Tunnel of Love Express Tour
Encyclopedia
The Tunnel of Love Express was a concert tour featuring Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band that took place in 1988. It followed by four and a half months the release of Springsteen's 1987 album, Tunnel of Love
.
, which had sold well – although nowhere near the blockbuster levels of its predecessor, Born in the U.S.A.
, which it was partly a counter-reaction to – and already generated a hit single in "Brilliant Disguise
". In part, the unusual lag reflected the ambivalence of the album, which Springsteen had first recorded solely by himself, and then had had some E Street Band parts dubbed in on. Indeed, Springsteen and the band had started to drift apart over the previous two or three years, seldom speaking amongst themselves. Springsteen had considered going out on tour solo, and his management had provisionally booked 3,000-seat hall
s around the country. But he eventually decided against that approach, feeling the tone of the resulting show would be too dark. The tour was officially announced on January 6, 1988.
One of the few Springsteen tours to be formally named, the "Express" part came from the shorter duration of the tour - roughly half his typical length - and the shorter stays in any given location, generally just one or two nights.
The United States
leg of the tour took place in arena
s, starting on February 25 at the Worcester Centrum and continuing for 43 shows. There were five-night stands in two major markets, at the Los Angeles Sports Arena and at New York
's Madison Square Garden
, whose shows closed the American leg on May 23. The Europe
an leg commenced on June 11 at the Stadio Comunale in Turin
, Italy
, and continued for 23 shows in stadium
s, concluding the tour on August 3 at Barcelona
, Spain
's Camp Nou
.
Most unusual of the European shows was one in East Berlin
on July 19, 1988, some 16 months before the Berlin Wall
came down. Around 200,000 (officially but people kept run in though gates and through the fence) people were in attendance at the Radrennbahn Weißensee, practically one percent of the German Democratic Republic
's entire population. It was the largest audience of Springsteen's career to that point. Much of the concert was broadcast live on both state television and radio, with Springsteen being extolled by the state as a working-class American who "attack[s] social misery and injustice in his native country." Before playing Bob Dylan
's "Chimes of Freedom
", Springsteen stated in phoenetically recited German, "I want to tell you, I'm not here for or against any certain government, but to play rock ’n’ roll for you East Berliners ... in the hope that one day, all barriers will be torn down." GDR officials took advantage of a tape delay
to delete Springsteen's words.
The tour became the first one in which Springsteen did not play his home state of New Jersey
; speculation that he would play a special series of dates there upon his return from the European leg proved unfounded.
had been a linear progression of basically the same show, scaled to greater and greater heights. Apparently having achieved all he could along those lines, and feeling that the Born in the U.S.A. Tour had done too much of it, with the Tunnel of Love Express Springsteen sought to change directions. The Tunnel of Love Express was, as rock author Jimmy Guterman later wrote, "a tour intended to disorient."
He augmented the E Street Band with a five-piece horn section
, The Miami Horns
, led by Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg, an addition to the band that would be both highly visible and audible. (Springsteen had wanted to carry a ten-piece band with a horn section going back to his pre-E Street, Bruce Springsteen Band days, but had not been able to afford it beforehand.) The return to arenas made the show more accessible.
The stage backdrop was a tapestry of Adam and Eve
in the Garden of Eden
. The entrance of the band onto the stage, heretofore a casual affair, was now elaborate and stylized. It was set up to mimic fairgoers entering a carnival ride, with Springsteen assistant Terry Magovern playing a ticket-taker at the gate near an ominous and foreshadowing sign that said:
Roy Bittan
was already on synthesizer as an extended intro to "Tunnel of Love
" was played. Band members entered the stage two by two, taking tickets from Magovern, each (with the help of a professional costumer) more sharply dressed than for previous tours: Max Weinberg
and Danny Federici
, Garry Tallent
and Nils Lofgren
, the horn section. Next came Patti Scialfa
in a tight mini-skirt, big hair
and carrying a bunch of balloon
s: more foreshadowing. Once in their positions, band members would start up on their parts in the song. Penultimately, Clarence Clemons
, with a single rose between his teeth. Springsteen appeared last, dressed in trousers, a jacket and white shirt that departed from his past denim-and-bandanas look and emphasized the greater formality of what was about to come. Once present, the band's traditional positions on stage were flipped: now Clarence Clemons
on the right, Roy Bittan
on the left, and so on; Max Weinberg
moved from the center to the side, and backup singer Patti Scialfa
from the back riser to the front where Clemons had been. A small thing, but declared by Springsteen in interviews to be evidence of his desire to shake things up when rehearsals began: "The first thing I did was make everyone stand for a different place."
The music of the show itself was a departure, and the show overall more subdued than in the past, yet at the same time the stage presentation was more stylized and choreographed than on any tour before. The country-influenced rock and serious ballads of the new album were not ideal stage material. The moody "Tunnel of Love" to open was not unexpected, but the second slot — which in past years was filled by well-known rousers such as "Badlands
", "Out in the Street
" or "Prove It All Night
" — now was ... "Be True
", an obscure, lightweight B-side to the underperforming 1981 "Fade Away
" single. And so the show's theme was established — an examination of relationships, often of the failed, sour variety, much as the album had been. A long spoken introduction to "Spare Parts
" over a quiet piano backing by Roy Bittan
reiterated the song's hardscrabble setting. Theatrics were up throughout: A tortured rendition of the Biblical "Adam Raised a Cain", sitting on a park bench with Clemons in a long prologue to "All That Heaven Will Allow", throughout the horn section swooping and swaying and doing every bit of stage shtick known to horn sections.
Plenty of songs (typically eight or nine) from Tunnel of Love appeared, as would be expected, and the audiences would be reasonably familiar with them, as the album had been out for a while. But the dominance of obscurities, of B-sides and outtakes, continued, with immediate audience response sacrificed for what might be a slower but deeper understanding. Springsteen said, "The idea on this tour is that you wouldn't know what song was gonna come next. ... [The show feels] real new, real modern to me. I figure some people will wrestle with it a little bit. But that's okay." The first set saw "Roulette", a previously unreleased number from The River sessions about the Three Mile Island accident
, (which was paired with the previous tour's "Seeds" to lend an element of sociological anguish to the personal). The second set saw Springsteen assuming the manner of a televangelist or professional wrestler delivering "I Am a Coward", a remake of Gino Washington
's little-known 1964 local Detroit hit "Gino Is a Coward", and "Part Man, Part Monkey", a never-before-heard, Springsteen-written quasi-reggae ode to the Scopes monkey trial by way of Mickey & Sylvia
's "Love is Strange
". Audiences were bewildered.
Gone completely were several of Springsteen's most popular numbers and traditional concert warhorses: "Badlands
", "The Promised Land", "Thunder Road
". Springsteen had said as the tour began, "... when I went to put this show together, I said, 'Well, what were the songs that were the kind of cornerstones of what I had done? Those are the ones I automatically put to the side."
The first set did close with a blockbuster pairing of "War" into "Born in the U.S.A.
"; compared to the latter's opening of shows during the Born in the U.S.A. Tour
, it now served to sum up a set's worth of personal struggles and counter any mistaken notions about the song's patriotic intent. The first hour and a half of the show featured no selections from Springsteen albums prior to Born in the U.S.A. other than "Adam Raised a Cain". The main set closer, a position long held by "Rosalita
" until booted out during the Born in the U.S.A. Tour, was now held by the fairly obscure, roadhouse-flavored
and hotly played, Springsteen-written-but-Joan Jett
-recorded "(Just Around the Corner to the) Light of Day
" (it would hold this position for band-based Springsteen tours through the end of 2000).
The encores began with Springsteen's signature song
, "Born to Run
", recast completely, slowly played solo by Springsteen on acoustic guitar
and harmonica
and with a melancholy feel, albeit with the band standing behind him, sometimes with an audience sing-along of "whoa-whoa's" at the end. Springsteen prefaced these performances with an introduction along the same lines every night: "Before we came out on tour, I was sitting around home trying to decide what we were gonna be doing out here this time. What I felt I wanted to sing and say to you." After detailing how he came to write "Born to Run" a decade and a half earlier, he would say that its overt theme of escapism had concealed a deeper search for connection and for a place its protagonists could call home. That, now, to Springsteen meant a place deep within oneself. He concluded by saying, "I wanna do this song tonight for all of you, wishing with all my heart that you have a safe trip to home."
After this, Springsteen finally retreated into normalcy, with the last half hour of the show an upbeat, redemptive sequence that The New York Times
described as a "rip-roaring, cinderblock-shaking jubilee." Presented were top hits such as "Hungry Heart
" and "Glory Days
" (both with heavy roles from the horn section) and even, in the second encores, the resurrection of a couple of veteran numbers dropped midway through the Born in the U.S.A. Tour, "Rosalita
" and the "Detroit Medley". Springsteen reasoned that the latter's "Devil With a Blue Dress On" was actually the ultimate moment of the show, as the 'trick' of juxtaposing serious, emotional content with exciting entertainment was pulled off. But those last two would too be gone by the latter stages of the American leg, and the second encore would be filled with more regional obscurities such as The Sonics
' "Have Love, Will Travel
" and unlikely attempts at Roy Orbison
's "Crying".
The encores also delved into Springsteen's longtime interest in soul music, showcasing Percy Sledge
's 1967 arrangement of Elvis Presley
's "Love Me Tender
", Arthur Conley
's "Sweet Soul Music
", and a longtime staple, Eddie Floyd
's "Raise Your Hand
".
Overall, shows ran a little under three hours in length, up to an hour shorter than what audiences had become accustomed to with Springsteen.
Set list
s were unusually static during the tour, a deliberate decision by Springsteen, who saw the show as "focused and specific". Not having to play multiple shows in many venues also helped, although some of the faithful were travelling to multiple cities to see the tour. During the early weeks, often only one song changed per night; a two-night stand at the Philadelphia Spectrum saw no changes at all, highly unusual especially in Springsteen's home territories.
In all, the Tunnel of Love Express lacked the athletic, boisterous spontaneaity that Springsteen had been known for, and featured largely fixed and predetermined performances and on-stage banter. Some fans worried that he looked like he was not having as much fun on stage as in the past.
Bassist Tallent would later say,
During latter shows on the European leg, setlists began to change, with occasional surprise additions.
was in trouble. Others, however, cautioned against such interpretations, pointing out that Springsteen's 1982 album Nebraska
had been full of intense tales of spree killers and other criminals, which Springsteen clearly had no personal experience of. Los Angeles Times
music writer Robert Hilburn
, interviewing Springsteen at the Worcester start of the tour, wrote that "Springsteen seemed extremely comfortable sitting on a sofa with his wife in the dressing room area – a picture that seemed to contradict the speculation that Tunnel of Loves songs of troubled romance reflected signs of trouble in his own marriage."
In addition to everything else, what was different about the Tunnel of Love Express was Springsteen's first go at explicit carnality, from the opening "Tunnel of Love", where he and Scialfa sang cheek to cheek with lips nearly touching at the same microphone, to other numbers such as "Part Man, Part Monkey". A centerpiece of the second set was an eight-minute reworking of one of The River' s casual rockers, "You Can Look (But You Better Not Touch)". Now it was recast into rockabilly
mode, with a half-spoken, half-sung introduction detailing a youth's frustrations up to the iconic car parked with a girlfriend on a lovers' lane. Out come the horn section, sans horns, to do synchronized dancing and sing call-and-response. Out come Scialfa and two women from backstage, three temptresses for the six assembled men. Around they circle each other, as Springsteen sings "You Can Look", resting the microphone below his belt in between lines. Finally the song winds down, as Springsteen and Scialfa stare at each other. Springsteen goes back to the drum kit, where a tray full of water and a sponge are. In tours past, this was a classic moment of Springsteen the relentless showman; he would sponge off his head, gulp down water and spray it over the stage, revitalizing himself to keep on playing for a few more hours. Now, however, he took the sponge, pulled his pants out by his belt buckle, and squeezed the water down into his crotch. Perhaps tame by the standards of Prince
or Madonna
at the time, but for Springsteen and his audience, a line had been crossed.
Newsday
wrote, "Dripping wet during 'Part Man, Part Monkey' – which is as sexual a message as Springsteen has ever transmitted live – Springsteen was, literally, steaming." Amplified deep breathing.
This was all a big change for Scialfa, who had stayed in the background during the 1984–1985 Born in the U.S.A. Tour
, her first. Early on the tour, she said in an interview about her new role: "Bruce coaxed me and urged me to reach. He was very patient, very willing to teach. He had a lot of confidence in me. ... I feel real complete working with him on stage. It's like for a moment nothing bad can happen to you. It's a wonderful give-and-take. You go through every emotion every night." The tour soon proved sufficiently strenuous for her that she began gulping down milkshake
s in an effort to restore lost weight to her 5-foot-8, 117-pound frame.
But there was more to the Tunnel of Love Express than just what Springsteen had planned. On stage, Scialfa had now become Springsteen's principal vocal partner (a role held in the past by the departed Steve Van Zandt) as well as principal foil (supplanting Clarence Clemons
), and in this number and others, the way Springsteen and Scialfa approached each other, and how they held their bodies as they sang together, made their byplay the center of the show right from the "Tunnel of Love" opener. Springsteen biography Dave Marsh
later wrote of the sparks flying from the interaction, "You could have written it off just to musical magic ... if you were dumb as a doorstop," and said that even those that oblivious could not have missed the meaning of the body language during their performance on "One Step Up
", in which a man lists metaphors for the failing love in his marriage, expresses his lack of desire to find it again, and starts casting a wandering eye about.
Thus, that Springsteen and Scialfa were involved had been rumored since early on the tour. Suspicion and confirmation came in stages. Phillips had travelled with the tour initially and even danced onstage during "You Can Look", but at times had looked lost and lonely backstage; she then left (apparently to try out for or shoot a film, variously reported as Sweet Lies
with Treat Williams
, Fletch Saves
with Chevy Chase
, or Skin Deep
directed by Blake Edwards
). Springsteen and Phillips spent their May 13 wedding anniversary apart. During the Madison Square Garden
shows in mid-May, fans and the New York newspapers began noticing that Springsteen was not wearing his wedding ring on stage.
A National Enquirer headline declared, "Bruce Springsteen's Marriage in Trouble", soon followed on June 9 by USA Today
asking "Is Bruce on the Loose?". Springsteen's management initially declined any comment. The European leg of the tour started in Italy, with three shows in mid-June in Rome. Paparazzi
caught Springsteen and Scialfa snuggling each other in their underwear (sometimes described as nightshirts) on a Rome balcony in one photograph and dressed but lounging together on a single deck chair with drinks in hand in another. An Italian paper wrote, "There are no doubts ... Patti and Bruce really love each other." A tabloid fever was underway.
On June 17, Phillips' publicist officially confirmed that Springsteen and Phillips had split. Attention did not diminish; by the time the tour hit France, photographers were capturing Springsteen and Scialfa walking arm in arm through Parisian streets or lolling in the grass in one of the city's parks. When the show reached Wembley Stadium in London, the Fleet Street papers were preoccupied with judging whether the two really were an item; The Star and News of the World
said yes, The Daily Mail was unsure, while the Sunday Mirror
ran a photograph of Springsteen staring intently at his guitar and claimed it was the only love in his life. Later that month, Springsteen's management elaborated that the cause had just been that they grew apart, and explicitly denied tabloid reports that the needs of her career or disagreements about having children had played a role. Phillips subsequently said the same thing in an interview in Us
magazine. (Phillips would file for divorce by the end of the summer, and it was made final in March 1989. Scialfa later said of the period, "I just thought, I can't take this ... Bruce and I had gotten together, it was a very turbulent time." Springsteen himself said, "My first wife's one of the best people I've ever met. She's lovely, intelligent – a great person. But we were pretty different, and I realized I didn't know how to be married.")
English fans interviewed had mixed reactions to the romantic developments, while American fans interviewed, after expressing some sympathy and unease for those involved, generally felt that Springsteen's private life was his business. Some belonged to an existing camp that had never seen Phillips as a good match for Springsteen from the start. Others were surprised that Springsteen would end up in the middle of a messy love triangle
. The two primary organs of the Bruce faithful at the time, Backstreets Magazine
and the "Springsteen party line" (a telephone-based precursor to Springsteen fan groups and mailing lists on the Internet), said nothing about the developments at all. Music critics such as David Hinckley said that while Springsteen had never promoted himself as a hero or role model, he had nonetheless built a bond of faith with his fan base around the notion of doing the right thing. Hinckley wondered whether Springsteen could "win the faithful back". The affair continued to draw the attention of the celebrity and supermarket press, eventually including a long piece in Woman's World
magazine that quoted Judith Kuriansky, a psychologist and television talk show host, to the effect that Springsteen was going through a midlife crisis
. Quasi-official Springsteen biography Dave Marsh
would later write that the separation had occurred in early May at the end of the West Coast portion of the American leg, while an Us magazine story based around a Phillips interview placed it sometime between the early stages of the tour and the couple's May 13 anniversary. Regardless of exactly when the marriage ended and the new relationship began, the impression left upon the wider public was that Springsteen was a heartless man cheating on his wife an ocean away, Phillips was humiliated, and Scialfa was the "other woman".
The search for a deeper personal connection that Springsteen had mentioned during his "Born to Run" introduction had left him, in an interview during the tour, comparing his fame and situation to that of Elvis Presley
and Michael Jackson
. But his quest to undermine his Born in the U.S.A.-era fame with a more subdued album and smaller-scale tour had ended up in most unexpected fashion.
outlets on Saturday mornings, listening on portable radios with the idea that something might be happening right then. Most often, nothing would happen, and a rock radio disc jockey would then confirm that no tickets were going on sale that day. Or fans would gather outside the box office at the Centrum in Worcestor, hoping that ticket bracelets might suddenly be distributed that day, and be suddenly rewarded if they were.
The disparity between supply and demand meant high prices for scalpers, with $22.50 tickets to the Nassau Coliseum shows on Long Island
going for anywhere from $100 to $400. Undercover police worked venue parking lots to try to curb the practice. Fans from all over Ohio
and parts of Indiana
attended the Richfield Coliseum shows in Cleveland, with some paying scalper prices. Fans in Rockford, Illinois
staged an (unsuccessful) petition drive to get Springsteen to add their city to the tour's routing.
The three kickoff shows in Worcester sold out in two hours (the site having been chosen for the tour opening, the venue manager thought, because the New England area had given a very favorable response to the Born in the U.S.A. Tour.) Two shows in Cleveland's Richfield Coliseum sold out in four hours.
Indeed, there were quick sellouts all across the eastern U.S. and elsewhere.
Reviews of the Tunnel of Love Express were generally favorable.
The Associated Press
found the opening Worcester shows full of "twists and turns" that at first "befuddled the crowd with an assortment of seldom-heard songs" before he "eventually put the crowd in a frenzy."
The Blade
newspaper of Toledo, Ohio
declared that "there is much new and much different about the 'Tunnel of Love' tour. There are new songs, and new insights to be gained from old ones."
Jon Pareles
of The New York Times
found the show undermined by the didactic, monochromatic nature of Springsteen's more recent songs. Stephen Holden
of the same paper, on the other hand, thought those same songs "wonderful", and wrote that "In concert, [Springsteen has] figured out how to string songs into extended journeys that take on a cumulative power as the evening proceeds." Holden concluded that "Springsteen reconciles seemingly unreconcilable concepts: a sober awareness of social and erotic realities and a boundless faith in life." e
The Spokane Chronicle said that with the addition of the horn section, "the always powerful E Street Band is more muscular than ever" and that thematically, the show takes the viewer "for a bleak ride before you reach the light of day."
Robert Hilburn
of the Los Angeles Times
assayed that Springsteen "stepped away from the two concert elements that have most been associated with him – spontaneity and celebration – to concentrate on artistic independence and growth." The result, Hilburn stated, were Springsteen's "most studied, yet most radical and liberating appearances yet".
Springsteen biographer Dave Marsh
would write in 2006, "As a tour, Tunnel of Love Express presents the greatest puzzle of Springsteen's career."
In any case, following the Human Rights Now! Tour
later that year, Springsteen broke up the E Street Band. It would not tour again for eleven years, until the 1999–2000 Reunion Tour
.
was broadcast live on radio to an international audience. Distributed through DIR Broadcasting and available free to any station that wanted it, it was Springsteen's first live nationwide broadcast as a headlining act and his first of any kind since an opening act appearance on the King Biscuit Flower Hour
in 1973. Some 300 stations broadcast it in the U.S., and it was also heard across Canada, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Proceeds from commercials that aired before and after the concert segment were to be divided between DIR and Springsteen, and after subtraction for costs, sent to charity. The set itself followed tour practice except for the addition of Bob Dylan
's "Chimes of Freedom
" at the close, as Springsteen announced his upcoming participation in Amnesty International
's Human Rights Now! Tour
later that year.
The Chimes of Freedom
EP
, released in August 1988, included that rendition, as well as documenting three other song performances from scattered dates on the Express, including the radical simplification of "Born to Run".
Tunnel of Love (album)
Tunnel of Love is the eighth studio album by Bruce Springsteen released in 1987.In 1998, Q magazine readers voted Tunnel of Love the 91st greatest album of all time....
.
Itinerary
The tour came four and a half months the release of Springsteen's 1987 album, Tunnel of LoveTunnel of Love (album)
Tunnel of Love is the eighth studio album by Bruce Springsteen released in 1987.In 1998, Q magazine readers voted Tunnel of Love the 91st greatest album of all time....
, which had sold well – although nowhere near the blockbuster levels of its predecessor, Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A. is the seventh studio album by American rock singer-songwriter Bruce Springsteen, released on June 4, 1984. A critical and commercial triumph, it found Springsteen marking a departure in his sound...
, which it was partly a counter-reaction to – and already generated a hit single in "Brilliant Disguise
Brilliant Disguise
"Brilliant Disguise" is a song by Bruce Springsteen from his 1987 album Tunnel of Love. It was released as the first single from the album, reaching the #5 position on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the United States...
". In part, the unusual lag reflected the ambivalence of the album, which Springsteen had first recorded solely by himself, and then had had some E Street Band parts dubbed in on. Indeed, Springsteen and the band had started to drift apart over the previous two or three years, seldom speaking amongst themselves. Springsteen had considered going out on tour solo, and his management had provisionally booked 3,000-seat hall
Hall
In architecture, a hall is fundamentally a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age, a mead hall was such a simple building and was the residence of a lord and his retainers...
s around the country. But he eventually decided against that approach, feeling the tone of the resulting show would be too dark. The tour was officially announced on January 6, 1988.
One of the few Springsteen tours to be formally named, the "Express" part came from the shorter duration of the tour - roughly half his typical length - and the shorter stays in any given location, generally just one or two nights.
The United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
leg of the tour took place in arena
Arena
An arena is an enclosed area, often circular or oval-shaped, designed to showcase theater, musical performances, or sporting events. It is composed of a large open space surrounded on most or all sides by tiered seating for spectators. The key feature of an arena is that the event space is the...
s, starting on February 25 at the Worcester Centrum and continuing for 43 shows. There were five-night stands in two major markets, at the Los Angeles Sports Arena and at New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
, whose shows closed the American leg on May 23. The Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an leg commenced on June 11 at the Stadio Comunale in Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and continued for 23 shows in stadium
Stadium
A modern stadium is a place or venue for outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a structure designed to allow spectators to stand or sit and view the event.)Pausanias noted that for about half a century the only event...
s, concluding the tour on August 3 at Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
's Camp Nou
Camp Nou
Camp Nou , sometimes called "the Nou Camp" in English, is a football stadium in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The stadium, located in the west of the city, has been the home of FC Barcelona since its construction in 1957....
.
Most unusual of the European shows was one in East Berlin
East Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...
on July 19, 1988, some 16 months before the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
came down. Around 200,000 (officially but people kept run in though gates and through the fence) people were in attendance at the Radrennbahn Weißensee, practically one percent of the German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
's entire population. It was the largest audience of Springsteen's career to that point. Much of the concert was broadcast live on both state television and radio, with Springsteen being extolled by the state as a working-class American who "attack[s] social misery and injustice in his native country." Before playing Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's "Chimes of Freedom
Chimes of Freedom
"Chimes of Freedom" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan and featured on his 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan , produced by Tom Wilson. It was written in early 1964 and was influenced by the symbolist poetry of Arthur Rimbaud. The song depicts the feelings and thoughts of the singer...
", Springsteen stated in phoenetically recited German, "I want to tell you, I'm not here for or against any certain government, but to play rock ’n’ roll for you East Berliners ... in the hope that one day, all barriers will be torn down." GDR officials took advantage of a tape delay
Broadcast delay
In radio and television, broadcast delay refers to the practice of intentionally delaying broadcast of live material. A short delay is often used to prevent profanity, bloopers, violence, or other undesirable material from making it to air, including more mundane problems such as technical...
to delete Springsteen's words.
The tour became the first one in which Springsteen did not play his home state of New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
; speculation that he would play a special series of dates there upon his return from the European leg proved unfounded.
The show
Springsteen's concerts from his beginnings up through the massively popular Born in the U.S.A. TourBorn in the U.S.A. Tour
The Born in the U.S.A. Tour was the supporting concert tour of Bruce Springsteen's massively popular Born in the U.S.A. album. It was his longest and most successful tour to date. It featured a physically transformed Springsteen. After two years of bodybuilding, Springsteen had bulked up...
had been a linear progression of basically the same show, scaled to greater and greater heights. Apparently having achieved all he could along those lines, and feeling that the Born in the U.S.A. Tour had done too much of it, with the Tunnel of Love Express Springsteen sought to change directions. The Tunnel of Love Express was, as rock author Jimmy Guterman later wrote, "a tour intended to disorient."
He augmented the E Street Band with a five-piece horn section
Horn section
In music, a horn section can refer to several groups of musicians. It can refer to the musicians in a symphony orchestra who play the horn . In a British-style brass band it refers to the tenor horn players. In popular music, it can also refer to a small group of wind instrumentalists who augment a...
, The Miami Horns
The Miami Horns
The Miami Horns are a horn section best known for touring and/or recording with Southside Johnny, Bruce Springsteen, Little Steven and The Max Weinberg 7. They have also toured, performed and/or recorded with, among others, Diana Ross, Gary U.S...
, led by Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg, an addition to the band that would be both highly visible and audible. (Springsteen had wanted to carry a ten-piece band with a horn section going back to his pre-E Street, Bruce Springsteen Band days, but had not been able to afford it beforehand.) The return to arenas made the show more accessible.
The stage backdrop was a tapestry of Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve were, according to the Genesis creation narratives, the first human couple to inhabit Earth, created by YHWH, the God of the ancient Hebrews...
in the Garden of Eden
Garden of Eden
The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...
. The entrance of the band onto the stage, heretofore a casual affair, was now elaborate and stylized. It was set up to mimic fairgoers entering a carnival ride, with Springsteen assistant Terry Magovern playing a ticket-taker at the gate near an ominous and foreshadowing sign that said:
Roy Bittan
Roy Bittan
Roy Bittan is an American keyboardist, best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, which he joined on August 23, 1974...
was already on synthesizer as an extended intro to "Tunnel of Love
Tunnel of Love (Bruce Springsteen song)
"Tunnel of Love" is the title song by Bruce Springsteen from his 1987 Tunnel of Love album. It was released as the second single from the album, reaching number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Like the first single from the album, "Brilliant Disguise", "Tunnel of Love" reached number one on...
" was played. Band members entered the stage two by two, taking tickets from Magovern, each (with the help of a professional costumer) more sharply dressed than for previous tours: Max Weinberg
Max Weinberg
Max Weinberg is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.Weinberg grew up in suburban New Jersey...
and Danny Federici
Danny Federici
Daniel Paul "Danny" Federici was an American musician, best known as the longtime organ, glockenspiel, and accordion player for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.- Career :...
, Garry Tallent
Garry Tallent
Garry Wayne Tallent , sometimes billed as Garry W. Tallent, is an American musician and record producer, best known for being the longtime bass player in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band....
and Nils Lofgren
Nils Lofgren
Nils Hilmer Lofgren is an American rock music recording artist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist...
, the horn section. Next came Patti Scialfa
Patti Scialfa
Vivienne Patricia "Patti" Scialfa is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She is married to Bruce Springsteen and they have three children.- Early life :...
in a tight mini-skirt, big hair
Big hair
thumb|[[Dolly Parton]] in 1983.Big hair is a term that can refer to hairstyles that emphasize large volume or largely styled hair, especially when those styles make the hair occupy a large amount of space above and around the head...
and carrying a bunch of balloon
Balloon
A balloon is an inflatable flexible bag filled with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, or air. Modern balloons can be made from materials such as rubber, latex, polychloroprene, or a nylon fabric, while some early balloons were made of dried animal bladders, such as the pig...
s: more foreshadowing. Once in their positions, band members would start up on their parts in the song. Penultimately, Clarence Clemons
Clarence Clemons
Clarence Anicholas Clemons, Jr. , also known as The Big Man, was an American musician and actor. From 1972 until his death, he was a prominent member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, playing the tenor saxophone. He released several solo albums and in 1985, had a hit single with "You're a...
, with a single rose between his teeth. Springsteen appeared last, dressed in trousers, a jacket and white shirt that departed from his past denim-and-bandanas look and emphasized the greater formality of what was about to come. Once present, the band's traditional positions on stage were flipped: now Clarence Clemons
Clarence Clemons
Clarence Anicholas Clemons, Jr. , also known as The Big Man, was an American musician and actor. From 1972 until his death, he was a prominent member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, playing the tenor saxophone. He released several solo albums and in 1985, had a hit single with "You're a...
on the right, Roy Bittan
Roy Bittan
Roy Bittan is an American keyboardist, best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, which he joined on August 23, 1974...
on the left, and so on; Max Weinberg
Max Weinberg
Max Weinberg is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.Weinberg grew up in suburban New Jersey...
moved from the center to the side, and backup singer Patti Scialfa
Patti Scialfa
Vivienne Patricia "Patti" Scialfa is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She is married to Bruce Springsteen and they have three children.- Early life :...
from the back riser to the front where Clemons had been. A small thing, but declared by Springsteen in interviews to be evidence of his desire to shake things up when rehearsals began: "The first thing I did was make everyone stand for a different place."
The music of the show itself was a departure, and the show overall more subdued than in the past, yet at the same time the stage presentation was more stylized and choreographed than on any tour before. The country-influenced rock and serious ballads of the new album were not ideal stage material. The moody "Tunnel of Love" to open was not unexpected, but the second slot — which in past years was filled by well-known rousers such as "Badlands
Badlands (Bruce Springsteen song)
"Badlands" was the leadoff track on Bruce Springsteen's fourth studio album Darkness on the Edge of Town, and its second single.- Themes :The song tells the story of a man down on his luck and angry at the world, who wants a better lot in life....
", "Out in the Street
Out in the Street
"Out in the Street" is a song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band from the 1980 album The River. It was recorded at The Power Station in New York between March and May 1980, as one of the last songs recorded for the album...
" or "Prove It All Night
Prove It All Night
"Prove It All Night" is the penultimate song on Bruce Springsteen's fourth studio album Darkness on the Edge of Town, and the first single released from it....
" — now was ... "Be True
Be True
"Be True" is a song by Bruce Springsteen. It was recorded on July 21, 1979 at The Power Station in New York in one the early recording sessions for Bruce Springsteen's album The River...
", an obscure, lightweight B-side to the underperforming 1981 "Fade Away
Fade Away (song)
"Fade Away" is a 1980 song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen, accompanied by the E Street Band. It was contained on his album The River, and the second single released from it in the United States.-History:...
" single. And so the show's theme was established — an examination of relationships, often of the failed, sour variety, much as the album had been. A long spoken introduction to "Spare Parts
Spare Parts (song)
"Spare Parts" is a song by Bruce Springsteen from his 1987 Tunnel of Love album. It was released as a single in some countries, following "Brilliant Disguise", the title track and "Tougher Than the Rest", but was not released as a single in the United States...
" over a quiet piano backing by Roy Bittan
Roy Bittan
Roy Bittan is an American keyboardist, best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, which he joined on August 23, 1974...
reiterated the song's hardscrabble setting. Theatrics were up throughout: A tortured rendition of the Biblical "Adam Raised a Cain", sitting on a park bench with Clemons in a long prologue to "All That Heaven Will Allow", throughout the horn section swooping and swaying and doing every bit of stage shtick known to horn sections.
Plenty of songs (typically eight or nine) from Tunnel of Love appeared, as would be expected, and the audiences would be reasonably familiar with them, as the album had been out for a while. But the dominance of obscurities, of B-sides and outtakes, continued, with immediate audience response sacrificed for what might be a slower but deeper understanding. Springsteen said, "The idea on this tour is that you wouldn't know what song was gonna come next. ... [The show feels] real new, real modern to me. I figure some people will wrestle with it a little bit. But that's okay." The first set saw "Roulette", a previously unreleased number from The River sessions about the Three Mile Island accident
Three Mile Island accident
The Three Mile Island accident was a core meltdown in Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg, United States in 1979....
, (which was paired with the previous tour's "Seeds" to lend an element of sociological anguish to the personal). The second set saw Springsteen assuming the manner of a televangelist or professional wrestler delivering "I Am a Coward", a remake of Gino Washington
Gino Washington
George "Gino" Washington is an African American R&B and rock singer from Detroit, Michigan who had cross-racial appeal. While he was attending Pershing High School, he achieved local hits in 1963 and 1964 with "Out of This World" and "Gino Is a Coward". In 1964 he was drafted into the U.S. Army...
's little-known 1964 local Detroit hit "Gino Is a Coward", and "Part Man, Part Monkey", a never-before-heard, Springsteen-written quasi-reggae ode to the Scopes monkey trial by way of Mickey & Sylvia
Mickey & Sylvia
Mickey & Sylvia was an American R&B duo, composed of Mickey Baker and Sylvia Robinson. They were the first big seller for Groove Records.Mickey was a music instructor and Sylvia one of his pupils. Baker was inspired to form the group by the success of Les Paul & Mary Ford. They had a Top 20 hit...
's "Love is Strange
Love Is Strange
"Love Is Strange" was a crossover hit by American rhythm and blues duet Mickey & Sylvia, which was released in late November 1956 by the Groove record label.The song was based on a guitar riff by Jody Williams. The co-writers of the song are of some dispute...
". Audiences were bewildered.
Gone completely were several of Springsteen's most popular numbers and traditional concert warhorses: "Badlands
Badlands (Bruce Springsteen song)
"Badlands" was the leadoff track on Bruce Springsteen's fourth studio album Darkness on the Edge of Town, and its second single.- Themes :The song tells the story of a man down on his luck and angry at the world, who wants a better lot in life....
", "The Promised Land", "Thunder Road
Thunder Road (song)
"Thunder Road" is a song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen, and the opening track on his 1975 breakthrough album Born to Run. It is ranked as one of Springsteen's greatest songs, and often appears on lists of the top rock songs of all time.Rolling Stone magazine placed it as #86 on its...
". Springsteen had said as the tour began, "... when I went to put this show together, I said, 'Well, what were the songs that were the kind of cornerstones of what I had done? Those are the ones I automatically put to the side."
The first set did close with a blockbuster pairing of "War" into "Born in the U.S.A.
Born in the U.S.A. (song)
"Born in the U.S.A." is a 1984 song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen. Taken from the album of the same name, it is one of his best-known singles. Rolling Stone ranked the song 275th on their list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In 2001, the RIAA's Songs of the Century placed...
"; compared to the latter's opening of shows during the Born in the U.S.A. Tour
Born in the U.S.A. Tour
The Born in the U.S.A. Tour was the supporting concert tour of Bruce Springsteen's massively popular Born in the U.S.A. album. It was his longest and most successful tour to date. It featured a physically transformed Springsteen. After two years of bodybuilding, Springsteen had bulked up...
, it now served to sum up a set's worth of personal struggles and counter any mistaken notions about the song's patriotic intent. The first hour and a half of the show featured no selections from Springsteen albums prior to Born in the U.S.A. other than "Adam Raised a Cain". The main set closer, a position long held by "Rosalita
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
"Rosalita " is a 1973 song by Bruce Springsteen, from his The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle album, and is especially famed as a concert number for Springsteen and The E Street Band...
" until booted out during the Born in the U.S.A. Tour, was now held by the fairly obscure, roadhouse-flavored
Roadhouse (facility)
A roadhouse is a commercial establishment typically built on a major road or highway, to service passing travellers. Its meaning varies slightly by country.-USA:...
and hotly played, Springsteen-written-but-Joan Jett
Joan Jett
Joan Jett is an American rock guitarist, singer, songwriter, producer and actress.She is best known for her work with Joan Jett & the Blackhearts including their hit cover "I Love Rock 'n' Roll", which was #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 from March 20 to May 1, 1982, as well as for their other popular...
-recorded "(Just Around the Corner to the) Light of Day
Light of Day (song)
"Light of Day", sometimes written as " Light of Day", is a song written by Bruce Springsteen and performed initially by Joan Jett and Michael J. Fox with their fictitious band The Barbusters in the 1987 film Light of Day...
" (it would hold this position for band-based Springsteen tours through the end of 2000).
Signature song
A signature song is the one song that a popular and well-established singer or band is most closely identified with or best known for, even if they have had success with a variety of songs...
, "Born to Run
Born to Run (song)
"Born to Run" is a song by American singer songwriter Bruce Springsteen, and the title song of his album Born to Run.- Songwriting :Written at in Long Branch, New Jersey in early 1974, the song was Bruce Springsteen's last-ditch effort to make it big. The prior year, Springsteen had released two...
", recast completely, slowly played solo by Springsteen on acoustic guitar
Steel-string acoustic guitar
A steel-string acoustic guitar is a modern form of guitar descended from the classical guitar, but strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound...
and harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
and with a melancholy feel, albeit with the band standing behind him, sometimes with an audience sing-along of "whoa-whoa's" at the end. Springsteen prefaced these performances with an introduction along the same lines every night: "Before we came out on tour, I was sitting around home trying to decide what we were gonna be doing out here this time. What I felt I wanted to sing and say to you." After detailing how he came to write "Born to Run" a decade and a half earlier, he would say that its overt theme of escapism had concealed a deeper search for connection and for a place its protagonists could call home. That, now, to Springsteen meant a place deep within oneself. He concluded by saying, "I wanna do this song tonight for all of you, wishing with all my heart that you have a safe trip to home."
After this, Springsteen finally retreated into normalcy, with the last half hour of the show an upbeat, redemptive sequence that The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
described as a "rip-roaring, cinderblock-shaking jubilee." Presented were top hits such as "Hungry Heart
Hungry Heart
"Hungry Heart" is a song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen on his fifth album, The River. It was released as the album's first single in 1980 and became Springsteen's first big hit of his own on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.-History:...
" and "Glory Days
Glory Days (song)
"Glory Days" is a 1984 song, written and performed by American rock singer Bruce Springsteen. In 1985, it became the fifth single released from his massively successful album Born in the U.S.A.-History:...
" (both with heavy roles from the horn section) and even, in the second encores, the resurrection of a couple of veteran numbers dropped midway through the Born in the U.S.A. Tour, "Rosalita
Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
"Rosalita " is a 1973 song by Bruce Springsteen, from his The Wild, The Innocent, & The E Street Shuffle album, and is especially famed as a concert number for Springsteen and The E Street Band...
" and the "Detroit Medley". Springsteen reasoned that the latter's "Devil With a Blue Dress On" was actually the ultimate moment of the show, as the 'trick' of juxtaposing serious, emotional content with exciting entertainment was pulled off. But those last two would too be gone by the latter stages of the American leg, and the second encore would be filled with more regional obscurities such as The Sonics
The Sonics
The Sonics are an American garage rock band from Tacoma, Washington, originating from the early and mid-1960s. Among The Sonics' contemporaries were The Kingsmen, The Wailers, The Dynamics, The Regents, and Paul Revere & the Raiders...
' "Have Love, Will Travel
Have Love, Will Travel
"Have Love, Will Travel" is a 1959 song written and recorded by Richard Berry.-Covers:In its most known instantiation, the garage rock-protopunkers The Sonics covered the song in 1965 and it appeared on their album Here Are The Sonics of that year...
" and unlikely attempts at Roy Orbison
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison was an American singer-songwriter, well known for his distinctive, powerful voice, complex compositions, and dark emotional ballads. Orbison grew up in Texas and began singing in a rockabilly/country & western band in high school until he was signed by Sun Records in Memphis...
's "Crying".
The encores also delved into Springsteen's longtime interest in soul music, showcasing Percy Sledge
Percy Sledge
Percy Sledge is an American R&B and soul performer who recorded the hit "When a Man Loves a Woman" in 1966.-Early career:...
's 1967 arrangement of Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
's "Love Me Tender
Love Me Tender (song)
"Love Me Tender" is a song recorded by Elvis Presley and published by Elvis Presley Music, adapted from the tune of "Aura Lee" , a sentimental Civil War ballad.- History :...
", Arthur Conley
Arthur Conley
Arthur Lee Conley was an American soul singer, best known for the 1967 hit "Sweet Soul Music".-Career:...
's "Sweet Soul Music
Sweet Soul Music
Sweet Soul Music is the second album of New Zealand RnB artist, Aaradhna released in 2008 on Valentine's Day.-Track listing:#"Didn't I "#"I Want You Back"#"Betcha By Golly Wow"#"You Are The Sunshine Of My Life"...
", and a longtime staple, Eddie Floyd
Eddie Floyd
Eddie Lee Floyd is an American soul/R&B singer and songwriter, best known for his work on the Stax record label in the 1960s and 1970s and the song "Knock on Wood".-Biography:...
's "Raise Your Hand
Raise Your Hand
"Raise Your Hand" is a song written by Steve Cropper, Eddie Floyd, and Alvertis Isbell . It was recorded by Floyd and appeared on his 1967 debut album Knock on Wood...
".
Overall, shows ran a little under three hours in length, up to an hour shorter than what audiences had become accustomed to with Springsteen.
Set list
Set list
A set list, or setlist, is a document that lists the songs that a band or musical artist intends to play, or has played, during a specific concert performance...
s were unusually static during the tour, a deliberate decision by Springsteen, who saw the show as "focused and specific". Not having to play multiple shows in many venues also helped, although some of the faithful were travelling to multiple cities to see the tour. During the early weeks, often only one song changed per night; a two-night stand at the Philadelphia Spectrum saw no changes at all, highly unusual especially in Springsteen's home territories.
In all, the Tunnel of Love Express lacked the athletic, boisterous spontaneaity that Springsteen had been known for, and featured largely fixed and predetermined performances and on-stage banter. Some fans worried that he looked like he was not having as much fun on stage as in the past.
Bassist Tallent would later say,
During latter shows on the European leg, setlists began to change, with occasional surprise additions.
Life imitating art imitating life
From the first release of Tunnel of Love, there had listeners who wondered if some of the gloomy portrayals of interpersonal relationships on the album indicated that Springsteen's 1985 marriage to actress and model Julianne PhillipsJulianne Phillips
Julianne Phillips is an American model and actress. She is the ex-wife of Bruce Springsteen.-Biography:Born in Chicago, Illinois, Phillips was raised in the Portland suburb of Lake Oswego, Oregon, the daughter of insurance broker, William Phillips, and wife, Ann Phillips. She was the youngest of...
was in trouble. Others, however, cautioned against such interpretations, pointing out that Springsteen's 1982 album Nebraska
Nebraska (album)
-Themes:The album begins with "Nebraska", a first-person narrative based on the true story of 19-year-old spree killer Charles Starkweather and his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, and ends with "Reason to Believe", a complex narrative that renders its title phrase into contemptuous sarcasm...
had been full of intense tales of spree killers and other criminals, which Springsteen clearly had no personal experience of. Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
music writer Robert Hilburn
Robert Hilburn
Robert Hilburn is a pop music critic and author. As critic and music editor of the Los Angeles Times from 1970 to 2005, his reviews, essays and profiles have appeared in hundreds of publications around the world...
, interviewing Springsteen at the Worcester start of the tour, wrote that "Springsteen seemed extremely comfortable sitting on a sofa with his wife in the dressing room area – a picture that seemed to contradict the speculation that Tunnel of Loves songs of troubled romance reflected signs of trouble in his own marriage."
In addition to everything else, what was different about the Tunnel of Love Express was Springsteen's first go at explicit carnality, from the opening "Tunnel of Love", where he and Scialfa sang cheek to cheek with lips nearly touching at the same microphone, to other numbers such as "Part Man, Part Monkey". A centerpiece of the second set was an eight-minute reworking of one of The River
Rockabilly
Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...
mode, with a half-spoken, half-sung introduction detailing a youth's frustrations up to the iconic car parked with a girlfriend on a lovers' lane. Out come the horn section, sans horns, to do synchronized dancing and sing call-and-response. Out come Scialfa and two women from backstage, three temptresses for the six assembled men. Around they circle each other, as Springsteen sings "You Can Look", resting the microphone below his belt in between lines. Finally the song winds down, as Springsteen and Scialfa stare at each other. Springsteen goes back to the drum kit, where a tray full of water and a sponge are. In tours past, this was a classic moment of Springsteen the relentless showman; he would sponge off his head, gulp down water and spray it over the stage, revitalizing himself to keep on playing for a few more hours. Now, however, he took the sponge, pulled his pants out by his belt buckle, and squeezed the water down into his crotch. Perhaps tame by the standards of Prince
Prince (musician)
Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...
or Madonna
Madonna (entertainer)
Madonna is an American singer-songwriter, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983...
at the time, but for Springsteen and his audience, a line had been crossed.
Newsday
Newsday
Newsday is a daily American newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties and the New York City borough of Queens on Long Island, although it is sold throughout the New York metropolitan area...
wrote, "Dripping wet during 'Part Man, Part Monkey' – which is as sexual a message as Springsteen has ever transmitted live – Springsteen was, literally, steaming." Amplified deep breathing.
This was all a big change for Scialfa, who had stayed in the background during the 1984–1985 Born in the U.S.A. Tour
Born in the U.S.A. Tour
The Born in the U.S.A. Tour was the supporting concert tour of Bruce Springsteen's massively popular Born in the U.S.A. album. It was his longest and most successful tour to date. It featured a physically transformed Springsteen. After two years of bodybuilding, Springsteen had bulked up...
, her first. Early on the tour, she said in an interview about her new role: "Bruce coaxed me and urged me to reach. He was very patient, very willing to teach. He had a lot of confidence in me. ... I feel real complete working with him on stage. It's like for a moment nothing bad can happen to you. It's a wonderful give-and-take. You go through every emotion every night." The tour soon proved sufficiently strenuous for her that she began gulping down milkshake
Milkshake
A milkshake is a sweet, cold beverage which is made from milk, ice cream or iced milk, and flavorings or sweeteners such as fruit syrup or chocolate sauce....
s in an effort to restore lost weight to her 5-foot-8, 117-pound frame.
But there was more to the Tunnel of Love Express than just what Springsteen had planned. On stage, Scialfa had now become Springsteen's principal vocal partner (a role held in the past by the departed Steve Van Zandt) as well as principal foil (supplanting Clarence Clemons
Clarence Clemons
Clarence Anicholas Clemons, Jr. , also known as The Big Man, was an American musician and actor. From 1972 until his death, he was a prominent member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, playing the tenor saxophone. He released several solo albums and in 1985, had a hit single with "You're a...
), and in this number and others, the way Springsteen and Scialfa approached each other, and how they held their bodies as they sang together, made their byplay the center of the show right from the "Tunnel of Love" opener. Springsteen biography Dave Marsh
Dave Marsh
Dave Marsh is an American music critic, author, editor and radio talk show host. He was a formative editor of Creem magazine, has written for various publications such as Newsday, The Village Voice, and Rolling Stone, and has published numerous books about music and musicians, mostly focused on...
later wrote of the sparks flying from the interaction, "You could have written it off just to musical magic ... if you were dumb as a doorstop," and said that even those that oblivious could not have missed the meaning of the body language during their performance on "One Step Up
One Step Up
"One Step Up" is a song by Bruce Springsteen from his 1987 Tunnel of Love album. It was released as the third single from the album, following "Brilliant Disguise" and the title track. It reached position #13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #3 on the Adult Contemporary chart in the United...
", in which a man lists metaphors for the failing love in his marriage, expresses his lack of desire to find it again, and starts casting a wandering eye about.
Thus, that Springsteen and Scialfa were involved had been rumored since early on the tour. Suspicion and confirmation came in stages. Phillips had travelled with the tour initially and even danced onstage during "You Can Look", but at times had looked lost and lonely backstage; she then left (apparently to try out for or shoot a film, variously reported as Sweet Lies
Sweet Lies (film)
Sweet Lies is a 1988 film from Island Pictures, directed by Nathalie Delon and starring Treat Williams as an insurance investigator in Paris who becomes the object of a bet made by three women, who start to fall for him...
with Treat Williams
Treat Williams
Richard Treat Williams is a Screen Actors Guild Award–nominated American actor and children's book author who has appeared on film, stage and television...
, Fletch Saves
Fletch Lives
Fletch Lives is a 1989 comedy film starring Chevy Chase. It was directed by Michael Ritchie with a screenplay by Leon Capetanos based on the character created by Gregory Mcdonald. Fletch Lives was released by Universal Pictures. It is a sequel to the 1985 film Fletch.- Plot :Chevy Chase once again...
with Chevy Chase
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...
, or Skin Deep
Skin Deep (1989 film)
Skin Deep is a 1989 American film starring John Ritter, written and directed by Blake Edwards.-Plot:Zachary "Zach" Hutton is a successful author who has a weakness for alcohol and beautiful women. Zach's mistress walks in on him in the process of cheating on her, followed by his estranged wife Alex...
directed by Blake Edwards
Blake Edwards
Blake Edwards was an American film director, screenwriter and producer.Edwards' career began in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon turned to writing radio scripts at Columbia Pictures...
). Springsteen and Phillips spent their May 13 wedding anniversary apart. During the Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...
shows in mid-May, fans and the New York newspapers began noticing that Springsteen was not wearing his wedding ring on stage.
A National Enquirer headline declared, "Bruce Springsteen's Marriage in Trouble", soon followed on June 9 by USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
asking "Is Bruce on the Loose?". Springsteen's management initially declined any comment. The European leg of the tour started in Italy, with three shows in mid-June in Rome. Paparazzi
Paparazzi
Paparazzi is an Italian term used to refer to photojournalists who specialize in candid photography of celebrities, politicians, and other prominent people...
caught Springsteen and Scialfa snuggling each other in their underwear (sometimes described as nightshirts) on a Rome balcony in one photograph and dressed but lounging together on a single deck chair with drinks in hand in another. An Italian paper wrote, "There are no doubts ... Patti and Bruce really love each other." A tabloid fever was underway.
On June 17, Phillips' publicist officially confirmed that Springsteen and Phillips had split. Attention did not diminish; by the time the tour hit France, photographers were capturing Springsteen and Scialfa walking arm in arm through Parisian streets or lolling in the grass in one of the city's parks. When the show reached Wembley Stadium in London, the Fleet Street papers were preoccupied with judging whether the two really were an item; The Star and News of the World
News of the World
The News of the World was a national red top newspaper published in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world, and at closure still had one of the highest English language circulations...
said yes, The Daily Mail was unsure, while the Sunday Mirror
Sunday Mirror
The Sunday Mirror is the Sunday sister paper of the Daily Mirror. It began life in 1915 as the Sunday Pictorial and was renamed the Sunday Mirror in 1963. Trinity Mirror also owns The People...
ran a photograph of Springsteen staring intently at his guitar and claimed it was the only love in his life. Later that month, Springsteen's management elaborated that the cause had just been that they grew apart, and explicitly denied tabloid reports that the needs of her career or disagreements about having children had played a role. Phillips subsequently said the same thing in an interview in Us
Us Weekly
Us Weekly is a celebrity gossip magazine, founded in 1977 by The New York Times Company, who sold it in 1980. It was acquired by Wenner Media in 1986. The publication covers topics ranging from celebrity relationships to the latest trends in fashion, beauty, and entertainment...
magazine. (Phillips would file for divorce by the end of the summer, and it was made final in March 1989. Scialfa later said of the period, "I just thought, I can't take this ... Bruce and I had gotten together, it was a very turbulent time." Springsteen himself said, "My first wife's one of the best people I've ever met. She's lovely, intelligent – a great person. But we were pretty different, and I realized I didn't know how to be married.")
English fans interviewed had mixed reactions to the romantic developments, while American fans interviewed, after expressing some sympathy and unease for those involved, generally felt that Springsteen's private life was his business. Some belonged to an existing camp that had never seen Phillips as a good match for Springsteen from the start. Others were surprised that Springsteen would end up in the middle of a messy love triangle
Love triangle
A love triangle is usually a romantic relationship involving three people. While it can refer to two people independently romantically linked with a third, it usually implies that each of the three people has some kind of relationship to the other two...
. The two primary organs of the Bruce faithful at the time, Backstreets Magazine
Backstreets Magazine
Backstreets Magazine is a published quarterly Bruce Springsteen fanzine that has been covering the music of Springsteen and other Jersey Shore sound artists since 1980.- History :...
and the "Springsteen party line" (a telephone-based precursor to Springsteen fan groups and mailing lists on the Internet), said nothing about the developments at all. Music critics such as David Hinckley said that while Springsteen had never promoted himself as a hero or role model, he had nonetheless built a bond of faith with his fan base around the notion of doing the right thing. Hinckley wondered whether Springsteen could "win the faithful back". The affair continued to draw the attention of the celebrity and supermarket press, eventually including a long piece in Woman's World
Woman's World
Woman's World is an American supermarket weekly magazine with a circulation of 1.6 million readers. Generally marketed with other tabloid papers, it concentrates on short stories about popular woman-focused subjects such as weight loss , relationship advice and cooking, though also...
magazine that quoted Judith Kuriansky, a psychologist and television talk show host, to the effect that Springsteen was going through a midlife crisis
Midlife Crisis
"Midlife Crisis" is a song by the American rock band Faith No More. It was released on May 26, 1992 as the first single from their fourth album, Angel Dust...
. Quasi-official Springsteen biography Dave Marsh
Dave Marsh
Dave Marsh is an American music critic, author, editor and radio talk show host. He was a formative editor of Creem magazine, has written for various publications such as Newsday, The Village Voice, and Rolling Stone, and has published numerous books about music and musicians, mostly focused on...
would later write that the separation had occurred in early May at the end of the West Coast portion of the American leg, while an Us magazine story based around a Phillips interview placed it sometime between the early stages of the tour and the couple's May 13 anniversary. Regardless of exactly when the marriage ended and the new relationship began, the impression left upon the wider public was that Springsteen was a heartless man cheating on his wife an ocean away, Phillips was humiliated, and Scialfa was the "other woman".
The search for a deeper personal connection that Springsteen had mentioned during his "Born to Run" introduction had left him, in an interview during the tour, comparing his fame and situation to that of Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
and Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
. But his quest to undermine his Born in the U.S.A.-era fame with a more subdued album and smaller-scale tour had ended up in most unexpected fashion.
Critical and commercial reception
Due to the limited number of dates in each city and the continuing popularity of Springsteen from the 1984-1986 period, tickets were hard to come by. Long waits for the chance to buy tickets were common. This was in the era of the "ambush sale", when often no advance word would be given of when tickets were going on sale (or bracelets for the rights to get tickets were being distributed). This was especially the case for this tour, as in some locations such as for Nassau Coliseum tickets went on sale much closer to the event date than usual. Thus, for example, in the weeks preceding the New York area shows, several dozen fans would gather at major TicketmasterTicketmaster
Ticketmaster Entertainment, Inc. is an independent American ticket sales and distribution company based in West Hollywood, California, USA, with operations in many countries around the world. In 2010 it merged with Live Nation to become Live Nation Entertainment...
outlets on Saturday mornings, listening on portable radios with the idea that something might be happening right then. Most often, nothing would happen, and a rock radio disc jockey would then confirm that no tickets were going on sale that day. Or fans would gather outside the box office at the Centrum in Worcestor, hoping that ticket bracelets might suddenly be distributed that day, and be suddenly rewarded if they were.
The disparity between supply and demand meant high prices for scalpers, with $22.50 tickets to the Nassau Coliseum shows on Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
going for anywhere from $100 to $400. Undercover police worked venue parking lots to try to curb the practice. Fans from all over Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
and parts of Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
attended the Richfield Coliseum shows in Cleveland, with some paying scalper prices. Fans in Rockford, Illinois
Rockford, Illinois
Rockford is a mid-sized city located on both banks of the Rock River in far northern Illinois. Often referred to as "The Forest City", Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County, Illinois, USA. As reported in the 2010 U.S. census, the city was home to 152,871 people, the third most populated...
staged an (unsuccessful) petition drive to get Springsteen to add their city to the tour's routing.
The three kickoff shows in Worcester sold out in two hours (the site having been chosen for the tour opening, the venue manager thought, because the New England area had given a very favorable response to the Born in the U.S.A. Tour.) Two shows in Cleveland's Richfield Coliseum sold out in four hours.
Indeed, there were quick sellouts all across the eastern U.S. and elsewhere.
Reviews of the Tunnel of Love Express were generally favorable.
The Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
found the opening Worcester shows full of "twists and turns" that at first "befuddled the crowd with an assortment of seldom-heard songs" before he "eventually put the crowd in a frenzy."
The Blade
The Blade (newspaper)
The Blade is a daily newspaper in Toledo, Ohio, first published on December 19, 1835.- Overview :David Ross Locke gained national fame for the paper during the Civil War era by writing under the pen name Petroleum V. Nasby. Writing under the pen name, Locke wrote satires ranging on topics from...
newspaper of Toledo, Ohio
Toledo, Ohio
Toledo is the fourth most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Lucas County. Toledo is in northwest Ohio, on the western end of Lake Erie, and borders the State of Michigan...
declared that "there is much new and much different about the 'Tunnel of Love' tour. There are new songs, and new insights to be gained from old ones."
Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of the New York Times. He played jazz flute and piano, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in music. In the 1970s he was an associate editor of Crawdaddy!, and in the 1980s an associate...
of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
found the show undermined by the didactic, monochromatic nature of Springsteen's more recent songs. Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden
Stephen Holden is an American writer, music critic, film critic, and poet.Holden earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Yale University in 1963...
of the same paper, on the other hand, thought those same songs "wonderful", and wrote that "In concert, [Springsteen has] figured out how to string songs into extended journeys that take on a cumulative power as the evening proceeds." Holden concluded that "Springsteen reconciles seemingly unreconcilable concepts: a sober awareness of social and erotic realities and a boundless faith in life." e
The Spokane Chronicle said that with the addition of the horn section, "the always powerful E Street Band is more muscular than ever" and that thematically, the show takes the viewer "for a bleak ride before you reach the light of day."
Robert Hilburn
Robert Hilburn
Robert Hilburn is a pop music critic and author. As critic and music editor of the Los Angeles Times from 1970 to 2005, his reviews, essays and profiles have appeared in hundreds of publications around the world...
of the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
assayed that Springsteen "stepped away from the two concert elements that have most been associated with him – spontaneity and celebration – to concentrate on artistic independence and growth." The result, Hilburn stated, were Springsteen's "most studied, yet most radical and liberating appearances yet".
Springsteen biographer Dave Marsh
Dave Marsh
Dave Marsh is an American music critic, author, editor and radio talk show host. He was a formative editor of Creem magazine, has written for various publications such as Newsday, The Village Voice, and Rolling Stone, and has published numerous books about music and musicians, mostly focused on...
would write in 2006, "As a tour, Tunnel of Love Express presents the greatest puzzle of Springsteen's career."
In any case, following the Human Rights Now! Tour
Human Rights Now! Tour
Human Rights Now! was a worldwide tour of twenty benefit concerts on behalf of Amnesty International that took place over six weeks in 1988. Held not to raise funds but to increase awareness of both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on its 40th anniversary and the work of Amnesty...
later that year, Springsteen broke up the E Street Band. It would not tour again for eleven years, until the 1999–2000 Reunion Tour
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Reunion Tour
The Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Reunion Tour was a lengthy, top-grossing concert tour featuring Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band that took place over 1999 and 2000....
.
Broadcasts and recordings
The first set of the July 3 show in Stockholms OlympiastadionStockholms Olympiastadion
Stockholms Olympiastadion, most often called Stockholms Stadion or just Stadion, is a stadium in Stockholm, Sweden. Designed by architect Torben Grut, it was opened in 1912, its original use was as a venue for the 1912 Olympic Games...
was broadcast live on radio to an international audience. Distributed through DIR Broadcasting and available free to any station that wanted it, it was Springsteen's first live nationwide broadcast as a headlining act and his first of any kind since an opening act appearance on the King Biscuit Flower Hour
King Biscuit Flower Hour
The King Biscuit Flower Hour was a syndicated radio show presented by the D.I.R. Radio Network that featured concert performances by various rock artists.-History:...
in 1973. Some 300 stations broadcast it in the U.S., and it was also heard across Canada, Europe, Australia, and Japan. Proceeds from commercials that aired before and after the concert segment were to be divided between DIR and Springsteen, and after subtraction for costs, sent to charity. The set itself followed tour practice except for the addition of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's "Chimes of Freedom
Chimes of Freedom
"Chimes of Freedom" is a song written and performed by Bob Dylan and featured on his 1964 album Another Side of Bob Dylan , produced by Tom Wilson. It was written in early 1964 and was influenced by the symbolist poetry of Arthur Rimbaud. The song depicts the feelings and thoughts of the singer...
" at the close, as Springsteen announced his upcoming participation in Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
's Human Rights Now! Tour
Human Rights Now! Tour
Human Rights Now! was a worldwide tour of twenty benefit concerts on behalf of Amnesty International that took place over six weeks in 1988. Held not to raise funds but to increase awareness of both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on its 40th anniversary and the work of Amnesty...
later that year.
The Chimes of Freedom
Chimes of Freedom (EP)
Chimes of Freedom is the name of a 1988 live Bruce Springsteen EP. It was released to support the multi-artist Human Rights Now! Tour in benefit of Amnesty International. This tour was announced near the end of a first set radio broadcast during Springsteen's July 3, 1988 show in Stockholm,...
EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
, released in August 1988, included that rendition, as well as documenting three other song performances from scattered dates on the Express, including the radical simplification of "Born to Run".
E Street Band
- Bruce Springsteen - lead vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, most lead guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
s, harmonicaHarmonicaThe harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes... - Roy BittanRoy BittanRoy Bittan is an American keyboardist, best known as a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, which he joined on August 23, 1974...
– pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, synthesizerSynthesizerA synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones... - Clarence ClemonsClarence ClemonsClarence Anicholas Clemons, Jr. , also known as The Big Man, was an American musician and actor. From 1972 until his death, he was a prominent member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, playing the tenor saxophone. He released several solo albums and in 1985, had a hit single with "You're a...
– saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
, congaCongaThe conga, or more properly the tumbadora, is a tall, narrow, single-headed Cuban drum with African antecedents. It is thought to be derived from the Makuta drums or similar drums associated with Afro-Cubans of Central African descent. A person who plays conga is called a conguero...
s, percussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
, background vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists... - Danny FedericiDanny FedericiDaniel Paul "Danny" Federici was an American musician, best known as the longtime organ, glockenspiel, and accordion player for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band.- Career :...
– organOrgan (music)The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, accordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
? - Nils LofgrenNils LofgrenNils Hilmer Lofgren is an American rock music recording artist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist...
– guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
s, pedal steel guitarPedal steel guitarThe pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal bar to "fret" or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it also uses pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence the name "pedal"...
?, background vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists... - Patti ScialfaPatti ScialfaVivienne Patricia "Patti" Scialfa is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She is married to Bruce Springsteen and they have three children.- Early life :...
- background vocalsBacking vocalistA backing vocalist or backing singer is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists...
, some featured duet vocalsDuet (music)A duet is a musical composition for two performers. In classical music, the term is most often used for a composition for two singers or pianists; with other instruments, the word duo is also often used. A piece performed by two pianists performing together on the same piano is referred to as...
, acoustic guitarSteel-string acoustic guitarA steel-string acoustic guitar is a modern form of guitar descended from the classical guitar, but strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound... - Garry TallentGarry TallentGarry Wayne Tallent , sometimes billed as Garry W. Tallent, is an American musician and record producer, best known for being the longtime bass player in Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band....
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Max WeinbergMax WeinbergMax Weinberg is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.Weinberg grew up in suburban New Jersey...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
The Miami Horns
- Mario CruzMario CruzMario Cruz is a New York City-area saxophone player with a number of credits to his name. He is perhaps best known for playing on Bruce Springsteen's 1988 Tunnel of Love Express tour....
– saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846... - Eddie Manion – saxophoneSaxophoneThe saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
- Mark PenderMark PenderMark "The Loveman" Pender is a trumpet player and vocalist who has played with Southside Johnny, Little Steven and Bruce Springsteen. Since 1993 he has performed on Late Night With Conan O'Brien and The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien as a member of The Max Weinberg 7 and The Tonight Show Band...
– trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air... - Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg – tromboneTromboneThe trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
- Mike Spengler – trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
Tour dates
| Date | City | Country | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|
| North America | |||
| February 25, 1988 | Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston.... |
United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
The Centrum DCU Center The DCU Center is an indoor arena and convention center complex, located in downtown Worcester, Massachusetts.... |
| February 28, 1988 | |||
| February 29, 1988 | |||
| March 3, 1988 | Chapel Hill, North Carolina Chapel Hill, North Carolina Chapel Hill is a town in Orange County, North Carolina, United States and the home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and UNC Health Care... |
Dean Smith Center Dean Smith Center The Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center, usually called simply the Smith Center and popularly referred to as the Dean Dome is a multi-purpose arena in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The arena is home to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Tar Heels men's basketball team, and temporary... |
|
| March 4, 1988 | |||
| March 8, 1988 | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,... |
The Spectrum | |
| March 9, 1988 | |||
| March 13, 1988 | Richfield, Ohio Richfield, Ohio Richfield is a village in Summit County, Ohio, United States. The population was 3,286 at the 2000 census. The village and the adjacent Richfield Township are approximately equidistant between the downtown areas of Akron and Cleveland... |
Richfield Coliseum | |
| March 14, 1988 | |||
| March 16, 1988 | Rosemont, Illinois Rosemont, Illinois Rosemont is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States located immediately northwest of Chicago. The village was incorporated in 1956, though it had been settled long before that... |
Rosemont Horizon | |
| March 17, 1988 | |||
| March 20, 1988 | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States... |
Civic Arena | |
| March 22, 1988 | Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in... |
The Omni | |
| March 23, 1988 | |||
| March 26, 1988 | Lexington, Kentucky Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region... |
Rupp Arena Rupp Arena Rupp Arena is an arena located in downtown Lexington, Kentucky, U.S. Since its opening in 1976, it has been the centerpiece of Lexington Center, a convention and shopping facility owned by an arm of the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, and serves as home court to the University of... |
|
| March 28, 1988 | Detroit, Michigan Detroit, Michigan Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River... |
Joe Louis Arena Joe Louis Arena Joe Louis Arena, nicknamed The Joe and JLA is a hockey arena located at 600 Civic Center Drive in Detroit, Michigan. It is the home of the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League. Completed in 1979 at a cost of $57 million, Joe Louis Arena is named after boxer and former heavyweight... |
|
| March 29, 1988 | |||
| April 1, 1988 | Uniondale, New York Uniondale, New York Uniondale is a hamlet as well as a suburb of New York City in Nassau County, New York, United States, on Long Island, in the Town of Hempstead. The population was 24,759 at the 2010 United States Census.-Geography:... |
Nassau Coliseum | |
| April 2, 1988 | |||
| April 4, 1988 | Landover, Maryland Landover, Maryland Landover is an unincorporated community in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, within the census-designated place of Greater Landover. The Prince Georges County Sports and Learning Complex is in Landover... |
Capital Centre Capital Centre The Capital Centre was an indoor arena located in Landover, Maryland, unincorporated Prince George's County, Maryland; a suburb of Washington, D.C. Completed in 1973, the arena sat 18,756 for basketball and 18,130 for hockey.... |
|
| April 5, 1988 | |||
| April 12, 1988 | Houston, Texas Houston, Texas Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and the largest city in the state of Texas. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city had a population of 2.1 million people within an area of . Houston is the seat of Harris County and the economic center of , which is the ... |
The Summit | |
| April 13, 1988 | |||
| April 15, 1988 | Austin, Texas Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in... |
Frank Erwin Center Frank Erwin Center Frank C. Erwin, Jr. Special Events Center, commonly known as Frank Erwin Center or UT Erwin Center, is a multi-purpose arena on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin... |
|
| April 17, 1988 | St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St... |
St. Louis Arena St. Louis Arena The St. Louis Arena was an indoor arena located in St. Louis, Missouri, that stood from 1929 to 1999... |
|
| April 20, 1988 | Denver, Colorado Denver, Colorado The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains... |
McNichols Arena | |
| April 22, 1988 | Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, California Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California... |
Los Angeles Sports Arena | |
| April 23, 1988 | |||
| April 25, 1988 | |||
| April 27, 1988 | |||
| April 28, 1988 | |||
| May 2, 1988 | Mountain View, California Mountain View, California -Downtown:Mountain View has a pedestrian-friendly downtown centered on Castro Street. The downtown area consists of the seven blocks of Castro Street from the Downtown Mountain View Station transit center in the north to the intersection with El Camino Real in the south... |
Shoreline Amphitheatre Shoreline Amphitheatre Shoreline Amphitheatre is an outdoor amphitheater, in Mountain View, California, USA, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Inside the venue it has a capacity of 22,500, with 6,500 reserved seats and 16,000 general admission on the lawn... |
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| May 3, 1988 | |||
| May 5, 1988 | Tacoma, Washington Tacoma, Washington Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to... |
Tacoma Dome Tacoma Dome The Tacoma Dome is an indoor arena located in Tacoma, Washington, USA, approximately 30 miles south of Seattle.-History:... |
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| May 6, 1988 | |||
| May 9, 1988 | Bloomington, Minnesota Bloomington, Minnesota Bloomington is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota in Hennepin County. Located on the north bank of the Minnesota River above its confluence with the Mississippi River, Bloomington lies at the heart of the southern... |
Met Center | |
| May 10, 1988 | |||
| May 13, 1988 | New York City, New York | Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the... |
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| May 16, 1988 | |||
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| Europe | |||
| June 11, 1988 | Turin Turin Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat... |
Italy Italy Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and... |
Stadio Comunale di Torino |
| June 13, 1988 | Rome Rome Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half... |
Piazza di Spagna | |
| June 15, 1988 | Stadio Flaminio Stadio Flaminio The Stadio Flaminio is a stadium in Rome. It lies along the Via Flaminia, three kilometres northwest of the city centre, 300 metres away from the Parco di Villa Glori.... |
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| June 16, 1988 | |||
| June 18, 1988 | Paris Paris Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region... |
France France The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France... |
Chateau de Vincennes Château de Vincennes The Château de Vincennes is a massive 14th and 17th century French royal castle in the town of Vincennes, to the east of Paris, now a suburb of the metropolis.-History:... |
| June 19, 1988 | |||
| June 21, 1988 | Birmingham Birmingham Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a... |
England England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental... |
Villa Park Villa Park Villa Park may mean:United Kingdom* Villa Park, an association football stadium in Birmingham, EnglandUnited States* Villa Park, California, a small city in Orange County* Villa Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago in DuPage County... |
| June 22, 1988 | |||
| June 25, 1988 | London London London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its... |
Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium The original Wembley Stadium, officially known as the Empire Stadium, was a football stadium in Wembley, a suburb of north-west London, standing on the site now occupied by the new Wembley Stadium that opened in 2007... |
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| June 28, 1988 | Rotterdam Rotterdam Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre... |
Netherlands Netherlands The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders... |
Feyenoord Stadion |
| June 29, 1988 | |||
| July 2, 1988 | Stockholm Stockholm Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area... |
Sweden Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... |
Stockholm Olympic Stadium |
| July 3, 1988 | |||
| July 7, 1988 | Dublin | Ireland Republic of Ireland Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,... |
RDS Arena RDS Arena RDS Arena is a multi-purpose sports stadium, owned by the Royal Dublin Society and located in the Dublin suburb of Ballsbridge, Ireland.The arena was originally developed to host equestrian events, including the annual Dublin Horse Show, which was first held there in 1868. The site was acquired in... |
| July 9, 1988 | Sheffield Sheffield Sheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely... |
England | Bramall Lane Bramall Lane -Cricket at the Lane:Bramall Lane opened as a cricket ground in 1855, having been leased by Michael Ellison from the Duke of Norfolk at an annual rent of £70. The site was then away from the town's industrial area, and relatively free from smoke. It was built to host the matches of local cricket... |
| July 10, 1988 | |||
| July 12, 1988 | Frankfurt Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010... |
Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... |
Walstadion Commerzbank-Arena The Commerzbank-Arena is a sports stadium in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. Commonly known by its original name, Waldstadion , the stadium opened in 1925. The stadium has been upgraded several times since then; the most recent remodelling was its redevelopment as a football-only stadium in preparation... |
| July 14, 1988 | Basel Basel Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany... |
Switzerland Switzerland Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition.... |
St. Jakob Stadium St. Jakob Stadium The St. Jakob Stadium was a football stadium in Basel, Switzerland and the former home of Swiss club FC Basel. It was built in 1954, and as well as serving as a club stadium, it hosted several important matches, including a 1954 FIFA World Cup semi-final and four Cup Winners' Cup finals.Tickets and... |
| July 17, 1988 | Munich Munich Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat... |
Germany | Olympic Stadium Olympic Stadium (Munich) Olympiastadion is a stadium located in Munich, Germany. Situated at the heart of the Olympiapark München in northern Munich, the stadium was built as the main venue for the 1972 Summer Olympics.... |
| July 19, 1988 | Berlin Berlin Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union... |
Radrennbahn Weissensee Radrennbahn Weissensee Radrennbahn Weissensee is a large cycling track located in the Weissensee district of Berlin. It is north of the park containing the Weisser See. It is also popular for inline skating and skateboarding.... |
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| July 22, 1988 | Olympic Stadium Olympic Stadium (Berlin) The Olympiastadion is a sports stadium in Berlin, Germany. There have been two stadiums on the site: the present facility, and one that is called the Deutsches Stadion which was built for the aborted 1916 Summer Olympics. Both were designed by members of the same family, the first by Otto March... |
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| July 25, 1988 | Copenhagen Copenhagen Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region... |
Denmark Denmark Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark... |
Idraetsparken |
| July 27, 1988 | Oslo Oslo Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King... |
Norway Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... |
Valle Hovin Valle Hovin Valle Hovin is both a bandy and speed skating rink in cold weather, and an outdoor stadium for concerts in warm weather, in Oslo, Norway.The Bandy World Championships has been held here.... |
| July 30, 1988 | Bremen Bremen The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is... |
Germany | Weserstadion Weserstadion The Weserstadion is a multi-purpose stadium in Bremen, Germany. The stadium is scenically situated on the north bank of the Weser River and is surrounded by lush green parks . The city center is only about a kilometer away... |
| August 2, 1988 | Madrid Madrid Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan... |
Spain Spain Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula... |
Vicente Calderón Stadium Vicente Calderón Stadium The Vicente Calderón Stadium is the home stadium of La Liga football club Atlético Madrid and is located in the Arganzuela district of Spanish capital Madrid. The stadium was originally called the Manzanares Stadium, but this was later changed to the Vicente Calderón Stadium, after the famous... |
| August 3, 1988 | Barcelona Barcelona Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of... |
Camp Nou Camp Nou Camp Nou , sometimes called "the Nou Camp" in English, is a football stadium in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. The stadium, located in the west of the city, has been the home of FC Barcelona since its construction in 1957.... |
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