IN CONCERT
What: Bryan Adams
Where: Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre
When: Tuesday, June 5
Tickets: livenation.com and selectyourtickets.com or by phone at 250-220-7777
Canadian rock legend Bryan Adams kicks off his 13-date greatest-hits national tour at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre on Tuesday.
The 58-year-old vegan Vancouverite is touring to support his current compilation, Ultimate, which includes hits Run To You, Can’t Stop This Thing We Started and Summer of ’69, among others.
The tour, scheduled to end in Toronto on Aug. 3, sold out quickly in Victoria, according to sales staff at the arena, but after stage arrangements were finalized, promoters freed up some tickets that were still available at press time.
Adams’s last performance at the arena in 2015 drew 6,916 fans. The arena has a capacity of more than 7,000, but the number of tickets sold depends on the stage set up. For Adams’s concert this year, there were about 6,500 on sale.
Prior to 2015, Adams played a solo acoustic gig (which also sold out) at McPherson Playhouse in 2009.
The rocker turned photographer, activist and philanthropist and father of two — Mirabella Bunny and Lula Rosylea — sold out Victoria’s arena without much advance press.
Reviews for Adams’s concerts usually wax effusive about his staying power and ability to still sell out arena bowls, and his rock- and love-anthems that for many, don’t get old.
After Adams’s recent show in Glasgow, Scotland’s Herald newspaper said the performer “was at the top of his game from start to finish . . . and his experience as a performer showed.”
The review said Adams acknowledged as he closed the show: “I think that is as close to magic we can get.”
Born in Kingston, Ont., Adams moved to Vancouver in the mid-1970s. He began his career as a background vocalist at the age of 17 and by late 1976 he had become vocalist for the band Sweeney Todd, which earlier that year snagged a No. 1 hit on Canadian music charts with the song Roxy Roller. Adams was the lead vocalist on the U.S. remake of the song.
By 1991, Adams would release the album Waking Up The Neighbours — featuring the hit song Everything I do, I do it for You — which would be a chart topper around the globe and hit No. 1 in both Germany and the U.K.
Adams has 20 Juno Awards from 56 nominations, 15 Grammy Award nominations, with one win, and three Academy Award nominations for songs he has written.
Adams has won the Order of Canada and the Order of B.C. for his contributions to music and charities. His charitable work includes Amnesty International, Greenpeace, PETA and Live Aid. His Bryan Adams Foundation, funded mostly by his photography projects, supports educational opportunities for children worldwide.
If tickets are remaining, they will be on sale through livenation.com and selectyourtickets.com, by phone at 250-220-7777 or in person at the Select Your Tickets box office, 1925 Blanshard St.
