It was 32 years ago this week that Bryan Adams stepped onto the stage at JFK stadium in Philadelphia for the US part of Live Aid, ripping through a set of rock and roll that made many of the other acts that appeared that day seem tame by comparison.
Fast forward to 2017, and it is the setting of Bught Park in Inverness that is home for an outdoor show by the Canadian rocker. It is busy night for what is the final, and only Scottish date, on Adam’s Get Up UK tour, which has taken in other perhaps unusual venues such as the Eden Project in Cornwall.
During a career that spans four decades, it is the combination of wonderful, iconic songs and a truly unique, distinctive voice that has endured. There is a large audience that has turned out in the Highlands to see a rock great.
It’s suits onstage, rather than the white t-shirt and jeans of old, but other than that little has changed at a Bryan Adams show. The set has some nice imagery but it a setting for an artist that does need gimmicks.
Alongside the singer, as he has been from the beginning, is guitarist Keith Scott. He is integral to the sound, providing a sublime masterclass in tasteful rock guitar. Peeling off the riffs and melodies that are the soundtrack to many people’s lives, he is astonishing.
It is not uncommon for some acts to be onstage barely 75 minutes these days, but with such a catalogue of hits it is a hefty 2 hour set that the huge crowd gets. And what a body of work Bryan Adams has. Run To You, When You’re Gone, 18 til I Die, Heaven, Summer of 69, were all aired flawlessly tonight.
Smartphones are becoming as addictive as cigarettes, and last night it was the torches on phones that were held aloft en masse at the end of the show, taking the place of cigarette lighters years ago.
Earlier on in the evening fellow Canadian, Michael Bernard Fitzgerald opened the proceedings. It is never easy opening a big show for someone else, but the singer songwriter delivered a punchy energetic pop rock set that was well received.
As well as the songs themselves, part of the magic of this show was the sheer quality and strength of Bryans Adam’s live vocals. At 57 he still has that astonishing power and tone that resonates with people.
Rather like Sting and Bowie, it is a voice that is instantly recognisable. An encore of Brand New Day, some 50’s rock and roll classics and big ballad, All For Love and he was gone. Rather like Live Aid all those years ago, this was not the sort of show you see very often. Tremendous.
