We were in London for a pantomime at the SSE Arena and I saw a poster adverting Bryan Adams the following May, so I persuaded my mum to buy us all tickets.   She didn’t need much convincing as she is a Bryan Adams fan herself.  It’s a 2 hour journey each way into London for us along with a high cost for parking, but it was worth the effort.

Bryan Adams is a singer, guitarist and songwriter in the rock and pop genre.  I have been to other concerts before but none this big.  This was my first with an international superstar and in London.

With a career over four decades long and several iconic songs, he still has the energy for performing and live concerts and as a fan of rock music, I think he is one of the best rock stars of all time. 

He sang all his staples and my favourites.  Many people got up and danced to the music, which other people found annoying as they then had to stand in order to be able to see the stage.   Luckily the people in front of us remained seated otherwise it would have been a very tiring evening.  

It was a pity that there was no support act; they just had recorded music playing in the background to fill in the gap at the start. It would’ve been better if they got a support act especially as we were waiting for quite a while till Bryan arrived.

I was very familiar with a lot of his songs, so I was able to appreciate the music – Singles like the Summer of 69, Everything I do, I do it for you, and his collaboration with Rod Stewart and Sting – All for love. 

He also sang all his hit singles that I wanted him to like – Have you ever really loved a woman?, Heaven, Please forgive me, Do I have to say the words?, Run to you, Straight from the heart, Here I am.

Due to the high cost of the tickets, we were quite far back in the arena unfortunately.

However there were big screens all around which zoomed in on Bryan, so we didn’t miss anything.

I was absolutely exhilarated after the concert and bought a Bryan Adams CD soon afterwards.

There is a recording of the concert here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p0OW1yb4iI.  I have learnt that you’re never too old to be a great musician.  I am glad he has not retired yet.  Bryan is very talented and his skills of being a composer, songwriter, guitarist, bass player and singer is a winning combination and is probably the reason for his success.

I really love the song they played and that inspired me to buy an album – ‘The Best of Me’.  Interestingly Bryan said that the last time he was in Wembley arena he was the support for Tina Turner a few decades ago! He also said that his two daughters were in the audience as well as his builder!

I really enjoyed the performance and looking at the reaction of the audience around me I’d say that to all the spectators as well. It was past midnight by the time we got home, but really worth it. 

I have been playing summer of 69 at various concerts over the years.  I think I will try and make my own fingerstyle arrangements of some Bryan Adams songs to play at future concerts.   Bryan Adams has inspired me to try and learn bass guitar.  He has a massive new UK tour “Shine the light” planned for 2021, so do try and catch it if you can and the pandemic allows; I would highly recommend it.