Last year for my birthday and Christmas I got several Ticketmaster vouchers (I admit I'm hard to buy presents for). I thought I'd wait until someone toured who I really wanted to see. Then Bryan Adams announced his Reckless: 30th Anniversary Tour.
First check - was he coming to Liverpool? Yes!
Second check - what day of the week was the concert? Now this is important as, due to my husband's job, weekday concerts can be difficult to attend. So keeping everything crossed I checked December 15th and it was a Saturday!
The only problem with booking through Ticketmaster is you can't always pick your seats and my husband likes an aisle seat. So on the night we made our way to our seats and luckily we had the aisle seat.
The Echo Arena in Liverpool is a decent size. It's not as big as the Phones 4 U Arena in Manchester which means that even on the top tier you get a decent view. So this was our view of the stage
Just after 8pm Bryan Adams came on stage and launched into "Reckless". He then proceeded to play the whole album in running order. I didn't think I knew the album but was surprised at how many songs I did know. From the lesser known tracks to the hits he gave his all.
This was the fifth time I'd seen Bryan and each time during "Summer of 69" he has played chicken with his guitarist while running from one side of the stage to the other. Every time it's worked - except this time. This time he was taken clean out and landed, luckily on stage, flat on his back! And yes it's on You Tube.
Once the "Reckless" album was finished Bryan launched into songs from the other eleven albums he's released starting with "Everything I Do (I Do It For You)" which happens to be my personal favourite song of his. And yes I do know it was Number One forever!!
A mixture of both ballads and belt out songs continued, some sung with simply his guitar for accompaniment before ending with my second favourite song. "I Want To Be Your Underwear" isn't played often live so I was more than happy to hear this.
The encore consisted of four songs of which his band joined him for just the first. The stripped down versions were as enjoyable as anything that had full backing. The very last request from Bryan was to ask everyone to turn on the torch on their phones. He then finished with "All For Love". Approximately eleven thousand mobile phones made a wonderful twinkly sight.
Did I enjoy the night? Most definitely. Whilst Bryan does not put in a show in the way some bands/singers do he does put on a very good gig. From start to finish it's him and his band singing. No props. No gimmicks. And for me that's what a concert should be.
