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		23/09/05 - RICOH ARENA, COVENTRY Review by Steven Stanley: This was a show at the brand new Ricoh Arena in Coventry (new home of Coventry City) ... Bryan was the first artist ever to play there. He even got the new bar in the banqueting suite named after him!...'The Bryan Adams Bar', which looks over the football pitch. Being only an hour away from my home I had to go... the show was on Friday night and I setoff for Coventry Thursday afternoon to meet the fellow baddies. Met Kat and picked her up from the train station in the afternoon and drove to the Arena/Football Stadium. The trucks were already there from Antwerp and the mainbase of the stage was in place. Anyway we decided to kill sometime and check into a hotel to wait for Richard, Chelsey and Karl who were also coming. On our way there, there was lots of smoke pouring across the road... when we looked what it was the old football stadium was ablaze! Many fans coming into Coventry listening to the radio station that the Coventry City Stadium was on fire were panicking thinking that it was the new stadium and the show would be off! Around midnight Rich and Chelsey arrived at the hotel straight from Scotland, shortly followed by Karl. We grabbed our gear and headed down the to venue to start queuing about 12.30am... why we went that early I have no idea. It was kinda cool though because it was a really warm night and we were all just having a laugh... the security guys couldn't believe fans were here this early! Liz came next, followed by Jess a few hours later and before we knew it there were 30 odd people there about 8am. Karl kept people entered all day with his guitar... he was playing any BA song on request! The queue was moved by security to just outside the North stand later on in the morning and before we knew it everybody was let inside at midday to start queuing from there again. An hour before we were let into the Arena there were 100's and 100's of people inside the North stand... the queuing was mayhem and many people were arguing. People who had turned up early during the morning had been numbered, but this was hard to do when more people came so people who had just turned up were wondering why they had to stand at the back of the queue. All very silly really... we were first in the queue anyway and myself, Karl and Chelsey even got taken aside by the radio station 'Mercia FM' for an interview! Questions asked included: When did you start queuing? Where are you from? What was it like camping out? What were we sleeping? ...plus 2 excellent questions: So are u fans of bryan? Do you want to touch him? (to which I replied 'hell no'!) We returned to the front of the queue after our 5 minutes of fame anyway, constantly being videoed and stuff because we were the first members of the public to ever go into the new arena. It was kinda cool! We finally got let in at 6pm and myself, Karl, Kat and Rich all got front row centre, with Chelsey and Liz opting for a spot under Keith's mike. It took bloody ages for Nick Hall to come onstage, but he finally did around 8pm. He had a very good voice and standout songs for me were 'The Game' and 'Marathon'. The lead guitarist 'Johnny Blaze' looked like a shy guy who has been encouraged by someone to build on his stage presence though. He was just following these instructions:! 1. Point at the crowd when the singer says "you" 2. Point at yourself when the singers says "me/I" 3. Close your eyes and hold your guitar up to look like your playing with feeling 4. Open your arms up when the singers says "why" 5. Most importantly, wave your foot when the singers says "shoes" The guy was a good guitarist though and it didn't detract from the bands performance... it was just kinda strange to watch him. The turnaround getting BA's gear setup was very quick and Bryan hit the stage just before 9pm with the usual awesome 'Room Service' that got the Ricoh rocking. 'Somebody' (also using the 'Room Service guitar as with the first song) followed and then came 'Open Road'. This was quite funny because Bryan didn't play the harmonica solo when he should have during the song, instead he kept strumming the rhythm guitar to the tune the harmonica normally supplies, before finally getting out the harmonica for a quick go! It was great to hear '18 Til I Die' and 'Let's Make A Night To Remember' as usual... 'Can't Stop This Thing We Started' was cool because Karl got to go onstage and stop the song! He got some of Mickey's drumsticks too! 'Kids Wanna Rock' provided some awesome guitar work by both Bryan and Keith. Keith has a new solo part where he plays a tune and the crowd sing it back to him.... genious idea and just awesome to see! 'Back To You' was great during the bounce which we started and Bryan recognised this and got everyone going even more. A nice setlist change... 'Run To You' was played next in place of '69, followed by 'Everything I Do' and 'Cuts Like A Knife'. Then just after 'Cuts' upon Bryans announcement of "that was great singin' folks... but I need someone to help me sing this next song..." Karl asked me if I wanted to go for a pint! It was blatantly a option worth considering but we decided to hold out til the cheesefest was over. It was quite funny when Bryan picked the WYGG though. Went for the typical choice... comments of "dirty old bastard!" were heard throughout the frontrow lol. The WYGG's name was Suzanne and she wasn't too confident at first but she got into it and did ok in the end! Bryan was gutted when she said she had come with her boyfriend! "You've come with WHO???" was his reply he repeated several times! Next up was a song I've been waiting to hear for years... 'All I Want Is You'. Keith's solo was slightly shorter than I would have liked but it was still cool... he sang the second verse as well which was good. 'I'm Ready' was nice with an added harmonica touch and 'It's Only Love' had the best Keith solo I've ever seen yet. He was turning the guitar upside down onstage, throwing it up to the rafters then carrying on with the solo, playing it off the guitar amps to get feedback, playing off the cameras and so much more... he was immense. 'The Only Thing' provided lots of crowd interaction as always and was probably the best overall song in the set for me. 'Cloud #9' was a poor opener for an encore again.... about time you ditched it Bryan it's getting old..... but full rock '69 next up was classic! The Best Of Me was the same as usual with Bryan coming down to the fans. He first tried to take a picture of me and Karl with Karls camera but didnt know how to work it! He then came back to us later and tried mine but missed his face!... while at the same time Kat was under his top licking his chest... 'dirty old bastard' indeed! 'Straight From The Heart' with the harmonica was the best slow song of the night as always which was followed by 'Why Do You Have To Be So Hard To Love' with Bryan on acoustic and Gary on piano. It added that extra nice touch and it was very nice to listen to. 'All For Love' was next followed by the acoustic 'Room Service' as per usual. Overall it was a good show with Bryan and Keith having a lot of interaction with the crowd...which ultimately made the show what it was. The band though were not as tight as they could have been and '69 and even 'Run To You' were played slightly slow. Also a few mistakes like on the opening of 'The Only Thing' which was totally messed up! A couple of people complained about the sound but in my experience if you stand under a speaker stack at any BA show it's always loud in exactly the same way, and in my opinion the louder the better... BA certainly woke up Coventry! Setlist: Room Service Somebody 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 Run To You Everything I Do Cuts Like A Knife When You’re Gone (with Suzanne) All I Want Is You Heaven I’m Ready It’s Only Love The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You Cloud #9 Summer Of '69 The Best Of Me Straight From The Heart Why Do You Have To Be So Hard To Love All For Love Room Service (Acoustic)

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