Magic in the night

The final night of Bruce Springsteen’s seven-date “barnstorming” tour of Europe to promote The Rising coincided with the worst storms to hit Britain in years. With an audience made up of mainly hardcore fans, many who’d paid astronomical sums for tickets on the black market, tonight was always going to be a celebratory, even evangelical occasion. Few could have expected it to be this good. Just as the winds died down outside the cavernous Wembley Arena, an even bigger storm whipped up inside as the lights went down and 15,000 souls of the faithful bayed “Bruuuuuccce” in unison. From the moment he exploded onstage with the title track from The Rising, to the dying notes of ‘Thunder Road’ almost three hours later it was the kind of vintage performance that would have converted the sceptical and provided comfort for the true believers.

Anyone, who had doubts about the new album saw them swept away in an instant although some of the songs now have markedly different arrangements to the recorded versions. The chilling ‘Empty Sky’ was performed acoustically with Patti Scialfa (Mrs Springsteen) on haunting harmonies; ‘You’re Missing’ was fleshed out more effectively while ‘The Fuse’ has grown into a powerful piece, with the driving rhythms and crunching guitars reaching a deafening crescendo.

The Rising may have been inspired by 9/11 but the central message is one of hope and redemption – lighter moments came with, ‘Waiting On A Sunny Day’ a jaunty Motown-like pop number which has supplanted ‘Hungry Heart’ as a singalong crowd pleaser.

During the tour which kicked off in the USA in August, Springsteen has been pulling out unexpected gems from the glory days. Tonight, the faithful were rewarded with a super-tight, ‘Jackson Cage’, one of the best songs from The River and an even rarer, ‘Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street’ from his debut, Greetings From Asbury Park NJ. But the highlight for many was undoubtedly a rendition of the gorgeously nostalgic ‘Incident on 57th Street’ with Bruce solo at the piano and the crowd joining in on the chorus: “Good night, it’s all right Jane I’ll meet you tomorrow night on lovers lane.”

Thousands of clenched fists punched the air to the chorus of ‘Badlands’ the only number performed from Darkness On The Edge Of Town and from Born To Run came two more rarely performed gems – ‘She’s The One’ with its Bo Diddley beat and pleading chorus, followed by the urgent street opera of ‘Night’ – both numbers re-energised and still vital.

“Are you ready for a house party?” screamed The Boss before launching into an elongated ‘Mary’s Place’ which saw him leaping onto Roy Bittan’s piano before he introduced the “Rededicated” E-Street Band, climaxing with the big man Clarence Clemons, “The next King of England”.

The lengthy encores included a surprisingly meaty version of his 1980’s hit ‘Dancing In The Dark’ the guitars thankfully replacing the synthesiser textures of the original while ‘Ramrod’ another River staple allowed for some hilarious onstage goofing. And then it came. “One, two, three, four... “In the days we sweat it out on the streets of a runaway American dream.” Few opening lines are as spine-tinglingly evocative - ‘Born To Run’ still sounds like a “57 Chevy fuelled on melted down Crystals records,” as it was once memorably described - and the arena erupts in a frenzy. A full band version of ‘Born In The USA’ is followed by arguably the best of his recent numbers, ‘Land Of Hope and Dreams’ a direct descendant of Curtis Mayfield’s ‘People Get Ready’ the chorus of which was included in the coda as the “Mighty” Max Weinberg hits a machine-gun press roll that threatens to ignite the stage.

It was almost over and the familiar harmonica intro of ‘Thunder Road’ couldn’t have been a more welcome swansong to an exhilarating evening.

After the show, mingling with fans in the bar is the legendary “whispering” Bob Harris, an early champion of Springsteen on the Old Grey Whistle Test. What did he think of tonight’s performance? “Just great,” he said, smiling. “Just great.”

Springsteen hits Europe again in the early summer of 2003 with an Irish date a strong possibility. Miss it at your peril!