I managed to book myself another concert ticket this morning.  I bet you’ve already guessed which artist I’m going to see (again)?

That’s right, I’m going to see Bryan Adams for the 6th time.  He’s playing an acoustic show in Glasgow in October and well, I just *had* to go.  I’m not going alone though.  After the fab time my mum had back in Dundee in October 2008, she constantly asked when Bryan would play Scotland again so she’s coming with me.  Here’s the best part: we have 2nd row seats!

Admittedly, it was difficult getting tickets this morning.  I was in a lecture related to my Masters project at 9am and was panicking that my laptop would crash, or that I’d loose my wireless signal.  Luckily, neither of those things happened however, I did forget my password for the ticket site!  I got there in the end but I was so excited/nervous about getting tickets that my hands were shaking.  Cue my classmates laughing at me

Roll on October!  I can’t wait for the gig and the opportunity to meet a ton of Baddies!

Mood : bouncy   Music : Here I Am  by  Bryan Adams

After the amazing night I’d had at the Caird Hall in Dundee, I accepted that nothing would beat that.

I was really looking forward to the Glasgow gig but was gutted that I had to leave my house when I did.  I’d just found out that my Gran was away to be taken to hospital by ambulance because she’d had a bit of a funny turn.  Thankfully she’s ok at the moment but the doctors haven’t confirmed what’s wrong with her.

Back to the review…

My day really began once I’d arrived back down in Dundee.  I met my friend Kevin down there, wandered to university and did some work in my XML class until 2pm, when we decided to head off.  First stop was Kevin’s house, so I could drop my stuff off (I was staying there after the Glasgow gig).  We left there with plenty time to spare and I’m glad we did.

The road to Glasgow was littered with car accidents/roadworks which made it hellish trying to get to the SECC.  We were driving along the M8 at one point and saw a car which had crashed (no other car involved) and was facing the opposite direction…still trying to work out how the hell that happened.

We managed though and met up with my friend Kat, from High School.  As I was meeting her, I realised that Bryan was doing a soundcheck and I recognised the song- “Way of the World”!  Major “oh my god” moment.  Walked along the corridor to speak to Chels and she was thinking the exact same thing.

Once the doors opened, I met another of my friends from uni, Marc, and we got a spot in front of Keith’s mic, 4-5 rows back.  Turns out this was a good position to be in- really close and we kept getting blasts of cold air from the air conditioning.

The support act came on stage somewhere around 7.30pm (I think….I lost track of time because I was having some random conversations) and they were called Black Daniel.  If I’m being perfectly honest, I didn’t enjoy them that much.  Not quite my style of music and of course, I was just counting down ’til Bryan and co arrived on stage.  Loved the lead singer giving it his all with the cowbell during “Say Hello”.  I was a little concerned he might he his thumb though.

Bryan took to the B-stage at the back of the hall at 8.30pm and started with the acoustic version of “Can’t Stop This Thing We Started”.  In recent years, he’s missed out the second verse of this song (correct me if I’m wrong) however, this time, he sang the whole thing.  He then remained on the B-stage by himself and played “Please Forgive Me” (not the country version he played in Dundee).  Following that, it was time for “The Best of Me”.  We were only 5ft away from him when he came near our bit of the barrier- thought Kat was going to have a fit hehe.

Right, onto highlights of the gig…..

- “Somebody” featuring MC K-Man.  Seriously, I love Keith rapping.  I didn’t have a clue what he was going on about but I was lovin’ the hand movements.  Get down with your bad self, man (or whatever rappers say…).

- “Hearts on Fire”- I’ve never had the pleasure of hearing that live before so was quite excited about it.  I don’t know if it’s just my ears but to me, the intro sounds similar to “House Arrest” so for a few seconds, I wasn’t sure what was about to be played.

- “Kids Wanna Rock” was also played.  I remember last year at Murrayfield, the guitar battle didn’t really go on for long.  Not this time.  It was epic!

- One of the songs that I was quite excited about hearing was “The Way Of The World”.  How brilliant was that live?  In fact, it was great to hear songs from 11 performed live- they had so much energy.

-Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond- well I love this song anyway.  A full Runrig type version would have been brill (like on the Once in a Lifetime album )

- “Take Me Back”.  Another one of the songs that I never thought I’d hear live.  Went on for ages and diverged into “Papa Was A Rolling Stone”.  Think there was a moment during the song where Norm started walking forward to sing but wasn’t moving fast enough.  He ended up having to run to the mic to make it in time.  It rocked

“There’s Gonna Be Some Rockin’”- yay AC/DC cover.  The whole place was really jumping by this point.

So to sum up, it was an awesome gig- when the full band were onstage together, it was apparent that they were in a fantastic mood.  I thought the atmosphere was one of the best I’d been in amongst but then I thought it was maybe just me.  Then I read Bryan’s tour diary and spoke to others about the gig and everybody was agreeing.  Electric atmosphere and easily one of the best BA gigs I’ve been too.

So a big thank you to Bryan, Keith, Norm, Gary and Mickey for another fantastic night. .  Oh, and I should probably take a moment to apologise to the woman who was standing in front of me.  I think I was singing very loudly and I hope I haven’t deafened her/scarred her for life (…tone deaf you see).

After the gig, I headed off to Perth and I don’t think I got to sleep ’til 3am.  Just lay awake thinking about how great the gig was.  I remember seeing 5am as well but I think I might have been drifting in and out of sleep?  I had to get up at 7.15am anyway so I could get ready to head to uni back in Dundee.  I was there for the whole day but didn’t get any work done at all…..my head just wasn’t “with it”.  I wonder why….

For those that are interested, here’s the setlist….

***b-stage***
Can’t Stop This Thing We Started (Solo acoustic)
Please Forgive Me (Solo acoustic)
The Best Of Me (walks to mainstage)
***b-stage***
Somebody (with MC K-Man)
Hearts On Fire
Kids Wanna Rock
18 Til I Die
Let’s Make A Night To Remember
I Ain’t Losin’ The Fight
Back To You
Summer Of ’69
Everything I Do
Cuts Like A Knife
When You’re Gone (with some If Ya Wanna Be Bad, Ya Gotta Be Good)
The Way Of The World
Heaven
It’s Only Love
Take Me Back/Papa Was A Rolling Stone
Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?
The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You
Run To You
I Thought I’d Seen Everything
Cloud #9
There’s Gonna Be Some Rockin’ (AC/DC cover)
Straight From The Heart
All For Love

*Bonnie Banks of Loch Lomond was in there somewhere too

Mood : chipper   Music : Hearts Of Olden Glory  by  Runrig

Bloomin’ heck, where the hell do I start?

Right, my mum and I set off from my house at around 5pm.  Before going to the gig, we stopped off at McDonalds (major eww) for a bite to eat.  We then continued on to Dundee city centre, parked the car and walked to the Caird Hall.

On arriving we noticed that the queue was bloody huge!  I’m not sure why, but it was zig-zagging right across Caird Square.  Of course, when the doors opened, everybody piled up at the entrances.  Why the rush, we all had our seats?  Maybe everyone wanted to get out of the cold it was bloody freezing!!

Anyway, my mum and I got in and got our seats-2nd row, seats B1 and B2.  Bloody fantastic seats.  Soon after we sat down, I went and spoke to quite a few of my friends- from high school, university and the weboard.  As we were sitting, I looked on the stage and thought it was odd that there was a piano sitting there.  Could Bryan be playing it?  Someone then told me Gary was going to be playing with Bryan (then the piano made sense).

Right I’ll try and pick out the highlights…..

The show kicked off at around 8pm with “Tonight We Have The Stars” at which point, quite a lot of us ran to the front of the stage.  Sounded fantastic with Gary on the piano.  Bryan kindly asked us to sit down after this hehe.

“Back To You” then started.  During the full band shows, you can almost hear Gary when he’s playing but it’s never quite clear enough.  Totally different with the acoustic shows- just beautiful.

I was really pleased to be hear “Heat Of The Night”- that’s one of the songs I never thought I’d see him play live- again fab with Gary giving it some oomph on the piano.

Keith was then brought on stage for “She’s Got A Way (blues version)”, “I’m Ready”, “This Time” and “Cuts Like A Knife”.

“Please Forgive Me” was bloody hilarious.  Halfway through the song, Bryan suggested that it would have made an awesome country song.  He then proceeded to sing in a country/redneck style, making everyone in the audience crack up.  Really fun stuff!

Keith was brought back out and the guys played “Somebody”, which included the fabulous talents of “MC Keith”.  Loving the hand movements man!

All in all a great night, even if there were some technical difficulties (major bangs came from the speakers….I think Bryan spilt his water or something).

There was a lot of banter/funny moments throughout the show e.g. “marmalade in Dundee”, “hey, I’m ginger”, “why do girls go to the bathroom together” and “hey, why don’t we take a piss break?”.  Seriously, you could have heard a pin drop in there- brilliant atmosphere (I thought that because it was an acoustic gig, it might lack energy but that definitely wasn’t the case!).

After the show was over, I popped to the back of the Caird Hall to see if I could meet the guys.  Turns out I was in luck!

There weren’t really that many people standing there because it was so cold.  We waited for about an hour then said we’d leave in 5 more mins.  Just after that, I saw a guy in a hoodie- Bryan!  I was the first one to ask him to sign my “11″ cd and he did.  He asked “what’s your name darlin’?” and had great difficultly getting the cd inlay out to write on hehe.  Then, he came back up to me, and asked to borrow my pen (calling me “darlin’” again *swoon*).  He never brought it back though!  Bryan Adams swiped my sharpie marker !

Just after that, I caught a glimpse of Gary, so I went running over to him and got him to sign my “11″ cd as well.  Nice man

Finally, I saw Keith.  Got my picture taken with him (Chels took the pic- no steetlights hehe!) and got him to sign the cd as well.  Was clinging onto him as tightly as I could because I was frozen and he was nice and warm.  Brilliant night

Meeting those guys made my day, my year and quite possibly my life (does that sound sad?).  These guys are my heroes and I’m so excited to have finally met them.

Hope all my friends that were there had as good a time as I did.  Apologies for the incoherent review- I’m hyper but knackered at the same time.

Setlist (from 18tilidie.co.uk)

Tonight We Have The Stars
Back To You
Here I Am
Let’s Make A Night To Remember
Can’t Stop This Thing We Started
I Thought I’d Seen Everything
When You Love Someone
Heat Of The Night (with broken string at the end!)
She’s Got A Way
I’m Ready
This Time
Cuts Like A Knife
Please Forgive Me (country version)
Summer Of ’69
Walk On By
It’s Only Love
Heaven
The Bonny Banks Of Loch Lomond
Run To You
Somebody (MC Keith rapping)
Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman?
Straight From The Heart
All For Love

This is just a quick update.

Yeah, you all know I was at the Bryan Adams gig in Dundee. Well, I met 3 of my heroes there tonight: Bryan Adams (who called me “darlin’”) Keith Scott and Gary Breit.  They signed my copy of the “11″ cd.

Totally stunned at the moment.  Working on a full review but my head is mince.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, but I’m off to see Bryan Adams tomorrow night at the Caird Hall in Dundee.

This evening I finally got around to listening to parts of the Toronto acoustic show bootleg and it’s made me more excited than ever.  If I had the energy, I’d be jumping around like an idiot right now.  The acoustic shows seem to have a different vibe (well, from what I’ve heard from the bootlegs). Even though the music is stripped down to it’s bare bones, the performances still retain a lot of energy.

Think it’s going to be quite nice seeing Bryan in a more intimate setting for once.  So far I’ve seen him at the AECC (7500 people), the SECC (15,000 people) and Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh (27,000 people attended that gig and I got to the 3rd row!).  The Caird Hall in Dundee seats around 2000 people and I’ll be in the 2nd row.

Also wondering what the setlist for tomorrow night will be.  I’m hoping that since the Dundee gig is the only acoustic performance taking place in Scotland, it will be extra special i.e. have some rare songs thrown in.  What songs am I hoping for?  Ummmm…..”When The Night Comes”, “Here I Am”, “Hey Elvis” and “Never Let Go”.  Highly unlikely but you never know.

Only one more sleep to go….

Mood : bouncy   Music : It's Ain't A Party...If You Can't Come Round  by  Bryan Adams

Lots going on

Remember how I did a wee “Scottish tour” back in August?  Well I’m about to visit a few cities in the upcoming days.

Starting off with Aberdeen.  I’m actually going there later this evening because I’m seeing High School Musical at His Majesty’s Theatre.  Stop laughing.  Stop laughing right now.  I haven’t even seen the film so I have no idea what the hell I’m letting myself in for.

Next up, Dundee on Sunday.  Bryan Adams in playing an acoustic gig at the Caird Hall and I have seats in the 2nd row.  Really looking forward to this one- it’s the only acoustic gig in Scotland.

Finally, Glasgow on Monday.  Why you ask?  To see Bryan Adams again.  This time, he’s playing at the SECC and it’s a full rock show.

Bring on the music- reviews to follow.

Mood : uncomfortable   Music : All The Way To Reno  by  R.E.M.

Ok, here’s a link that features the best dancing ever.  It’s from a concert that Bryan Adams played in America last night.  Basically, he saw this dude called Daniel dancing in the aisle so he pulled him up on stage.

Legend!

Mood : cheerful   Music : Dazed And Confused  by  Led Zeppelin

I was going to do a full review of Bryan Adams’ latest album ’11′ when it was release but unfortunatly I just didn’t have the time.

What I can say is that right now, the songs that stand out for me are Tonight We Have The Stars (upbeat and catchy), Oxygen (kickass solo), Mysterious Ways (I have no idea what it is about this song but it’s been stuck in my head- loving it), Walk On By and Way Of The World.

I know a lot of people are disappointed that it wasn’t the full, all out rock album they wanted. My personal thoughts right now are that it’s a mature, well-produced album with a slightly dark feel to it, a la On A Day Like Today.

Guess what, I’m going to see Bryan again on the 27th October 2008 at the Glasgow SECC.  So I’ll see ya all there, right?

Mood : drained   Music : I'm Goin' Down  by  Bruce Springsteen

If you don’t already know, I’m a huge fan of Bryan Adams. Actually, if you didn’t know that you’re either an idiot or an alien who has just landed from a distant planet.

New album is out this Monday- it’s called 11″. From the soundclips I’ve heard so far, it sounds fantastic! Top tracks to listen out for are Oxygen, Way of the World and Tonight We Have The Stars.

If you want to hear some clips, get yourself over to bryanadams.com. Go. Now!

Mood : stressed   Music : Tonight  by  Bryan Adams

Any Bryan Adams fans out there? Heard the new single?

Well, it’s called “I Thought I’d Seen Everything” and will be on his new album “11″. Guess what, it’s a free download on HMV. Go on, go get it right now!

It’s a really nice song, summery feeling to it and beautiful lyrics. I wasn’t what I was expecting at all (I thought he was gonna release a rocker first). All the same, it’s a fantastic song so what ya waiting for?

Mood : tired   Music : She's A Little Too Good For Me  by  Bryan Adams