)
17	Raise Your Hand (3)	Waitin’ On A Sunny Day (45)
18	Tougher Than The Rest (1)	Raise Your Hand (4)
19	Racing In The Street (6)	The River (21)
20	The Rising (43)	The Ghost Of Tom Joad (4)
21	Lonesome Day (16)	The Rising (44)
22	Land Of Hope And Dreams (31)	Land Of Hope And Dreams (32)
23	We Are Alive (40)	We Are Alive (41)
24	Born In The USA (20)	Born in The USA (21)
25	Born To Run (44)	Born To Run (45)
26	Hungry Heart (13)	Glory Days (11)
27	Glory Days (10)	Dancing In The Dark (45)
28	Seven Nights To Rock (12)	I Saw Her Standing There (1)
29	Dancing In The Dark (44)	Twist And Shout (9)
30	Tenth Avenue Freeze Out (44)
31	Twist And Shout (8)
32
33