I remember when I was 17, a friend said to me that the trouble with going out with girls is that you had to display your sensitivity by pretending to like Bob Dylan. Being a Dylan nut at the time, I couldn’t agree with his opinion of the man Alan Ginsberg hailed the greatest poet of the late 20th century.
I recalled his words, however, when I found myself driving my Springsteen-obsessed wife Maggie to Hampden to watch someone who was once hailed as ‘the new Bob Dylan’.
There are some things you’ve just got to do for you partner. Even taking her to a performance by someone you believe did his best work around 30 years ago. You can take me down to The River but you won’t catch me Dancing in the Dark.
We left Edinburgh at 5.30 pm leaving plenty time to reach Hampden for the 7.30 start. Wrong. The M8 was in go slow mode. Central/east Glasgow worse. Then there was finding a place to park. Got to Hamden at 8.30. Ach well, Bruce always takes about an hour to warm up and he always plays for ages so arriving an hour late wasn’t a disaster.
I have to admit that the atmosphere was amazing and I quickly put my scepticism aside. Especially when they did superb versions of old favourites such as Promised Land. Every song was followed by a Hampden roar, which reminded me of my last happy day at Hampden – the 2007 CIS Cup Final and an outstanding 5-1 victory over Kilmarnock.
It was funny being at Hampden in a non-football context. Just about everyone was really happy (not always the case when Scotland or Hibs are playing there).
The guy next to us in the audience looked familiar. Then I realised (well, I’m 98% certain) if was Andy Nicol – Scotland captain when, against all the odds, our rugby team beat England at Murrayfield in 2000. I felt like shaking Andy’s hand and telling him that 9 years ago at Scotland’s other national stadium, he was a bigger legend than Bruce. Andy and his wife(?) looked really happy and engaged in the concert so I decided it was better not to invade their privacy so I didn’t say a word to him. Probably would have just ended up embarrassing myself.
The gig ended at 11.00. The traffic was gridlocked for ages. Took 3 hours to get home. Bit ironic this. I quite often hear the Glasgow-centric media slagging Edinburgh for our traffic chaos. Compared with Mount Florida that night, the traffic along the Leith Walk tram-route-to-be is free-flowing.
Still, the long journey gave me time to me muse. Imagine coming back from Hampden with the Scottish Cup. For us Hibbes, John Hughes would be The Boss: a bigger legend than Andy Nicol and Bruce Springsteen put together. Maybe there’s something in that Brucie song, Working on a Dream’ after all.
Hibeebiker's Blog 