Bryan Adams Doing It For SA Fans
Canadian pop superstar Bryan Adams is currently in South Africa, performing in Durban on Saturday and Johannesburg on Sunday after ending his third Cape Town show tonight.
This also happens to be his third concert tour of our shores. The last time he was here, fans were treated to a meet and greet when he emerged sporting designer stubble, a long-sleeved white top and a pair of white jeans. He joked, signed autographs and then sidled off.
We all wondered what he was going to don for the big concert. And on he came - in a long-sleeved white shirt and jeans.
Adams is not into sartorial elegance. Clothes don’t maketh this man. Instead, he likes to get on stage, sing his heart out and, sometimes, rush off stage and run round the back - as he did at one of his Durban concerts. The result was that those skulking in the cheap seats suddenly found themselves face to face with the man.
Adams is the pop star whose romantic ballad (Everything I Do) I Do For You - written for the soundtrack of the Kevin Costner-starring Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records - is one of the top 10 plays at weddings around the world.
Now, don’t smirk all you heavy metal thrashers out there, ballads are huge and they make mega bucks.
The song topped international charts for weeks and, along with dozens of others, including the fabulous Spanish guitar-flavoured Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman, All for Love (from The Three Musketeers, originally sung with Rod Stewart and Sting), I Finally Found Someone (a duet with Barbra Streisand), Please Forgive Me, Summer of 69 and When You’re Gone (with Mel C), have made Adams one of the world’s most successful and prolific singer/songwriters.
Having made his mark first on the pop scene back in 1983 with the fused pop/rock song Cuts Like A Knife, Adams has a discography which reads on for over three pages.
And although he adheres to Sir Bob Geldof’s “Make Poverty History” ethos, he prefers to get on with the job quietly. In the past he has co-written a song for Ethiopian famine relief and, earlier this year, became the first Western musician to perform in quake-torn Pakistan since the US “war on terror” began in 2001.
Adams was in Pakistan in January, just months after October’s devastating earthquake hit and promised to help raise awareness of the crisis which, of course, is still very much part of the lives of the local populace five months down the line.
Speaking from the capital Karachi at the time, Adams said: “The perception around the world right now of Pakistan obviously is a country in need of help and as a Canadian, I am very happy and very proud to be part of this evening’s performance
. We are going to raise a lot of money to hopefully help rebuild some schools in the devastated areas.”
Of the women in his life, two have gained more than a little notoriety - the first, raunchy Danish model/actress Cecile Thomsen (she has an upcoming Bond girl role in Casino Royale) has popped up in the video for his acoustic ballad, Have You Really Loved A Woman and also made an appearance in Let’s Make A Night to Remember.
Then there’s Princess Diana.
Was Adams being canny when he wrote a song titled Diana, in 1985?
More than a decade later, according to a tale in toadying keyhole butler Paul Burrell’s A Royal Duty, Adams and the princess had a little fling, in 1996. This was after Diana had split from Prince Charles. The aforementioned ex (Thomsen) has also been quoted as saying that, yes, they did the deed.
Only Adams knows, and he’s a gent so he’s not telling.
Fact file
Born: November 5 1959.
Had his first million-seller album (which spawned six Top 10 hits) at the age of 26. In 1987 Adams was chosen to headline the Prince’s Trust Fund charity pop concerts at Wembley Arena, London. He performed three Beatles songs and was joined by the three remaining Beatles - Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison.
By 1998, Adams had 24 hit singles to his credit. His songs had reached No 1 in over 30 countries. In recognition of outstanding achievements, in 1990, Adam’s government named him an Officer of the Order of Canada.
(Everything I Do), I Do For You earned Adams a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the longest-running top single in British music history.
He was inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame on November 3 1998. Has won several Grammys (in the US) and Junos (in Canada), and has been the recipient of awards from Germany, Ireland, Australia, Austria, Japan and the United Kingdom.
With David Foster, Adams and friend Jim Vallance co-wrote the Ethiopian famine relief anthem Tears Are Not Enough.
And, finally, get this: US rocker Ryan Adams had to undergo therapy after a tour because he couldn’t handle fans screaming Bryan Adams’s song titles from the audience! Says the other Adams: “I used to go on stage and I couldn’t hear any of the clapping. I could only hear, ‘F**k you..!’ I turned that into such a negative thing that it paralysed me.
“So now it’s not like someone’s not going to shout Summer Of ‘69, but I can choose to not let that ruin my evening.”
As Oscar Wilde once said, “Rather be talked about than not…”
(Source: http://tonight.co.za/ )
Filed under: General News
Share This Article
| 
Print This Article
Loading ...
March 10th, 2006 at 12:16 am
I thought he was born on November 5, 1659.
March 10th, 2006 at 12:16 am
I thought he was born on November 5, 1959.