Setlist;
London Calling
Badlands
Night
She's The One
Outlaw Pete
Out In The Street
Working On A Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
Youngstown
Good Lovin'
Bobby Jean
Trapped
No Surrender
Waiting On A Sunny Day
Promised Land
Racing In The Street
Radio Nowhere
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Born To Run
Badlands
Night
She's The One
Outlaw Pete
Out In The Street
Working On A Dream
Seeds
Johnny 99
Youngstown
Good Lovin'
Bobby Jean
Trapped
No Surrender
Waiting On A Sunny Day
Promised Land
Racing In The Street
Radio Nowhere
Lonesome Day
The Rising
Born To Run
Encore
Rosalita
Hard Times
Jungleland
American Land
Glory Days
Dancing In The Dark
For a Springsteen fan as big as myself, I don't think I'd been more excited about a gig since I'd been due to go to meet Slash (which by the way, was epic!), and this showed in the hotel in London the previous night, as I was trying unbelievably hard not to watch Bruce's set at Glastonbury. I succeeded however, and come Sunday morning, I was just about bouncing as I walked down Oxford Street to Hyde Park.
Once we got there, we got talking to this group of older fans, who'd seen Bruce's gigs as far back as the early 80's and were still travelling all over the country to see him. They asked if we'd ever seen him before, and when we told them it was our first time, they promised the show of a lifetime... they were more correct than they'd ever know. Just in front of us in the queue, was a guy who had travelled all the way from New Jersey to see Bruce in London, I was amazed.
Walking in to a sold out Hyde Park (sold in under an hour if I remember rightly, I had to persuade my boss to let me get tickets during work for the presale), was one of the best feelings I've ever known, and although the supporting bands (excluding The Gaslight Anthem) weren't all that, it was a pretty good day all round.
As soon as Bruce and the gang burst on stage and dived in to London's Calling by The Clash, quite an appropriate opener, you knew you were in for an amazing show. The whole band were on fire, though there was a noticiable absence of Patti, who tends to stay home during long tours to make sure their children don't burn down their house.
Even though I knew it was coming, the first few bars of Outlaw Pete sent shivers down my spine, having already exhausted my voice screaming out Badlands at the top of my voice, and as Bruce launched in to the song, you could see the elation on his face, loving every minute of the show and feeding off everyone else's enjoyment.
I won't mention every song, because I'd be here for about as long as the show was, an impressive 3 hours 5/10 minutes, very impressive for a 60 year old man.
There were many memorable parts to the show, so I'll talk about them instead.
The stage was a whole storey higher than the crowd, with a long staircase down to the barrier, and on Bruce's first trip to visit his fans, he ran around like a teenager, only to get to the steps, trip towards the end, and lay himself on his back on top of the steps. Steve was in absolute hysterics by this point, in fact, most of the band were, and Bruce didn't help himself as he just lay there calling out for an elevator next time... 'Somebody get me a fuckin' elevator, I'm 60!" and when he finally dragged himself off the floor, laughing at himself with his band members. One of the best moments of the whole show I would say, shows he's human after all, with a sense of humour to rival the best.
Another part which I loved was when Bruce was down at the crowd a second time, singing Waitin' On A Sunny Day. Bruce is known for his crowd interaction, so it was no surprise when he offered his mic to a small boy, hoping for him to sing some lines. Surprisingly the kid didn't freeze up, as I wouldhave done when offered the Boss' mic, and began to sing. He was egged on the whole time by Bruce, and done a brilliant job, it made me all warm inside!!
Another amazing section was just before Born To Run, with Bruce, again, collapsing above the steps after tripping over, himself and Steve in complete hysterics, cackling away, until Bruce rose for that familiar '1-2-3-4' of Born To Run, when every hair on my body stood on end, and I couldn't stop myself from smiling.
I would be here again, for ever, talking about the good parts, as there wasn't a bad part. The setlist was very eclectic, chosen on the day depending on how Bruce views the crowd, and we got a eclectic set listif ever I've seen one. It lacked my two favourites at the time, Thunder Road and The River, but it more than made up for it, and I enjoyed every minute, giving me a new song to love in American Land.
At the end of Born To Run, they should have been going off for a minute before coming back for an encore, but Bruce decided it wasn't worth leaving, stating "I can't stop now, man, I just can't stop now." and diving straight in to Rosalita after a brief bow.
The closing songs, Glory Days and Dancing In The Dark stole what was left of my voice after the rest of the show, as as we walked out of Hyde Park, in complete awe of the show I'd just seen, I turned to a friend to speak, and realised I actually couldn't. It must have taken well over 10 minutes of sitting on a bench looking out at all the amazed faces until my voice came back, simply to say... Wow.
