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24/10/04 - HALLAM FM ARENA,
SHEFFIELD Review
by Steven Stanley
...so,
after seeing Bryan in 5 or 6 different countries and numorous cities since his
last visit to my hometown, he finally returns to rock the steel city. It
was a loooooong drive back from Newcastle during the early hours of the morning
and Adrian, Steph, Helen and Claire all went to queue early while I chose to stay
in bed because I'd had 2 hours sleep in 2 days. I arrived at the arena about 1.30pm
and took my place in the queue fair and square behind Shelley. The day passed
fairly quickly and it was soon time for the doors to open. However Adrian (also
from Sheffield) and Claire still did not have a ticket for the show. In the end
despite all our efforts they could not get tickets and instead went bowling and
had a meal across the road instead of going to the show. Even the touts didn't
have tickets... this place was completely soldout... just like the other shows. Anyway
I quickly took my place back in the queue just before the doors opened and as
it was starting to rain. Then at 6.30pm they opened. I managed to get up the stairs
fairly quickly and skipped past a few people to get to the turnstiles. The bloke
on the turnstile made a mockery of my entrance and slowed everyone in my queue
right down. He couldn't even rip the ticket stub off properly. Anyway I ran down
the corridor and through the 2nd set of security so they could check I had 'Front
Standing' tickets... then down the flight of stairs onto the floor past the 3rd
(yes 3rd!!!) set of security to once again check we had standing tickets and to
take them off us. Once again though I got front row centre smack bang in the middle,
just like the night before in Newcastle. The support
band 'Speedway' were really good again tonight and the more you hear them the
better they get. Songs like 'Juggernaut' really rock out and others like 'Walk
On By', 'Talk To Me' and 'In And Out' get you singing along. They all have a hard
melodic sound to them just like Bryan's music and I will definately buy their
CD when I see it. 
Bryan
came onstage to a big steel city welcome anyway and kicked out 'Room Service',
'Open Road' and '18 Til I Die' first off before slowing it down with 'Let's Make
A Night To Remember'. This song was funny because someone was holding up some
underwear and Bryan shouted jokingly at them to put it away! 'Kids
Wanna Rock' was simply awesome. It was the best version I have heard them done
in ages and was scaled up to the Manchester and Newcastle version. First it started
off with Bryan showing off on a guitar solo... he then handed the spotlight to
Keith who did one. Then the spotlight turned on Bryan again and he really went
for it and ended with an aggressive ending on the final strum (which made everyone
laugh because he was trying to show off!) The spotlight then went on Keith and
he just launched into a mind bending guitar solo. Bryan must have realised he
wouldn't beat that and his next solo was the intro to the song. Mid-song they
had another guitar battle and Bryan (yes Bryan!) even used the mike stand to ade
him while Keith used the cameraman's camera (Bryan later copied that move in 'The
Only Thing'!) 
Bryan
told us that today he started off in Newcastle... then straight down to Manchester
to watch the Man Utd v Arsenal game (Man Utd won 2-0) and then to Sheffield! He
played 'Back To You' as well and dedicated it to Elliot Kennedy who he wrote that
song and many many others with. Co-incidently I used to live near Elliot and I
even went to the same school as him and had the same music teacher! Small world
eh! The WYGG was good... she seemed nervous but she
had a good personality and sang quite well. Her name was Sarah from Doncaster
and she had come with her family... they seemed chuffed to bits she was onstage.
Talking about family my Mum and Dad were sat in the arena as well... they probably
saw me on the big screen during 'The Best Of Me' again as Bryan came up to us
again. Good job I'm not into pinching his bum like Steph hehe. A
3 song acoustic set ended the show... the guys keep getting better each night.
Great show. Afterwards Bryan left straight away with
Elliot Kennedy, however we did manage to see Keith and Gary. I have only met Gary
once before but he remembered me as soon as I saw him which I wasn't expecting.
He says he has visited this place as well and liked the pictures etc from the
Stoke show that I last saw him at... very nice bloke, look forward to chatting
to him again. Keith was nice as always as well. Sheffield was rocked tonight...
come back soon guys! Setlist:
Room Service
Open
Road
18 Til I Die
Let's Make A Night To Remember
Can't Stop This Thing
We Started
Kids Wanna Rock
Back To You
Summer Of '69
Everything I
Do
Cuts Like A Knife
When You're Gone (with Sarah from Doncaster)
Not
Romeo Not Juliet
Heaven
It's Only Love
The Only Thing That Looks Good
On Me Is You
Cloud #9
Run To You
The Best Of Me
Flying
All For
Love
Straight From The Heart Special
thanks to Val for selling me her ticket for this show. Review
by Maria Heutz:
After we had a relaxed Saturday we arrived at half past 10
at the Arena. On Friday we had decided to try to come to the left side of the
stage. Moya had phoned the Arena to be sure where to wait for this. She was told
to wait at the bottom of the steps next to the red doors. First we went to the
red doors and there were already 4 fans waiting, two of them since half past four.
After a short chat we went down the stairs and started queuing.
It took a while until the next people arrived. We had a walk around and found
the lorries but there was no chance to go closer. A Security man was already there
and wouldn’t let us through.
Back at our places Adrian went by and asked
if anyone had spare tickets. Nobody had one for him but we promised to give him
a shout if anyone offered to sell us tickets.
On the other side of the Arena
– at the blue doors – there was another queue (including Carol who we
had met at Hull. At Hull, Carol showed us sketches she had made of Bryan and they
were fantastic. She tried to give him these on that day but couldn’t.) These
lucky people waited in the sunshine but our side was in the shadow and rather
cold and windy. In the afternoon Moya and I sat down next to the arena in a protected
corner and relaxed for a while in the sunshine. This was really warm and nice.
We felt our bodies become warm again and got of course “red” faces from
the sun. After Friday with the never-ending rain and Saturday with showers the
weather actually wasn’t that bad. Unfortunately at five it began to rain
again, a violent shower which fortunately soon stopped. So we were able to take
the umbrellas back to the car which was parked nearby. Suddenly the doors opened
and caught us by surprise. We had to climb up the stairs which wasn’t easy
because people behind us tried to push in (and succeeded). Inside the lady wasn’t
able to read my ticket and needed a rather long moment to examine it. I think
this was because they had to check whether the tickets were front or back standing.
Finally I got through and came to the stairs down to the floor. There followed
another quick check of my ticket and my ticket was taken away. I ran as fast as
I could down the steps trying to keep an eye on Moya because she was behind me.
We made it to the front on the left side. Once again people who came later than
us had better places. This is what always happened, mostly queuing doesn’t
necessarily give you the success you would expect but we were quiet satisfied
with our places.
Speedway was better than in Manchester. The mixing of music
and Jill’s voice was perfect and they sounded very well.
Bryan came on
stage and as he did in Manchester he began with Room service, followed by Open
Road and 18 til I die. During Let’s make a night to remember a woman held
her knickers in the air. Don’t remember what was written on it. I later saw
some comments on it in the internet (that it was underwear never worn etc.) but
don’t remember where it was. The setlist was exactly the same as in Manchester.
Kids wanna rock was one of my highlights. I never heard him perform this song
in such a rock version. Brilliant and the crowd were so in it! Before Bryan played
Back to you he looked around searching for Elliot Kennedy who was in the audience
but he couldn’t spot him. They wrote this song together and Bryan dedicated
Back to you to him. Also Bryan mentioned that he had arrived at the Arena from
Manchester where he had watched the football game United against Arsenal. The
day before he had played in Newcastle, so he had come to Sheffield from Newcastle
and then gone back to Manchester to watch the game. He then returned to Sheffield
for the gig. By the way what about Chelsea? Isn’t he a fan of this team anymore?
Is it because this club is now under this Russian oil millionaire who brings this
club more and more into money and big business than into football?
The man
next to me was nearly always yelling out: “Bryan rock!!” So once Bryan
asked him something like “What do you want? We are doing good singing!”
For When you’re gone Bryan choose a girl named Sarah. She seemed so nervous
and excited that she was giggling nearly all the time. After The only thing that
looks good on me is you Bryan and the band left the stage for the first time.
Once again only tall people are able to catch Mickey’s drumsticks. Soon they
came back and during The best of me Bryan came closer and closer. I touched his
hand, held it and stretched out my arm as long as possible. Moya later told me
that she was disappointed because she couldn’t touch his hand. She didn’t
notice that it was me who made this impossible for her. It was my fault but I
didn’t feel sorry nor really regret it as you can imagine (sorry Moya). (OK
Maria!!) These chances are too rare so you have to take them when they come. This
time he had warm hands. Last time when I touched him he hadn’t. When Bryan
returned to the stage he poured water over his hands to rinse them! So who of
you had these sticky fingers? I never saw Bryan this doing before.
This was
the end of the show for the band. Bryan’s plectrum fell into the gap and
nobody could catch it. Later after the concert when the lights came on, a Security
man retrieved it and gave it to one of the men next to me. Bryan came back for
a second encore. He once again dedicated it to the soldiers in Iraq and played
his acoustic guitar. Flying was awesome again. It gives me the creeps. All for
love is a great song too and with Straight from the heart the man is always telling
us that he is giving everything to us straight from his heart.
Something really
good happened then. Someone threw Carol’s sketches on to the stage, because
Carol couldn’t reach. Bryan picked them up and looked at them and asked who
had done the drawings. Carol shouted out and he thanked her and said they were
sweet drawings. This was a great way for Carol to end her concert. She spoke to
us after and was so very excited. It was a wonderful experience for her. She said
she hoped he wouldn’t throw them into the bin. I am sure this would never
happen, they were really, really good drawings.
We met Adrian after the gig,
and he never found a ticket. There were only seating ones available and he didn’t
want these. Instead of the show he had a chat to BA before the gig. So he wasn’t
too disappointed. He told us Bryan had already gone with Elliot Kennedy. So Moya
and I left and went back home.
The next day was my flight back home and now
we are looking forward to Bryan’s concert in Frankfurt in December. Than
it is Moya’s turn to fly over and of course we will give you a review of
the show again, maybe with some photos. The ones I took in Sheffield are still
in the camera. The film isn’t full yet but Frankfurt will be a good reason
to do the rest. | 
