Well Sony may be cashing in on his forthcoming Superbowl half-time appearance with an unnecessary "Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Greatest Hits" and Bruce may end up playing at Glastonbury this year (Noooo!), but things aren't all that bad...
There'll be a new album proper in 3 weeks time, and more than likely another tour starting in the Spring. Geez, I'm still a bit feeling a bit Bruced-out and broke after seeing so many shows on the last tour - However, my enthusiasm is starting to build up again thanks to a newly surfaced, fan made, DVD release called 'The Lowlands'. Capturing 10 songs from Antwerp and Amsterdam last year, it's been nicely shot on a HD camera and dubbed with a fine audience recording. Really fun to watch - especially when Bruce and the band dig oldies like this one out of the E Street vaults...
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - I'm A Rocker 23rd June 2008, Antwerp
That's got the old 'Bruce Juice' a flowing! OK, so I'm A Rocker is from my favourite Springsteen album, but any song that mentions James Bond, Columbo, Kojak, Mission Impossible and the Batmobile has to be classic in my opinion!
"In the future, a man returns home from war only to discover that his town is now dead, in more ways than one. Fortunately, he finds comfort both in some undead monsters, and a very, very special album."
Written, edited & directed by Daniel Fox and Terence Krey. Nice job. It's better than the official Radio Nowhere video! Plus it has the Gonk!
Aug 1-3 Boston Boston locals are a strange mix of sports fans and eggheads. Just walking about town, people pass by shouting out 'Go Red Sox!' to complete strangers, and if you sit down in a restaurant or café you'll probably hear the group on the next table talking theoretical mathematics or quantum physics.
Friday: I arrived in Boston from NYC by Greyhound bus and flopped onto my bed at the very nice Royal Sonesta hotel right on the Charles River. I needed to quickly figure out how I was going to get to the Bruce Springsteen concert the next day. The problem was that it was at the Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, about 40 or so miles away from downtown Boston, and there was no means of getting there by public transport. I guess it's a bit like trying to get from London to a concert in Milton Keynes with no car, trains or buses.
When I bought the ticket I knew that the stadium had a station next to it for 'event trains' i.e. there was a train service for events at Gillette Stadium. As I was to find out, with no help from the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transport Authority), the event train was not being provided for this concert!! Nightmare! Everyone going would have to travel by car - 50,000+ people is probably 20,000 cars, and at $40 to park the Stadium's going to make a hell of a lot of money!
I was stressed out. The nearest train and bus services were miles away and not running after the show's end. I was quoted $120+ each way for a taxi (if I could get one) and around $170 an hour for a 'car service'. I guess if I'd had my driving license with me I could have hired a car and paid the parking, but it wasn't an option. So, I decided to see if I could get a ride with a fellow fan who was going to be driving there from Boston. I posted my request to a Springsteen message board and crossed my fingers. At this stage I was seriously considering just eating my ticket and not attempting to get to Foxboro at all. Thankfully someone came through with an offer of a lift (thanks Howie!) and I could relax and enjoy my evening.
Saturday: Having previously arranged my transport for the night, I was able to take an interesting 90 minute boat trip up the Charles River that focused on its locks and bridges. It's always great to watch a bridge open, especially ones like this giant monster or the swing bridges around Manhattan. The rusting metal, the weight, the giant gears grinding. It seemed to me like a kind of Victorian steampunk.
Now on to the evening's entertainment. The striking open-ended design of Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots, is weird but very pleasing on the eye. As we arrived the heavens opened. Torrential rain fell and lightning bolts crashed down all around us. Whoa! Everyone was cleared from the pitch as the tropical storm passed overhead. I was thinking about the next day's headline - '50,000 fans fried in stadium strike!'. Fortunately the severe weather soon died down and the concert could go ahead, albeit an hour late. Another curfew busting post midnight finish was on the cards.
At 9:20pm Bruce and the band started to race through another marathon set that was to include a sign requested Little Latin Lupe Lu, a passionate Tunnel of Love, the inevitable Who'll Stop The Rain and a very rare appearance of that almost forgotten Born In the USA single I'm Goin' Down. It was great fun.
By all accounts it was a good show. I enjoyed it, but this time, standing to the side of the stage rather than in front of it, watching the screens and the crowd, I found myself a little detached from the performance. Sadly, I've not got any great video or pictures of the event - just this crap phone photo looking towards the back of the stadium during Glory Days...
Setlist (courtesy of Backstreets): Summertime Blues/Tenth Avenue Freeze-out/Radio Nowhere/Lonesome Day/The Promised Land/Spirit in the Night/Tunnel of Love/Little Latin Lupe Lu/Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?/Hungry Heart/Who'll Stop the Rain/Youngstown/Murder Incorporated/She's the One/Livin' in the Future/Mary's Place/The Rising/Last to Die/Long Walk Home/Badlands. Encore: I'm Goin' Down/Jungleland/Born to Run/Glory Days/Dancing in the Dark/American Land/Rosalita (Come Out Tonight). Boston Globe Review
Sunday: My last day of this short trip. I was up early to catch a Whale Watch boat from the harbour - more of which in a later post.
Then, after one of the best plates of Cod and Chips ever, it was just a case of heading for Logan airport and my flight home via Newark. Of course it wasn't that simple, another thunderstorm hit the east coast and that meant I couldn't meet my connecting overnight flight back to Gatwick. Nightmare! So, powerless, I reserved a spot on a flight out the next day and started to look for a hotel room... Then for the second time that weekend someone pulled through for me - a nice lady at Continental managed to squeeze me onto an American Airlines direct flight back to Heathrow; 'grab your bags and run'! Result!
I'm now shaking off the jet lag from a short jaunt across the pond; just 3 days in New York and then 3 in Boston. My aim was to take a break from the pain of job hunting and rejuvenate myself with a couple of E Street Band concerts. It was a trip that would add more pointers to my insanity. 'Broooce'!
July 29-31 New York/New Jersey Not the best of months to be a tourist in NYC. The streets of Manhattan were sweltering. Underground it was worse. Down on the sauna-like subway platforms it felt like I was following a trail left by Arne Saknussemm. Welcome relief from the stifling heat was however provided in the cool air conditioned trains.
Tuesday: After arriving and installing myself in a nice cheap-ish hotel on the upper east side, I headed out across Central Park, past frisbee catching dogs and the humans and turtles alike sunbathing down at the lake.
I'd come to New York to see Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band play but I'd not got a ticket. Doh! So, moving around town I was stopping off at Star*ucks watering holes and using their Wi-Fi hotspots to try and score a ticket via the net. No joy! There were hundreds of tickets available online, but only at vastly over inflated prices from arseholes on eB*y and Stubh*b. W@nkers!
Wednesday: Frustrated, I decided to relax a little, just slip back into tourist mode and enjoy the city. I took the subway down to Brooklyn Heights and made what's now become my traditional walk back over Brooklyn Bridge. My usual DVD, CD buying frenzy then took over before I sat back with a 'small' soda the size of a dustbin, and enjoyed the fun and stunning visual beauty of Hellboy II: The Golden Army.
Thursday: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band were going to be playing a third night @ Giants Stadium, on their New Jersey home turf. The concert was sold out and I had no ticket... My best hope was to try the drop line at the stadium and see if there might be a return. I arrived at 10am and became the 7th person in the queue. I was in for a long long wait out in the 90 degree heat with no guarantee of getting into the show.
By late afternoon the queue had grown to several hundred people, all hoping that they might get lucky and be part off the 55,000 capacity audience. The sun blazed down, and shade was at a premium. Sunburn and heat exhaustion were becoming a problem. As I stood there on the concrete by the stadium fence, fans with tickets were arriving in their thousands, setting up tailgating parties in the vast parking lot. They had music blaring out and were enjoying their barbecues and cold beer. I was wilting. Water, beer everywhere, but not a drop to drink.
Event staff numerically wristbanded us in queue order and we were told that chances of getting a ticket were not good, and if any were available they would not be given out until just before the show start at around 8pm. So what's a few more hours to wait eh? In for a penny in for a pound. As it turned out the show start was delayed to around 9:30pm due to a major traffic incident involving a propane gas container, and this meant that the ticket office didn't start releasing tickets until around 9pm! All my fingers and toes were crossed.
Fortunately, I ended up with a great seat on the floor. I was in line with the back of the General Admission standing area ('The Pit') where I could see Jesse Malin and 3 of the Seeger Sessions Band 10 yards to my right, packed in like sardines. The lights dimmed. A colliape played The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze as the E Street Band took to the stage, and then Max Weinberg started hitting the drums...
Summertime Blues - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band 31st July 2008, Giants Stadium, Meadowlands, New Jersey
It was of course a fantastic show - a Jersey special. At 30 songs, 3 and a quarter hours long, it finished at around 12:45am and tested the physical endurance of the crowd. After queuing in the hot sun for over 10 hours I was absolutely knackered. I must have been nuts. My feet were aching and I was fit to drop just 12 songs in, but Broooce and the energy of the crowd kept me going until the end. I've now seen 3 shows at Giants and each time the atmosphere in the old stadium has been tremendous. Song highlights for me included Blinded By The Light, a sweet Pretty Flamingo, Incident On 57th Street prompted by a sign requesting it 'For Your Old Bald Fans', and the ever powerful Because The Night which had Nils Lofgren embellishing his stunning spinning guitar solo with a John Otway-like forward roll!
Setlist (courtesy of Backstreets): Summertime Blues/Tenth Avenue Freeze-out/Radio Nowhere/Prove It All Night/Two Hearts/The Promised Land/Spirit in the Night/Light of Day/Brilliant Disguise/Pretty Flamingo/Blinded by the Light/Cadillac Ranch/Candy's Room/Night/Because the Night/She's the One/Livin' in the Future/Mary's Place/Incident on 57th Street/The Rising/Last to Die/Long Walk Home/Badlands. Encore: Jungleland/Born to Run/Bobby Jean/Dancing in the Dark/American Land/Jersey Girl/Rosalita (Come Out Tonight).Star-Ledger review.
Shagged, I got back to my hotel at 3am, took a cold shower to cool down and then crashed out, grabbing a welcome few hours of sleep before getting the bus to 'Bosstown' on Friday morning...
Saturday 14th June, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. "Helo Cymru". It was the first time Bruce Springsteen had ever played a show in Wales, and acknowledging this he opened with the rarely played rocker From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come), a song he'd donated to Welshman Dave Edmunds way back in 1981. Not a bad start to another magnificent, energetic, emotional stadium performance.
The wristbands allowing access to the front 'pit' standing area were given out early at around 1pm which meant I could have a nice relaxed afternoon down at Mermaid Quay, drinking a cold cider in the hot sun, and filling myself up with a Harry Ramsden's take out. At 6:30pm, feeling refreshed after a quick snooze back at my hotel, I entered the concert venue and took up a good position a few yards back from the stage barrier. I've got to say that the Millennium Stadium is great, much nicer than the soulless new Wembley, it's nice and compact with the stands hugging the pitch - if you are going to see a stadium show in the UK then this is the place to go.
With the vintage of the E Street Band, the no doubt exhausting touring schedule and potential health issues related to their age as a backdrop, there was a point during Clarence Clemons' long and marvellous Jungleland sax solo when my eyes welled up. I was realising that this might be the last time I'd see it performed live. The atmosphere in Cardiff seemed highly charged at that point.
All good things must come to an end I guess, but who knows?, maybe not! As the show finished, for the first time on this tour Bruce said 'We'll be back', more specifically 'Wales, we'll be back'. I hope so, it's a trip worth repeating.
Setlist: From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)/Tenth Avenue Freeze-out/Radio Nowhere/No Surrender/Lonesome Day/The Promised Land/Blinded By the Light/Magic/Atlantic City/The River/Gypsy Biker/Darlington County/Because the Night/She's the One/Livin' in the Future/Mary's Place/Working on the Highway/Devil's Arcade/The Rising/Last to Die/Long Walk Home/Badlands Encore: Jungleland/Thunder Road/Born to Run/Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)/American Land
Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band. Friday 30th and Saturday 31st of May 2008, Emirates Stadium, London. Arse**l's new home hosted its first set of concerts, much to the annoyance of the local residents. With lots of talk about a worried Islington council enforcing noise and curfew restrictions, I was a bit concerned that Bruce would be reduced to performing a short acoustic set!
I shouldn't have worried. Friday night was an immense rock 'n' roll experience - "Nobody's played here before? We gotta test that structure tonight!". An incredible selection of 28 songs, opening with a storming Tenth Avenue Freeze-out and including an intense 'Darkness' 3 pack of Candy's Room, Prove It All Night and Because The Night with Nils Lofgren spinning like a top on his closing blistering guitar solo. After which, without pause, Bruce swung into a series of uplifting singalong crowd pleasers, and then finally quietening things down with a rare and reflective Point Blank before building up again through tales of redemption to a barnstorming encore.
Setlist: Tenth Avenue Freeze-out/Radio Nowhere/The Ties That Bind/Lonesome Day/The Promised Land/Magic/Atlantic City/Reason to Believe/Candy's Room/Prove it all Night/Because the Night/Working on the Highway/Cadillac Ranch/Livin' in the Future/Mary's Place/Waitin' on a Sunny Day/Point Blank/Devil's Arcade/The Rising/Last to Die/Long Walk Home/Badlands Encore: Thunder Road/Born to Run/Glory Days/Rosalita/Dancing in the Dark/American Land
Phew! Saturday night. Could Bruce and the band match or top the show from the night before? No, not quite, but it was great nonetheless. The strict 10:30pm curfew meant a few less songs, however there were 12 different choices from what was played on Friday. Old classics like Sandy and Growin' Up resurfaced, and Downbound Train and I'm On Fire made their tour debuts.
Mary's Place (end clip)
Changes to the set on the fly, whilst good, affected the flow of the show a bit and at times it came across a bit disjointed compared to Friday. But hey, a total of 40 different songs over the two nights is pretty incredible. For me, Saturday's highlights were the performances of the Born To Run heavyweights, Backstreets and Jungleland, holding the stadium audience in awe.
Girls In Their Summer Clothes (end clip)
Setlist: Out in the Street/No Surrender/Darkness on the Edge of Town/Gypsy Biker/Radio Nowhere/4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)/Growin' Up/Downbound Train/I'm on Fire/Because the Night/She's the One/Livin' in the Future/Mary's Place/The Promised Land/Backstreets/The Rising/Last to Die/Long Walk Home/Badlands Encore: Girls in Their Summer Clothes/Jungleland/Born to Run/Tenth Avenue Freeze-out/American Land
Next stop for the E Street juggernaut, Cardiff Millennium Stadium in two weeks time. Looking forward to it already :-)
Another fine weekend away. On Saturday I flew over to a sunny but breezy Dublin, escaping the rain back home.
I arrived in the city centre at midday and trolled around the Temple Bar area, looking for a quiet place for a refreshing drink. The pub bouncers were already in place, flexing their chests as the first of the hen and stag party groups were beginning to swarm. I decided to head for somewhere quieter, found a place near my hotel, and sank a Guinness. That's unusual for me - normally a drop of the black stuff makes me go 'Yeeuugh!' and I have to have something else instead. But when in Ireland, I guess... I've got nothing against Guinness in principle; the occasional bottle fortified my old gran through her old age, but I've seen the effect of too much on others and it ain't a pretty sight!
Everything in moderation is the key, like not going to all three of the Springsteen concerts in Dublin that were kicking off the 2008 European stadium tour! By arriving on Saturday I purposely skipped the first two shows on Thursday and Friday, building up my anticipation for the third on Sunday - more than likely the 'Last Dance' the E Street Band will play in the City.
So, what can I say about the show on Sunday night? EPIC.
An amazing set of 26 songs, a joyously lubricated crowd and a staggering performance by Bruce and the band that left everyone physically and emotionally exhausted. I'm beginning to think that the 58 year old guy could, as rumored, actually be super-human. Setlist (courtesy of Backstreets): No Surrender/Radio Nowhere/The Ties That Bind/Spirit in the Night/Gypsy Biker/Atlantic City/Reason to Believe/4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)/Growin' Up/Because the Night/She's the One/Livin' in the Future/Mary's Place/The Promised Land/Racing in the Street/The Rising/Last to Die/Long Walk Home/Badlands Encore: Tenth Avenue Freeze-out/Born to Run/Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)/Dancing in the Dark/American Land/Ramrod/Glory Days
Screen Photo by 'roidrage'
I awoke early on Monday, feeling shattered, my back, arms and legs aching from the night before. Thankfully I was going to spend the day being driven around on a tour of Wicklow. It was another day of good weather. The Wicklow hills looked beautiful in the bright sunshine.
After briefly having to stop off at a Woollen Mill souvenir shop, designed to 'fleece' American tourists, our bus headed to Glendalough ('The valley of two lakes'), the magical setting of a monastic site founded by St Kevin in the 6th century.
Despite the presence of daytrippers, Glendalough is an amazingly peaceful place. I found the mixture of Celtic pagan and Christian religious symbolism around its ancient cathedral and cemetery to be very interesting.
Is it just me, or was there some kind of subversive, subconscious, sexual message being given out by the monks that once lived there?
I was saddened to learn today of Danny Federici's passing due to skin cancer. This evening I've been playing my favourite Springsteen album, The River, consciously feeling Danny play every swirl of Organ and Glockenspiel chime - an integral part of that wonderful E Street sound.
I guess I must have seen him perform over 40 times with the E Street Band, and each time was a joy. Cheers Dan.
His last appearance was on March 20th, 2008:
Danny returns to the stage to rave reviews.
Indianapolis, Indiana
by Jason Federici
While my Dad was going through treatment on March 19th in NY, he was visited by Bruce and later Max, who, through a lot of talking, bribing, and begging (and finally the kicker -- Becky Weinburg, who came from NJ by boat that night) to persuade him to play, he agreed to do the show in Indy. The next thing we knew, we where picked up by a limo from Sloan-Kettering, joined by my dad's wife, Maya, Dr. Chapman and Virgina Murphy and we proceeded down FDR highway to an awaiting helicopter that whisked us away to Newark airport in about 8 minutes (a good time by all, except maybe Dr. Chapman who was gripping the arm rests like a baseball bat). Before we knew it, we were in the jet with the boys. Danny was greeted with a lot of hugs and smiles, to say the least. An hour and a half later, we pulled into Conseco arena. When my father stepped on stage the crowd started chanting "Danny! Danny! Danny!". You could physically feel the "Magic" in the air (excuse the pun). My father proceeded to do what he does best - rock out! He played with such a natural ease. The feeling of the evening was electric. The visible bond between the fellas was so special to watch. Nils spent most of the night next to him, Clarence kept turning around to give him props during the night, and Bruce was so visibly happy to have him there. I couldn't stop smiling all night. After the exciting encore, he left the stage, went straight to the car, then to the plane, and was fast asleep in NY by 2am. It really was like a dream. In the morning, over coffee, we looked at each other and realized the magnitude of the night. It was a great day! My father has always been such an inspiration to me, I can only imagine what an inspiration he is to others.
I've always had a love/hate relationship with Bruce Springsteen's Ghost Of Tom Joad album; There are some great songs on it, but musically it's so stark and bare that it's hard to listen to and, quite frankly, depressing.
I remember being quite surprised when I heard that Tom Morello's Rage Against The Machine had covered the title track. I can't say that I really enjoyed their version, to me it seemed too noisy and lacking in subtlety, but the fact that RATM had done it was interesting - and, as it's turned out, it has proven to be an old desert signpost to what happened when Springsteen's Magic Tour stopped off in Calfornia last week. For two nights in Anaheim, Tom Morello joined Bruce on stage for a gob smacking new take on the song. The guitar solo by Morello at the end is just mind-blowing...
The Ghost Of Tom Joad Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band with Tom Morello April 8th 2008, Anaheim, California
It's always nice to see a guest or two singalong with Bruce. Last night in Houston Alejandro Escovedo sang his new song Always a Friend and then fellow Texan Joe Ely joined in the fun with one of his oldies, All Just to Get to You.
Last night, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band @ the Blue Cross Arena, Rochester, NY.
As if by magic, my phone camera captures appropriate blur and colour! A great evening; A top notch set of songs that included Night, Jackson Cage, Loose Ends and the unexpected return of Rosalita (which induced mass hysteria in an already excited crowd). My thanks to 'Torino 88' for the ticket, the fun folk in the pit and those I met in the bar afterwards. Have fun in Buffalo guys!
Sadly I now have to make the long trip home to Blighty, snowstorm permitting!
Full concert review, photos and setlist over @ backstreets
I've been developing a quite friendly relationship with my postman recently. Practically every day he wakes me up by ringing my buzzer and delivering a package. Did I get anything today of all days? Nope. No cards, no presents, no flowers. Not a sausage.
Bruce Springsteen - Valentine's Day (solo piano) Columbus, Ohio, 31st July 2005 (Bootleg recording) Courtesy of YouTuber TWallie
Another good, fan made (not for profit), Magic Tour bootleg DVD is surfacing as I type. Kudos to everyone involved. Watching it gives me a caffeine-free boost. Here's one of my favourite songs from The River album...
The Ties That Bind - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band 28th November 2007, Datchforum, Milano, Italy (a tailschao Max/Marisa and White Owl production)
It's taken me awhile to get in the mood but now, thanks to the E Street Band, I'm into the Christmas spirit. I popped over to chilly Belfast last Saturday. Brrrrrr, 'twas a cold day, but it was fairly bright and thankfully it wasn't raining like last year. Warmed up by a hot Hog Roast roll from the Christmas market I went along to the show at the Odyssey Arena. A great venue and a tremendous concert. Gerry Adams, in a prime seat, seemed to enjoy it. Nils Lofgren nearly took off from the stage during his scorching guitar solo during 'Because The Night' and it was nice to see and hear 'Santa Claus' as a send off into the Northern Irish night. My thanks to James McC for the after show tour of Belfast pubs! I'll have to go back sometime when it's warmer! Telegraph, Belfast Telegraph and Irish Independent reviews.
Last night the tour made its last stop in 2007, at the ginormous O2 Arena, London. Another great show. Only around 400 fans were let into the 'pit' area in front of the stage - the organisers could have easily have catered for another 200 and still have had plenty of room. With so much space around me I felt a bit self conscious doing my gangly pogo 'dancing'. I spotted Badly Drawn Boy in a VIP seat to my left, he sat down throughout the whole show, but he was nodding his woolly head. Apparently Stephen Merchant was there (of course), and allegedly Rob Brydon, Bette Middler, an unknown number of Manic Street Preachers and Jim Rosenthal(!) were in the crowd too. I'm already looking forward to the band returning in May of next year. Guardian, Times and This is London reviews.
Santa Claus Is Coming To Town Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band December 19th 2007, London O2 Arena
A great set of photos from the O2 by 'Seeger Tour' here. Update: and here's a nice compilation of clips shot from behind the stage, courtesy of 'ramrodwillem'.
Woohoo! A nice boot has just appeared of a Magic Tour show that I saw in Philadelphia a couple of months ago (see earlier post). Here's Thundercrack from the DVD - if you look closely enough you'll probably spot my bald patch bobbing up and down near the front :-)
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Thundercrack Philadelphia, Wachovia Center, October 6th 2007 (Video: NYC Bitch Committee, nicely dubbed with CC audio thanks to 'tailschao')
Love that 2 guitar, fiddle and sax break in the middle! Next week I'll be off to catch their show in Belfast. If I manage to survive the cold wind and rain I'll report back...
Stockholm, Rotterdam, Barcelona, Rome and now Bedford! This Sunday the Light Of Day Europe tour makes its final stop in the UK.
Badly Drawn Boy, Willie Nile, Marah (acoustic) and Joe D'Urso will all be strapping on their guitars and performing to raise awareness of the fight against Parkinson's Disease.
Sunday November 18, 7.30pm start The Harpur Suite Harpur Street Bedford, MK40 1LE Tickets: £20.00 in advance and are available from www.entshed.com. See www.lightofday.org for more info.
It's nice to always have something or someone you can rely on. Tomorrow night Southside Johnny and The Asbury Jukes are playing at the Shepherds Bush Empire, London. Let's see, how many times have I seen Southside play over the years? I'm so old I can't remember, it must be close to 20 or so... the thing is, every show is great, it's like meeting up with a good old friend once a year. Long may the Jukes keep going!
Ok, I'm getting in the mood now... Another piece of rare Southside video from 1978 - a classic good time Sam Cooke song, performed here to the max with guests Bruce Springsteen, Steve Van Zandt and Roy Bittan.
Havin' A Party - Southside Johnny And The Asbury Jukes
Wait, there's more... From the Official website, a great free mp3 download of Hearts of Stone that mixes Johnny's classic 1978 vocal with Springsteen's original version (which wasn't released from the vaults until 1998!). To my ears, having known the separate versions for years, this made up virtual duet sounds a bit weird, but it's interesting in a 'what if' kind of way.
Update (9pm): It's spooky! A DVD of one of my favourite 80's movies Adventures In Baby Sitting turned up in my postbox today. That's not weird since I'd ordered it and was expecting it, but the funny thing is I've just remembered that Southside and the band are in it - they play themselves in a nightclub scene. I'll watch it before I go to bed tonight. The film stars the lovely Elizabeth Shue as the babysitter of the title, and amidst all of the action and comedy the male teen lead forms a crush on her. Sigh, I remember feeling the same way when I first saw it all those years ago. Oh, yes, and 'Thor' the Mighty God of Thunder is in it as well! Does entertainment ever come any better than this?
I'm back home now after my 'Magic' trip to North East Coast, USA. Time to quickly recap here what I got up to in my last few days in NYC...
Monday: (Columbus Day) After a morning lazing around in the sun in Central Park I popped into the MoMA - A good collection of the usual modern art suspects like Klee, Mondrian, Rothko, Magritte and Warhol, and hey, that Picasso guy could actually paint! Blade Runner in the evening (see previous post).
Tuesday: Tramped around the East Village and Bowery (a once scummy area, but now being redeveloped into trendy and expensive condos - much to the alarm of its residents). Bought a load of DVDs (see below) from the excellent Kim's Video store in St Marks Place.
Wednesday: In the morning I walked over the Brooklyn Bridge and took a stroll around leafy Brooklyn Heights. After lunch I walked back to Manhattan and did a little clothes shopping (love the Pound to Dollar conversion rate!). In the evening I took a bus to the Meadowlands, New Jersey, to see Springsteen and the E Streeters play show #5 of their tour. Another good show, although with a seat at the right rear of the stage I was often distracted by looking out at the audience (video clip)
Thursday: You know, that awful last day when you have to kill time before travelling out to the airport for your night flight home. Well, I recommend a trip out to the Bronx Zoo. As Zoo's go, the Bronx has one of the best, and it includes an excellent Gorilla enclosure - so good I didn't want to leave!
Yesterday in Philly... I made a slow start and took a train to the suburb of Manayunk. It's a nice place for lunch; There's a smart main street lined with restaurants, bars and trinket shops, and a pleasant canal towpath walk for some exercise.
I had to head back into the city by 3 though in order to get my General Admission lottery wristband for the Springsteen show in the evening. I got band number 808 out of 1000, thankfully the draw was favourable and I made it into the pit.
Wow, what a show! My 65th in the last 22 years and this one was up in the premier league. Watching the 2 guitar/sax/violin jam on Thundercrack from just a few yards away was tremendous. Photo by Tim Gray (more).
It's now Sunday morning and I'm still on a high as I prepare for my Greyhound bus leg to NYC. ______ Update: Thanks to 'cricket' on BTX here's a nice pic taken from behind the stage. Hey, I can see myself in the crowd. Look, there I am!
I'd come to New York to see 
Phew! 
Changes to the set on the fly, whilst good, affected the flow of the show a bit and at times it came across a bit disjointed compared to Friday. But hey, a total of 40 different songs over the two nights is pretty incredible. For me, Saturday's highlights were the performances of the Born To Run heavyweights, 
Despite the presence of daytrippers, Glendalough is an amazingly peaceful place. I found the mixture of Celtic pagan and Christian religious symbolism around its ancient cathedral and cemetery to be very interesting.
As if by magic, my phone camera captures appropriate blur and colour! A great evening; A top notch set of songs that included 
Sadly I now have to make the long trip home to Blighty, snowstorm permitting!
