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Bruce Springsteen

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Depends on the size of the venue. Typically, the front third of the venue floor is GA. In Melbourne the Front GA will be pretty big due to the size of the venue.

In Adelaide, according to the map, the front GA is about a quarter of the already small Ent Cent floor. Going to be awesome. I phoned the Adelaide Entertainment Centre a few weeks ago to ask them if the front GA will be increased at all to fit more in - they said no because 95% of the floor seats are sold and won't be able to be moved further back now. So it's locked in.
 
Gasometer said:
Its the album I quote when I get the 'Springsteen ...wtf you like him still' comment with my response being that it is probably one of his best albums since Born in the USA.
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When I turn new people on to the Bruce journey, I always recommend Born To Run, Nebraska, and Magic. That closely mirrors his full arc IMO.
 
Gasometer said:
Cruyff14, I never got around to ask but did you have any luck with the signs you made?

Some of the signs I saw the night I went looked bland.

Suppose its just a matter of getting some card, writing the song and hoping....?

Anyone else on here get their song picked?
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No luck with the signs. It's what he feels like I guess, you need to be smart when you hold your sign up too.

Met the guy in the line who did Prove It 78/Incident sign for night one. He also got Candy/Incident sign chosen too. My mate Victor got Atlantic City at HR1 and Trapped in Sydney.
 

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So 2014 tour so far is

Tue 28 Jan Cape Town
Wed 29 Jan Cape Town
xx
Sat 1 Feb Johannesburg
xxx
Wed 5 Feb Perth SOLD OUT
x
Fri 7 Feb Perth SOLD OUT
Sat 8 Feb Perth SOLD OUT
xx
Tue 11 Feb AdeLaide SOLD OUT
Wed 12 Feb Adelaide
xx
Sat 15 Feb Melbourne SOLD OUT
Sun 16 Feb Melbourne
xx
Wed 19 Feb Sydney --- (only class rear view left)
xx
Sat 22 Feb Hunter Valley SOLD OUT
Sun 23 Feb Hunter Halley
xx
Wed 26 Feb Brisbane SOLD OUT
xx
Sat 1 Mch Auckland SOLD OUT
Sun 2 Mch Auckland

6 back to back shows in that list 4 in Oz. Lots of Friday nights off.
 
Cruyff14 said:
No luck with the signs. It's what he feels like I guess, you need to be smart when you hold your sign up too.

Met the guy in the line who did Prove It 78/Incident sign for night one. He also got Candy/Incident sign chosen too. My mate Victor got Atlantic City at HR1 and Trapped in Sydney.
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As I'm a "pit" virgin (I'll be losin' my cherry in Adelaide), wouldn't you get pissed off with some dude waving a bloody big sign around in front of you all night, obscuring the view of the man that you actually came to see. I had a small taste of it at HR2 when I was at the front of the seated area, until the the pissed girls holding the sign fell over and ripped it to bits. I know that it's become a tradition and all of that stuff, but shouldn't there be a bit of regard held for your fellow Bruce fans behind you? I'd like to see Bruce and all of the band for the entire duration of the concert and I'll be happy enough with whatever he plays, without having to lug a sign around all day and feeling a need to thrust it wildly into the air at the end of every song.

Got a feeling that I may be in the minority here though.

Also think that I may feel differently if I was 6'6" instead of 5'6".
 
paddy18 said:
As I'm a "pit" virgin (I'll be losin' my cherry in Adelaide), wouldn't you get pissed off with some dude waving a bloody big sign around in front of you all night, obscuring the view of the man that you actually came to see. I had a small taste of it at HR2 when I was at the front of the seated area, until the the pissed girls holding the sign fell over and ripped it to bits. I know that it's become a tradition and all of that stuff, but shouldn't there be a bit of regard held for your fellow Bruce fans behind you? I'd like to see Bruce and all of the band for the entire duration of the concert and I'll be happy enough with whatever he plays, without having to lug a sign around all day and feeling a need to thrust it wildly into the air at the end of every song.

Got a feeling that I may be in the minority here though.

Also think that I may feel differently if I was 6'6" instead of 5'6".
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You only do it between songs anyway.
 
Juddism said:
oh my, in East Berlin! :thumbsu:
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Wow never knew he played in East Germany. That was July 1988. Would have been a rare event for a western rock band to be allowed to play there. Here is the set list

1988-07-19, Weissensee Cycling Track, East Berlin, East Germany

I was living in Canada at the time and was pissed off he was in Europe when I was in Toronto. Just missed his Madison Square Garden shows before he headed to Europe as I left Oz for western Canada. I never heard he played East Germany. Then that was it for over a decade playing with the E Street Band.

He played Leipzig an old East Germany city in July this year and I found a couple of articles reflecting back 25 years on that concert because a new book about it was released.

From The Guardian - which was linked on Bruce's website - see Bruce link

The night Bruce Springsteen played East Berlin – and the wall cracked
Book unearths Stasi files to reveal how Communist leaders misjudged their bid to assuage East Germany's youth in 1988

When Bruce Springsteen turned up in Communist East Germany on 19 July 1988, it was, according to one fan, a "moment some of us had been waiting a lifetime to hear". The US rock star greeted an audience that was restless, jaded and sick of being locked behind the Berlin Wall. And nothing, as it turned out, was to provide a better outlet for their frustration than a rock'n'roll concert.

But it was still a surprise when an estimated 300,000 people from all over the German Democratic Republic (GDR) surged into a large field by a cycle track to hear him play, while millions more watched the shaky and distorted transmission on state television. Historians believe almost no young East Germans did not know about it.

Communist authorities, whose regime was notorious for widespread censorship, suppression of political opposition and spying on its people, had given its youth wing, the Free German Youth (FDJ), the go-ahead to book one of the west's most popular musicians in a desperate effort to release some of the growing tension. However, the event had the opposite effect. "It was a nail in the coffin for East Germany," said Jörg Beneke, who was there that day.

Now, in the biggest collection of eyewitness reports, files from the Stasi secret police and interviews with Springsteen's entourage, a new book has pieced together how the gig inflamed a spirit of rebellion that contributed to the fall of the Berlin Wall 16 months later.

"Forget David Hasselhoff," says Erik Kirschbaum, author of Rocking the Wall, referring to the actor-singer whose single Looking for Freedom was No 1 in West Germany in the spring of 1989 – and who famously claimed he brought down the Berlin Wall. "Unlike Springsteen, Hasselhoff didn't go to East Berlin to perform, and neither did he call for the wall to come down a year before it happened."

The highlight of Springsteen's four-hour concert, in which he played a total of 32 songs, was undoubtedly a passionate speech, delivered in a creaky but understandable German, that carried a subtle but clear political message. "I'm not here for any government. I've come to play rock'n'roll for you in the hope that one day all the barriers will be torn down," he said to a crowd that erupted, before he launched into Bob Dylan's Chimes of Freedom, whose lyrics – about the "city's melting furnace … with faces hidden while the walls were tightening" – could hardly have resonated more with his captive audience, many of whom the crowd waved homemade American flags.

Historians believe Springsteen's gig, far from appeasing people, simply made them want more. "Springsteen's concert and speech certainly contributed in a large sense to the events leading up to the fall of the wall," Gerd Dietrich, professor of history at Berlin's Humboldt University, told Kirschbaum. "It made people … more eager for more and more change … Springsteen aroused a greater interest in the west. It showed people how locked up they really were."

According to Thomas Wilke, an expert on the impact of rock and pop music in East Germany, it was the GDR's biggest concert ever. "It was a topic of discussion for quite some time afterwards, he said. "There was clearly a different feeling and a different sentiment in East Germany after that concert."

Among the 80 pages of files Kirschbaum dug up from the Stasi archives was evidence that the concert was part of a leadership-sanctioned campaign to assuage the country's youth. "They were still reeling from incidents in 1987 when police used truncheons and electric stun guns to beat back East Berliners who, hungry for some of the fun the west was enjoying, had pressed themselves as close to the Berlin Wall as possible to listen to concerts by the likes of David Bowie and the Eurythmics that were being held just metres away from them in West Berlin."

A year later, before Springsteen's gig, thousands of troops lined the wall to keep East Germans at bay as Pink Floyd and Michael Jackson played in the west.
.....

Years later, Springsteen reflected on the concert himself. "Once in a while you play a place, you play a show that ends up staying inside of you, living with you for the rest of your life," he said. "East Berlin in 1988 was certainly one of them."

The night Bruce Springsteen played East Berlin – and the wall cracked

From German magazine Der Spiegel 19 June 2013
Chimes of Freedom: How Springsteen Helped Tear Down the Wall

Part 1: How Springsteen Helped Tear Down the Wall
In July 1988, Bruce Springsteen gave East Germany the biggest rock concert it ever saw. In a new book, journalist Erik Kirschbaum says the Boss inspired an entire generation to strive for more freedom -- and deserves some credit for the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Who brought down the Berlin Wall? It was Polish trade unionists, Mikhail Gorbachev and his perestroika, Ronald Reagan and his Star Wars program, ordinary East Germans demonstrating in the streets and piling into the West German embassy in Prague, and of course Günter Schabowski, the Politburo member who read out that legendary note lifting travel restrictions -- "effective immediately" -- on the night of Nov. 9, 1989.

A new book published this week ventures to add another name to that list -- rock star Bruce Springsteen, who held the biggest concert in the history of East Germany on July 19, 1988, and whose rousing, passionate performance that night lit a spark in the hundreds of thousands of young people who saw him.

Springsteen attracted an estimated 300,000 people from all over the German Democratic Republic -- the largest crowd he had ever played to. They were hungry for change and freedom, and seeing one of the West's top stars made them even hungrier, argues veteran journalist Erik Kirschbaum in his book "Rocking the Wall,"

"It's safe to say that pretty much every East German between the ages of about 18 and 35 was either at the Springsteen concert or saw it on TV," Kirschbaum, who has worked for Reuters in Berlin for almost two decades, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "It was an unbelievably intoxicating moment for them -- many of them had never experienced such a mass crowd of people having such a good time before."

Kirschbaum interviewed the organizers, Springsteen's manager Jon Landau and dozens of eyewitnesses who recalled with goosebumps and glowing eyes how their hero came across the Wall to play "Born to Run," "Badlands" and "Born in The USA" -- just for them.
......

"Quite a few people told me they could sense that the Communist Party leaders were losing control and the Springsteen concert was like a last-ditch effort to change it, but it was too little, too late," said Kirschbaum. "Springsteen only made them want more freedom."

Many at the concert said their lives changed on that balmy summer night when the venue, a large field adjoining a cycle racing track in the Weissensee district of the city, was so packed that people couldn't move, and dozens who fainted had to be lifted over heads to ambulance crews.

Honed from childhood to be good Communists, people found themselves waving homemade US flags and singing along to "Born In the USA" -- while the authorities looked on in bewilderment.

The concert, said Kirschbaum, helped to convince many thousands of people that change was not only possible but imminent. The book describes what many saw as a profoundly symbolic moment when the East German organizers, overwhelmed by the crowd heading towards them, simply opened the barriers and let everyone in, even those without tickets.

.......

Part 2: 'The Most Important Rock Concert Ever Anywhere'

SPIEGEL ONLINE: When and how did you get the idea for the book?

Kirschbaum: I was in a taxi on my way home from a Springsteen concert in Berlin in 2002 -- after writing a story for Reuters about how he criticized Bush for bashing Germany's resistance to invading Iraq -- and the taxi driver couldn't stop talking about the 1988 concert in Weissensee. I had never heard about that '88 concert before. The taxi driver said that "88 concert was biggest, best and most exciting concert ever anywhere and it had the whole GDR shaken up." I started looking into that '88 concert and the more people I talked to who were there, the more plausible that theory became that there may be a connection between it and the fall of the Wall. Some might scoff at the idea that Springsteen's concert helped bring down the Wall. But if you read the book and see what happened there, I bet you'll become a believer in the power of rock 'n' roll.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: What concrete influence do you think the concert had on the fall of the Berlin Wall 16 months later?

Kirschbaum: It's hard to pinpoint a direct cause-and-effect with the Springsteen concert and the Berlin Wall falling. And obviously there were a lot of other things going on in that era before the concert with Gorbachev in the Soviet Union, Solidarnosc in Poland, and then later the opening of Hungary's border to Austria in early 1989, the mass exodus of East Germans in the summer and fall of 1989 and the Monday rallies in Leizpig and elsewhere. That said, I think it is clear that the concert was an important spark and had a major effect. There were 300,000 people there at the concert and millions more watched it on (East German) TV that evening. The FDJ was hoping the concert by a big popular Western rock star would appease the increasingly discontent younger generation -- internal East German surveys found that almost none of the young East Germans were listening to East German radio anymore but rather West German radio. But Springsteen's concert had the opposite effect -- rather than appeasing East Germans, it only made them even hungrier for the freedom and fun times that Springsteen seemed to embody up there on stage.

.......

SPIEGEL ONLINE: How important was Springsteen in all this? Do you think the impact would have been the same if Queen, David Bowie or some other mega-act had come to East Berlin at that time?

Kirschbaum: I think it's fair to say that Springsteen is a special case and his special form of rock music and his working class ethic came across especially well to East Germans. He played for about four hours, and he played his heart out. That's something a lot of the eyewitnesses said again and again. They really felt Springsteen was going all out for them. Even though some said they had trouble hearing all the music because of the poor quality of the sound system -- and because the place was so packed -- everyone there said it was a magical evening. Many East Germans were huge Rolling Stones fans, and the Rolling Stones would probably have had a massive impact as well. But the Rolling Stones wanted hard currency and, in fact, did not go to East Berlin until the summer of 1990 -- once East Germans had converted their Ostmarks into D-marks but just a few weeks before reunification. It was a great concert, but the crowd was smaller and the Wall had of course already fallen about 10 months earlier. I think it was a combination of it being Springsteen, who he was and what he stood for as well as his willingness to basically play for free in East Berlin and his desire to play in East Berlin along with his anti-Wall speech in German.
 
RussellEbertHandball said:
Wow never knew he played in East Germany. That was July 1988. Would have been a rare event for a western rock band to be allowed to play there. Here is the set list

1988-07-19, Weissensee Cycling Track, East Berlin, East Germany
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the entire concert is online somewhere by the same author of the video I linked...to think that concert is nearly 30 years old too! and the joy in the faces of the crowd and especially the young kid at 5min02, just incredible!
 

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pjcrows said:
Seriously. What a gun.
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Absolutely. He basically played for nothing - old East German Marks, whereas after the wall came down the Stones went there and would only play once the monies were converted to West German Marks and paid up front.
 
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Juddism said:
the entire concert is online somewhere by the same author of the video I linked...to think that concert is nearly 30 years old too! and the joy in the faces of the crowd and especially the young kid at 5min02, just incredible!
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On his channel page I found 11 videos from the concert

This has a 3 minute interview with Youth TV after the song - being diplomatic but honest.




This one with the Bruce's speech in German is from another person



But this is another one of the 11 - Got to be the biggest and loudest Twist and Shout he has done.

 

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pjcrows said:
AAMI Park front pit will be large, purely because it's a stadium.
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So atm the Sunday night that I am going to isn't sold out and has been the case for the past 6 weeks.

Say that it remains the case, does the GA come forward or do we have space to booga loo?

And what separates the Pit from GA?

Security and a fence?
 
Juddism said:
bit more from the DDR..



geez, there is some extraordinary footage of this gig.
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I saw that footage late last year when surfing the net for Bruce clips. Never knew it was from his East German show. I always thought the girl was totally overawed by the event. Watching it now and knowing which show its from, it makes sense why she was.

We might have to piece the whole show together from different you tube subscribers.
 
Juddism said:


I'll be beside myself if he plays this again in February.
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This was great. There was one person between me and the stage on both the centre platform (it was to my left) and the front of the stage, and I was on Tom's side.

I remember the atmosphere being absolutely electric that night, me and the people went absolutely batshit crazy, it was nuts. Max is a ****ing machine on this, ridiculous how well he anchors this and so many other songs. Does not miss a beat at all.

And you can see Tom mouth "I'm ****ing it up" at 4.10. Remember seeing this on the night and commenting on it to those around me.

Max. Oh boy.
 

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