Scheduled: ??:?? Local Start Time ??:?? / End Time ??:??Info & Setlist | Venue
Final tour performances for "Racing In The Street" and "Follow That Dream". Little Steven once again guests on the encores.
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Audience tape. Twhree recording sources circulate, the first is excellent quality and available on LP 'Leeds '85', CD 'Hello Leeds' (Anubis) and remastered on CDR 'A Promise Of Life' (Ev2). A second source entered circulation in May 2013 from a tape transfer (cre001) and a third excellent source was put into circulation from a tape to DAT transfer (Hrubresh).
07.07.85 Leeds, England, intro to ´Atlantic City´
´´Back where I live….they legalised….gambling to try and help the economy in this one beach town….and now they got….gangs fighting for control of the casinos….and uh….these big golden gambling palaces (?) about a block in from the slums….this is called ´Atlantic City´…”
07.07.85 Leeds, England, intro to ´The River´
´´Oh yeah….this is a song, when I was….growing up….my old man used to come home from work every day….he´d walk right in the backdoor and he´d sit down at the table….and my mother´d bring him his dinner and he´d sit there all night long….and he wouldn´t really talk very much….he sat there for, uh….about 18 years, as long as I was in the house, I´ll never know what he was thinking about….he never said anything about it….but he used to wait for me and my sister to come in….and uh….he´d lock up the frontdoor so we used to have to come in around the side….and he´d always wait, I´d stand out in the driveway and I´d pull my collar up over my hair so he couldn´t tell how long it was….it was longer then, it´s shorter now (chuckles)…..but uh, he used to hate it…..I´d pull my collar up and he´d let me get through the kitchen and then he let me get through the livingroom and just as I was about to get my foot on the bottom step, he´d, I hear….´Bruuce´….and he´d be calling me to come back and I´d have to come back and I´d sit down with him and we´d sit there and we´d stare at each other…..but uh, some nights if you were coming in too late, you were better off waiting till the morning , till he´d had a chance to sleep a little bit and uh, so I used to keep this sleeping bag stashed on the outside of these woods….and sometimes I´d sleep on somebody´s porch or in somebody´s car….you know….and now when I go home, them places are….are more like…they´re more like my home to me than my own house was….but I guess that´s the way it is when you´re growing up…..anyway…..this is a song ´cause, uh, everybody needs some place to go on those nights when they can´t go home…..”
**07.07.85 Leeds, England, intro to ´Glory Days´ **
"Now…this is a song about getting old….yeah….I´m getting old, man….oh yeah, oh yeah, I gotta sit down, I gotta rest a minute….all this jumping around, man, when you get old, makes you tired….yeah, I´m, uh….I´m 35 now….who´s, anybody else 35, anybody older than that out there?…..few of you guys….now, Roy, he just had his birthday last week, he´s 36….now, he´s done, man, that´s it, once you´re 36, you´re over the hill, you´re finished….when you´re 35, you still got a chance to live a little bit….I still got four or five months of my life ahead of me still….well, now, the Big Man, he´s older than, uh….he´s older than, uh….how old are those trees out there, no….but he always, somehow he always maintains his youthful beauty ….he gets handsomer all the time….yeah, he just had a, him and his wife, they just had a little Big Man….and he´s handsome too, man….he´s got a real little saxophone….anyway….man, this is a song about…. Father time….time´s winged chariot….and how in the …it ain´t nothing but glory days….."
07.07.85 Leeds, England, intro to ´The Promised Land´
´´Thanks….oh, some of you guys I´ve been seeing….in the front row in every show we´ve done here in England (chuckles) and…..I wanna do this song for youse, alright (chuckles)….”
07.07.85 Leeds, England, intro to ´My Hometown´
´´Thanks….this is our….this is the last show of our….European tour today….and uh….I guess, uh…I´d like to thank youse….and if any of you folks were at the London shows (cheers) some of you, yeah…..I´d like to thank you for making….your hometown our hometown…..”
07.07.85 Leeds, England, intro to ´I´m on Fire´
´´I remember my dad sitting the kitchen….thinking about everything we wasn´t ever gonna have…he´d get me sitting there at night with him….till he´d get me thinking like that too….I´d be laying up in bed….feeling like if something didn´t happen…I remember feeling like I was just gonna….like if something didn´t happen….feeling like I just….like I just wanted to….like I´d just….”
07.07.85 Leeds, England, intro to ´Racing in the Street´
´´It was like right around the end of the summer….when it was still, still be really hot in the daytime….but at night sometimes it´d really cool off…I remember I, I had this old, had this old Camaro that I´d bought for 500 dollars….and it was convertible and when you got the top down, it wouldn´t go back up again (chuckles) so if it rained….it just rained….but I used to take it out around 11, 12 at night, I put on a couple of t-shirts and a sweatshirt and my leather jacket and lock up the house….and I´d go driving down along the coast….and there used to be this place where, it was out on the edge of town, was like a junkyard, I guess, where we used to meet on the weekends….people from town´d bring down all the stuff they didn´t want no more and leave it out to rust out, rust out in the rain….but it was a place where we´d get together and sit around and talk….and that was the first place that I met her and uh….we started going out and it´s like….you know how it is when you first start going out with somebody, like everything they do is wonderful (chuckles) they think you´re great, you know (chuckles)….you know, laughing at each other´s stupid jokes….and it was like that for a while, you know, and then, uh….something happened, I don´t know what pulls people apart but it got to where she didn´t wanna talk much any more, wanted to stay in at night….
and she started to hiding, she´d be hiding the keys to my car so I couldn´t take it out at night (chuckles)…. and uh, I don´t know what happened, it was like….I know that once….she understood that when I took out the car….and when I won…..that it was the only time when I got to feeling like….something was happening to me….like I wasn´t just sitting around wasting away….I wasn´t just sitting around turning into nothing….and to have just one thing, one thing in your whole life that you can do….that makes you feel proud of yourself….that´s not too much for anybody to ask ….that´s not much….I don´t think….”
07.07.85 Leeds, England, middle of ´Rosalita´
´´Ladies and gentlemen…children of all ages….boys and girls….and all you English people out there….I´d like to introduce the members of the E Street Band….on th the piano…a man that gave up a scholarship to Oxford University to join the European tour with the E Street Band….you may be familiar with his study of the lost tribes of Hoboken, his theory of promiscuity, a man who gave up higher education for rock´n´roll dedication…the smartest man in the entertainment industry, ´Professor´ Roy Bittan on the piano….(?)….on the vocals, an alumni of Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, Miss Patti Scialfa ….on the drums, the man who puts the heat in the beat, ´the Mighty´ Max Weinberg….on the organ, the mysterious, charismatic, ´Phantom´ Dan Federici….on the bass, the man that brings you the thunder from down under, that puts the bass in your face, Mr.Garry W.Tallent….on the guitar, Nils Lofgren….and last but not least…..the man that´s known around the world as the king of the world….the master of the universe….the emperor of everything….but these titles do not do him justice, in this corner weighing 265 pounds, the undefeated heavyweight champion of the world….gimme a C…L….A….R…E…N ….C….E….what´s that spell ?…. what´s that spell ?…. what´s that spell ?….Clarence ´Big Man´ Clemons on the saxophone…”
07.07.85 Leeds, England, intro to ´Follow That Dream´
´´Thanks, thank you….this is a song….was, uh….was an old Elvis Presley movie song….I always liked it and I guess the first thing I remember when I was a kid was I´d come downstairs in the morning and my mother would always have the radio on while we were eating breakfast before we went to school….and I can remember, I guess I was nine years old ….a Sunday night when Elvis came on the Ed Sullivan Show….you know….and it always stayed with me….in 1975 we were in Memphis on the ´Born to Run´-tour….I was but a young lad at the time (chuckles)….but it was late, it was around 3.30 in the morning and me and my guitar player Steve….we called up a taxi cab to come and take us out to Elvis´ house ….and the cab came and drove us out to Graceland and we got out, I remember the night was real quiet and we looked through those two gates with the guitar players on ´em and I could see a light on in the second floor window….and I said ´Steve, man, I gotta, I gotta try´ and I jump up over the wall and I got down on the other side and I started running up the driveway towards the frontdoor…I don´t know what I was planning on saying or doing….but uh, just as I got there and started to knock and a guard came out of the woods and asked me what I wanted….I said ´Gee, is Elvis home ?´….he said ´No, no, Elvis isn´t here right now´, he was pretty nice, he was talking to me like he´d expected me or something (chuckles) and ´No, he´s gone away´ and I told him that I was a guitar player too, that I had my own band and that we played in Memphis that night….and I told him, I remember I told him that I had my picture on the cover of Time and Newsweek (chuckles) I really did once (chuckles) but uh, I don´t know, nothing worked, you know (chuckles) so he took me by the arm and he put me back out on the street….and Steve said ´Did you meet him ? did you meet him ?´ ´No´ (chuckles) but uh….it wasn´t too long after that that a friend of mine called me and told me that he´d died….and it was hard to understand how somebody….whose music had come in and taken away so many people´s loneliness, made you feel like you were a part of something and whose music gave, I know when I was young, it gave such a….such a reason to live, made me feel a promise of life….could´ve died so tragically…and uh, I guess you gotta be careful, it´s easy to let the best of yourself slip away….I´d like to, I´d like to do this song for youse tonight, wishing youse all the longest life with the best of everything….”
Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi
35th Anniversary of the Final UK Shows of the Born in the U.S.A. Tour |
Greetings Facebonkers. Hope you had a great Independence Day, American citizens or not. I'd intended to post this story yesterday but didn't finish it as quickly as I hoped. It's time to mark the 35th anniversary of the final UK shows of Bruce Springsteen's historic "Born In The USA" European tour back on July 3, 4, 6 and 7, 1985. A month ago, I told you the story of our momentous trip to see his opening salvo of shows at Slane Castle in Ireland and St James' Park in Newcastle. That summer, the UK and Irish dates bookended a series of concerts in mainland Europe. Four weeks after Newcastle, Bruce returned to finish the tour with a three-night stand at London's Wembley Stadium and a final show at Roundhay Park in Leeds. For those of us who'd been lucky enough to see Bruce over here in 1981 or even 1975, these huge mega concerts were a shock to the system and (in E Street terms) the shape of the future, with very few exceptions. Having been accustomed to seeing him indoors in the dark in comparatively small venues, we now had to contend with watching him in daylight with thousands of newcomers who thought Pink Cadillac Ranch was a gay nightclub in Texas.
But it wasn't like that in June 1984 when the LP first hit the shops. Back then, Bruce was a mere superstar. He didn't earn the right to the prefix "mega" for another year. Nevertheless the album reached the top of the Billboard chart (Number 2 in the UK) and Bruce began a huge 94-date US arena tour that kept him occupied until the end of January 1985. At that point he was still playing roughly the same size indoor venues that he had at the end of the "River" tour in 1981, but this time there were a lot more of them. The itinerary included ten gigs at the Brendan Byrne Arena in East Rutherford in his home state of New Jersey, six at the Philadelphia Spectrum and seven at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, which ensured that over 400,000 people saw Bruce in just three cities. The final two gigs took place at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, still indoors, but with a capacity of 40,000 each night, the largest audiences of his career at the time, but they were about to get a whole lot bigger. After Syracuse, Bruce went straight to LA to record his vocals for the "We Are The World" single and then had seven weeks off before playing eight shows in Australia and another eight in Japan between mid-March and mid-April, the majority of which also took place indoors.
The UK tour came together a lot easier than it did in 1981. Back then, dates were added at intervals over a three month period, which was followed by a postponement and yet more dates. This time, three months of rumours preceded one final official announcement, but the delay was equally frustrating. In early February, just after the US tour had finished, the first rumours of possible UK gigs began to circulate and at least to begin with, it appeared that Bruce would be playing indoor venues over here as well. The NME revealed that his "eagerly awaited British visit will take place in September, when he will play a string of concerts, possibly a week, at London's 15,000-capacity Earls Court. It's known that dates have already been reserved and that plans are under way to organise coach trips from outlying areas". A week later, they said that the Earls Court season could now be brought forward to June. Dates were being held at the arena in both months until a decision was made. In early March, Melody Maker said that wheels were in motion to bring Bruce here in June/July and that it was likely that the itinerary would include "four nights at Earls Court, followed by a show at Wembley Stadium". Also on the cards was a gig at Dublin RDS on June 22. These tour rumours came during a major sea change in Bruce's career, in which he forgot about the remaining rungs on the ladder of fame and jumped straight to the top. In the UK, this sudden transition to the stratosphere has often been attributed to a report from the US tour on the "Old Grey Whistle Test", but it's hard to believe that one TV show could have had such a massive impact. It may also have been influenced by radio airplay, MTV video rotation, a major promotional campaign, heavy interest in the dreaded Arthur Baker remixes on the club circuit, Big Daddy's cover of "Dancing In The Dark" or a similar kind of persuasive word-of-mouth publicity that ensured demand for his 1981 shows outstripped supply by three-to-one, although he'd not played in the UK for more than six years. Bruce was now mentioned in the same sales meetings as Michael Jackson and Madonna, was featured in pop magazine Smash Hits and became a tabloid hero with an average of ten references to "The Boss" per square inch.
In early April, Melody Maker was the first UK music paper to print specific dates, which were in bigger venues than were suggested before:
- Newcastle St James Park (June 4 and 5)
- London Wembley Arena (July 3 and 5)
- Leeds Roundhay Park (July 7)
Although there was still no official confirmation and CBS were denying everything, this rumour was so strong that the shows were announced on Breakfast TV and Radio One. Two gigs at Earls Court (May 28 and 29) were still under consideration, as was a show at Slane Castle in Ireland on June 1. They later retracted the Wembley Arena rumour because it had already been block-booked by Dire Straits. Their source probably meant Wembley Stadium. The same week, the NME added fuel to the fire, suggesting that Bruce may play Cardiff Arms Park on May 27 as well as Birmingham NEC and Edinburgh Ingliston. They also said that dates were still pencilled in at Earls Court in both June and September.
In mid-April, Melody Maker revealed that "the popular view" was that Bruce would play the following dates in the UK and Ireland:
- Slane Castle (June 1)
- Newcastle St James Park (June 4 and 5)
- London Wembley Stadium (July 6 and 13)
- Leeds Roundhay Park (July 7)
- London Earls Court (July 8, 9, 10, 11)
This was a strange blend of massive-to-medium outdoor venues and an indoor arena, although it was unlikely that Bruce would have agreed to play six consecutive nights from July 6 to 11 inclusive.
In the end, Harvey Goldsmith completely bypassed the UK music papers by announcing the official tour dates live on "The Old Grey Whistle Test" on April 23, just after they'd gone to press, ensuring that they wouldn't be able to print the news for a week. "Thanks for nothing Harvey" said the headline in the NME, who saw this as "the latest in a string of dirty tricks" played on them by various promoters. This may have been a deliberate snub or simply an acknowledgment of the show's role in boosting Bruce's profile. Either way, the BBC switchboard had a major meltdown after the broadcast.
The only dates that Goldsmith actually released were:
- Newcastle St James Park (June 4 and 5)
- London Wembley Stadium (July 3 and 4)
The Leeds Roundhay Park gig on July 7 was confirmed soon afterwards and the concert on June 1 at Slane Castle got the go-ahead once local residents were placated. Amazingly, the first of the shows was only six weeks away, which seems like a huge risk. Nowadays artists announce big stadium shows months, possibly up to a year, in advance. Approximately one million requests were received for less than half that number of tickets. Again, demand beat supply by a three to one ratio. As a result, the NME later said it was hoped that Bruce's arm could be twisted into playing more shows, but in the end, the mid-May addition of one more gig at Wembley on July 6 was the only extra date. No additional requests would be accepted because there were enough unfulfilled applications for the first two shows. Tickets were £14.50 in Newcastle and Leeds and £15 in London, very expensive back then. Included in the cost was a controversial 50p "booking fee", introduced on this tour. Limited to six per person, they were available by post (cheques or postal orders with SAE) from a London PO Box address and buyers were asked to allow five weeks for delivery, which was cutting it fine for Newcastle attendees. In the pre-internet and credit card hotline years this tedious and prolonged process was all there was for shows by visiting US megastars. Send cheque, wait and hope. Nowadays you print your own. For a small fee. Where did Harvey Goldsmith's envelope stuffers go after the WWW was invented? Maybe the "admin fee" we're routinely charged pays their pensions.
The final itinerary was a little disappointing to say the least. No Earls Court shows (it would be 14 years until Bruce played that concrete cavern), nothing in Wales or Scotland, less than half the amount of shows that he played in 1981 and a huge rise in venue capacities. They all sold out of course, which is a perfect example of how his audience had grown. When he returned for the Wembley and Leeds gigs, "BITUSA" topped the album chart a year after it came out, five of his other six records made the Top 50 and "Nebraska" got to number 60.
Once the tour dates had been set in stone, we began making plans to attend all seven gigs in the UK and Ireland. Actually other people did. I'd just met Dan French and tapped into the Springsteen fan network and relied mostly on them to organise tickets, transport and accommodation. I was new to the travelling game, hence the reason I only saw Bruce play in Brighton and Wembley back in 1981. I'd never been north of London before. I was grateful to Dan and many others I met in 1985 for introducing me to the wonderful world of Bruce touring. This was just the start of a lifelong adventure which began with the unforgettable trip to Slane and Newcastle that I told you about last time.
That took weeks of planning in the days when everything was done by phone or post. Seems like the Stone Age now, but it all fell together as smooth as silk and nobody got lost along the way. I wish I could tell you that the Wembley and Leeds story also involves great feats of human endurance and long late-night drives, but it was a lot simpler. In fact, I have very little recollection of the events surrounding those shows. We came, we saw, we went home.
Most of us from the Slane and Newcastle trip were there too, but we weren't always in the same place at the same time.
I have a memory of staying at my new friend Tony's parents' house near Wembley, sleeping on the floor beside other fans from far and wide and hearing bootleg tapes in the kitchen. But as for Leeds, I really have no clear idea of who I went up with, if I stayed anywhere or how I got back, but I'm fairly certain that Julian Soden (aka Max) was involved somehow.
Compared to Slane, the shows in Newcastle had felt like club gigs, but Wembley was twice as big. In 1981, Bruce played six shows at the 12,000-seat arena. Now he was appearing for three nights at the 72,000 capacity stadium for the same number of fans in one show as he did in an entire week at the arena. Things had changed, to reference Bob. I can remember going up early on July 3 with a small group of people and just wandering around to see what we could see. What we found was a large open gate that led us directly onto the pitch and it was rude not to. We stood at the back and watched Bruce and the band soundchecking something we didn't recognise until we were asked to depart the premises. It turned out to be "Seeds", which received its tour premiere later that night and appeared at all three gigs.
The three Wembley concerts (the most shows Bruce played in any city in Europe) were the centrepiece of the five-week tour and the focus of massive media attention. The stadium was certainly the place to be that week, unless you were a Dire Straits fan with tickets for one of their 13 concerts at the arena. Despite the enormity of the venue, we'd been looking forward to the shows for ages. The desire to see Bruce again overrode the fact that he was going to be playing in bright sunshine most of the evening for a crowd the size of a small town. The tickets were general admission. They got you in the stadium. After that, you could stand or sit anywhere. There were no reserved seats, no pit, no Gold Circle. It was possible to reach the front barrier if you began queueing early enough. With the Slane experience still fresh in our minds, we elected to base ourselves in seats on the right-hand side for each show. We had a clear view of the stage and were sheltered from the sun by the stadium roof. When we looked down at the heaving mass of sunbaked humanity on the pitch, moving slowly forward to increase the pressure on those at the front, we knew we'd made the right decision, especially when a big fight broke out. (An idiot clambered up the PA system and jumped up and down on the stage roof during one of the gigs. If he'd fallen through the thin tarpaulin or canvas sheet, there might have been catastrophic consequences). The gates were opened at 4pm on July 3 and 4, with an approximate concert start time of 6pm. Opening time on July 6 was 2pm, with the show due to start at 4pm. Given Bruce's habit of being fashionably late, the kick-off didn't happen until at least half an hour later than billed. Extra time was needed.
Those expecting Bruce to play material from his early albums were in for a disappointment.
The set was heavily weighted towards "Darkness On The Edge Of Town", "The River" and, of course, "BITUSA". Only "Rosalita", "Born To Run" and "Thunder Road" represented his 1973-1975 era, and while he'd included up to five songs from "Nebraska" at shows in the summer of 1984, only the rocked-up "Johnny 99" and "Atlantic City" now remained. Unreleased songs ("Because The Night", "Seeds") and covers ("Trapped", "Can't Help Falling In Love", "Twist And Shout", "Do You Love Me?") completed the set, which was largely identical from night to night, with just enough room for alternative choices, rarities and very occasional surprises.
At Wembley, four songs stand out in the latter categories. On July 4, Bruce opened with an acoustic "Independence Day". It had only appeared on four other occasions on the entire tour and he wouldn't perform it again until 1996. Later that night, he took "Pink Cadillac" for a spin for the third and last time in Europe. On July 6, he replaced "Atlantic City" with a rare "Highway Patrolman", its first appearance since January and last but one for 11 years. Finally, during the encores, he pulled out The Rolling Stones' "Street Fighting Man", which had been a set regular on the US tour until October. It's not been played anywhere since.
But undoubtedly the biggest surprise of all was when Little Steven appeared for the final three encores: "Two Hearts", "Ramrod" and "Twist And Shout"/"Do You Love Me". There was no social media to spread advance rumours, so this was a genuine surprise. We'd last seen Steven playing with Bruce on the "River" tour in 1981 and as leader of the Disciples of Soul on several subsequent UK visits. Few of the new fans may have known who he was, but us old timers gave him a rousing welcome. To make the Wembley stand even more memorable, he was back onstage on July 4 and 6.
It's generally understood that Bruce's Wembley stage was left behind to be used at Live Aid a week later, but it's never been officially confirmed. My Wembley story concludes with a vague recollection of waiting for Bruce to leave after one of the shows and watching a van with tinted windows drive out of the gate without stopping. Fans around me said that they saw Bruce and any number of band members in that vehicle, but I couldn't see anything.
And so to Leeds, the last UK show and the final night of the comparatively short European tour (18 dates with only one in Italy and none in Spain). After a run of stadiums, Bruce was ending the tour as he'd begun, in a field with 80,000 friends. The backdrop-free stage with its view of the trees behind it was identical to Slane, but the similarity ended there. It was level for a start and there was only one gently sloping hill on the right-hand side, where the disabled facilities were based.
This event was considerably better controlled, except when "dozens" or "hundreds" broke down a section of the concert arena's eight-foot high fence and surged forward, causing a dangerous crush at the front and apparently extending the mid-show interval while it was sorted out, although I have no memory of that whatsoever.
It was another weekend gig, so the gates opened early at 1pm and Bruce was due on around 4pm. The local press reported traffic chaos before and after the show. One of my abiding memories is the smell of the gents' toilets (basically giant troughs) wafting across the crowd on the breeze, not for the faint-hearted it has to be said. It was another sunny day with a massive audience and I chose to stay near the back. Maybe the memory of Slane was still burning bright, or perhaps I was just tired, but I watched the gig from a safe distance in relative comfort.
The set followed the standard pattern, but omitted "Seeds" and included three songs that weren't played at Wembley; a superb "Racing In The Street" (played only three times in Europe and destined not to appear again until 1992); the only European performance of "Follow That Dream" and a final encore of John Fogerty's "Rocking All Over The World", one of only 12 performances on the entire "BITUSA" tour. (Anyone who still thinks that it's a Status Quo song should see me afterwards. There will be detention). And just when we thought Little Steven was down in London, he appeared during the encores one more time to close out the tour with his old friend. He made a total of 10 guest appearances with Bruce on the 15-month world tour and four of them were in the UK. It was a fitting end to an exciting adventure that had begun five weeks earlier on a hill in Ireland. Bruce still had two more months of stadium shows back home before he could put his feet up. These included six nights at Giants Stadium in New Jersey and four final shows at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
By the end, he'd played 156 shows in 11 countries around the globe, "BITUSA" had sold bucketloads and spawned no less than seven singles and he'd finally made a few bob.
Reminiscing about those 1985 shows 35 years later, it's clear that they were hard-rockin', fist pumpin', crowd-pleasin', baseball cap wearin', ass shakin', goofy, sweaty, horny, musclebound, heterosexual white male performances. They were designed for huge stages and equally massive audiences. Bruce's accessible, commercial songs dominated, at the expense of his romantic epics and more thoughtful and introspective material. While they were undoubtedly great fun and very successful, they only reflected limited aspects of his musical character and were a good example of how biggest does not necessarily mean best. I had as great a time as any other Springsteen obsessive who saw the seven UK and Irish shows, but there was a nagging sense that he was much better than all this, that cramming thousands into a stadium like sardines was dehumanising and dangerous and that rock music is always best heard in indoor venues. Unfortunately, his sustained level of popularity in Europe with the E Street Band ever since has meant that it's been stadiums all the way, with few exceptions. "BITUSA" defined Bruce's career to some extent for many people, and they've expected him to churn it out onstage ever since. Luckily he didn't take that route and has presented us with some very interesting musical detours in subsequent years, but songs from that album have always crept into his sets, even if he's started tours not playing them. The mid-80s were his Glory Days and they'll never fully pass him by, which is both a blessing and a curse. When he got home, he saw the tour as the end of an era, not the dawning of a new one. Next time around, according to his autobiography, he was looking forward to "something less".
| By Mike Saunders via Facebook.com. |
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