Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
The lights may have been seen to go out over Broadway, but as the sound of the piano keys crashed down and the echo of thousands of racing hearts fulfilled an ambition in the home of national sports greatest heroes, the illumination from a thousand cameras, of what seemed like a million cell phones capturing the event, Wembley was lit up in spectacular style. This was the honouring of a man for whom so many had perhaps waited a lifetime to watch perform and who now bathed in the glare of flashbulbs and love.
The only night of the latest tour to touch British soil saw Billy Joel, the self-confessed Piano Man, perform to an audience that looked as though they would have walked from Land’s End and John O’ Groats if the public transport system had failed on the day, just hear this legendary musician play; such was the intensity on the faces, the smiles and emotional stress that oozed and snake like danced through the seats that the music on the night was to be amongst the very best heard this year.
The piano man, Billy Joel, took the crowd on a journey that has surpassed the length of time since his last studio album, that stretched back to the days of Jive, through the 70s unburdening of the soul and into the 80s overwhelming success and through perhaps to the 90s thoughtful renaissance. He delivered two and half hours of music that was delightful, angry, sometimes bitter and full of disappointment in humanity and crushingly, tremendously filled with humour, love and the gentle hold of a person who knows how fortunate they are to have lasted in the affections of his fans. It is the sly grin as he takes on Elton John and the sincerity of the humble that he plays and the piano man never once disappointed.
Opening with Miami 2017, (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway), Just The Way You Are, The Entertainer and Zanzibar, Billy Joel played with the sight of the Devil on one shoulder and the grace of the majestic muse on the other, both spirits guiding him, both dancing in the aisles urging him and the band on.
Even if you are not by nature one to fall for the sound of the nationalistic Rule Britannia, there is no doubting the raised hairs that can be felt on the back of the neck as you hear someone perform it with the irony intended and the resonance and stirring hum of a large group of strangers caught up in its emotion singing it at full pelt and with dramatic charm; if nothing else Billy Joel perhaps caught a part of the audience unintentionally realising it was the end of the Prom season.
With songs and classics such as My Life, Movin’ Out, Allentown, a fantastic cover of AC/DC’s Highway To Hell, Keeping The Faith, a remarkable version of Nessun Dorma and Uptown Girl all flashing through Wembley Stadium, this night was the longest time, it was the reason so many love music, it was Heaven upon Earth and wasn’t it received rapturously. A great night, one that filled the London air, Billy Joel was inspired.
Ian D. Hall