Bryan Adams performing his Get Up Tour at The Motorpoint Arena Nottingham on Thursday 28th April 2016


Images and Review by Kevin Cooper

Bryan Adams and his band are getting on a bit now, but not that you would know it from their energy levels, which lasted throughout a two hour, thirty song set at The Motorpoint Arena Nottingham last night, to promote their 13th studio album, Get Up.

Arriving on stage a little late, the star, accompanied by his trusty band and guitar maestro Keith Scott kicked things off with Do What You Gotto Do. Adams has so many great songs in his catalogue that he doesn’t need to save the big hits to the end, so Can’t Stop This Thing We Started, Run To You and the emotional 1985 single, Heaven with its thousands strong sing along lit up by flickering mobile phone torches, all came within the first half an hour.

Relaxed and chatty throughout, Adams informed this raucous crowd as he introduced his sassy new song Go Down Rockin’ that they were not to worry as all of his old favourites would be given an airing, and he did not disappoint.

Summer Of ’69 was raunchier live than it is in the recorded version, accompanied by footage on giant video display screens that included crash zooms into a naked woman’s crotch. There was an incredible acoustic version of When You’re Gone; the song that he recorded with Melanie C, before the song that perhaps he is most famous for (Everything I Do) I Do It For You induced a mass sing along.

There was even time for a young lady to be picked out from the audience to produce a rather bluesy and entertaining dancing set to If Ya Wanna Be Bad Ya Gotta Be Good, much to the delight of the crowd.

The main part of the set was more rockier with Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman, and 18 Till I Die, which gave way to set closer, The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You; all showing that Adams is still at the top of his game. His voice was effortless and faultless throughout and his guitar playing equally so. Seeing Adams along with Scott running up and down the stage like two maniacs, singing into each other’s microphone with beaming smiles, just shows how much they both still enjoy it.

Then we were treated to a six song encore which included fabulous acoustic versions of She Knows Me and the hopelessly romantic Straight From The Heart. There was also a corking cover of Eddie Cochran’s C’Mon Everybody which had the Arena jumping around before it segued into Elvis Presley’s All Shook Up.

Adams could not have left the stage without the mass sing along All For Love, which brought this outstanding concert to an end. From crowd pleasing stadium anthems to appealing ballads, it is hard to imagine that anyone went home unhappy. This supremely talented singer song writer showed his unique ability to speed things up and then bring it all back down to a snail’s pace within minutes, and it just works.

Thirteen albums in, you would say that Bryan Adams was back on form, but then on last night’s performance, he has never really lost it. In a world where the music industry is saturated with manufactured bands and artists, musicians like Bryan Adams are a rare breed and are worth every penny that you pay to see them.

All in all, an absolute delight.