Victoria Embankment, Nottingham
Robin Hood country rocked to claps of thunder and hits from Bryan Adams, the Groover from Vancouver, in his one and only UK performance this year at Nottingham’s City in the Park.
Adams – more Prince of Rock than Prince of Thieves – charged on stage in his customary white t-shirt and denims throwing three gigantic inflatable white balloons into the 20,000 strong crowd raucously chanting his name as they demanded his arrival.
Playing his white Fender bass and accompanied by only a lead guitarist and drummer, Adams’ set ran like a ‘best of’ album as he treated fans to 20 years of hits from the rock classics of Summer of 69 and Run to You to gentle love ballads such as When You Love Someone and Heaven.
The very fitting (Everything I do) I Do It For You, which spent 24 weeks in the UK charts, 16 of those at number 1, motivated the crowd to sing along but one of the highlights of the day was the performance of When You’re Gone.
Due the absence of Mel C, Adams put a request out to the audience for a fan to accompany him singing the hit single and Rachel from Leeds enthusiastically obliged. It was a moment of a lifetime for Rachel. Showing no signs of stage-fright, she actually knew all the words as she joined in the duo screaming “Jesus, I’m in love, alright” to echo the lyrics.
The two-hour set ran late into the damp, chilly night and Adams’ commented that he was glad the crowd had “stuck around through the rain” as he finished his encore with the acoustic version of the song he wrote for Ronan Keating; How You Make Me Feel.
Although Adams was headlining at the one-day event this year, there was an array of other class acts appearing and many of the 20,000 had come to see them.
Following an opening set by The 45’s, the up and coming all female band The Bush The Tree and Me entertained with their unique combination of blissful harmonies and traditional instruments including the cello and clarinet.
The band have spent the past few years touring and having just signed with Epic they released their first single Sometimes You Do That at the end of August. More suited to the folk scene than a rock gig, lead singer Paula confessed: “I don’t know what we’re doing here, but I’m glad we are” and although the crowd appreciated the quality of their performance, they failed to enjoy their innovative style of music. That was a shame.
And then it happened….thunder and lightening (very, very frightening, me, Galileo, Galileo – in the words of the great Freddie Mercury!). The heavens opened, hail stones crashed down and people scrambled for rain coats and anything they could find to keep themselves dry. But the crowd stuck their ground – they had paid £27.50 to see the stars and see them they were going to.
And what a star – Squeeze legend Glenn Tilbrook walked on stage as the rain came pelting down. This singer-songwriter is just so good. Standing with only his acoustic guitar for company, he grabbed the attention of the now wet and dis-heartened crowd.
In between performing tracks from his first solo album; The Incomplete Glenn Tilbrook released in May this year, he took pleasure in teasing Squeeze fans by strumming the opening chords to hits, such as Goodbye Girl and Up The Junction, only to deny them the pleasure of the full version until later into his set.
This led onto to one of the best-dressed female vocalist in recent times – Gabrielle. Wearing a stunning full-length oatmeal leather coat and trademark dark glasses she appealed to the crowd: “Let me see those hands”.
Gabrielle had flown in from Ireland where she was recording a follow-up to her third and most successful album to date; Rise and treated fans to a succession of hits such as Out Of Reach and Sunshine. This woman really does sound as good as she looks!
The penultimate act of the day were James and I have to agree with lead singer Tim Booth when he said; “We’re the day’s musical interlude!”. They really did offer the best performance of the whole event and I would recommend anyone to see them in their forth-coming UK tour given the opportunity.
This collection of extremely competent musicians provided a visually impressive and hard-working performance of past hits such as Sit Down, Born of Frustration and Laid.
The set, though, was unfortunately plagued by technical problems and fans complained that they were unable to hear their music, forcing Booth to politely request; “Turn the f****ing thing up, man – they can’t hear and I’ve got such a beautiful singing voice!”.
This, however, was typical of the whole event. The sound was lacking in power, even for Adams and the absence of screens hindered the view for those at the back. Although the performance of all the artists was first class, the overall production could have been better. Let’s hope this is resolved next year.
