I was quite gutted when I thought I was going to miss out on a Bryan Adams concert right on my doorstep. It’s not that I’m his biggest fan ever – like most people, I know a fair few of his songs purely because he’s had so many hits. This is one of those artists that I always quite liked but over the years have enjoyed more from Youtube videos or live albums more so than from studio albums. The reason being that Bryan is simply a brilliant musician, singer and songwriter. He always seems to deliver something extra live, so I was especially excited when Duncan kindly offered me the opportunity to review him at Lytham Festival.
Usually, I’m centre front for main stage at festivals, but as I wasn’t expecting a mosh pit, and my plus-one had driven all day, we took folding chairs and chilled in the optional seating/standing area. It was a balmy evening after a very hot August day, and people were sat on blankets or folding chairs all around that part of the arena, just enjoying the atmosphere and the fantastic food and drink available from the stands. It was a very mixed crowd, with families, couples and groups of friends of all ages.
Early evening entertainment was provided courtesy of The Dunwells, who gave an incredible performance for the gathering crowd. An hour’s natter and sunbathe later, and suddenly, we were off, with ‘Do What You Gotta Do’; not one I know well myself but it definitely woke us up, followed immediately by ‘Can’t Stop This Thing We Started’, which most of us can happily sing at least parts of.
A couple of songs later, including ‘Run To You’, and we were properly warmed up. Bryan must have known this as he chose this point to announce nonchalantly, “Hello everyone, my name’s Bryan,” and engaging in a little banter before taking a video of the audience doing a Mexican wave. Bryan mentioned he’d perform a good mix of popular and less familiar songs, which were balanced nicely. While the audience naturally calmed down somewhat for the album tracks, he soon had everyone echoing phrases back at him. This was obviously the warm-up to limber our voices up, as these tracks quickly lead into a lilting rendition of the enduring favourite, ‘Heaven’ (heave-en-wooah-ohh-ohhh!), which was magically timed as twilight provided a lovely setting, with Lytham Windmill on the skyline beside the twinkling lights of the big wheel.
The audience continued to join in for ‘Kids Wanna Rock’, and Bryan introduced his drummer, Mickey Curry, and longstanding guitarist, Keith Scott, in time to give due credit to these brilliant musicians as he lead into ‘It’s Only Love’ with Keith’s blazing guitar solo and Richard Jones from The Feeling on bass.
“I’ll be honest, I had no idea what to expect,” said Bryan, after an energetic clap-along to ‘Everything Is Alright’. “I’m totally blown away, I can’t believe how beautiful it is up here; it’s absolutely stunning.” It wasn’t politeness – Lytham Windmill must have looked just as gorgeous from the stage as it was from where I sat.
The pacey ‘You Belong To Me’ set the mood for ‘Summer Of 69’, the lyrics for which were cleverly included on the backdrop as tattoos and notebook imagery, giving the audience any clue it might need in case we’d managed to forget a line over the years – or were perhaps not even born when the song was charting. It was very much a family event and there were plenty of teenagers and preteens dancing around me with their parents and grandparents.
There was a guitar change at this point for ‘When You’re Gone’, which, in the absence of Mel C, was delivered as a solo acoustic – just Bryan and his guitar, with help from pretty much the entire audience, and we were all dancing a little.
Still on acoustic, Bryan then took us seamlessly into the big one. ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It For You’ spent sixteen weeks charting at number one in 1991 and it was played constantly. A mighty twenty-five years has since passed and this song is still a favourite for many. Mellow percussion from Mickey provided romantic suspense, while Keith served that guitar riff we all know and love.
Bryan then paused for a few minutes to seek out a “wild woman who can dance” for his next track – a bluesy ‘If Ya Wanna Be Bad – Ya Gotta Be Good’. His lady of the night, Rachael, did a stellar job with her raunchy dancing for the cameras, although it turned out she was there with her dad, which Bryan seemed to find hilarious, considering. Bryan then led into ‘Back To You’ and by this point I noticed shoes were being kicked off all around me by ladies of all generations enjoying a good dance
‘It Cuts Like A Knife’ and ‘18 Till I Die’ preceded an encore with ‘Brand New Day’ featuring scenes from the official video with Helena Bonham Carter in the background. This was followed with a lively cover of ‘Come On Everybody’ and ‘All Shook Up’, which suited the audience perfectly, as they weren’t finished dancing yet.
Bryan then thanked his band once again – Gary, Mickey, Richard and Keith – before going solo once more for the romantic ‘She Knows Me’ and then, finally, my favourite – ‘Straight From The Heart’, which was stunning. On cue, we each took out our phones, creating a blanket of lights across the seafront arena and sang along, while Bryan played both his acoustic guitar and harmonica. It reminded me a little of Bert in the opening scene of Disney’s Mary Poppins, but Bryan really is a one-man-band and an incredible musician. I lost track of exactly how many songs were played throughout the night, and Bryan seemed almost apologetic of the sheer volume of incredible music he was performing, saying, “I’ve got thirteen albums. Good thing for you I don’t remember them all.”
‘All For One’ was delivered in this gorgeous scene of starlight and contentment, for an incredible finale. Gosh he has a lovely voice.
Super value weekend tickets for Lytham Festival 2017 are on sale from Friday 19 August priced from just £99. For more information visit www.lythamfestival.com
Images courtesy of Cuffe & Taylor.
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