Blickling Hall July 8, 2022
by Sue Cusick
It’s the summer of ’22, and it would be hard to imagine a better day to welcome Bryan Adams to Blickling.
But first, Brit Pop favourites Feeder rev everyone up, bringing an upbeat festival feel to this evening.
The Welsh rockers start as they mean to go on with some amazing guitar and drum action that sets the tone for the rest of the night, and the place erupts when they play Just The Way I’m Feeling and Buck Rogers.
Jumping around the stage as if they haven’t aged a day, they are a great bunch of characters who satisfy their existing fans, and probably leave with a few more.
We are reliving our youth, and when Adams takes the stage, with his famous guitar stance and belters such as Can’t Stop This Thing We Started and Run To You, it’s as though the 90s never ended.
He’s clearly thrilled to be touring again, and it’s all about the fans tonight.
There’s lots of audience participation, with the star of the show turning the microphone around to hear them singing along with real-time videos of the audience up on the big screens.
He’s 62 now – a young ‘un compared with some classic rockers still touring and packing ’em in. And he hasn’t lost it.
His voice is just as gravelly (some would say sexy) as it was when Everything I Do topped the charts for 16 weeks and we teenage girls listened to it and dreamed of Kevin Costner.
That song sounds just as good more than 30 years later – and all the better because it’s live.
His band are fantastic and the simple set complements the music perfectly, with some bold graphics and videos thrown up on the screens alongside our ugly mugs.
And on a night of surprises there’s even an introduction narrated by John Cleese.
As the sun sets, he sings the more recent Shine A Light, asking us all to do the modern version of lighters in the air – holding our smartphone flashlights aloft.
It’s an excellent night, and as well as waking up the neighbours there’s every chance Adams has woken most of Norwich.
