Scintillating Bryan Adams puts Llangollen Eisteddfod on his live concert map

 

                            * Bryan Adams takes the Pavilion stage.

                       * Harmonising with guitarist Keith Scott. Picture:  

                                  * Adams and the band in the spotlight.

Towards the end of his storming set last night Canadian rocker Bryan Adams bellowed at a capacity Pavilion audience: “I didn’t even know this town existed!”

Well, after 90 minutes of sheer vitality and talent which was fully and rowdily appreciated by this local throng he shouldn’t have too much trouble locating Llangollen in future.

Thus ended the first of the eight headline concerts which are bookending the reinvented and rejuvenated Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod between now and July 13.

And it had been a belter from start to finish.

Warming up the audience for the Groover from Vancouver was electro-pop princess Cassyette who had them waving their wine bottles in the air with numbers like the fantastical Petrichor and the nightmarish Dear Goth.

Adams was preceded onto the famous main stage by something the Eisteddfod has surely never seen before – an enormous inflatable drone in the shape of an American car, bearing his name on one side and the title of his song So Happy It Hurts on the other, hovering around above the heads of the crowd.

* The car drone hovers above the crowd. 

* Fans from Canada show off the national flag.

* Excitement builds on the field before the concert.

* Making sure of a good view of the stage.

Some nifty graphics had the man nipping out of a similar car on a big screen behind the stage and into the red glare of actuality.

Then came a procession of hits, each of which had us stamping, cheering, arm waving and hoarsely singing along.

The likes of Kick Ass (he did), Can’t Stop This Thing We Started, Somebody, 18 Till I Die, One Night Love Affair, Please Forgive Me and Take Me Back tumbled out on after another.

There was a modicum of slower stuff with Heaven but it was back up to full blast again with Go Down Rockin’ and It’s Only Love with close assistance from his close guitar associate Keith Scott, no mean rocker himself.      

Adams had been a massive fan and friend of the late, great Tina Turner since he was a youngster, he told us, and that was why he included a rousing tribute to the Queen of Rock in the shape of her famous Simply the Best and What’s Love Got To Do With It?

It was with rockabilly smash You Belong to Me that the fun really began. Adams informed us that a video cameraman would be touring the crowd seeking out the best dancer who would immediately be shown on the big screen, adding: “And if you can’t dance just twerk!”

The winner was rapidly found in the small shape of an overwhelmed 11-year-old Dylan who was invited up onto the stage to meet the band and be presented with a couple of commemorative drumsticks by man on the skins Pat Steward.

Of course, the set had to include Adams’s massive chart-topper Everything I Do (I Do For You) which provided the theme to the 1991 film Robin Hood. That went down rather well too bringing the phone torches out in force.

As did Summer of ’69, Cuts Like a Knife and When You’re Gone.

Close to the end came a tribute to his 96-year-old mum, Jane, with the song Straight from the Heart.

All too soon Adams himself was gone. But, hopefully, now he knows that Llangollen Eisteddfod exists he will be back before too long.