Canada's biggest export

I have to admit, that when I first bought tickets for Bryan Adams I wasn't too fussed.
In my eyes he was an 80's rocker who was well past his sell by date.

More than anything I had purchased the tickets for my better half who had wanted to see the man preform live, for me as long as he played the Reckless album I'd be happy.

But thats an old album so I wasn't expecting much.

It would be wrong of me before I go on not to mention support band Black Daniel, they were rubbish; don't even bother, I won't.

At bang on 20:30 The lights dropped and the man himself took to a small 6x6 stage in the center of the standing area. Kicking off with just him and an acoustic guitar he launched into "Can't stop this thing we started."

Another song with just the man and his guitar followed by just two words, "Hit it" and the band arrived onstage.

Singing a song I must admit I didn't know the singer/songwriter made his way to the stage as he shock hands and hugged fans en route.

From there on in it was mainly a greatest hits feast, though a couple of new songs did sneak their way into the main set.

Unusually hits like "Summer of 69," "Run to you" and "Everything I do" were part of the main set.
The songs that many people including myself came to hear were put upfront, rather than save a massive hit for an encore he played them straight up. This kind of attitude means you only get an encore if you deserve one.

Surprisingly Bryan made a big deal of his band, a quick search on google tell me he has been using the same musicians for oner 25 years now; and the chemistry really does show during the set. Rather than a solo artist with a backing band it seemed more like a band with the singer as a front-man than anything else.

Indeed guitarist Keith Scott was allowed a blinding extended solo during "It's only love" that far exceeds what was played on the origanl studio version.

Without a doubt Adams knows how to work a crowd, although he had microphones dotted around the stage allowing him to sing in different positions he still moved them closer to the audience here and there. And if he hadn't stood in front of one section of the audience he would just move there. For anyone looking for tips on stage craft Adams serves a great example.

For "When your gone" the singer pulled up a member of the crowd to sing the female lead, ok so she couldn't sing to save her life but you really didn't care; the overall performance still worked.



When the band left the stage you couldn't help but wonder what would be left for the encore, he played his biggest hits in the main set. As I already said, he wasn't getting an encore unless he deserved one; and yes he did deserve one.

Returning to the stage he played "Cloud number nine" followed by a stomping version of "Kids wanna rock."
After that the band left the stage as Bryan Adams was left once again with just him and an acoustic guitar, again he played a newer song I wasn't familiar with before finishing with "Straight from the heart."

And after two hours and twenty minutes he left the stage for the last time.

I said at the top of this I wasn't expecting much from the show. Having attended I can only say this.

WOW, quite simply it's one of the best concerts I've ever been too.

Maybe your a fan, maybe your not. Maybe your a casual fan like myself who just know his hits. Whatever you are if you enjoy live music I cannot stress enough that you should see Canada's biggest export live.

Stormtroopers raid Teddy Bears' picnic

If you go down to the woods today, forget about disguise - you'd better wear a hard hat and a hi-viz jacket.

Dingly Dell has fallen to the health and safety nazis.

For the past 12 years, retired builder Mike Kamp has been collecting firewood from the forest near his home at Betws-y-Coed, North Wales.

It's a right enshrined in the Magna Carta of 1215, the template for democracies around the world. Free men down the centuries have been granted the liberty to gather dead wood from common land to fuel their stoves, repair their homes and make charcoal.


That was before the Forestry Commission came along and started demanding that anyone wanting to collect wood would need a licence to forage.

Now it has imposed an outright ban, stating: 'This is an area where we are subject to increasing constraints in terms of health and safety. We have a duty of care to people in our wood.'


Note the use of the possessive our wood. It isn't their wood. It's common land and it belongs to everyone.

As Mr Kamp said: 'They are claiming there are health and safety issues. But people have walked through the woods collecting firewood for hundreds of years without too many safety problems.'

Precisely. I doubt there is one recorded incident of a firewood-related fatality in North Wales.

This, as usual, is about bureaucrats justifying their own sad existence and protecting their backs in the event of someone turning their ankle in a rabbit hole, ringing Blame Direct, and suing for compensation.

It's the same warped thinking which led to plans for an open-air ice rink in Bath this Christmas being abandoned because council officials feared it could be a magnet for paedophiles.

How sick do you have to be to reach that conclusion?

And a school in Colchester has banned children from bringing in broomsticks for Halloween in case they get hurt. In fairness, they were only following official advice on the NHS website:

'Be careful with witches' brooms made from sticks. If the sticks get dislodged, they are a choking hazard. These brooms should be labelled For Adult Use Only.'

You couldn't make it up. Where is it all going to end? We take you over now to a briefing at the multi-million pound headquarters of the government's Firewood Prevention, Health and Safety and Child Protection Joint Task Force.......




'Listen up, team. We've had a tip-off that a number of teddy bears are going down to the woods today and we want to maintain the element of surprise. So you'd better go in disguise.'

'For every bear that ever there was will gather there for certain because today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic.

'Every teddy bear who's been good is sure of a treat today. There's lots of marvellous things to eat and wonderful games to play.

'But they don't have a catering licence or a safety certificate. If anything goes wrong we could have carnage on our hands. Food poisoning, sprained ankles, it doesn't bear thinking about, if you'll pardon the pun.'

'I want the tactical support unit beneath the trees where nobody sees. They'll hide and seek as long as they please, 'cause that's the way the teddy bears have their picnic.

'And I don't want any heroics, either. If you go down to the woods today, you better not go alone. It's lovely down in the woods today, but safer to stay at home.'

'What do you want us to do, guv?' 'Watch them, catch them unawares.
See them gaily gad about, they love to play and shout, they never have any care.

'At six o'clock their mummies and daddies will take them home to bed, because they're tired little teddy bears. That's when we move in.'

'Why wait until six o'clock, guv?'

'We suspect a major paedophile ring is operating in the area.
After all, we've only got their word for it that they are mummies and daddies. Remember little Maddie?
'I want names and addresses and don't forget to read them their rights. They won't be getting off on a technicality.

'Social services are providing armed back-up, the helicopter is on standby and I'm bringing in the firewood squad. We believe that some of the contraband wood is being used to make offensive weapons - ie: witches' brooms.

'So let's do it to them, before they do it to themselves. And, hey, hey, hey. Let's be careful out there.'

Its not the sat-nav

I was going to post a follow up to my last blog, but I seem to have misplaced it. So if you were waiting sorry but hey; thats life.

These days, we read every week about someone who has driven into something enormous and then blamed their sat-nav system.

Just the other day, a party of actors drove merrily into a swollen river and, after they’d been rescued from the stranded van by the fire brigade, said it was all the sat-nav’s fault.

Right. I see. So if you were driving towards a cliff and the lady in the dashboard said “straight on”, you’d do it, would you?

Then we heard about a woman — I shall spare your blushes, Paula, by keeping you anonymous — who has vowed never to use satellite navigation again after her system ordered her into the path of a speeding train.

I particularly enjoyed reading last Tuesday about a Syrian lorry driver who’d ended up beached on a small road in Skegness — while trying to get from Turkey to Gibraltar.

Needless to say, he claimed his sat-nav had gone mad but it had done no such thing. He’d simply given it the wrong destination.

We’re not talking about Mr Intelligence here. Because he’d presumably come to Britain on a cross-Channel ferry and at no point did his tiny little brain think: “Hang on a minute . . . ”

Of course, I’m not going to try to argue that all sat-nav systems are foolproof.

Indeed, the system used by BMW is hysterically terrible. It has never heard of the A40, the A1 or even Buckinham Palace Road, which has been around for over 100 years.

Then you have Mercedes, whose sat-nav-based traffic system is a work of fiction to rival Harry Potter. If it says the road ahead is blocked, you can absolutely guarantee it isn’t.

The best I’ve ever come across, weirdly, is the cheap handheld Navman. It knows about the A40, for instance, and it’s so easy to understand, even a Syrian lorry driver could manage.

However even this one does not know, as it steers you over a level crossing, whether a train is coming. That’s why your car is fitted with a steering wheel, brakes and space for someone who by law, must have functioning eyes.

I know, of course, that in this day and age, cars are blamed for everything: Cancer, the downfall of the economy and the demise of the polar bear.

But when it comes to sat-nav, we have to stop blaming the car and start, instead, mass executions of the stupid.