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15/06/03 - SEACLOSE PARK, NEWPORT,
ISLE OF WIGHT Review by Steven
Stanley : After a think me and Adrian decided to check what time the 'seacat' sailed across to the Isle Of Wight. To get to this you had to go to the train station and we needed to know what time this opened. We were greeted by homeless people and drunken wierdos who were smashing up the train station entrance! We eventually found out of some rough taxi drivers that it first went at 6.00am or something like that. So we went to park the car in a carpark nearby for the pricey sum of £20! From there we went to the train station again where the drunks were being questioned by the police. Adrian mentioned he had seen them pulling the plastic off the entrance and the police got involved. He wouldn't go to the station to give a statement because we were gonna see BA so told the officer he didn't see anything...it was soooo funny! We went to buy our ferry tickets anyway (surprising they let us have any with Adrian calling them interbreeding wierdos etc etc!). Soon enough we were on the ferry watching a safety video....see Adrian acting out the safety video below!
Soon enough we were on the Isle Of Wight in a town called 'Ryde' or something...we had to walk down this long pier which took ages. First of all we saw a one legged pigeon (or so we thought!) and then the first human life we see on the island was a drunken man talking some crap. Welcome to the Isle Of Wight everyone! To make things worse the guy got his dick out too which was soooo funny! Anyway soon enough we got on a bus for Newport where the gig was being held...it cost £2.50 each...Adrian made a point of only wanting to go to Newport not buy it! During our bus journey several more wierd people got on as well! Upon our arrival we were greeted at the bus station by a wannabe USA Army officer eyeing us up as the evil enemy and a McDonalds playing YMCA music or something full blast when it wasn't even open! We saw signs for the 'Rock Festival' so we decided to walk to it...although some signs refered to it as the 'Cock Festival' (see picture with Adrian somewhere on the right!). So we eventually arrived at the venue after a long walk and went to see who was queuing...there were only 2 people there...Deb and Christy. The day was really hot already and Adrian wished he had brought some shorts and proceeded to tell everybody about how his parts were 'chaffing'! (we had to get a taxi into town later on in the day to buy him some shorts!) We walked over to the leisure centre a couple of hours later at 9.00am ish and bought our tickets for £30 each. Soon enough the gates opened (me and Adrian didn't bother reclaiming our space at the front of the queue because we just ran past everybody when the gates opened anyway....everyone walked!). We got the mickey taken out of us by non BA fans but we didn't care because we got there first and got the best places anyway! Adrian had got a banner saying something like 'seeing as you won't give me your guitar I have brought my own!'....and he had a blow up plastic guitar! (It got a smile from Keith anyway!) The day was really really hot and it was making us feel all ill it was that bad. Also you didn't want to drink too much incase you needed the toilet on the build up to BA.....he wasn't due on for 12 HOURS!!! The wait was long and gruesome and the support containing THE shittest bands I have EVER seen. 'The Ravonettes' for starters were fucking awful.....sweet jesus christ. Also 'Hells For Heroes' sucked too. Everyone was getting injured near the front row when they came on and the lead singer thought it was good and incited the trouble causers even more....there were little kids getting hurt too. The last straw was when he came up to the barrier and tried to get in the crowd which caused pandemonium. I just smacked him in the balls...he came back for more on the barrier and I shoved him off again...the security didn't stop me because they thought he was a nobhead...and he was! Another awful band. 'The Darkness' weren't that bad I didn't think and as one badfan said she thought they were either pure genious or insanely awful! Interesting to say the least! 'Counting Crows' got some parts of the crowd going but not much...to say they were introduced as the best 'rock' (rock my ass) band in the USA they were crap too. All the songs sounded the same...thats my opinion anyway, I thought they would never go away.
Eventually a festival organiser or somebody came onstage to introduce Bryan and on the band came too a hugh roar from the crowd! The difference in noise from the support acts was so clear to see....with Bryan using 5 times more speaker power! The opening song was of course 'Here I Am' which the crowd seemed to love. Next up was '18 Til I Die' during which BA and Keith didn't do the customary leap in the middle but nevermind! 'Let's Make A Night To Remember' was really cool to hear again, I never get fedup of hearing it. I remember thinking when he was playing that song that it was well worth all the hassle to get here...it really was. After the song he said that they had to wrap things up by 11.00pm because there was a curfew so they would try and pack in as many songs as possible in one and a half hours! Next up though something happened that totally surpassed any of my expectations really. The heavy bass line kicked in for 'Can't Stop This Thing We Started' and the band really did a storming version of the song. At the end of the song BA started to end the song like normal shouting 'I Can't Stop It, I Can't Stop It!' then the band got ready to end it...then BA shouted it again 'I Can't Stop It, I Can't Stop It!'...he proceeded to thrash his guitar looking around the band asking each member if they could stop it because he couldn't! Then he looked at me and I pointed at myself and said 'I'll stop it!'....he said 'you'll stop it?'....'yeah I'll stop it!'. He then wandered around for a bit while still thrashing his guitar and said 'you'll stop it?'.....back to me again 'yeah i'll stop it'....man this interaction with BA was unreal! I tried to stop it from the barrier or something stupid and instead he gave me the wink to COME ONSTAGE AND STOP IT!!!!! I was totally zoned for a second thinking to myself....'DID BRYAN ADAMS JUST INVITE ME ON THE MAIN-STAGE?!!' Then reality check with Adrian yelling at me 'go on Steve son go for it get your fucking ass onstage!'....no worry mate don't need to ask me twice...within a spilt second I was over the barrier! But no sooner had my second foot touched the floor I was rugby tackled by security guards! They started to cart me off and eject me or whatever and I was like 'get the fuck off me you wanker!'...Bryan walked over to my side of the stage slightly yelling at them telling them to bring me back. Eventually 'Toe' the roadie (Toe if you ever read this thankyou soooo much!) came to my rescue in his shorts and Hawaii shirt just like Magnum P.I. and got the security guards off me! I just ran for the stage and climbed up (nearly pulling off the video camera tracks in the process!) and eventually got onstage! I got off my knees and stood up...and there was Bry...sunburst strat in hand! Was this cool or was this cool! The band was still thrashing the guitars waiting for me to stop the song (must have been the longest version of 'Can't Stop' ever played!) so Bryan gave me the nod and I counted down '1, 2..........' and on 3 and did a big jump infront of Mickey's drums and when I hit the ground the song came to a crashing end! After that Bryan gave me a high five and I patted him on the back and thanked him for bringing me up. It was amazing up there with the crowd cheering and everything....it was probably the best feeling I have ever had it was so cool it really was.
I jumped off the stage anyway and got back to my place front row. Bryan told the security guards that they would have to keep an eye out for him doing that kinda stuff again because he might be doing more things like that throughout the show! Bless him! Anyway next off he kicked off with 'Back To You'....a storming song after just being onstage and it was good because the festival ground really played up to the bouncing part in the middle and it was just amazing! After that the crowd went wild for 'Summer Of '69'...and just after he said 'me and my baby in a 69'......he shouted 'now thats a story right there' then kicked into some guitar bashing! Was awesome! Next up was 'It's Only Love'....Keith's solo outstanding once more....this time he used a bottle of Heineken to help him with his solo!!! Keith is definately the best guitar player in the world! Next up was 'Everything I Do' and it was funny during the intro to this song because he said Gary (keyboardist) couldn't join in because it was acoustic...he said he could come in halfway through though! Next up was a very unique version of 'Cuts Like A Knife'....halfway through the song BA and Keith sat down on the speakers infront of the crowd and played guitars on their knees like 2 little school kids messing about! Even the crowd interaction part of this song was all done from sitting down on the speakers.....right infront of me....amazing! At one point Bryan had the guitar flat on his knee and was just touching it once in a while to make different sounds!
After that Bryan got a girl up called Lindsey from Scarborough to do 'When You're Gone'....she was cool. She upstaged Bry by dedicating the song to her husband and said she had 'I'm Ready' and 'When You Love Someone' played at her wedding or something. She also thought Bryan wouldn't know where Scarborough was but he did and had definately heard of it...quite surprising but then again he does live in England afterall! Lindsey did a good job anyway and Bryan was funny when he said he needed the words to the song and wouldn't let her look at them! Next Bryan gave a speech which went something like this "This is my first visit to the Island but I used to swap letters many years ago with a girl pen pal who lived here. We had something going for a while (cheers from the audience at that point!) Unfortunately we lost contact. I didn't write back but I did write a song in her memory!!.". He went on to say: "So, if you are here, I'm sorry!" 'Please Forgive Me'!!! He did a short sweet version of the song which this time really did sound like it was sung for somebody, somewhere on that island. Kinda wierd but kinda sweet too. The upbeat acoustic 'Heaven' followed which the younger audience members loved to bits due to the recent dance remix. Then Bryan came to the front of the stage and did a long rousing solo intro to 'Somebody'.....it's so good to see BA back on a strat! Then after that my favourite live song 'The Only Thing'....this really blew everyone away and it was funny when Bryan put a wheelie bin to good use during the song! He ended the song on the high speakers at the front and stood there. He said that normally they would go off for a encore but he wanted to cram as many songs in as possible so he would stay on. It was from up there on the speakers that he started 'Cloud #9' with everybody waving their arms in the air! Soon after came the long drumbeat of 'Run To You' with an amazing energetic version just like the 'So Far So Good Tour'...many of the songs were like this tonight and Bryan was in the best mood I have ever seen. He was certainly well up for the gig tonight no question...and if I could have got time off work I would certainly be off to see more of him in Portugal the following days after. One final song was of course 'The Best Of Me' in which Bryan came down to the front row to shake everybodys hands etc which was cool. After Bryan left the stage there was a massive firework display just like at the Slane Castle gig....it was really nice. Afterwards I was greeted by some other badfans like Mandy, Val and Tina who thought it was good I got onstage and stuff. Me and Adrian went straight for a burger and while we were eating it we saw Bryan leave in a black 4x4 Land Rover. What a gig. We got in a taxi about an hour later and managed to make the last ferry across the to mainland for just after 1.00am. After that the rest is a blur and I didn't get home while 9.00am Monday morning. I went to sleep all day...the first sleep I had got since the previous Thursday (no kidding!). Even with the short setlist and no b-stage that was probably the best gig I have ever been to...not just because I got onstage again....but because Bryan and the band showed a renewed enthusiasm for performing live again which was out of this world...they really do get better everytime. Whats nice as well is that the people taking the Mickey out of us for running for the front row of a Bryan Adams show were left standing with their jaws open in amazement at the end. Plain and simple....BA rocks.
Setlist: |
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® 2003 18 Til I Die.co.uk. All rights
reserved.
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< I say thanks to Bry!
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Read the Wave 105FM interview here go>
Photos by Steven Stanley and Tina.
Bry and Keith put a wheelie bin to good use!
Bryan shows the Isle Of Wight what a rock festival should really be about!
Adrian gets ready to go into the 'cock festival'!
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BA and Keith doing 'Cut's Like A Knife' sat down on the speakers!
"And thats all!"
'Sod it guys let's start the encores from up here!'
'C'mon everybody get your hands in the air for 'Cloud #9!'
More pictures will be added soon like the ones Val has of me onstage....but if you have any at all PLEASE send them to me!