In May 2022, Bryan Adams took over the Albert Hall for three nights to play albums from his breakout period – 1983’s mainstream breakthrough Cuts Like A Knife, 1987’s Into The Fire and 1991’s Waking Up The Neighbours, a 16 million seller thanks in no small part to Kevin Costner’s flaming arrows.
That he skipped 1984’s monster hit Reckless in favour of Into The Fire’s relative consolidatory flop is curious – as is the fact that only the Waking Up The Neighbours recording has crowd noise on it; did nobody come to the first two nights? But for all the Royal Albert Hall’s dense and muddy recording acoustics and Adams’ addiction to stodgy roadhouse rock, the evolution of a bar-room behemoth can be faintly traced. The heartland rock of Cuts Like A Knife still has some rust stains on its blue collar and an ear for a Buddy Holly hookline.
By Into the Fire you can hear the Brothers In Arms effect at play, as Adams laces finely-crafted anthems of Native American injustice, WWI hardship and romantic heroism with Keith Scott’s cumulonimbus blues guitar and his own glossy, redemptive emoting.
And come Waking Up The Neighbours, he’s deep in a drivetime rut, shifting repeatedly through the gears of grimy, beer-clinkin’ country rock, hellraisin’ Def Leppard-esque party tunes and cinematic bluster ballads, en route – via the more infectious facsimile Do I Have To Say the Words? – to Everything I Do… infamy. By the end, a palate cleansing Mel C appearance would have been most welcome.
