born in the usa

In August 1984, just a few months after my dad passed away and still feeling quite fragile, me and my mate Johnny Waller had to go to NYC to meet up with Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox - who were scheduled to play live at Forest Hills on Friday 3rd - to hand over to them a draft manuscript of our Eurythmics' book Sweet Dreams.

By an amazing coincidence, Bruce Springsteen and the E St Band were scheduled to begin their run of ten nights at the Brendan Byrne Arena at the Meadowlands complex in New Jersey a couple of days later..

What I needed was for someone to somehow get me a photo pass.

Thankfully, and luckily, my old music biz friend, publicist Versa Manos (who the following year was largely responsible for me getting the David Bowie gig), put me in touch with Springsteen’s road manager, Chris Chappel, and the connection worked out - he gave me a pass for the second night, Monday August 6th.

On August 2nd me and Johnny went through numerous frustrating delays at Heathrow Airport (all of the  flights were being canceled and rescheduled), and we didn’t arrive in New York until late on the Friday afternoon - so late that we had to head straight to Forest Hills, bedraggled and dazed, in the teeth of a transcendent thunderstorm. We headed backstage to meet with Dave and Annie, and the first thing Dave said was, “You should have been here last night” (we were supposed to be there last night dammit!), “because Bruce Springsteen came backstage and I would have introduced you.”

After a quick trip to Toronto with Eurythmics, it was finally time to see The Boss in New Jersey. A dream come true. Monday 6th August was the night of the most brilliant and intense and exhilarating show of my life  - as you can tell from the photo, and from the magnificent live versions of ‘Trapped’, ‘No Surrender’ and ‘Nebraska’ that were recorded that night.

The photo pass only allowed me to be in the photo pit for the first four numbers, but from the opening blast of “Born down in a dead man’s town” I was in photographic and musical heaven.

After those first four numbers, I headed to my terrace seat stage right, dazzled and delirious, and soon to be streaked with tears as Bruce sang about sitting on his father’s knee on 'My Hometown’.

Even now, I get goosebumps reminiscing about seeing Bruce Springsteen in New Jersey, and I well up thinking about my dad, now departed for nearly forty years.