ShareBryan Adams performing his Roll With The Punches Tour at The Motorpoint Arena Nottingham on Saturday 17th May 2025.
Review by Kevin Cooper
Bryan Adams was back at the Motorpoint Arena on Saturday night to celebrate the forthcoming release in August of his seventeenth album, Roll With The Punches and as usual got a capacity crowd rocking from the off.
He is undoubtedly one of music’s most underrated guitarists and for this performance he was joined by guitarist Keith Scott, drummer Pat Steward and Gary Breit on keyboards. Adams often changes between bass and guitar and Saturday night was no exception. As he stood below a giant silver boxing glove to open with the album’s title track, which was a punchy number with an addictive beat and stabbing guitars, the crowd knew that they were in for a treat.
Following up with a couple of songs from his seminal Reckless album, Run To You and Somebody which had everyone on their feet, where they stayed for the massive hit 18 Til I Die, before he delivered a set list of classics from that album and the many albums that followed, with a few curious diversions along the way.
He delivered the adorable ballad Cloud Number Nine which saw him getting a little ambience before following up with the brisk Make Up Your Mind which ot the pulse racing. Turning once again to Reckless Adams opts to play Heaven largely acoustic with the crowd singing along before the band intervened to bring it to a heady climax, which was followed with a fitting tribute to the late Tina Turner with It’s Only Love telling the crowd that it was her patronage that helped him break into the international market.
There was a suitably raucous cover of Twist And Shout and You Belong To Me which saw a cameraman on stage capturing the best dancers amongst the crowd. Following the storming Arena rocker, Can’t Stop This Thing We Started which saw the audience trade dancing for singing before Adams took an emotional moment to dedicate Please Forgive Me to his late mother before rocking out the Arena with Go Down Rockin’.
Armed only with a harmonica, Shine A Light saw mobile phones lighting up the Arena before a gorgeously acoustic rendition of Here I Am silenced the crowd. Upping the tempo for a rousing cover of Whiskey In The Jar before another duo of acoustic songs, When You’re Gone and Have You Ever Really Love A Woman? saw Scott break out the Spanish guitar.
Adams’ strong vocals are evident as he carried off that trademark gravelly sound that allows him to switch so effortlessly from real rocking songs to the slower numbers which showcased the range at his disposal. Returning back to rock on the brilliantly ludicrous The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You which sounded immense and allowed for a brief engaging drum solo from Steward. It was followed by a similarly brisk Never Ever Let You Go which found the stage lit like a fairground to match the video on the massive screen behind him.
There were a couple of audience requests, Do I Have To Say The Words? and Kids Wanna Rock which set the Arena alight. Saving his big hits for the end, (Everything I Do) I Do It For You which had the crowd singing the words at full blast, Adams brought it home in the final straight with Back To You, a brilliant So Happy It Hurts, a raucous Summer of ’69 and an extended version of Cuts Like A Knife, each deployed with ballistic roof-shaking power.
There were some great crowd moments as a camera often panned the crowd and showed the video on the screen behind him, and at the end rather than leave the stage, Adams and his band took a quick bow before launching into Frankie Valli’s Can’t Take My Eyes Off You which for many, indicated the end of the show.
But not so as Adams grabbed his acoustic guitar, walked to the B stage and delivered Straight From The Heart, and the song that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, All For Love. Having delivered a thirty song strong set Adams showed that there is still plenty of life in the veteran showman and with him still filling Arenas, he shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.
