Amelia Cropley
As one can find in Impact Reviews’ Bryan Adams preview, Nottingham (and Impact alike) have been waiting impatiently for a worldwide rockstar to reenter Nottingham for his new and fresh tour, Roll With The Punches.
After 50 years in the business, there aren’t many more artists with a career length in the music industry as long as Bryan Adams, and his level of expertise is as transparent as his clear love for being on stage.
I have attended my large share of concerts in my twenty years, and yet, never have I been in the presence of an artist who led the gig-loving crowds of one of the undeniably best decades for music that has ever lived: the eighties, of course.
But Bryan Adams may as well have put a hand on my shoulder and told me not to worry, telling me he certainly isn’t going anywhere. And what better rock legend to do this than Adams himself? This tour introduced some of his newest singles from the new album, including Make Up Your Mind and the opening act, Roll With The Punches, alongside the hits he will be known for until the end of music.
From his first step on stage and the first hit of drums, Adams meant business instantly blowing the crowd away simply by his presence in front of us, and secondly by one of his most popular numbers, Run To You, that had the crowd screaming his forbidden love affair back to him. Hands in the air, feet barely on the floor, and electric energy powered by his iconic husky Canadian voice, intoxicated the stadium, whilst singing the power ballads we can’t remember ever not knowing.
Introducing himself to us all, he said he intended on singing as many songs as possible, with a smile proud of his career, talking of his upcoming album Roll With The Punches, coming in August later this year. “Seventeen albums”, he laughed, “How did that happen?” Maybe, Bryan, when you are one of the greatest rockstars of this age. That’s how.
“OH, THINKING ABOUT OUR YOUNGER YEARS / THERE WAS ONLY YOU AND ME / WE WERE YOUNG AND WILD AND FREE / […] IT ISN’T TOO HARD TO SEE / WE’RE IN HEAVEN” – HEAVEN (RECKLESS, 1984)
Oh, and we certainly were. But what warmed me about the concert were Adams’ attendees. Every generation, but predominantly those who were my age during Bryan Adams’ most famous time (as his consistency in bringing new albums out proves we are still in Bryan Adams’ time. From wild, hot and sweaty jam packed gigs that those people considered their live music, was not replaced by the modern day concert where crowd surfing is frowned upon, set lists are non-negotiable and dancing takes up too much space. No, in fact Adams made sure this happened. He brought the eighties and nineties back into these people’s lives, and for people like me, gave us the ability to live in this atmosphere first-hand.
Mothers, brothers, daughters and friends all attended this concert together, screaming to all that Bryan Adams is an artist for everyone. And how can you not be, when your Summer of ‘69 is one of the greatest hits we know? But oh my, did he make us wait for that one!
One song, You Belong With Me, however, gave us all the eighties experience that became the concert’s oxygen source till the end. Always talking to his devoted audience, Adams ordered us all to dance to, which he was right, was a sure dancing rock-and-roll-like melody. Though seeing a member at the barrier, added “Don’t worry sir, if you don’t want to dance… you can twirk”, with a humorous glint that the 65-year-old knows what twirking is. Even better though, Bryan Adams said he was expecting to see our shirts swirling around above our heads, and whilst I don’t know about the twirking, the shirts immediately came off and went into the air. The nostalgia where people took off their shirts and danced with them in the air became everything you saw. Humorously, Bryan Adams, a sure fan of his fans, made sure they all made it onto the big screen behind him. This song, as humble as Bryan, became not about him, but about his dancing fans, both from his prime and from this time. 
”GONNA BE 18 ‘TIL I DIE / IT SURE FEELS GOOD TO BE ALIVE / SOMEDAY I’LL BE 18 GOING ON 55 (WHICH, BRYANS FITTINGLY CHANGED TO 65)” – 18 ‘TIL I DIE (18 ‘TIL I DIE, 1996)
With Bryan Adams’ anthems, the contagious guitar strings and soul-striking hits of a drum are a given, every beat mirroring the ones in your veins. The energy of his performance, walking up and down the stage and letting us sing instead, his lyrics scream of youthfulness. Remembering the ‘best days of your life’ or the summer highs that stay with us for a lifetime, they were all brought back instantly.
His hit 18 ‘til I die therefore, became a quick crowd-pleaser. In the riffs of Keith Scott and Adams’ came together and had the entire crowd relishing life, and it goes without saying, their guitars. Being about youth and living free and young no matter your age, Bryan, even thirty years after writing the song, sang with the same enthusiasm and love of life as his studio recording with his fresh-faced view on life, spreading stadium-wide. Along with his ‘na na na na na na na naa’s of Cuts Like A Knife, or shouting we all need somebody; ‘somebody like you’ (Somebody). What a time to be alive!
However, Adams’ setlist became not just about the enjoyment of life, but a celebration of it too. He told the Nottingham crowd of how he came to write his songs, and one of which, Shine a Light, was in tribute to his late-father, only being released in 2019. The song, you could tell, connected him with his father, a man he was proud of. And accordingly, the audience shone their lights like stars to Conrad Adams.
However, the tributes did not stop here. Requested by a fan in the pit, Adams dedicated Please Forgive Me to Denise, the recently passed mother of the individual in the crowd clutching their sign and request of their mothers favourite song. Adams seemed touched and ready to share that grief with the stadium, where, again torches and lights went in their air to celebrate Denise. 
The same went for Tina, but this was Adams’ own credit to her for introducing him to the UK in their tour together. He talked of his “great friend” and the loss of the music industry Tina Turner leaves behind her, but in doing so, performing It’s Only Love, bringing back the decade of Adams and Turner like it was in front of our eyes. The guitar riffs, Tina’s lyrics as if she were there, and the intensity of Adams and his band gave rock the credit it so deserves.
“OH, WHEN I LOOK BACK NOW / THAT SUMMER SEEMED TO LAST FOREVER / AND IF I HAD THE CHOICE / YEAH I’D ALWAYS WANNA BE THERE / THOSE WERE THE BEST DAYS OF MY LIFE” – SUMMER OF ‘69 (RECKLESS, 1984)
But the main take away from Bryan Adams’ brilliant night, was that the night was about everyone. Adams, you could see, wanted it to be “Bryan Adams and Keith Scott” as the names up in lights, forever making sure his loyal 70-year-old guitarist took centre stage majority of the time with solos and crowd cheers for the same amount as Adams. During his covers of the Beatles’ Twist and Shout and Frankie Valli’s Can’t Take My Eyes Off You, he sung the latter to his stage partner, ‘And I thank Keith I’m alive’, making it obvious their friendship goes way back, just like their love of performing.
Not only was it about his fellow performers on the stage with him, Bryan Adams wanted it to be a night we all would remember. With the concerts nowadays having to adhere to strict setlists, Adams sang requests he received from a QR code before the concert began, reading all the names of the people who had requested the same songs and delivering them like the professional he is. Giving us what we wanted, he sang Do I Have To Say The Words and Kids Wanna Rock; he said his favourite thing was hearing his songs sung back to them, and with this Nottingham audience, he definitely got that in return.
Although this didn’t stop him from changing up the lyrics, especially in Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman, asking us “Have you ever really really ever loved a Nottingham woman?” And even from being from countries away, he made Nottingham feel special that night.
Like a true rockstar too, he entered the audience and greeted those on the barricade, singing softly Everything I Do, I Do It For You, like a love song to his fans and a devotion to us all. Leaving us with All For Love, and graciously singing “I’ll be here when you need me,” which, if he keeps to his every-four-year track record, we’d be lucky to have him in Nottingham again soon.
But finally, like I’ve said, Bryan Adams made the impossible possible by bringing us back into his era of rock, or bringing his never-ending era into our age like a true legend. With the big screen constantly filming Adams and his audience, it was always in black-and-white which gave the retro nostalgic feel that we are being transported back to what rock concerts used to be. A simple but impactful tribute to his long-living career. But, at the end, when the colour fills the screen we see Bryan Adams is not just a rockstar of the eighties and nineties, but one we’ll gladly accept in any musical era.
”I’LL BE HERE WHEN YOU NEED ME” – ALL FOR LOVE (RECKLESS, 1984)
Amelia Cropley
Featured image courtesy of blocks via Unsplash. No changes were made to this image.
In article images were taken and edited by writer, Amelia Cropley. No changes were made to these images.
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