Bob Dylan 980625 in Manchester, England
Nynex Arena
Double bill with Van Morrison
Showtime: 7:30 PM
Subject: Manchester Bob
Date: Sat, 27 Jun 98 10:32:01 +0000
From: Reid (reid@bollington.u-net.com)
Van was on form tonight. There were some moments when he and the band
were frightening. They played Just Like a Woman and did it very well.
But when Bob and the band started up the music was from a different
planet. Gotta Serve Somebody again with its harsh metallica sound and so
very loud. I Want You, nothing special about this performance just good.
Cold Irons Bound had Bob's voice so deep in the mix it took some
concentration to hear what he was singing. Very loud again, dark and
frightening, clouds of blood and hillsides of mud.....then gently into To
Make You Feel My Love with Bob on guitar and making Humphry Bogart like
faces here and there -nicely done. Silvio, well, still it sounds so
very alive - the guitars thrashing and wailing. A tremendous close to
the electric set.
The acoustic set began with the the Mexican cantena sound of Ramona, then
a Master's and Baby Blue. Good solid performances. Mama You've Just Been
On My Mind performed as I heard at Sheffield. Great fun, a traditional
jiggle of a pop song. I heard more Buckey steel on this tonight than on
Tuesday. Tangled Up In Blue, again no change in a long time apart from
a few new words. Nevertheless, what a fantastic performance of this
song tonight. Full of energy and Bob's guitar playing was perfect in its
bobbyness, and he knew it too, because he was looking very pleased with
himself. There were two solos and during the first the crowd went wild,
jumping and shouting all through it.
New lines were in verse two something about ....working night and
day....and.... time was passing away. Forever Young was as tender as
ever.
The last part of the show as far as the setlist goes is getting boring.
H61 followed by Love Sick, then Bob's 'I am going to enjoy myself' jam/
song and then close with Blowin In the Wind.
During the encores a woman was thrust up onto the stage and kissed and
hugged Bob. He appeared to like this very much as after she had returned
to the audience he lingered near where she went back in obviuosly hoping
for more. After a while he enquired if it was her husband who was with
her - is that your husband? At the end of the show he bent to speak to
her again and then swanked off.
Black coat embroided with leaves. Same trousers as Sheffield. Black
boots. White shirt. Bow tie, grey and white?
If the setlist was somewhat conservative tonight the whole performance
was very entertaining and presented Bob and the band on great form.
Every one I spoke to form 20 to 50 and Bob-mad to first- timers were all
well impressed.
I did not get to hear Tears of Rage or Not Dark Yet as I would have liked
but it was a happy night all the same.
David Reid.
Subject: Manchester Evening News, Friday, 26th June, 1998 (long)
From: Alan Fraser (alan.fraser@mcmail.com)
Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1998 07:33:00 GMT
Review of Van Morrison and Bob Dylan at the Nynex Arena, Manchester,
25th June, 1998, by Paul Taylor.
Last year Bob Dylan produced his best album in over 20 years, singing
of lost love and the shadow of death. Soon after, his heart scare
meant he was very nearly knocking on heaven's door for real. You would
think the experience would plunge him further into gloom, but last
night he just wanted to rock and roll.
This was as a gritty a set as Dylan has ever played, the gnarly
guitars, primeval rhythms and stroppy confidence in that famous whiney
voice seeming at times like the Rolling Stones jamming with Muddy
Waters.
Bob, stick-thin and elegantly clad in black, hunched over his
Stratocaster, stabbing at fragmented riffs, or plinked artlessly at an
acoustic guitar, taking every opportunity to rock out.
An awe-struck crowd greeted him with a roaring ovation, then jostled
to get to the stage front as stewards struggled to get them back to
their seats. One woman managed to hurl herself on to the stage,
planting a kiss on smiling Dylan's face before being bundled away.
Of his new songs, the ballad Make You Fel My Love was one highlight,
Dylan's pining voice buoyed up by steel guitar, and another was the
harsh blues of Love Sick.
Oldies wrought anew included Forever Young - ever more poignant coming
from the lips of a 57 year old - a dreamy Blowin' In The Wind, a
pensive, croaky It's All Over Now, Baby Blue, and Highway 61
Revisited, seemingly done in the style of Status Quo.
Warm-up man of the evening had been Van Morrison - a "support" act
well capable of upstaging the headliner, as Ray Charles could testify.
He rattled through his opening numbers so briskly he seemed to be on
piecework, scowling away in black suit, trilby and shades just like
the bloke who had just failed the Blues Brothers audition.
Sudeenly he hit his magical best with Moondance, gliding teasingly
into My Funny Valentine. The Healing Game featured a delicious doo-wop
sequence which had Van chuckling, but soon he was barking out lyrics
like a hellfire preacher, as saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis eerily echoed
his every word.
After a storming version of Burning Ground, Morrison trundled off
stage, moaning and wheezing agonisingly into a harmonica.
Dylan couldn't top that, we thought. But he did. It was a night in
which two enigmatic geniuses showed their finest form, both still
scratching the creative itch long after many of their peers have
descended into mediocrity.
