Bruce Springsteen Coventry

A fine night with Bruce, the E Street Band and Bats (and Simon & Andy), bringing the performance of 'Born to Run' in it's entirety. Which was very special indeed.

I still didn't feel at my fighting best, weather didn't help it was very close and humid and I spent much of the evening just waiting for the weather to break and the cooling rain to fall.

I leave it to Pauline to fill in the gaps, from her very own 'Behind the Bat' blog ...

"... off as leave to head down to Coventry to see the mighty Bruce Springsteen and the E ... Street ... Band.

As always it was an awesome night.  Another mini-Waster meet-up before with Rue & Sarah Waster and Andy D in the orangest pub in Coventry!  After a quick tea we headed off to see the extremely generous and wonderful Nikki Waster who was transporting us to the gig and back.  The weather was torrential as we headed down the motorway, and had subsided to a medium shower when we arrived in Coventry, but I am pleased to say it was dry when Nikki dropped us off round the corner from the Ricoh stadium.

Bruce opened with the sombre Ghost of Tom Joad, a very powerful and moving rendition, but I hoped that it wasn't a sign that we were going to get the whole album!!  Fortunately we didn't and after the very serious start, Bruce began to loosen up.  Early in the set he picked a handful of signs from the crowd to play before announcing that tonight they would play, in its entirety, the Born to Run album.  This was as a tribute to band friend the actor James Gandolfini who had passed away unexpectedly the day before.   We were an appreciative audience although it was a little strange to get Thunder Road, Born to Run and Tenth Avenue Freeze out mid-set rather than nearer to the climax of the night.

Great night all round though, loved every minute and how he and the band manage to keep this going for over 3 hours is beyond me.  He did look excruciatingly tired towards the end, but for a 62 year old fella, that aint a complaint. There was loads of feel good moments, especially during the interaction Bruce had with the audience, picking their songs, getting folks up to dance or have man hugs - very emotional in places"