Bryan Adams talks ahead of Midland gig

Bryan Adams is a multi-platinum rock legend, who rose to fame with a string of huge hits in the 1980s including Summer of 69, Run to You and Heaven.

He’s sold more than 100 million records and his 1991 single, (Everything I Do) I Do It For You remains a UK record-breaker, having spent 16 consecutive weeks at number one.

And yet for all of the success that Bryan has enjoyed in his 42-year career, he steadfastly refuses to look back. Bryan doesn’t bother thinking about what he’s done – he thinks about what he’s about to do.

And this summer that’s involved a series of sell out gigs around the UK as part of an open-air tour that has thrilled tens of thousands of fans.

Adams will bring his show to Worcester’s Sixways Stadium tonight and fans can look forward to a slew of greatest hits.

He’s looking forward to the show: “I’m delighted to be continuing my tour and heading to Worcester. It will give me an opportunity to perform tracks from my latest album Get Up as well as some of my earlier classics. It’s going to be a special show and I hope my fans are able to join me.”

Get Up helped to revitalise Bryan’s career after he worked on the project with ELO mainman-cum-producer, Jeff Lynne. It was his 14th studio album and was his first recording of new material since 2008’s 11.

The record was the product of an international record experience, with Bryan, Lynne and fellow collaborator Jim Vallance emailing one another work.

Bryan says: “It came together quite organically, song by song, working with Jeff producing over the past couple of years whenever he had time. It was a great partnership as it gave me plenty of time to write the songs, most of which are a collaboration with Jim Vallance. We all worked primarily over the internet from Canada, Europe and LA, sending demos and parts of songs until we got it right.”

Bryan was delighted to work with Lynne, who is one of his friends.

“A friend of mine is also a friend of his. We were just talking, and I said, ‘Oh, if you see Jeff, say hi from me’. He said, ‘I will’. Then I got a message back: ‘Oh, Jeff wants you to call him when you get to L.A. sometime.. So I called, [then] went up and saw him.

“Jeff said, ‘Do you wanna cut a track sometime?’. I said, ‘Yeah’.

“He did what I would imagine he does in any project that he’s done: He sort of becomes a member of the band. In this case, on the majority of the tracks he produced on this album, he is the band. I had wanted to work with Jeff for a long time. When it finally happened I was elated.”

The results were instant and Bryan enjoyed making the record. He was glad that he’d had a long spell between records – with only a covers album, Tracks of My Years, being released since 2008.

Bryan’s manager Bruce Allen gives his charge plenty of time to come up with new ideas. He never hassles Bryan and leaves him to wait until the spirit moves him, before making a new record.

“Well, I’m always making songs, and what drives you isn’t the past; what drives you is the future and what you’re creating next. That’s how I think about it. I don’t think about what I’ve done; I think about what I’m about to do.

“I always have to try and find time to write. I’ve been working on songs. I have songs on my Bare Bones record, I have songs on my Tracks of My Years record. I have songs on my Sydney Opera House record. I have lots of new songs coming out. Get Up was the first sort of comprehensive [album].”

The record emerged out of nowhere. Initially, Bryan was only planning to record one song. But he was so happy with that that he carried on and made the whole record.

“When I heard the first track we did played back, I thought, ‘Wow, we can’t just stop here’. I kept asking him to do more songs. That is how the album came about. I never actually said, ‘Hey, can you produce my album?’.

“We did a track together, and one by one it grew. I would say, ‘Wanna do another track?’ He always said, ‘Well, I’ve got my album to do’. I said, ‘That’s OK. Whenever you’ve got time’. I was in no hurry.”

Many 1980s artists have gone down the nostalgia route, opting to play the old hits and keep the flame alive.

But Bryan has travelled in a different direction. He’s been deliberately finding new things to do so that he remains fresh and relevant to the modern idiom. He has no intention of trading on former glories and prefers to take photographs, play gigs and engage in philanthropic work.

“I was asked to go the nostalgia route, as you would call it, on the last album, ‘Tracks of My Years’, which I was reluctant to do. I would literally leave one studio where I was recording the covers with David Foster, and go to another studio where I was working on the new album with Jeff. That gave me the impetus to get through the Foster record, because I didn’t enjoy that at all.

“I did it because my management and record company wanted me to. I got into it in the end. And David is a brilliant producer — nothing against him. It just wasn’t something I really wanted to do. It was funny literally leaving one studio thinking ‘ugh’, then going into the [next] studio going ‘ah!’ It wasn’t for the ‘ah!’ moments, I wouldn’t have gotten through the ‘ugh’ moments.”

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