Bryan Adams - Wednesday 5th November - O2 Arena

OK - cards on the table time. Firstly, I am a big fan of Bryan Adams and have seen him over 50 times in the last 21 years. Secondly, I think his "new" album, "11" is the weakest one he has ever done, so wasn't quite sure how this was going to turn out.

Having broken my O2 "duck" a few weeks ago for Queen, it was back to the mega-arena for some classic Canadian Rock. We took an alternative route via Maze Hill, giving us the opportunity for some new pubs on the way with a half in each. The first was called the "The Vanbrugh" - a pleasant enough local which was obviously trying to enter the "gastro-pub" arena. Pretty quiet there, so it was onto the (very dark) Crown (bypassing the totally empty "Ricks Bar"). Then onto the slightly eccentric "Royal Standard" where we played some reasonable quality darts - well reasonable when you consider the darts we borrowed weren't actually made up from one set. Then onto the "Ship and Billet" - I'll be polite and just say it was typical of the area! Finally the bus then dropped us near the "Pilot Inn" which again offered the bonus of attractive bar staff.

OK, enough waffle... the gig: We knew from reading about the other UK shows that Bryan was likely to start on the 'B' stage in the middle of the arena, so we stood near that. When he came on, he was only a couple of yards away, so we got an excellent view of the first 2 acoustic songs. We then beat the rush, to get nearer the main stage - ending up about 25 yds away... not bad considering the venue was packed.

What we got was 2hrs 20mins of classic Adams, old and new. It was Bryan's birthday and he really seemed to enjoy himself. Highlights for me were "Hearts On Fire", "Summer of '69", "Take Me Back" and an unexpected "When The Night Comes". We even got a surprise guest when Mel C (Spice Girl) turned up for "When You're Gone". All in all an excellent show, and as I said to Richard as we filed out - "We may just have seen the gig of the year".

Setlist:

Can’t Stop This Thing We Started (Acoustic) Please Forgive Me (Acoustic) The Best Of Me Somebody Hearts On Fire 18 Til I Die Let's Make A Night To Remember Back To You I Ain't Losin' The Fight Summer Of '69 Everything I Do Cuts Like A Knife When You're Gone (with Mel C) Thought I'd Died And Gone To Heaven She's Only Happy When She's Dancin' Heaven It's Only Love Take Me Back Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman ? The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You I Thought I'd Seen Everything Run To You Cloud #9 C'mon Everybody Straight From The Heart (Acoustic) When The Night Comes (Acoustic) Walk On By (Acoustic) All For Love (Acoustic)