50 years on and Bruce is still the king of rock ’n’ soul
Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band
Principality Stadium, Cardiff
Touring until July 27
★★★★★
Dionne Warwick
Cheltenham Jazz Festival
Touring until July 6
★★★★★
Cardiff is the first stop on Bruce Springsteen’s European tour and it feels as if the whole city is excited. A pub pumps out a sax solo by The Boss’s late lamented soulmate, Clarence Clemons.
A busker plays a tune that may conceivably be Dancing In The Dark. A burly man outside the chippy suddenly sings, ‘Well,
I got Mary pregnant’. And
60,000 people file into a stadium on a damp Sunday night.
It’s nearly 50 years since Born To Run made Springsteen a superstar. If he releases an album now, it’s only medium-sized news. But when he comes to town he still makes waves – and more so this time, as he’s just recovered from a peptic ulcer.
When he appears at 7pm sharp, two things strike you. He looks well, indecently so for a 74-yearold, and he means business. His face glows not just with tinted moisturiser but with a steely resolve. He will perform for three hours and the energy will never flag.
Around him, the E Street Band are drilled and driven. They always were bigger than most bands, with six or seven members. Now there are
18 of them, bringing extra depth to that full, warm sound.
Springsteen calls it simply rock ’n’ roll, but his brand of music is more like rock ’n’ soul. Three guitars supply the power, while four backing singers and five horns add a sumptuous tenderness.
No two of his fans would choose the same set list, and his own selection can be surprising. Even his latest compilation (Best Of Bruce Springsteen, ★★★★) finds room for some filler.
In Cardiff he spurns most of his greatest ballads, from Streets Of Philadelphia to
Independence Day and Racing In The Street.
If I Was The Priest, a wordy old thing from 1972 making a belated European debut, can’t fill those gaps.
But it barely matters because the best bits of the show are unbeatable. Early on, No Surrender and Prove It All Night get the goosebumps going.
In the middle, Hungry Heart releases the endorphins and The River targets the tear ducts. At the end, an extended encore homes in on your whole being.
It begins with Born In The USA, which lifts the fans out of their seats. Then there’s Born To Run, to make them feel five emotions at once, Bobby Jean, to give them a hug, Dancing In The Dark, to give them a buzz, Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out, to keep them cooking, and Twist And Shout, to take them to fever pitch.
Springsteen can be hammy or, as he confessed in his memoirs, ‘tinged with a bit of fraud’. He makes out that the band have never played If I Was The Priest before, when they actually rehearsed it at the soundcheck. But there’s nothing fake about his determination to put on a show. He is the master of stadium stagecraft – and a very good advert for a peptic ulcer.
At the Cheltenham Jazz Festival the main attraction was Dionne Warwick. She’s 83 now and her glorious voice has half-gone. Thankfully the half that survives is still riveting, and she still has her regal presence. Hearing her sing Walk On By is like visiting a beautiful ruined church.