Edinburgh return brings my Springsteen story full circle
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| The 1981 River programme |
It’s 42 years since Bruce Springsteen last brought the E Street Band to Scotland’s capital city. That long, long wait will finally end this month. Faith (and patience) surely will be rewarded when he steps out on to the stage at Murrayfield Stadium on May 30.
I’ve never quite figured out why he continually preferred playing Hampden Park in Glasgow on his UK tours. As venues go, it’s the absolute worst, most soul-less place to see a gig - even a Springsteen one.
His music triumphs in spite of the place. So, welcome back to the capital, Boss, it’s been a heck of a long time coming …
I guess the gig brings my own Springsteen story full circle. His 1981 appearance at the Playhouse Theatre in Edinburgh - as part of the original River tour - was my introduction to the Boss.
The concerts were actually planned for March and then rescheduled - my ticket stub still shows the original date. Tickets cost £5.50 or £6 (the 50p presumably being a booking fee. If only charges were as minimal today). I got lucky. I got two freebies.
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| 1981 Playhouse gig advert |
My dad stayed in one of the row of houses right behind the stage door, and occasionally got complimentary tickets to compensate for the disruption caused as bands such as the Stones, the Who and many others - the theatre really was a fabulous live music back in the 1980s - who sucked up so much power the residents struggled to get a decent TV reception, not to mention the dull thud of the bass and drums pounding through their brick walls.
I was 17, still at school, and mentioned to my music teacher at Wester Hailes Education Centre I was off to see the gig. He told me Springsteen would change my life.
Every time I go back to the theatre, whether to see a show or review a show, I still pick out my seat in the stalls - Row Z, Seat 49, about one third back to the left of the stage. Perfect view.
Outside, I was offered £100 for my ticket - an astronomical sum of money to a skinny kid who lived seven floors up in a high rise tower block in a council scheme.
However tempted I was - and I was! - I figured this guy had to be worth seeing.
Four decades on, the memories of the gig are little more than fragmented but still vivid snapshots from an evening which sparked a lifelong love affair with Springsteen’s music that will probably be played as I’m carried out the door in my coffin.
Pre-gig we stood in the foyer waiting for him to finish his soundcheck which, legend has it, took some three hours - effectively a show before the show as he drilled his band one last time.
I can still recall peering through the small square glass windows that led to the stalls, watching as the final checks were done. I can still recall the sonic boom of Clarence Clemons’ sax solo in ‘Independence Day’ which hit me square in the chest and knocked me back into my seat, and the thrill of watching him and Springsteen sliding on their knees across the Playhouse stage.
There’s a memory of Springsteen on top of the piano conducting the crowd, a mass rendition of the first verse of ‘Hungry Heart’ and a rollicking ‘Sherry Darling’, and while much of his music was new to me - and in ‘81, he was relatively unknown in the UK - the sheer power of the performance was captivating, exhilarating and utterly joyous.
After the gig we scuttled down the lane to my dad's house. His garage looked directly on to the stage door. The road had been closed off at either end, but we were able to stand in the garage and watch Springsteen, Federici, Miami Steve, Clarence and the mighty Max Weinberg and company departing with towels around their necks. I still regret not stowing away and forging a new life on E Street. Reckon I could have built on the three chords I knew on the guitar …
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| Springsteen at Hampden |
I’ve seen Springsteen play stadiums across the UK, at Hyde Park and the Olympic Stadium, watched him transform Wembley Arena into a village hall to celebrate the music of Pete Seeger, and sat on the banks of a stream outside the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff listening to him soundcheck ‘Racing In The Streets’ inside the empty stadium on a glorious summer’s evening. It felt like a private performance for an audience of one.
But that very first Playhouse gig stands out among them to this day.
It also led to my article being included in an anthology of fans' memories of Springsteen's gigs from across his career - a genuine thrill to sit and read the book with my small contribution among the hundreds of fans.
There was a postscript too. Writing a newspaper column about the passing of Clemons, a fellow fan got in touch and sent me an MP3 file of that ‘81 gig recorded direct from the mixing desk, and then, last summer, another fan emailed to say she too was there and was actually pulled out of her seat to get up and dance on the Playhouse stage with Springsteen, who gave her a kiss.
She never did track down any photo of the moment, but she still has the t-shirt she wore, and the memory of a precious moment.
Murrayfield marks the start of what I suspect will be his last full scale E Street Band stadium tour in the UK. If it is a farewell, then it’s only right to follow him all the way, so four gigs in three cities, two stadiums and one park beckon this summer.
But seeing him again in my home city, well, that’ll be something extra special.
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